St. Valentine's Day Massacre

[vovat]

Yesterday was a certain holiday that a lot of people don't like. Believe me, I was in pretty much the same boat back when I was single. I think I mostly just celebrate now because I like exchanging gifts with bethje, and a holiday like that is a good excuse to do so. This year, Beth gave me gifts with a theme. There was a book on the history of Monopoly that I saw at a bookstore and wanted, so she got that for me, as well as two other books on games, and some Goldfish crackers (which didn't fit the theme, but oh well). There wasn't any theme to my gifts for her: Super Mario Advance, Al Franken's Why Not Me?, a little Chococat, and a heart-shaped box of Hershey's Kisses. We also went out to eat at Denny's, which was good.

I believe the new They Might Be Giants release, Here Come the ABC's, comes out today, but I don't think I'll have the time to pick it up. Maybe tomorrow.

Going back to Sunday night, I didn't think the new Simpsons episode was one of the best in recent memory, but it wasn't that bad, either. I think I preferred what I suppose could be termed the B story (even though they were both closely connected) with Chief Wiggum trying to overcome his general incompetence. The parts with Bart had some decent jokes on the extravagant rapper lifestyle, like the wax museum in the limo. One particularly funny moment was when the exact time at which Bart was on stage was determined based on Flava Flav's (or some Springfield equivalent of Flava Flav's) clock. I think the most annoying part of the show was that, not only was there no resolution, but it was a similar lack of resolution to that in other episodes, particularly the "surf's up" ending to "The Great Money Caper." After doing the non-ending thing so many times, it ceases to become clever, and starts just looking lazy. We kind of needed a resolution anyway, since I would imagine Wiggum won't be Police Commissioner anymore next time we see him.

By the way, I think I've mentioned this before, but they NEVER refill the soda machines in the one library building where I work. I mean, "never" is an exaggeration, but they've been totally empty, or at least out of anything good, too many times to count. Doesn't it seem like they'd want to refill them more often, so they could, you know, make money from selling soda?

~vovat~

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Comments

[countblastula.livejournal.com]

>After doing the non-ending thing so many times, it ceases to become clever, and starts just looking lazy.

Yeah, and did they ever get the remote control back from the dog?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

No, I don't think so. Of course, they could always get another remote, but that can't be good for the dog.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I actually ordered both the DVD and CD through Amazon, since that has the EXCLUSIVE AMAZON CONTENT!11111 on it, but, well, they haven't shipped it yet. They claim it will ship the 16th. I suppose I'm less annoyed by that than I could be, considering that I think it'll be good, but I don't think it'll exactly be my New Favorite TMBG Record Ever. Though the "E Eats Everything" video I saw at the website was amusing. And I'm assuming it might actually help kids remember how E looks, if you know, the whole Z being an eovore thing doesn't freak them out too bad, first. (This is one of the things I like about TMBG's kids stuff, in that it's not really like other kids-stuff in that it tends to kind of frighten children, at least some of it. Like "Robot Parade". Or totally baffles them like "John Lee Supertaster". No! rocked.)

Also - I pretty much agree with you on last week's Simpsons. I was glad (so very, very glad) they didn't go the route the ads were making it look (i.e. Bart Becomes A Rapper!!!), but -- yeah. The ending was sort of annoying, since it was just Al Jean doing a Scully Ending. (Granted, he did it better than the Scully-era, but it still wasn't that good. Tallest midget territory here.) But yeah -- I don't know. I tend to think that if they're not going to go with the Status Quo Maintaining thing (i.e. VanHouten divorce, octuplets, etc.), they should REALLY go for it, and have gone all the way (Apu staying in India, Marge keeping her kitchen, Wiggum staying Commissoner/Kirk staying in jail, etc.). Sure, it'd sort of do some weird things to the series, but... well, I don't know, how much longer are they planning to do it? (And, really, how many more stories can they have? Which isn't to say that this season hasn't been surprisingly good, what with the Futurama Refugees and all, but still... of course, I'm just bitter about Futurama dying.)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

What exclusive content is on the Amazon version? I seem to recall hearing that there was some, but not what it was. If it's something worthwhile, I guess I might go ahead and order it, even though that would mean I wouldn't get it until fairly late. I'm not really in as much of a hurry to hear/see this as I have been with other TMBG releases, but I am looking forward to it.

This is one of the things I like about TMBG's kids stuff, in that it's not really like other kids-stuff in that it tends to kind of frighten children, at least some of it.

Have there been any actual instances of kids being frightened by No! tracks? I mean, it's possible, but I sometimes get the idea that adults are often more sensitive to a lot of "scary" things than kids are.

I really have no idea how much longer The Simpsons is going to last, and I'm not sure whether I would prefer it to go out in a blaze of glory or continue until it crashes and burns. I've heard people from the show's staff say that they're running out of ideas for years now, but the show marches on. I think it might be cool to do some big changes in the last season, but I'm sure they wouldn't want to change TOO much, because I'll bet we'll see some specials featuring the characters after the show has officially ended.

[revme.livejournal.com]

IIRC, it's one or two extra songs. One of them has "Sombrero" in the title, and that's all I remember, really.

