US Travel

Hollywood, dah’ling

March 30, 2009

So I haven’t seen any superstars or models or sports idols, but I did get to sit on a commercial shoot a couple of weeks ago. My opinion . . . it looks kind of boring but I could also see the allure of the focus on the actor, zoning into character. Theater acting seems more exciting because of the flow . . . commercial consists of repeated takes. I’ve been on a film set before, but only for a brief period of time. This shoot I was there all day. My cousin’s daughter, Lily won the role of the adorable girl in a lawn care commercial. It was a perfect family . . .

Daddy was slightly round at the waist in his khaki pants and short-sleeved button down shirt. He had thinning brown hair and average looks. The type of guy who you would probably see at a local Starbucks or a baseball game but not out tending to his lawn. Mommy was stunning, skinny, blonde with tight khakis fitted to her little butt and around her waist, a gold skinny belt (a’la 1980s – I had one in high school). She wore a short-sleeved tight red sweater and had bodacious ta-tas. The adorable children were added to the perfect family . . . one boy and one girl.

It was fun to hang out there and watch even though the filming got monotonous with repeated takes of the actors, “thinning grass runs in my family starting with my grandfather. . . But I’ve found something new to grow thick grass . . . for a thick life!” The mom rubbed the grass with her delicate long fingers and smiled seductively like it was her husband’s hairy chest, pre-foreplay, while her husband spoke of lawn care. I wanted to laugh at the serious nature of selling this product, but it doesn’t surprise me because when it comes to money, people are serious . . . hahahaah!

The set was a beautiful backyard in Pasadena, CA with lots of trees, a swimming pool and of course, green, green grass. They had a snack table with everything from aspirin to cake and coffee (I kept stealing the red licorice). And a delicious lunch of salmon, roast beef and pasta – a brownie and ice cream. The film crew was friendly and one of the guys even gave me his card (he wanted me to contact him to go out – what’s with guys wanting me to call them . . . I want them to call me).

I asked my cousin’s wife, why was it that on most commercials and sitcoms, the husband is a fat fart with a gorgeous wife? The kind of guy that most women wouldn’t look at twice but the wife in which all men salivate over; a MILF. I want HILF’s on commercials – hehe! She thinks that men can relate to the guy, someone who could be their friend and then fawn over the woman. And women are more interested in what the woman looks like and wears so they can mimic her. It makes sense to me, but why are we so stuck in the 1950s? Commercials could take on and create new roles like the case of the two daddy family tending to their lawn. What’s wrong with that? I guess the religious right and certain other Americans would have a cow about that. It scares the beejeebus out of them. Too funny . . .

For now, we’ll have to rely on independent films to show that our reality is not only the mother, father family but also the mother, mother family, and father, father family and the single mother family and the single father family and the extended family family. I see nothing wrong with this as long as children are raised in a nurturing and loving family. But why should I go on, they’re trying to sell their product, not threaten the thread of the family. Because truly, some people would be frightened by this (case in point, I recently had a conversation with someone who still believes that Obama is a Muslim and the world is going to hell). It’s almost as though our commercialism and consumerism keeps us sheltered conformists.

But then again, as I learned from the commercial shoot, a perfect family = perfect lawn.

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