Good Packaging, Bad Packaging (and misc.)
Good DVD Packaging!
Bad DVD Packaging!
I love the Educational Archives Lunchbox, actually; it's really fun, and it comes with a thermos! And, well, the stuff in it is really cool, and if you get it through Skip, it's cheaper and faster, and he actually gets more of the money (which is good, since he compiled it and everything).
I'm really cheezed off about the new Simpsons set, though; it's ugly, it's stupid, it's gigantic, and it doesn't match the other 5 sets which were compact and really elegant. I suppose I should wait until I actually see the physical one, but these photos basically don't set me any more at ease than I was when they announced the stupid, stupid idea. Urgh. Just what we need, more bulky, plastic crap. And apparently, the next 4 sets are going to be the other Simpsons' heads. I'm ... trying to figure out how exactly they'll do Marge.
Now for the misc! Basically just some mp3 blog post type things:
- This song is actually really pretty cool; sort of reminds me of Mystic Knights-era Oingo Boingo.
- From the same blog, an mp3 of a contemporary of Johnny Cash who was also on Sun. It's actually really good.
- I've probably linked this one before, but if you want, the theoretical-flip-side, The Big "M" by Lust Control (from this post at the wonderful WFMU Blog.
- I've got the film and CD of the soundtrack, so it's not something that I'm just discovering, but I just found that someone uploaded an mp3 of The Porpoise Song by the Monkees (from Head), and OH MAN, that is a GREAT song. Goffin/King at one of their best, honestly.
- Also, apparently someone put up some Sufjan Stevens Concert Footage. Haven't checked it out yet, though. He actually came to Seattle, but it was at a venue I found out I despised (saw Laura Cantrell there, who was exquisite as always a few days before; liked the show, hated the venue), so I decided it wasn't worth it to go.
- Speaking of which, my SO discovered that the reviews of the two recent Seattle Laura Cantrell shows that we posted for our respective LJs had also been posted (with attribution) over at the Matador Records Message Boards. Which was kinda cool and surprising. I don't have any beef with it or anything, of course, it just struck me as amusing. (Particularly that the one has a ton of off-the-cuff ranting about that venue -- the same one they kept the headline too, which was "Fuck This Bourgeois Shit Is This Really What You Want" (taken from graffiti in the club's bathroom, though I felt it really fit, heh).)
All hail Misc!
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me @ Thursday, August 04, 2005
8 Comments:
To me, anything DVD case that won't fit in a DVD rack is bad packaging.
Same with CDs... I HATE the ones that are too weirdly-shaped or otherwise awkward to file with the rest of the collection.
If I wanted a big plastic toy, I'd buy it. And I don't, that's why I didn't. Just give me a damn case that fits on the shelf.
Believe it or not, I almost did my own post recently about Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, just because its packaging is SO well done.
I've been a GTA fan since GTA2 (the last top-down version), but they've always come in standard CD jewel-case type boxes. GTA:SA comes in its own hardbound book- DVD-case size, I assume because most console games come in DVD cases these days- and it's just beautiful. It's a tourist guidebook to San Andreas, complete with maps and off-color ads (I love the restaurant ad for a French restaurant: Dick Goblin's "House Of Coq"), done in the usual excellent GTA graphic style.
The game itself looks better than almost anything else I have played, and the physical packaging is definitely on par with that.
Hm, yeah -- I would go along with that -- the DVD Rack Test does sorta fail on the Lunchbox, (although it does fit if you put it on the shelf with the short end up -- meaning it's a little long for it. But, well, it does work thematically and, hey, it's a real, metal lunchbox. So, I think I'm a little soft on that one. The Simpsons one does, admittedly look like it'll _fit_, but it looks like it's about half-again-as-thick as the previous sets, and, well, it's just big, plastic, stupid and ugly. The funny thing is that since they announced them, I've yet to see anyone online say "Hey, that's actually pretty neat!" -- they seem really resoundly hated. I was hoping Fox would have realized "oh, wait, everyone wants our heads for putting the new set in this stupid, stupid box!" but then I remembered it's Fox, and, well, not being able to find their ass with both hands is what they do best.
