Dinkatty-dinkatty, Dink-da-dink, Da-dink, Da-dink, Daaah Dink-Dink!
Published by Alex April 12th, 2007 in Art, DIY, events. Share This
Many have lived for years in our own little bubbles of hate for the urban menace that is Mr. Softee. Every summer’s harbinger of loathing and malice is that rinky dinky ice cream truck with its endless high frequency droning, insipid ditty.
Yes, let’s be fair, it’s the tune we hate, not the truck itself, though the two are inseparable. One doesn’t encounter the truck without being assaulted by the Mr. Softee jingle…echoing down the boulevard, around corners, through alleyways, into the darkest recesses of your heart. The tune can penetrated your very dreams. There’s not a soul alive over 15 who doesn’t hold that jingle in utter contempt. For years we’ve referred to the bastard Mr. Softee as the neighborhood terrorist. I’ve even written the company hate mail.
Enter the like-minded but more motivated Jeffrey Lopez and Lauren Rosati, who have inaugurated a project they’ve called, “Ice Cream Headache”, and here’s where the people come in: You send an email to info@suite405.com with the subject line, “ICE”, and in return they send you an audio file of the original jingle; you are free to reinterpret it any which way you choose so long as it does not exceed five minutes in length. The deadline for submissions is April 30th.
Later, the duo will themselves be driving a Mr. Softee truck through each of the five boroughs, playing the audio samples and distributing CDs and free ice cream, finally ending in Williamsburg, where live performances of some sort will ensue.
As per the samples submitted, they note the following:
the noisier and muddier the better–this is a brain freeze after all.
Chime Spree [TimeOut.com]
Ice Cream Headache [suite405.com]
Mr. Softee drives me batshit crazy. There are no words to describe my utter contempt for that torturous jingle. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, Lopez and Rosati step in an allow jerks to remix the soundtrack to hell culminating in a party in Williamsburg (a place where the avg time lived in NYC less than 2 years.) This sounds about as fun as letting an autistic shave your balls with a straight razor.
I like Kool Man.
The jingle is “Do Your Balls Hang Low.”
I live across from a school with basketball courts that are always filled with kids in the Summer. The Mr. Softee truck just circles the block for hours. Last Summer I would find myself humming the song at work. Anyone have a spare RPG sitting around? I’m going to need it pretty soon.
You think that’s bad? My friend lived in a really shady part of South Baltimore when we were in college. The local ice cream truck didn’t play a song. It blasted a car alarm!!
I guess the only way to alert inner-city kids is to blare: “WOOOOOP WOOOOOOOP! WOOOOOOOOOP! NEEEEEERK NEEEEEERK NEEEEEERK NEEEEEEERK MEEEE MOW MEEEEEE MOW!”
*sighs* oh, the sounds of summer.
No lie:
As a kid, I used to hurl fruit from my apartment at the Softee driver. One time I came -this- close to planting him in the grill with an orange. He was kind of a dick. I guess my antics didn’t help, either.
Man, now I want one of those banana-fudge bon pops. Those things kick ass.
At our old place in Greenpoint, there was an ice cream truck that would drive around with a boombox in the window blasting top 40 pop songs. Not okay.