As I walked out the door this morning, something told me to go back inside and grab my camera. I used to carry it with me at all times, and the fact that I've fallen off that wagon has bit me on the ass far too often lately. I wasn't sure why the imps that live inside me created such a sense of camera-urgency today, but once I got near my building, it all made sense: The biggest Mountain Dew party in the history of Mountain Dew parties.
The reason for the celebration? The new “tuned up taste” of Diet Mountain Dew, a brand that evidently was not championed by many and has existed for years as-was despite clear indications that it needed to be reformulated. Friends, the day has come. Diet Mountain Dew has been reformulated. How? No idea. I've never had original Diet Mountain Dew. I've never had a passing interest in trying Diet Mountain Dew. Still, if anything could inspire me to change my soda style, it's the sight of Dew-drenched snowboarders gliding down a 40’ hill of snow in the middle of Times Square.
The first sign that things were not normal was the group of happy folks in green sweatshirts handing out cans of Diet Mountain Dew. Sample-givers are a Times Square morning staple, but as I gleefully pocketed two cans and brought my attention back to Mr. Cigarette...there it was. A construction shaped like a gigantic arcade basketball hoop game, covered with snow and Dew signage, and overflowing with snowboarders who knew how to take it to the extreme. It's bad form to look like a tourist in front of potential coworkers, but there was no way I wasn't going to photograph this.
It went deeper than that. Giant signs! Dew-adorned race cars! Inflatable Diet Mountain Dew cans as tall as houses! It's likely that a good 60 billion cans of Diet Mountain Dew were passed out to willing samplers, and even by late afternoon, the festivities were still rolling along. All in the name of a (revised) soda. The crowd absolutely ate it up, so much so that I swear on Christ's soul that I heard an audible "DEW, DEW, DEW" chant as I walked to the bus after work.
Aside from all that, today was been pretty boring. I wish sodas threw parties outside my building everyday.
And as for the drink? Bleh.
Posted by Matt on 03/08/2006. E-mail me!
Chestnuts roasted by 
I just don’t like a pile-on, kidney, and I also feel like it’s important to be nice to newbies, if only out of respect for Matt.
We all have plenty of topics and posters that irritate the shit out of us. It’s really hard to resist the snarkiness and nobody can be perfect but I think people should try to go the extra mile.