The Addison Cafe

Oranges, tangerines, or any sort of fruit should be considered off limits when considering stocking stuffers. It always feels like a dirty trick when Christmas morning you see your stocking hanging there, stuffed to the gills, only to empty it and have 3 oranges roll out.  Maybe it would be appropriate if you were celebrating April Fool’s, or if the oranges were the kind made of solid chocolate, but fruit is a big no-no during the holiday season.

I know, I know. You are probably wondering, “well then what DO I put in their stocking this year?” And I have an answer.  I have waited 27 years for this. I thought it was only a figment of my imagination until yesterday. Behold, “Flame“. What is it? It is a glorious new body spray fragrance from, no, not Chanel, Tommy, or Paris…Burger King is the creator of this bad boy. And the best part? It smells like a Whopper. At first I thought it was only for men, who love the smell of flame broiled meat. However, I soon realized that women were the ones who are in luck with this fragrant sensation. Wonder how to get a guy to like you? Want to get their attention? Get your long-time-afraid-of-commitment boyfriend to finally marry you? Two little sprays of this and you are set. Cupid is about to join the unemployment line and he won’t be able to blame it on the economy.

To add icing on the cake, it only costs $3.99. Save money this holiday season and smell like beef at the same time. Thank you Burger King.

(For those of you who think I am joking, I most certainly am not.)

It’s hard to lose when doing a community giveback project. The people receiving feel blessed by the concern and actions of their community, and the people giving feel great that they can help those in need. Addison Avenue recently launched our first home makeover project in Loveland, Colorado doing just that. It was definitely a win-win situation. I just received footage of the event and thought I would pass it on…it provides some good encouragement during this tougher Holiday Season. Cheers!

One common thread woven throughout history is mankind’s love for music. Every generation has favored different genres and the dance moves to go along with them (unfortunately), and people everywhere of all different backgrounds, cultures, and ages share this love. And then came the invention of the internet (thank you Al Gore), the mp3, and the iPod. And so the addiction began…

This week I wanted to take a minute and give a brief review of the top 3 ways to get and listen to the music you want (iTunes, Amazon mp3, and Pandora), and the cost associated with each of them.

iTunes:  King of the music jungle! Or so they want you to think. While iTunes does have the biggest selection of music to choose from and great navigation, they are also the most expensive of the 3 options. Their music is also protected and won’t play in mp3 players outside of the iPod or iPhone. Although they are slowly taking away the protection, they have a long way to go.

Amazon mp3:  The real only viable competition to iTunes. Their library is a little smaller, but if you listen to mainstream artists you will have nothing to worry about. Also, their navigation and store aren’t as clean as iTunes. However, on the plus side, none of their music is protected, which means you can play it anywhere. It is also better quality than iTunes’ protected songs (same quality as their unprotected ones though), it can download straight to iTunes if you still want to use that for your player, and it is often cheaper (with singles sometimes being offered at $0.89 instead of iTunes $0.99 and albums can be a couple bucks off as well).

Pandora:  Pandora is free internet radio with 3 great features. First, it‘s completely FREE. Second, there are no commercials or interruptions; just constant music.  Third, and best of all, it analyzes the types of songs you likes and plays similar songs. You can create different radio stations according to different styles of music. For instance, if you ask for “Thriller” by Michael Jackson, Pandora will figure out the tempo, beat, pitch, melody, style, instruments, vocals, etc, and cross reference that against a huge database of music to pull songs that sound similar to that one. That way, you will end up hearing the type of music you want from artists you love and maybe from some you haven’t heard of as well. It is hard to explain until you try it, but once you do, it will be love at first sound (Pandora.com). The only downside? It’s radio and you don’t own the music.

All of these methods are cheaper than the “old fashioned” CD, and each has their pros and cons. I personally use all three, depending on what I need. If you haven’t already, give them a shot. Just keep your dance moves to yourself. Enjoy!