Saturday 25th 2006f March 2006

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Patrick’s Day 2006

A , posted by Anthony in the early afternoon.

I had intended to post last weekend, but I didn’t feel like it, so I didn’t. This may have been to do with my purchase of Civ IV. I couldn’t possibly comment. I’ve been trying to wangle a free copy of it for a while as it’s made by 2KGames. Their office is just down the street from mine and they, like R*, are owned by Take Two Interactive. But no go. I had to actually buy it. What is the world coming to?!

I had been out the previous night, of course. I’m glad St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Friday this year. Last year I was freelance so I could take the following day off – this year that wouldn’t have been so easy. I don’t know how they feel about “Hangover Days” over here in the States.

Not that there’s any need to get drunk, I suppose. In Ireland I would frequently let the day pass without drinking at all. But it seems a shame to do that here. It’s a day when there’s really “value added” to being Irish – people are nicer – and it seems a shame to just let it go. Of course, you wouldn’t catch me near the parade. Midtown is a war zone – amateur night. Downtown it’s pretty ok.

Anyway, I said basically everything I wanted to about the holiday last year. This year I went after work with m’colleague Ian (who, coincidentally, had recorded Leonard Nimoy’s VO for Civ IV) to The Scratcher, but it was too crowded for reasonable hanging out. We went to eat with some other people at a place called Little Frankie’s or something. Then I headed up to the lounge at the Three of Clubs and met up with some other people, and then went to the Eleventh Street bar and met some more people, and then I went home. So there you have it.

On another note, I found this ad on the web. It was actually one I had been looking for for some time – since October 2003. It’s on the internet now because of the existence of YouTube and the presence of Lost’s Josh Holloway before he was famous. But that’s not why I’m interested.

It greeted me when I arrived in New York. It was on TV in heavy rotation. I watched it and watched it, willing it to offer up its secrets to me. This was a product of the country in which I was living. Maybe if I could figure out what was going on, decode the cultual signs, it would make the transition easier. There’s Fran Drescher, and a monkey, and a switch board, and an elderly African American gentleman. There seems to be a theme of phones, and dancing. Fran’s shizzle has gone fizizzle. What? Anyway, maybe you can help me make sense of it.

Dad? Perhaps your time has come.

You see? You see? I mean, who pitched it? Whose idea was it? Why is it supposed to sell pullovers? Although I did actually buy one one of them, so I’m obviously missing something.

Comments on "Patrick’s Day 2006"

  1. Gravatar

    Comment ID: 7217

    At 7:27 am on Sunday 26th 2006f March 2006, Dad announced

    Son,it’s simple. In the old days (when I was young) advertisements boasted the material quality of products: their fitness to function. Nowadays they are all metaphysical pointing, as they do, to the ‘sacramental’ quality of the products: drink this drink or wear these runners and you become a certain kind of (desirable) person. So it is with the advertisement that puzzles you. Wear the fleece and you are part of a particular world. But you may interject, who would want to be the kind of person who works in a telephone exchange or, a jumping youngster. This is where the ad’s sheer genius is revealed. Focus on the telephone operator: she is the key. The technology is yesterday’s and with her we are in a past world. As post modernism dispenses with master narratives, the past is no longer kept distant by a chain of events. It can be imported straight into the present. In this case bringing with it, through advertising’s metaphysical trickery, that moment when jerseys could be sold, simply because they kept you warm.

  2. Gravatar

    Comment ID: 7245

    At 3:27 pm on Monday 27th 2006f March 2006, JIMI (M.A Hons) discoursed

    I agree with your Dad, and I know about these things (just check the letters after my name…)

  3. Gravatar

    Comment ID: 7257

    At 10:00 pm on Monday 27th 2006f March 2006, elenamary attested

    Feliz Dia De San Patricio

  4. Gravatar

    Comment ID: 7439

    At 7:02 pm on Tuesday 28th 2006f March 2006, Ivan typed

    My God your dad is good. But (and i know this is risky for a number of reasons) It’s frizizzle, i believe, not fizizzle. It may not be a real word but I think Snoop could clear it up.

  5. Gravatar

    Comment ID: 8126

    At 9:21 pm on Wednesday 29th 2006f March 2006, Anthony testified

    Dad, I think you have it. I knew you would come in useful someday, although I don’t believe you fully teased out all the implications of the monkey. I also believe there’s more to be said about the presence of Fran Drescher specifically (more than just a telephone operator). And then, as Ivan has pointed out, there is her bewildering use of a certain kind of hip-hop patois, poularized in recent years by Snoop Dogg, but I believe originating with The Gap Band.

    Ivan, it’s fizizzle. The quality on the clip isn’t great, but I watched this ad closely hundreds of times.

    Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you too, Elenamary!

  6. Gravatar

    Comment ID: 8138

    At 7:54 am on Thursday 30th 2006f March 2006, Ivan realised it was important that we all should understand

    Frizizzle damn it! anyone anyone…

  7. Gravatar

    Comment ID: 8139

    At 7:56 am on Thursday 30th 2006f March 2006, Ivan was compelled to share

    Oh, and I think drug abuse has damaged ask anthony.

  8. Gravatar

    Comment ID: 8207

    At 2:39 pm on Wednesday 05th 2006f April 2006, JIMI (M.A Hons) testified

    ANTHONY>>> I think your shizzle has gone fizzizle…

  9. Gravatar

    Comment ID: 8305

    At 4:13 pm on Monday 10th 2006f April 2006, Babs testified

    Boo!!

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