We've all heard stories about marriage proposals at ballparks, via skywriting airplanes, on national television and other creatively adorable ways, but Steve Wade's highly thought out proposal in a movie theater pretty much takes the cake. I could tell you the story myself, but Steve does a pretty good job on the YouTube page of his marriage proposal trailer.
"I have know my fiance Tracey Wade for over 14 years and wanted to propose to her in a very unique way. Tracey thought we were just going to the movies on a Sunday afternoon. Little did she know, I had rented the entire theater and filled it with 160 of our friends and family. I made it seem as though we were showing up a little late to the movie and went in to the theater after the lights had gone down and the movie trailers were already playing. This was done to keep her from recognizing anyone in the theater. What I had done was make an entire movie trailer that had actors portraying both Tracey and I at different times in our lives, both present day and in the future. After a few trailers played including one for Lord of the Rings the one I had made started. Tracey thought it was just another trailer for a movie soon to be released. Tracey was just perplexed as to how many different things had similarities to our relationship, she kept nudging me throughout the trailer. Tracey had no idea this was a marriage proposal until the last three seconds of the trailer.
Nine months earlier in September of 2006 I started by hiring a professional production team, securing two and a half million dollars (FOR FREE) worth of film equipment (THANK YOU PANAVISION, THEY DONATED THE EQUIPMENT FOR THE SHOOT), and writing a script that would show what would go through someone’s mind (Tracey’s) if they were about to die. It is said “moments before you die your life flashes right before your eyes”. JUST A NOTE: Ever since Tracey was a young girl, she has had a reoccurring dream that she was going to die in a plane crash. Actors were cast to portray both Tracey and I at different times in our lives (twenty years in the future as well as present day).
Altogether now: awwww! Of course, Tracey said yes. Congratulations to the happy couple and way to go Steve for pulling this off!
Did you sleep through the last 10 years? Perhaps too much happened and you were too busy studying, working or having fun with your compadres to really notice what major events were taking place. No worries, our oblivious friends... play catchup with this witty little video from Newsweek that mashes up the last decade into just a few (seven) minutes!
What a flashback. It's been quite a crazy ten years, has it not? We wonder what the next ten will bring.
This photo, while extremely cute, is still really tugging on our heartstrings. We can't be sure that this hermit crab is using the broken bottle as a home out of desperation or confusion (the photo has no backstory - it might just be what its owner provided), but regardless, it paints a pretty dismal photo about what kind of life our marine animals will be living if we continue trashing up our oceans.
It makes you wonder how many ocean (and land) critters are using our trash as homes. It's certainly a better use of it than birds who mistake plastic bits for food, or ghost nets, discarded by fishermen that drift through our deep oceans catching sea creatures and pinning them to the ocean floor til they die and disintegrate.
Need a little something extra to brighten up this otherwise drab Tuesday? How about this short love story between a house cat and a parrot. According to years of Tweetie Bird cartoons, these two are supposed to loathe one another, but this feathered guy uses his claw not to attack his feline friend, but to pet her. The cat responds by chewing on his claw, because well, cats will be cats.
You know what they say, opposites attract! And as the tagline says, true love has no limits.
As crude oil production in the U.S. slows to a halt, so have great rock songs, or at least according to this chart by Overthinking It. The graph chronologically charts the overall production of oil in the US against the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Rock Songs of All-Time. From the look of it, oil production and rock music were both at an all-time high in the 60s and 70s, slowly losing popularity ever since.
The report reads:
Notice that after the birth of rock & roll in the 1950’s, the production of “great songs” peaked in the 60’s, remained strong in the 70’s, but drastically fell in the subsequent decades. It would seem that, like oil, the supply of great musical ideas is finite. By the end of the 70’s, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Motown greats, and other genre innovators quickly extracted the best their respective genres** had to offer, leaving little supply for future musicians.
This could be a total coincidence, and probably is, but the mere thought is humorous at the very least. We wonder what this chart might look like had the study included additional genres of music, like country, hip-hop, electronic and the like. What do you think?
Side note: What's with the lack of good rock songs in recent years? Is rock and roll a dying breed of music?
Before you finish planning your Thanksgiving Day recipes and head to your local grocery store to collect all your ingredients, have a look at these great tips from TakePart on how to have yourself a nice, Earth-friendly and sustainable Thanksgiving meal. Even if you can't tackle all of the tips, adopting just one or two would still be a help and a great example for your guests!
1. Buy organic. Organic produce and products are so commonplace now that Coca-Cola and Doritos are practically getting pushed off shelves to make extra space for these hot items. Try to purchase from a small, local farmer, but if you can’t find one, then you can stock up on your Thanksgiving goods at any major retailer. By choosing organic foods, you are helping to prevent the usage of millions of pounds of poisonous pesticides and fertilizers and emission of greenhouse gas emissions. Best of all, organic foods taste better.
