Weekend Walk Around Williamsburg

Brooklyn Thanksgiving, Fourth Time's the Charm

The last three Thanksgivings at my Brooklyn apartment have been great, but this year was definitely the best. Why? Well, 1) I've become increasingly fond of cooking and any occasion to have a day off to cook sounds spectacular, 2) my high school friends Jared and Kristen have since moved to New York and would be joining Thanksgiving this year, and 3) most importantly, I decided we would all eat on a real table (read: throw an expensive table cloth over our beer pong table)! With age comes class and apparently more red wine. I feel so fortunate to be able to spend Thanksgiving with friends, especially with friends and a husband who are amazing cooks and put so much effort, love and heavy cream into their food.

Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of Celery Root Soup, Butternut Squash Salad, Pepper and Lemon Curd Roast Chicken, Holiday Brisket, Chicken Liver Sausage Prune Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce, Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Carrots, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and the most amazing Pumpkin Pie. Thank you Jason, Jared, Kristen and Sean for cooking a kick ass meal.

Some things don't change, pre-dinner pickers. Guess who's guilty...

I Am Obsessed With Volvo

Volvo created one of my favorite video campaigns this year, which was Leave the World Behind featuring the DJ trio Swedish House Mafia. Timed perfectly to launch after their final world tour and the official split of the group, Leave the World Behind was a poignant and melodramatic portrayal of the life changes for these superstar DJs. Filmed in Scandinavia, there could be no better setting to contrast their previous life in the spotlight.

What I loved most about this campaign was the subtle and almost absent branding of Volvo. Besides the inclusion of the Volvo SUVs, there were no logos or lockups to disrupt the pristine quality of the piece.

Volvo's Leave the World Behind campaign was created by Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors who recently has done it again with another entertaining and powerful video--Jean Claude Van Damme's Epic Split:

There's a human quality to Forsman & Bodenfors approach to brand entertainment. These videos don't scream look at our celebrity spokesperson! or Hey, look at our product!, instead Leave the World Behind and JCVD's Epic Split is a celebration of the human spirit and achievement of greatness. Volvo's video collaborations scream one thing--we're a clever car company with bad ass ideas.