Novel Presidential Campaign

As the race for the American Presidency hots up, supporters and campaigners for each of the candidates are becoming more and more creative. They have created T-shirts, jewellery, caps, bumper stickers, even underwear with the names of their favourite candidates. But the latest gig by New York entrepreneur is something that is perhaps the first of its kind.
Benjamin Sherman, promoter of Practice Safe Police in New York City wants to to "have fun" with the campaign. And how does he plan to do it, by marketing condoms featuring images of presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain. Both products carry unique marketing messages appropriate to their candidacy. While the Obama condom proudly says "Use With Good Judgment", the McCain version says "OLD BUT Not Expired." The messages hint at each candidates obvious drawbacks... Obama's inexperience and McCain's age.

Sherman has created separate websites for each brand of condoms.
Highlights of the McCain Condoms:
Trophy wife approved
For the proud, liberal RepublicaN -- conservative Republican

The Obama Condoms website has a similar message too. It says: "These are uncertain times. The economy's a ball-buster and the surge went flaccid... but now there's Obama Condoms, for a change you can believe in! ObamaCondoms are strong enough to withstand the most rigid assault, light enough to penetrate the deepest trenches..."

Highlights of Obama Condoms:
FOR THE ELITIST PENIS
THEY WON'T LEAVE A BITTER TASTE IN YOUR MOUTH
WHEN YOU JUST WANT TO CLOSE THE DEAL

Quite expectedly these unique collectors items have created quite a stir in the US media, with every television news channel and print media covering it in their prime time. Take a look at one of the newscasts below.

Oh! the condoms are priced $9.95 a pair. I wonder how effective they are... but it is surely an effective way to make sure that Sherman laughs all the way to the bank



Closing comments
On an afterthought I was thinking if it were Indian scenario what would have happened. Instead of marketing condoms branded after prime ministerial candidates the campaigners would have elevated them to demi-god status by building temples, performing worship ceremonies, chanting hymns, sacrifices etc. Well, I guess American presidential candidates don't have the good luck of being equated to Gods and being worshipped.

Laugh too much in Australia and you could land in jail

This might sound incredulous but this what happened to one Chris Cocker in Blackburn, Australia. According to a new report on Times of India Cocker was enjoying himself watching a television comedy show on BBC and he laughed so much that he fell off the sofa. The fall created quite a flutter and the noise annoyed the neighbors who complained to the police. And guess what the police did? They promptly arrived and tried to arrest Cocker. When he refused to go with them, the cops used a pepper spray to subdue him and put him behind bars for a night.

I continue to be wonder struck by the actions of people across the world. Private space or rather private insulated-from-everything space is so important to people that they are willing to knock the doors of law enforcers if someone even makes little noise in their vicinity. I hope this kind of rules and law wont come into force in India, if it does... there wont be enough prisons to house arrested "trouble makers".

Strange are the ways of the world indeed.

Package tours for those who wish to travel alone!

Package tours with customised itineraries for couples and families was the buzzword in the internet era. But the latest buzzwords include Solo Travel, Power of one, time alone etc. The latest news I came across is from Backroads, a California (US)-based travel operator which has started offering over Solo tours. This year they are offering over 100 packages.

According to a company press release, Backroads was founded in 1979 by Tom Hale and they specialise in offering active vacations and is the founding member of Adventure Collection. Solo tours is not a new concept though it is pretty nascent as a mass travel phenomenon. Backroads has been offering solo trips for independent travelers since 1989.

"Our trips for solo travelers offer the award-winning high-quality experience that travelers have come to expect of all Backroads trips, while providing the comfort of vacationing with other independent individuals," says Backroads Founder and President Tom Hale adding that Backroads trips offer the best of both worlds — a fine blend of time alone and time with group.

Their popular tours include: Alaska Biking; California Wine Country Weekend Biking; Tuscany Biking and lot more. Visit their website for more details and schedule your tour.