And, actually, at the Kids Show that I went to, "Robot Parade" caused children to cry, and "John Lee Supertaster" merely baffled them. Little kids, apparently, do not understand the Funk. Sadly, they did that song relatively early in the set.. (IIRC, it was someting like Clap Yr Hands (good response), Robot Parade (tears), John Lee (confused silence), then the rest of the show) and, well, while everyone above the age of, like, seven dug the show, the bulk of the audience was in the 7-and-unders, and, well, they were just sort of confused/bored by the post-Supertaster stuff. It was sad.

And... I dunno. I'd like it to go out in a Blaze of _something_, with all sorts of changes and whatnot, though that's mainly because I doubt there'd be any spinoffs. The only thing i can think of is the Movie, which, uh, hasn't it actually finally been confirmed? At least kinda-sorta? Still, though. I'd assume the movie would be relatively out-of-continuity anyway, since they typically want to do a thing where they make it appeal to both fans and people who aren't familiar with the show (which I always thought was odd, because, really, if you, say, hadn't seen any of the 16 years of the Simpsons, would you really go "Well, gee, I really wanna see that movie!"?)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

"John Lee" isn't a favorite of mine, but I still understand it. It's pretty good, but Flans seems to think it's one of the best things he's ever written, and I'd say that's taking it a little too far. I'm not sure how I would have reacted to it as a kid.

I tend not to think there will be any major Simpsons spinoff series. I remember hearing a rumor a few years ago that Matt Groening was considering doing a show about Springfield without the Simpsons themselves as central characters, but I don't really think that would be too much different from the show itself. I mean, if they have a good idea for a plot about a secondary character, it would be easy to work the Simpsons into it and just make it a regular episode. So that idea doesn't sound very plausible to me. I wouldn't be TOO surprised to see an occasional "special" made after the show has gone off the air, though.

As for the movie, I can see making it appeal to casual Simpsons watchers, or people who used to like the show, but I tend to doubt anyone who really didn't like the show would ever go see a movie based on it. Really, I have a hard time seeing them doing anything other than an extra-long episode (not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that). I actually think Futurama would have made better feature-film fodder, since there are a lot of plot threads they could expand upon in that.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I can see where Flans'd think it's the best thing ever -- I don't think it's the best thing he's done _ever_, but I really dig the Whiteboy Funk thing he gets into a lot (i.e. most of It's Fun To Steal, which I actually really, really adore), so I can dig where his head is at. But yeah, I don't think that little kids really get Whiteboy Funk, since I'm not sure if little kids get, you know, real Funk.

I remember that relatively early on, they were thinking about doing a spinoff(!) on Krusty (!) that would be Live-Action(!!). This didn't get too far (I don't _think_ they ever even did a pilot), but... yeah, still kind of odd. IIRC, this was around season 3ish, though. I think Matt Groening is still sort of intrigued by the idea, but in a "Man, that's a bad idea... I wonder how it'd work?" sort of way. (Which I can _wholly_ appreciate, because, well, hell, if it was me, I'd be really tempted to throw money at it just to see.)

But yeah -- Futurama was more plot/character driven too, where even the more Emotional Simpsons episodes have been more excuses-for-jokes. (Really good jokes, but, well, you don't really have an emotional investment in, say, Smithers getting together with Mr. Burns the way you did with Fry and Leela. I mean, you couldn't do something like "Parasites Lost" in the Simpsons. Er, emotionally, since, well, yeah, the sci-fi trappings and, say, Bart eating an alien egg salad sandwich and getting smarter through parasites rewiriing his brain wouldn't so much, you know, work.)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I think I remember hearing about that Krusty spinoff thing. I wonder if it was going to feature any Simpsons characters other than Krusty himself. If not, I guess it would either have to be in a different continuity, or else take place somewhere other than Springfield. Regardless, I really don't think it would work.

[onib.livejournal.com]

I pre-ordered mine from Amazon and they came in yesterday. I haven't seen the DVD yet, but the Amazon version comes with bonus videos of Violin and Stalk of Wheat. The Amazon CD comes with a bonus song that's like a sped-up, bizarre remix of Hovering Sombrero - most of the verse lyrics are nonsense words. Not a bad little song, but one of the oddest TMBG tracks I've heard (and that's saying something).

If you're not worried about getting them immediately, Amazon is selling the CD for $9.99 and the DVD for $9.09. Plus, if you order them both together, Amazon cuts another $2 off the total price and only charges $17.08 for the combo. Of course, that means you have to spend another $8 somehow if you want to get free shipping.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'll probably just end up ordering them from Amazon. I checked two stores today, one of which had just the CD and the other just the DVD. Neither one was anywhere near as cheap as on Amazon. I kind of hope I'll get the CD and DVD before the instore next week, which bethje and I are planning on going to, but if not, I'm sure they'll sign other things.

[onib.livejournal.com]

Amy & I are trying to make it to the Bryn Mawr show - this is the one you're planning on going to, right? I think our current plan is to try to pick up marnanel, firinel and her daughter riordon on the way. We'll try to keep an eye out for you two when we get there. Hopefully, it won't be as cramped as the downtown Philly in-store.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's the Bryn Mawr one we're planning on going to. I have no idea how crowded it will be, but since I don't think there are any others all that close by, it'll probably be pretty bad. Maybe not as bad as the Philly one, though. I don't know. The important thing is that I don't have to hurry across town after the performance this time.

[3x1minus1.livejournal.com]

i liked when they panned over after the flava flav guy and someone else had a necklace that said the date.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was one of my favorite gags, too.