A big Michael Bolton day.

So while watching football today I saw 2 Michael Bolton references in the space of 3 commercials. The first ad was for the Ford Focus (or "Vehicle-Mounted MP3 Player" as the ad would apparently like you to think of it) in which one guy mocked the other guy for having "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You" on his car stereo. Then followed another Ford ad. Then there was an Etrade ad set, again, to "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You," not even sung by Michael Bolton but covered by some histrionic throat-wrenching man-diva who sounded almost exactly like Michael Bolton.

I mean, how did this HAPPEN? Now the advertisers are using our own collective embarassment over the Michael Bolton Era against us? Both ads were ironically riffing on the song as the syrupy embodiment of cheese, not as "the cool song that makes you want to buy the Ipod because it will somehow enable you to find out what the song is."

But on the flipside....whenever I hear the big MB wail, I'm reminded of that night in I was DJing in a foreigner bar in Taiwan, and my slightly-drunk Pakistani youth-hostel-mate staggered over to my little booth and said, trembling, "Come ON man! GIVE me the Michael Bolton!"

Unfortunately, I didn't have any to play. But those were some good times.

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