20th Century Fox is putting to a vote which Springfield in the United States should host the premiere of The Simpsons Movie. Each five-minute film produced by the cities to show their links to the Simpsons’s fictional hometown is online- watch and vote for your favorite. I haven’t seen them all, but Oregon’s and Massachusetts’s are the best so far. Florida’s is by far the worst.
Also, 12 cities with 7-Eleven stores have had them converted into Kwik-E-Marts. Looking on Flickr, I see a lot of funny signage and decor- Frostillicus is in the freezer, the ATMs are now run by the First Bank of Springfield (“Misplacing decimal points since 194.5. $2.00 sign-reading fee.”), various specials are on display (“buy 3 for the price of 3!”) and products “back by popular indifference” include Squishees, Buzz Cola, Krusty-Os cereal (“the best you can expect from a TV clown”) with Krusty’s nutrition guarantee (“I guarantee I was paid to say this stuff is nutritious!”), and pink frosted donuts (“Go ahead! They aren’t don’t-nuts!”). And remember- “all items guaranteed fresh or your money begrudgingly refunded.” Thank you, come again!
Anybody been to one yet? There’s one in Times Square, and I plan to visit after I get off work this evening. I should have gone on my lunch break.
DC’s is curiously in a rather sketchy area in MD, but within the beltway. It’s in Bladensburg, in an area with a median between the north and south lanes, poor parking, a large lower-class immigrant population, and not much opportunity for foot traffic. I could name any number of DC area spots where a 7-11 is directly adjacent to Metrorail lines, as well as with decent parking. I usually drive through Kenilworth as quickly as possible.
But tomorrow, I’m stopping for some Buzz Cola and Krusty-O’s, maybe a Squishee if it’s a hot day. Looks like it’s a blue vanilla flavor. Shame they didn’t go with classic “Red.”
Here’s a Post article on the Bladensburg Kwik-e-mart. Ironically it’s clientele of mostly recently arrived hispanic immigrants seems to have little idea who the Simpsons are.
Well, that explains why it was chosen. But really, no advance team went out to the store and said “this doesn’t look like the right demo”?
ETA: Come to think of it, a lot of DC area 7-11s are meeting places for day laborers, so maybe it’s not that remarkable that this wasn’t seen as an iffy location…
I thought Tennessee’s was great! 
I see that the Burbank Kwik-E-Mart has some original sketches that were custom-made by the Simpsons artists. Nice touch, seeing as the show is done in LA.
I think that the fact they are having the competition goes further to prove Springfield never was meant to be one town in the USA.
I haven’t seen them yet (waiting until I have something other than dial-up to try), but for what it’s worth, the Springfield, Illinois newspaper’s Arts & Entertainment editor/critic rates Springfield, Illinois’s video 6th in quality; Michigan’s is his favorite. (Cite here, about halfway down the page)