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9/24/21 | 36/52
We've had quite a bit of rain this week as well as some pleasantly cool weather. I think I sleep better with a cold wind whispering through an open window and when I wake, I wake rested and ready to make the most of this beautiful day.
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it's a bart thing you wouldn't understand
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"Do The Bartman" was written on the bathroom wall at an empandas spot we ate at on Friday before the rainy Dead and Company show. I used to be a Simpsons fanatic having watched the shorts on Tracey Ullman, I remember the early slower dialogue, "Hey.......there........boooooy" and clunkier animation but I loved watching it evolve and add side characters, excellent stories and quotes. At some point I just stopped watching. Probably a season or two after the movie came out. I never felt compelled to go back and watch the newer ones that I missed. I'm sure they're fine but I think I've had my fill.
After seeing the "Bartman" bathroom graffiti I tried to remember what the actual dance was. Was it just some butt shaking? I don't recall but I do remember it being everywhere. I also remembered thousands and thousands of different bootleg shirts. Bart with dreads, Bart rapping, Bart smoking a bong, Bart playing basketball with dreads, nerdy Bart, black Bart, Mexican Bart, actually Barts of every color, ethnicity, background and occupation. These cheaply made T-shirts could be bought at flea markets and county fairs and boardwalks. Over time the screen prints would fade and ghost away.
This was also the era of Bugs Bunny and Taz printed on enormous oversize shirts dressed in a Kriss Kross style with heavy chains and Cross Colours jeans. Do kids growing up today still watch Bugs Bunny cartoons? I guess there is Space Jam but are they watching the Roadrunner blow up Wily E Coyote with TNT? I remember watching some of those old Warner Brothers cartoons and being confused by the appearance of a cartoon Humphrey Bogart or a caricatured Jimmy Cagney. I think I just accepted them as weird cartoon people not understanding their standing as early Hollywood royalty. I guess kids today would do the same.
I also remember an endless series of, "It's a ____ thing you wouldn't understand," shirts. Some of these are accurate. I can try but I will probably never fully understand a "black thing," or a "greek thing." I didn't grow up with those experiences. Others were just confusing. What is it about a "jeep thing," or a "volleyball thing," that I'm not able to comprehend. What are those things!
The other bootleg staples I remember were Malcom X "X" hats when the movie came out and cassette tapes of new music. Although I thought the movie was outstanding I never bought a hat. The tapes, on the other hand, were purchased and worn out in Alpine car stereos. I remember Das EFX, EPMD and the Fu-shinkens getting heavy play.
I don't know if there is still a business for bootlegs in 2021. Personally I haven't been to a fair or flea market in years. Maybe the minions have replaced Bart. Maybe it's Marvel Characters. Hopefully it's Baby Yoda. I do know part of that business was diverted into streetwear and mainstream collaborations. I assume Supreme has put out $50 "do the Bartman" shirts and people happily lined up to buy them.
A while back I had two bootleg ideas to make my fortune. The first was a shirt that reads "STUART SAYS RELAX," a play off of the shirts popularized by the band Frankie Goes to Hollywood with my cat's name swapped in. OK maybe that wouldn't sell that well and it would also involve a lot of explaining about who Stuart is. My second idea was to bootleg the iconic weed leaf hats that were featured prominently in the "Nuthin but a G Thang" video. When that came out those were the coolest and I think there's a nostalgia market for those. If both of those fail maybe I can make a shirt with a poor quality drawing of Bart Simpson screening t-shirts that reads, "It's a bootleg thing, you wouldn't understand."
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This weeks friend is not an animal but still a lifelong friend and that is Sharpie Markers. Just the smell is enough to get me excited about drawing. They've also become interchangeable with "black marker." If you ask some one to grab you a Sharpie they know what you mean. I've been working on some projects that require cardboard to be blacked out so I've been running them dry. For some reason I can't throw them out and when I go to use one I have to cycle through all the beat ones until I find a marker with some life.
It looks like I have drawn all of my friends pets so this section will probably change or fade away in the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you would like your best animal associate to be featured email me 3 pictures of them and I will do my best to try and capture their essence.
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I've got a couple things to announce during October and one of them involves the holidays. Get excited!
If you ever miss an email or you see that it's Friday and no email has been delivered, you can always check out the archive link on the Serial Dispatch instagram. If you know anyone who might enjoy this weekly special delivery send them in that direction so they can see if they'd like to join the list. Let's make it happen.
Solid,
Tim
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