The #NotAMovie Challenge
To Cleaver by Half. Gerunding Gerald. The Girl With the Unfortunate Toes. Tweet us an imaginary movie title and you might inspire a new They Might Be Giants song.
Logo by Derreck Johnson/Slate.
Listen to the Contest Announced on The Gist:
It’s finally time for The Gist’s #NotAMovie Challenge! They Might Be Giants and The Gist need your help with naming one of the band’s upcoming Dial-a-Song releases.
In a reboot of its famous “Dial-a-Song” project, TMBG will produce no fewer than 52 songs in 2015, and each song will debut on The Gist.
They Might Be Giants have always aspired to write movie themes, so they’ve asked Mike Pesca to enlist listeners to help with a demo. Mike wants you to tweet us evocative titles to movies that haven’t been made yet. For inspiration, look at other open-ended TMBG song titles like “Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said That We Had a Deal,” “Birdhouse in Your Soul” and “Madam, I Challenge You to a Duel.” For example, Pesca’s suggestion “To Cleaver by Half” is already a favorite here at Slate and with the band.
From now until April 6, tweet titles of imaginary movies to @slategist using the hashtag #NotAMovie. TMBG will join us to review the entries—and return in a month or so to debut the theme song to this imaginary movie.
So get tweeting your titles like “The Archipelago of Envy.” “Gerunding Gerald.” “The Meyer Approximation.“ “Da Swagga Thief,” “Your Secret Uncle,” “The Aforementioned,” “Sweetie, I’ve Subtweeted the Youngins,” “Wonton Desires,” “Unscrupulous Comportment,” “The Chronicles of Houston,” “Trigger Warning” ... we seriously can’t stop coming up with these.