Just DOITT

Whenever I see New York City parking signs, I’m always reminded of this Futurama quote:

“Tour Guide: I direct your attention to this ancient and mysterious tablet which has yet to be deciphered.

[He points to a parking sign. Leela turns to Fry.]

Leela: Do you know what it means?

Fry: Yeah, I asked a cop once. It means “Up yours, kid”.”

The parking signs are indeed mysterious: for instance does 7am-7pm refer to unauthorized vehicles? One thing I can tell you – DOITT means Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications and probably refers to which NYC government fiefdom is allowed to park on that street.

Some Soundbites

Chatting with Joe Grossberg today I mentioned that I really don’t understand why so many people read Scripting News. I tried reading it many times, and it always bored me to death. Joe gave me a perfectly good analogy:

it’s like trying to figure out why German people listen to David Hasselhoff

Also, I came upon a nice quote in Mike Meginnis’ interview with Jeffrey Rowland:

You mentioned viral marketing, and that’s something interesting about the ‘net. It really promotes artists who are skilled at making things that people will basically shout at each other over AIM.

Now I think I understand why my own blog is not particularly popular :) Also, I could not help, but remember a Futurama episode:

Farnsworth: Look, it started out as a calculated plot to rummage through your underwear. But once I got in there, I found more — much more. And now I want to shout our love from the rooftops. Perhaps I’ll breed some sort of albino shouting gorilla.”

Freedom Cuts

I have a friend who likes to remind me that my taste is highly atypical and should not be taken into consideration when coming up with new products. For instance, Fox cancels any show that I start to really like. Firefly, The $treet, Futurama – all mistreated and gone. The Simpsons weren’t cancelled, but somehow changed by Fox to become unappealing to me. Strange but true.

Right now Fox is promoting a new show, Prison Break. Recently they turned a little raised plaza in front of the Newscorp Building into a “Fox River State Penitentiary”, complete with signs, a barbed wire fence, and a whole bunch of dudes in prison jumpsuits handing out nailfiles and fake tattoos with the show’s logo.

There were also free henna tattoos as well as free buzzcuts. I was very much surprised at how popular the buzzcuts were with the office crowd.


Ad:
You know what’s missing from The Simpsons today? Bite. There’s no bite left in them. And I don’t know, something else too. It’s still there in the old seasons, but somewhere along the way either Homer jumped the shark both literally and figuratevely.

A relatively well known fact is that Groening started his career with a “Life Is Hell” comic which was about bulgy eyed rabbits instead of bulgy eyed humans. It had what the Simpsons is missing these days.

Oh, Crap, Singing …

My favorite Simpsons songs:
Canyonero Commercial
Jebediah Springfield’s Theme Song
Hank Scorpio’s Theme Song

My favorite Futurama songs (get them here) :
Robot Hell Song
Poppler Commercial Song
Bureaucrat’s Song
Grunka Lunka’s Song
Xmas Song

Strangely enough I liked Katey Sagal’s singing in Futurama songs. I learned that she recorded a CD called “Well“. The damn thing almost made me puke. I don’t even know how to explain it. Sachariny songs, terrible electronic music arrangements. Ewwww. Her voice sounded nothing like Leela’s singing in Futurama. I went to Amazon now to get the link, and low and behold – ten years after “Well” she has another CD called “Room” out. Do I dare to buy it? She does have a great voice…

Now, This Is Way Retarded

Animation cells. there are millions of them made while making cartoons. And most are amazing pieces of wall art perfect for any geek’s cubicle or bedroom wall. Fox sometimes sells Simpsons and Futurama cells as well as limited edition posters in one of the conference rooms at a discount to Newscorp employees. I’ve visited a few times, but still shelling out $150 – $200 for one seemed a little bit extravagant. I mean, for that kind of money I can get something more awesome.

Now, just this morning the best post-Soviet animation company Pilot was moving to new headquarters. What do they do with archives? They throw the entire thing into a dumpster without warning anyone. Animators and everyone else rush to grab what they can. What kind of fucking stupidity is that?


I absolutely loved early Pilot cartoons. I think I’ll check at the friendly neighborhood Russian bookstore if they have Pilot DVDs.