2. Save a turkey. Choose the most humane option that will significantly lighten your environmental impact by having a meat-free meal. You can make your centerpiece a hearty, fall-themed vegetarian dish or opt for a tofurkey. Either way, you’ll be saying no to our industrial food system, reducing your global warming contribution and saying yes to a healthy, happy meal. You can also make a turkey happy by adopting it. Yes, you read correctly, save a turkey from the chopping block and give it the gift of a happy home at Farm Sanctuary. For those of you who roll their eyes at my incredible suggestion in tip two of going meat-free on Thanksgiving. If you fall into that camp, I’d suggest you opt for a humanely-raised turkey.
3. Get down and dirty with your food by starting a garden in your yard, porch, window sill or community garden. While the crops won’t be ready for this year’s feast, start now to grow and harvest a bountiful collection of herbs and produce for 2010.
4. Save your scraps. Start your own compost bin with all of your fruit and veggie scraps. By composting, you prevent useful food scraps from ending up buried in landfills and you’ll be able to apply your nutrient-dense soil to your new garden.
5. Dig chicks. I share my small backyard with neighbors in Los Angeles, who are generally tolerant of my outdoor clothes drying, composting and gardening, but I know bringing chickens home would push our respectful relationship over the edge. However, for millions of Americans with their own, private backyards, raising your own chickens is a reasonable feat. Imagine collecting eggs early Thanksgiving morning to enjoy while preparing a pie or soufflé for the big meal. You can learn about how to do this from my 12-year old friend Orren Fox who raises his own backyard chickens.
6. Read labels. When purchasing Thanksgiving items at the market, choose items whose labels you can read. I’m not referring to the font size, which can sometimes make you feel like you’re doing an ad-hoc eye exam at the store. Rather, choose products with five ingredients or less and with words that make sense. If it’s unpronounceable to your mouth, imagine how disagreeable it will be to your stomach.
7. Go union. Millions of workers toil daily in fields across the country to bring foods to your table. Look for a union label when buying for your meal to ensure that you’re foods harvested by people who are the backbone of our country.
8. Celebrate diversity. By eating endangered foods, you’re actually helping their survival. I’m not referring to a Gray Whale or African Elephant but to things like a Sierra Beauty Apple, Bull Nose large Bell Pepper, Sheboygan Tomato and Sea Island Red Peas. Eat these beauties to help keep our food sources diverse, support farmers keeping these varieties alive and enjoy consuming new foods (how can you not love something called Bull Nose?).
9. Go paperless. I’m not referring to getting your bank statements via email but forsaking paper products and opting instead for reusable cutlery, napkins, plates and glasses. Add extra beauty to your table by collecting leaves and other outside goodies as centerpieces.
10. Drink (tap) water. Skip wasteful, unregulated bottled water in favor of tasty, reliable zero-calorie tap water. If you’re concerned about the quality of H2O from your kitchen faucet, invest in a water purifier. Drinking tap water might not make you look like Jennifer Aniston but you’ll definitely look a lot smarter than her with a plastic bottle.
Which tips do you think you'll apply to your Thanksgiving celebration?
I know it's hard to believe, but before your parents were your parents, they were two individual young people having a good old time, just like you. Somebody somewhere set up a Tumblr account called "My Parents Were Awesome" that allows people to submit photos of their parents being awesome back in the day, namely through ancient trends in fashion and hairstyles that are being repeated today.
Here are a few of our favorite photos:
This is even better than "Oh Crap. My Parents Joined Facebook." I think we could all dig through those dusty photo albums and find some photos of our parents that would make us appreciate them in a whole new way... don't you think?
In just a few short weeks, the first decade of the 21st century will come to a close. In true period-ending tradition, publications, bloggers and pretty much anyone with a following will be listing off their Top "whatever" of the past decade. Most of this material will be skimmed, as people generally only care about the "best of the best," therefore, we'll be bringing you just that - the tippy-tippy top of the decade-ending countdowns across the web.
First up, the Top 500 Songs of the Decade, according to the Pitchfork staff, who apparently know their stuff. If you have a spare week to browse their picks and read the lengthy reasoning behind each choice, you may do so here. For time and sanity's sake, however, we're just going to read off the Top 20.
And they are:
20. The Walkmen - The Rat
19. R. Kelly - Ignition (Remix)
18. Hercules and Love Affair - Blind
17. Annie - Heartbeat
16. The Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers
15. The Knife - Heartbeats
14. Jay-Z - Heartbeats
13. LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge
12. Outkast - Hey Ya!
11. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
10. Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
9. Animal Collective - My Girls
8. Radiohead - Idioteque
7. Missy Elliott - Get Ur Freak On
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
5. Daft Punk - One More Time
4. Beyoncé [ft. Jay-Z] - Crazy in Love
3. M.I.A. [ft. Bun B and Rich Boy] - Paper Planes (Diplo Remix)
2. LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
And the best song of the past ten years is...
1. Outkast - B.O.B.
Well, it's been a good ten years for Outkast and LCD Soundsystem! How ironic that the number one song of the decade was released a mere 10 months into it? Ha. Lots of great songs in there, though, we have to admit!