Cattle - Texan's favourites

Texans love for cattle is obvious by the several ranch and related sculptures installed all over the metroplex

One thing I must say about Texas and the state's cowboys and cowgirls is their demonstrated love for bovines, both in terms of raising them and eating them. There are innumerable steakhouses in the state and all of them seem to be doing well. There are several cattle ranches which raise the globally famous Texas Long Horns for meat and dairy. But something I enjoy looking at are their continued patronage of cattle even after the place has become completely modernised.

In several locations across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex I have seen sculptures of cattle installed. The most famous is of course the one installed in the Pioneer Cemetery in downtown Dallas. Then there are the beautiful stone/ stucco sculptures in the Trinity River Park, beside Trammell Crow Lake. The latest one to catch my attention is this sculpture pictured above and below of a raging bull installed infront of a mall in Frisco. This is installed close to the Frisco Bridges which was the original route of cattle drives from Oklahoma to Texas and back couple of centuries ago. Now all the area has been urbanised and modern transport systems have been established, but these sculptures evoke a sense of nostalgia and make us ponder over the past.

This sculpture of a raging wild bull is installed amidst a manicured lawn on Preston road in Frisco city, Texas

Movie Review: Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Genre: Adventure/ comedy
Directors: Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg
Cast: John Cho, Kal Penn, Rob Corddry, Jack Conley, Roger Bart and others

This is one of the rare comedy movies which had me laughing through and through. Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is infused with a heavy dose of satirical humor. A chronicle of the adventures Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) when they get mistaken to be terrorists; arrested and sent to Guantanamo Bay following a misunderstanding aboard an international flight. The movie moves very swiftly from this stage, with the protagonists jumping from one hilarious situation into another including an encounter with a one-eyed hillbilly, participating in a Ku Klux Klan meeting, a bottomless party, etc.

The movie starts off with Harold and Kumar on a plane to Amsterdam to meet the formers girlfriend. Meanwhile Kumar has smuggled some weed (Marijuana) along in his invention “a smokeless bong” to enjoy a joint in the aircraft’s bathroom. But this gadget is mistaken for a bomb and air marshals who are part of every international flight tackle the duo and arrest them. Racist and arrogant FBI official Rob Corddry thinks that every colored individual is out to destroy America and should be put behind bars. As per Corddry’s orders the two are blithely shipped off Guantanamo Bay, from where they escape within the first 24 hours. The film’s title is a misnomer though, because the duo escape from Guantanamo bay in the early part of the film.

Naturally FBI is angry, intrigued and wants to get them at any cost. After escaping from Guantanamo Bay the duo get onto a boat along with a crowd of illegal immigrants and land on US soil. Their only hope is Kumar’s ex-girlfriend’s fiancé (Vanessa), who is linked to President George Bush. The duo decides to take help of their Florida-based friend Raza and travel from Florida to Texas where their friend is scheduled to get married.

From here on it is one adventure after another for Harold and Kumar, a series of miscalculations and encounters with the strange. Of course the adventures could be treated as separate and isolated episodes as there is no connection between them. This is kind of refreshing because one doesn’t need to track the story so closely and can just have fun at the theatres. The jokes and pranks would make you hold your sides and laugh. They land up in down town Alabama and bust a fire hydrant and fearing backlash from a group of African-Americans playing ball on the road Harold and Kumar abandon the car and run.

Quite expectedly the FBI is called in and Corddry lands up there and suspects the African-Americans to be hand-in-glove with the terrorists. Meanwhile it gets dark and the duo land up in the middle of a Ku Klux Klan meeting. They succeed in mugging two of the clan members and steal their robes and become part of the meeting for some time. But then they are discovered soon and run for their lives. Another funny sequence is the bottomless party, but I wouldn’t recommend this move to be watched with your family, for the language is quite sharp and below-the-belt humor can be disturbing.

This is definitely a socio-political comedy and everything that the duo come across is portrayed in a mix of sharp and hilarious cultural comedies. It shows the American paranoia that borders on racism and brands everyone colored as uneducated and a potential terrorist. All in all I would give this movie 3.5 out of 5 as an entertainer but surely not a family entertainer. Don’t take your kids to watch it.