Good times for Every Body

Had a nightmare last week that lasted close to 5 hours. 

Like an idiot I decided to drive my daughters as well as my dog Lucy out to Palm Springs for Thanksgiving. Being at home in Culver City, where we annually hosted more than a dozen friends and family, is still too difficult.

Not that spending an eternity on the 60 Eastbound freeway is any less. There was traffic. There was whining (I won't mention the culprit). There was the bathroom key incident at the 7-11 in Pomona. And there was traffic, did I mention the traffic? 

By the time we had arrived I had to think long and hard about what it was I was grateful for. 

As we cleared the last bottleneck, I spotted the Morongo Casino Resort. The place has amazing name recognition as its 25 story edifice juts from the desert landscape. But also because, unlike General Motors or IBM or Pepsi, the marketing folks at Morongo spend a boatload of money on TV advertising.

I don't watch a lot of TV, but I unwittingly watch a lot of TV ads for Morongo. 

Need a reminder?

I invite you to witness their handiwork: https://vimeo.com/747061711

Mind you, this is but one of example from the Morongo opus of cringy commercials. All featuring a bevy of DEI-inspired demographically-inclusive model morphing: An Asian woman at the pool morphing into an African American man at the blackjack table morphing into a Hispanic woman getting a massage morphing in an Orange County housewife winning big at the crap table. 

It's Morph City and Morongo is the mayor.

Frankly I'm shocked they didn't throw in some star wipes.

If the editorial choices don't make you stop and think, "wait, am I in the same business as these amateurs?", the generic casting, the overacting, the juvenile direction, the stale writing and the overzealous voiceover certainly will. 

And yet, every time one of their trashy spots graces my flat screen I stop to watch it, like a jackknifed milk truck clogging three lanes of the Santa Monica Westbound 10 in El Monte. In one particular 30 second iteration, the VO mentioned "good times for everybody" at least 5 times. I know, because I counted.

Every. Body. Get it?

No point to this story other than to vent and air out my quirky Morongo obsession. 

Oh and to mention that the tenants at my uncle's house in Palm Springs are moving out. And that after some more repairs and painting and sprucing up the joint, it will be available for short or longer term rentals.

Here's a preview...

 Details to come.