This Unreal Estate serigraph series by Austin-based artist Tim Doyle takes you to Moe’s, the Seinfeld diner and all other “locations” you’ve been going to for decades, but not really. Or yes, really. Don’t pretend that these works with their bold hues and heavy, comic-book lines don’t conjure up a chummy feeling of familiarity. “These places are in our memories transmitted and entrenched there through a cathode-ray tube,” from the time you zombied out in front of your parents’ rickety television circa Simpsons’ first season, to the time you… zombied out in front of your Megaupload stream of the Simpsons’ fifteenth season. Ah, life, huh? “Unreal Estate,” Tim Doyle, Feb 2 – Feb 23, Spoke Art Gallery, San Francisco.

The primary six actors (who play dozens of characters) raking in $8 million a year didn’t want to see their earnings shrink to $4 million, so they bargained to accept a 35% pay cut instead, if they get a small percentage of those sweet merch billions that creators Brooks and Groening are allowed to suckle at. FOX said nope. It’s 45% or 100%. The actors and the studio (who have repeatedly threatened to replace the cast with sound-alikes throughout the years) are in a negotiating impasse which could effectively mean the end to the longest running prime time TV series.

Now, despite of what we think about the diminishing quality of the series, looking back at these “FOX News is #1 With Racists” gags, don’t they somehow look a lot ballsier than they did in 2010? What’s changed?

Anyway, enjoy the Ren & Stimpy-esque couch gag. Make those good memories last.

Pretty humorless evil revealing gesture there, Fox. Who’re the “pinheads” now?

So, if you want to see a talking GI Joe suggest an attack on a holy day and go ooooooh, maybe you don’t want to stream it here and give them ad money. Maybe you want to Google it up elsewhere instead.

Street art’s most successful artist, Banksy, created the opening sequence for last night’s episode of the The Simpsons. The extended intro shows a slightly vandalized Springfield followed by a descent into the dark world of consumer culture where teams of laborers work in unison to create merchandise. Wait, is he critiquing Fox or himself?

UPDATE: 20th Century Fox pulled the intro Banksy uploaded to his YouTube channel. We replaced with a Vimeo version.

Also, can someone explain where the British press got an image of Bart Simpson wearing a bandanna? It doesn’t appear in the clip. Reports the Guardian:

The minute-long opening sequence begins almost as usual, but with Banksy’s tag being sprayed across Springfield monuments, and a masked Bart writing “I must not write all over the walls” over the walls of his schoolroom.

The English village of Dunchurch recently awoke one morning to find one of their historic statues transformed into Homer Simpson. The cartoon caper is the latest in a 40-year tradition of Christmas vandalism that’s seen the the 19th century figure of Lord John Scott turned into Harry Potter, Shrek and Spiderman.

Town residents have apparently had little luck catching the culprits, and it that’s not likely to change, even with their dubious claims that “they’d mostly like to find those responsible to congratulate them on the level of detail they achieved.” |Metro|

Photo by amandabhslater

Hey remember Playboy?! I used to subscribe to that mag and honestly don’t think I’ve picked up an issue in the last 10 years. And hey remember The Simpsons?! I used to watch that show but don’t think I’ve watched a full episode in the last 10 years. With that said, these two American cultural institutions have finally found each other and Playboy may finally publish an issue that nobody jerks off to the cover model. |Videogum|

To announce that Africa’s digital satellite TV service DStv now offers The Simpsons on channel Bué in Angola, ad agency Executive Center in Luanda, Angola decided to, uh, re-culturize America’s most famous TV family. For comparison purposes, here’s the original shot. This Simpson’s aficionado has several questions. What’s with the huge honkin’ speakers? What strange brew is Homer drinking? Was this illustration cleared by Matt Groening/Fox lawyers? My favorite details are the cool threads on Homie and Marge, and the replacement of the shitty sailboat painting (which inspired Marge’s romance novel) by a Serengeti elephant scene. |Image: AdsOfTheWorld|