I'm more picky with CDs, though; it's one of the things that does tend to annoy me with the Ralph America releases; a lot of them don't seem to quite fit -- or, rather, the digipak might, but the other geegaws (i.e. the dealer bag High Horses comes in) tend to not. And then there's the last couple of Negativland releases (though, admittedly, those are more Books-With-Bonus-CD rather than actual CDs (and as such, both come with special foldable cases that you can put the disc in if you're so inclined that'll actually fit on a CD rack). Though, it was kind of funny, as Don Joyce got really defensive w/r/t the Deathsentences packaging on the Negativland list.
Also -- that's cool about GTA; I haven't seen it (I am needin' a console; I have realized that. I was into GTA1 when it came out for PC, and I've played GTA3 a while ago, which was actually pretty fun, too, for what little bit I got to play of it), but I really do like that example of the Graphic Style, and the packaging does sound pretty cool; like they really Got It and all of that. Which is pretty cool.
BTW, I don't have a console either... my GTA:SA is the PC version; I just think the packaging is proportioned like a DVD case because they sell most of these for consoles. :)
One cool thing- I know they rendered all of the graphics at a higher res for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Since they had to wait a year to release it, due to their contract with Sony, they spent some of that time making higher-resolution graphics than were necessary for the 32-bit console units.
I don't know if they did something similar with San Andreas, but I wouldn't be surprised.
Ah, and they've revealed the ugly, ugly other Simpsons Season Set Designs. So, that's how they're going to do Marge -- poorly.
Urgh. Someone needs to smack Fox upside the head. This is such a poor idea.
If they had made the Marge one about double the length of the rest, I'd have had to disagree with you. :D But as is- yeah, bad idea.
Also -- apparently, reports are coming in that Fox is including a note that lets you call in for an original-style Simpsons Season 6 Box if you hate the Homer Head. Which is cool, but from the leaked note, it's really snide wording -- For all those that fear change...and for those anal-retentive nerds who like their DVD boxes to line up perfectly on the shelf...and for all those who dislike storing their digital media inside a hollowed-out human head, have we got a deal for you: Just call [1-800 #] for a very derivative, old-style, just-like-before box with almost nothing new or creative to annoy or terrify you. Enjoy!
Which basically kind of cheeses me off, just because it seems to capture that sort of "Well, FINE, apparently everyone hates this, so we'd better provide an alternative... but we're not HAPPY about people hating our stupid idea!"
(At least it's not like the whole The Simpsons Versus alt.tv.simpsons thing that led to some of the worst episodes ever -- like Saddlesore Galactica, say. Where instead of "FINE, let the baby have his bottle!" they were all "Hey, who knows about the show? We obviously do because we write for it, even though certain writers[1] talk about how they'd never bothered to watch it until being hired on, but still! Anyway, here's another episode about how we're running out of ideas[2] and also hate the people who say it sucks now! Here's Comic Book Guy to make fun of all you who actually care about this show!". Still though, it almost makes me want to just distribute the 1-800 number once I get the set to just get people to get empty set cases. But that would be petty, so I won't. But their tone is still irritating.)
[1] Ian Maxtone-Graham. Yes, I have thought waay too much about this, why do you ask?
[2] Oddly enough, when Al Jean took the show back over from Mike Scully and got back the Futurama writers, they actually started having real stories again. I guess the show wasn't actually entirely tapped out after all... Though if I had my druthers, I would have rather seen The Simpsons killed and Futurama continued, and I say this as a person that for the longest time, The Simpsons was my favorite show.
Heh, this makes it sounds that Fox is getting innundated with calls about getting a new box instead of the stupid Homer Head. Mwomp mwomp!
Post a Comment
<< Home