[tyler s]

I had plenty of stuff to write about this week, but its all secondary to the matter at hand. The Simpsons Movie is out now, and I'll be watching it in twelve hours. I'd be lying if I said I'd been waiting for this for years, but it has been something I've been looking forward to for a good fews months. The reason I'm the happiest about this movie and the juggernaut-ish hype is how its reelectrified what is arguably the greatest franchise in TV history.

I've dabbled in describing my love for the Simpsons (specifically seasons 3-9) on this site before, but since I haven't seen the movie yet, I'm not going to pass judgement. What I do want to share is a true story that happened to me at work today.

I received an email from my old friend Chris that supplied me with the link to this messageboard. I read it through, and had more than a dozen laughs audible from the opposite side of my office. I forwarded it to my coworker who shares my fandom of the show (she had already seen the film but was reveling in it), and we both shared a good laugh at the likes of "Dental Plan! Lisa needs braces! Dental Plan!..." you get the idea.

I returned Chris' email, both excited about the film and excited to hear from him. I hadn't seen him for a while other than one time I ran into him at an open mic night whereupon he watched me bomb (it happens). He and I were close friends in high school, but since we both ended up in DC we'd only hung out a handful of times. This had nothing to do with losing interest in each others' pursuits or anything personal; we'd just found our own circles and went from there.

One of the things he alluded to in our email exchange was how excited he was. It felt like the old days of the show were back. I quickly mentioned that it brought me back to the show's golden age from when we were in 9th grade, joking around in Mr. Harris' english class. I wrote "To the beemobile!" He returned "...you mean your Chevy?" At one point in late 1997, we even adapted the lyrics to "Dr. Zaius," from Troy McClure's play 'Stop the Planet of the Apes, I want to Get off!' to fit our experience in that class. The alternately scary and delightful aspect of this moment was that we picked up exactly where we'd left off in that joke about a decade ago. We'd alluded to that Simpsons-bred inside joke throughout college, but it had never felt as oddly appropos as it did when we were throwing it around in light of The Movie. Like it or not, there is something palpable in the air this weekend that all of the endless cross-promotion (even the Bladensburg, MD Kwik-E-Mart) couldn't quite nail down. The Simpsons are much more significant than anything some ad exec could relay through their bloated mind.

In case you aren't a Simpsons fan and didn't get the reference in the subject line here, that's okay. We can't all be born with SOULS!!!! That is all. Love, me.

[tyler s]

Sorry I slipped again with the posting "schedule" I inflicted upon myself, but for today I just thought I'd share with you one of the most intriguing things I'd seen on the web in some time. And no, its not the Filipino prisoners Busby Berkeleying out to MJ (as fascinating as that is). This is a short subject made about the extinct 3rd Avenue El elevated train in the 1950's in New York. It's a pretty inspiring look at a New York that my grandparents may remember but has been lost to the baby boomer generation. Enjoy.