It’s that time of year again

Posted by Matt Cipriano | No Comments

Yes, it is finally ice cream season, you can tell by all of the ice cream trucks out and a bout and the constant jingles you hear emanating from them non-stop. I love Mister Softee’s vanilla ice cream with spinkles. That is my summer ice cream of choice.

Now I am torn here, not over a new favorite soft serve emerging, but about what specifically to write about. Either I can write about all the non-Mister Softee trucks out there working to rip off the one and only original? Or do I write about this mornings inspiration from the New York Times “Jangled by a Jingle, He Writes His Own.” I guess I can technically do both…

I am sure you’ve noticed them around the city, Ice Cream trucks in that familiar white, red and blue, a big ice cream cone decal on the side with the sounds of a music box pumping through a loud speaker as they drive down your block, kids running in tow (okay, maybe the kids aren’t there in the city, but you get the idea), you come up, expecting to see the familiar gaze of good ol’ Mister Softee staring back only to discover it is an imposter! Apparently last year Mister Softee spent over $120,000 in legal fees fighting battles in court about copyright infringement by all these fakers. That annoying jingle by the ice cream truck parked on the corner, playing hour-after-hour, not a Mister Softee, they only play theres when they are driving around. Mister Softee has been a New York institution since the first truck roled down the streets in 1956. So the next time you are going for soft serve out of the back of a truck, make sure it is Mister Softee staring back at you or just keep on moving. Oh, and if yo are looking for some summer employment, Mister Softee does has some openings.
“Jangled by the Jingle…” after the Jump.So, as I mention the New York Times has an article today called “Jangled by a Jingle, He Writes His Own.”

This is the story of Michael Hearst who started to lose it from hearing the music from ice cream trucks playing repeatedly outside his window for hours on end and took it upon himself to write up some new material on them. Some material he would want to hear as opposed to the tone deaf tunes played from the trucks (Mister Softee is exempt from this one as far as I am concern, obviously their theme song is a classic, the sheet music can be found for it here).

Mr. Hearst then created a sound studio in his bedroom and produced his own CD appropriately titled “Songs for Ice Cream Trucks.” Some samples can be downloaded from the website songforicecreamtrucks.com. The songs seem to fall into the ambient music realm (whcich I am a fan of), though I don’t necessarily see Mister Softee changing their tune any time soon (especially with the owner of Mister Softee having said “If you’re sitting in your home and you hear the Mister Softee theme outside, do you have any doubt of what it is? When you hear another song, do you have that same reaction?”)

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