LECHTANSKI.NET

If I have a vice in life, it is pancakes. Of course, this doesn’t include stuff like gambling and drinking, because those are more proximity vices (Vegas, baby).

I don’t really know or care about a pancake’s health value, or lack thereof. And it doesn’t matter if I make them, my wife makes them, the dude at the restaurant makes them or they pop out of a toaster. My affection might have something to do with the pancake serving as a vehicle for the syrup and butter, but I just dig pancakes.

Lucky for me they are pretty easy to make, so a weekend morning will often find me digging into a stack. But I just got some awesome, awesome news: Batter Blaster. Pancake batter in a can; something like Cheese Wiz. Batter Blaster shaves four minutes and three dishes off my home pancake routine. And the can even says Organic. Not sure how official that is, but Organic Pancake Batter in a can is something I can totally get behind.

On a funny Social Networking note, I did a little Google research on Batter Blaster, to find out if this glorious new product was doomed for discontinuing. And I discovered there is a YouTube video, a MySpace page, and a Facebook page (but I’m not sure if that one is official). Nice.

I have worn Levi’s most of my life. My Mom wouldn’t put a pair of elastic-waist jeans on me as a toddler. She insisted on tiny pairs of Levi jeans, and to this day I have a pair of 501s in my jeans drawer.

So, there’s some brand recognition there.

You might have seen a recent Levi commercial. It’s nighttime and this skinny dark haired guy is putting on a new pair of jeans. As he pulls them up, he pulls the street and sidewalk below up into his apartment as well. On the sidewalk, he notices an attractive person checking him out from a telephone booth. He and the occupant walk off into the night.

The occupant of the phone booth? That’s where the plot thickens. There are two versions of the commercial and I just noticed the second.

In the NBC NFL Football version: A very thin brunette woman.

In the Bravo Project Runway version: A hunky blonde dude.

The same commercial, but with two different target audiences. The gay themed commercial was initially airing only on MTV’s Logo network, but the move to Bravo takes it into the mainstream with a very popular show.

Levi has apparently finally noticed that straight people like Levis, too.

I’m not sure why, but Phil Collins gets a bum rap. I’ve encountered several people within my age group who despise him. And the other night, I heard a college-aged woman comment that Phil Collins was the worst musician on the planet. Why, oh why, does Phil Collins rub people this way?

I guess if you don’t like Phil Collins’ commercial style. OK. I’ll deal with that. Even though he has sold more than 100 million records over a couple of decades as both a solo artist and with the band Genesis.

But don’t be critical of his musicianship. The man can play. He is an incredible drummer spending years as the drummer in Genesis. If you haven’t heard any of the original Genesis psychedelic recordings, check them out. Peter Gabriel brought the theatrics as the original singer, and Phil helped keep it real with his percussion. And after Peter left, Phil stepped out from the drumset shadow to take over lead vocals.

He’s not attractive and he knows it. Yet he puts his face on the cover of every one of his solo albums. He can’t dance; just watch the Sussudio video or his duet with Phillip Bailey for evidence of that. But as I said above: the man can play.

His skills range from 70s progressive rock to commercial solo success with records such as Face Value and No Jacket Require. If you don’t like him, you could still probably name three songs by him. So let’s all pay a little respect.

Ten Essential Phil Collins Songs:

• In The Air Tonight
• Easy Lover (Duet with Phillip Bailey)
• I Missed Again
• I Don’t Care Anymore
• Sussudio
• Separate Lives
• Something Happened on the Way to Heaven
• Both Sides of the Story
• Take Me Home
• Groovy Kind of Love (So, so cheesy, yet I can’t turn it off)