Very Cool! Simpsons Skateboards

These new Simpsons skateboard designs from Santa Cruz Skateboards look pretty cool! But...why didn't they come out about 20 years ago? (via Comics Alliance)

For the Little Ones (or Me)

I know a lot of people who have had babies in the last 1-2 years, or are expecting later this year. Might I suggest the following Simpson's Alphabet poster for baby's room? It's both educational AND culturally-relevant(ish). And cute!

For those of you with baby showers yet to attend this year, ahem...see above.

(h/t Laughing Squid)

Banksy Directs Opening of The Simpsons and it is Dark

(h/t Laughing Squid)

Wow, the Internet was totally abuzz this morning about the opening sequence of The Simpsons last night, directed by elusive artist, Banksy. I haven't had a chance to watch the whole episode yet, but after all the posts on the opening, I had to check it out. And you know what? That shit is dark.

Watch it:



I've now read a deconstruction of the sequence, noting that it is commentary on the West's dependence on East Asian sweatshops to produce our cheap goods. Well, certainly that is true, but I guess I wasn't expecting it in the opening sequence of an animated show on Fox.

But honestly, what bothered me most about it was the sad unicorn, used to punch out the middle of DVDs before they are packaged. Yeah, I know it's an animated version of an imaginary animal. I can't explain it, but it bummed me out. The rest is obvious (and of course depressing and sad, and now I feel guilty about, well, lots of things) in its message.

I'm a little surprised Fox let the sequence air, and there is an interesting interview with one of the show's producers about how the whole thing came to be (go read it here). It's certainly at the opposite end of spectrum from the Kei$ha opening sequence they did last year. In fact, despite how dark the Bansky intro is, if this is now a "thing" -- to change up the opening sequence in a variety of ways -- I'm in full support. This is probably the most buzz on The Simpsons in quite a few years, so good. Also, reminder: don't buy so much crap from China. Or something.

Sigh...

Ay, caramba!

Simpsons Ke$ha Tik Tok Intro

I'm catching up on all my DVR recordings and came across a couple Simpsons episodes. I always love the Intro, and they've done some really good ones the last few years (inverse relationship to the quality of the entire episodes?). They typically follow the same format for the most part, with the last 10-20 seconds as the new bit.

But I was excited when starting the "To Surveil, With Love" and the Intro was completely different - start to finish. Be forewarned that it uses Ke$sha's Tik Tok, which will get stuck in your head. Oh, and the best quality clip I could find is reversed, which is kind of weird. So imagine it backwards. Or right way around. Whatever, you know what I mean.

PS. To Surveil is also a pretty good episode. Lots of great pop culture references and commentary on our surveillance society. Good times.

No Beer and No TV Make Homer Something Something

I have a *thing* for clocks. I have a *thing* for lots of things, but I really do have a special place in my heart for devices that measure time. So you may see various devices such as clocks, watches, and calendars here from time to time. Maybe even a sundial, if I can find one that fits here.

Here's a great Homer Simpson clock. He's got the best of both worlds, doughnuts AND beer! How could there be a happier Homer? If it would sing a variety of favorite Homer songs as your wake-up call, that would be fantastic.

Super Bowl Ads for the Rest of Us

I don't care about football. There, I said it.

I also typically hate ads, but will tolerate them during "The Big Game" (don't want to get sued by the NFL). Companies spend a boat load of money on those ads, so it seems like they should be the ad industry's A-game, the cream of the crop for the year. And while I think quite a few of those ads are related to beer, pizza/snack foods, and a random mish mash of others, there are a few that even us geeks could appreciate.

I won't sit and watch all the ads from yesterday's game, but overall, I wasn't terribly impressed with the geeky commercials. Granted 30 seconds isn't a ton of time, but considering how much it cost to air those ads, I felt like there were a few that were close, but not quite there. And a few were just terrible.

There was a new Coke ad featuring the Simpsons, with a downtrodden Mr. Burns wandering through Springfield as others frolicked and enjoyed their delicious Cokes. Apu was big-hearted enough to take pity on Mr. Burns and offer him a Coke (in a bottle, I might note) bringing him into the community fold and cheering him up out of his funk.

While I love the Simpsons, I don't think this one was super creative. It's more like a tie-in: if the Simpsons are cool, then by association Coke must be as well. I do like that Spider Pig shows up and that Milhouse gets a line at the end. Overall, I'll give this one a "meh plus."




Several movie trailers appeared, including The Wolfman (which I couldn't get to play), Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and Prince of Persia. I'm interested in all of these movies, but I think I'm the target demographic. So it seems like the point here would be to attract mainstream moviegoers to these sci fi/fantasy outings. I'll reserve judgment on the Wolfman trailer, since I'm planning to see that this weekend and can geek out all about it soon enough.

I've seen the 3D trailer for Alice in Wonderland, which was fantastic! However, the 30 second trailer didn't seem to pick the good highlights, but rather emphasize the freakish fantasy that this movie will likely be. And I'm just not sure at all about Prince of Persia (starring Jake Gyllenhaal). I like Jake, and the CGI looks pretty good, so maybe I'm stuck on the ridiculous hair piece he's wearing. Is that a good enough reason to blow off a movie? It might be. You be the judge.




I enjoyed the Intel Robot ad, if only because the robot reminded me of Wall-E and was cute. I was surprised by the Google ad (does anyone NOT know what Google is?) but I liked it. It was able to tell a story through searches and background noise and I thought that a clever device. I'm easily entertained, what can I say?




Finally, there was one ad for video game Dante's Inferno, but I'd rather leave the review of that one to the experts (I'm looking at you, Erica!). All I can say is that I thought the music choice for the ad was a mis-match.

Bonus: The Bud Light/Lost may be one of the more clever ones in my opinion. I can't even follow Lost anymore, but I know enough about the story to see the allusion in the Bud Light ad, and while silly, it was a fun one. If I were on a deserted island, I'd probably be pretty excited about a stash of beer, at least until it ran out.



Finally, while not a purely geek-oriented ad, the Internet was all a-twitter (yes, I love a bad pun) about the Dave/Oprah/Jay ad. I'm not really sure how this came to be, but since Dave slammed Jay not 2 weeks ago, I guess I'm a little confused. But I like that it's an ad for Dave's show and not Jay's. So there's that. What do you think?



Whew! That was exhausting! I'm so glad this event is only once a year.