Futurama. Just when you think it’s dead, it’s not.
Futurama went off the air in 2003 with only 72 episodes, but it has found a new life in repeats (sound familiar), and later with four DVD movies. Comedy Central (owned by Viacom who also own Paramount) has found success running the repeats and DVD movies and they wanted more original content. Variety has confirmed the story from Collider, and added new details.
All of the original voice cast will be returning and the new episodes will begin airing on Comedy Central in mid-2010. The deal calls for 26 new episodes. 20th Century Fox also has the right to sell the episodes to a broadcast network (probably FOX), but they would still run on Comedy Central in repeats.
Carnevale … was charged with misdemeanor larceny for allegedly building his orange monster from materials pilfered from a construction site. According to an arrest warrant, Carnevale “destroyed three road blocking barrels by cutting and screwing them together to form a statue.”
Can you imagine seeing that thing as you’re driving home after a night out? I can see myself having the following conversation with myself:
Me: “Um, I don’t recall drinking much?”
Myself: “We had a beer. Four hours ago. You’re sober.”
Me: “Oh, good, because drunk driving = bad.”
Myself: “Yeah, sadly, it also means the giant orange barrel monster isn’t a figment of our imagination.”
I’m sure Iran has had more than two revolutions — it’s just, that contemporarily, there’s always been only one “Iranian revolution” people have spoken about. Until this weekend.
To make a long story short (if you don’t, y’know, watch the news): Iran underwent elections, and Ahmadinejad “won”, but his opponent, Mousavi, claims the election was stolen, and evidence seems to indicate that the election, indeed, was rigged, and that Ahmadinejad is the benefactor of a staged coup.
I have no idea if the Iranian in the photo above is dead or alive. There are many more similar disturbing photos, twitter feeds of police assaulting protesters, the government’s shuttering of the foreign press, and above all, the sense that people in Iran are risking more than their apathy to vote. I wish I could count that turn of phrase of one of mine, but it’s not: The Daily Dish has been covering the 2nd Iranian Revolution: go, read.
Just when I thought I knew where all the obscure sub-sections were, Corporate has finally approved funds for the “shifting team” (a bunch of big guys who fly in from HQ and literally just move big pieces of furniture) to come down and re-sort our store. A big map of the new arrangement is posted in our break room — sections like Religion, and Psychology are coming upstairs, magazines are moving past the Information desk, and all of the popular fiction — Romance, Sci-Fi, Mystery — is going along the walls. In other words, we’re all getting ready to have no idea where anything is anymore.
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A customer complained about some neo-Nazi calling cards she came across in a World War II history book. Yep, in addition to the yuppies who use our art books as coasters, and the crazy homeless people who think we’re an FBI sting to catch them admitting to killing JFK (and the ones who bathe naked in our restroom, and hold conversations with chairs), and the customers who put their coffee cups on bookshelves, and the ones who leave a stack of magazines because they apparently confuse the Bookstore with their bedroom and the store’s employees with their mother (it’s not, we aren’t, clean up your own fucking mess), we now also have neo-Nazis in the store, putting their trash in our books. And where there are neo-Nazis …
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When you’re yelling at me? And dropping books on the floor? Because you’re not happy with the options we have to order used books? And then you threaten never to shop here again if I can’t help you in a way you find more pleasing? I mean, first of all, I know you’re lying, because of course you’re going to come back, but you’re not exactly giving me any reason to help you. Because, the yelling? And the book dropping? Seriously, go shop elsewhere. You’re an adult acting like a five-year old. Can’t tell you how tiring that gets.
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On a similar note — when you’re looking for a book that’s been out of print, or the publisher has pushed back the release of a title you really wanted, take it up with the publisher! Contrary to popular belief, the Bookstore does not publish the super-vast majority of anything we have! While we do have a (small) selection of “Classic” novels with a Bookstore-logo on them (and by “classic” I mean the copyright has expired), the fact is for each of those titles we have multiple other editions by multiple other publishers as well. Seriously, it’s like screaming at the bus driver that he’s late when there’s a five-car pileup on the road that he had to get around. What was he supposed to do? Drive through the wrecked cars and twisted bodies?
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Lately, I find myself doing Merch products when I work. This is a big change from what I’m used to. See, at the Bookstore, there are basically two jobs the booksellers do: the first is direct customer interactions. Staffing the register, staffing the information desks, assisting customers, and recovering product back to the shelves. The second is merchandising — pulling titles from section for display tables and end-caps, shifting product, etcetra. It’s a nice change of pace.
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We close very early on Sundays. It’s because of our location — the bulk of our business is done between 11am and 2pm Monday through Friday. So while I’m glad we have the book you were looking for, and you want to get it right now, the simple fact of the matter is that you’re in Montgomery County, and you can’t get here in five minutes, and we’re not staying open late for you. Sorry (no, I’m totally not).
