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• Remember that Honda Civic Choir Ad I told you about? Here are two different spoofs of the ad. I likee.
• Food photographers take MREs (military Meals Ready to Eat) and make them look appetizing

This week is a bit more partying and general enjoyment which was lacking in the overworked last week. Or at least, I hope so. It’s only Monday.

This week I’ll be heading to MediaStars, which are the Technical Oscar Awards for Advertising in Italy (did you get all that?). I’m excited and interested to go - first because there is sure to be free food and I’m still a sucker for stuff like that (my teaching salary is not that far in my past), and also because a colleague of mine has been nominated for a website’s backend design.

I’m starting to prepare his speech now. In fact, I offered to give it for him, and I thought I could throw in a few “I love the Italian people!” or some really gratuitous grammar errors while hamming up my American accent.

But alas, there is no speech as part of the acceptance. So I’ll have to save my genius for another time (and for when they start giving out the Acceptance Speech Oscar Awards).

Though I have to say there has been a word thrown around several times when mentioning this event, that sounded like nails scratching on a chalkboard.

“Formal.”

It’s really unclear if we’re going to have to dress up or not, which of course brings images of me perched on my spray-painted black banana bike missing a basket and a back tire with the tube showing through and pedaling furiously in heels and a dress with cleavage to here and a slit up to there….

Maybe I’ll take the bus.

In other news, I have in my hot little hands free tickets to the Heineken Jammin’ Festival in Imola this Friday & Saturday.

DEPECHE MODE WILL BE THERE!!!

(Can you tell I’m excited?) There’s nothing I like better than seeing my favorite band in concert, unless that’s seeing them for FREE.

I have to be honest, I’m not a big concert-goer. Back in junior high when all my classmates were going to see New Kids on the Block, I wasn’t. I have actually been to so few “brand-name” concerts* (*not to be confused with regular ol’live music which I love) I could probably count them on two hands. Yes, including that Richard Marx concert at the Del Mar fair.

Some people live for it, but for me the concert experience holds two different possible outcomes: enjoying a band/singer on a whole other level or having the experience I cherished while listening to their recordings destroyed for any number of reasons. Many times I chose not to take the risk, and appreciate the singer’s filtered, over-polished performance as is.

Wish me luck for a calmer workweek, closer to 40 hours instead of 60, and that whole “formal” thing.