June 27, 2006
A week without TV.
If I'd done it on purpose, I could feel morally superior, but I find I've just stopped watching TV because nothing seems to be any good anymore. I wish something like would happen with food. It would be a cool diet.
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The Lost Civil Liberties Diet by Constitutional Law Professor Ann Althouse.
Congrats on your TV weaning. Get a performance art permit from Madison and then shove that thing out your window. Blog about it.
Tune to WXXM-FM 92.1 FM.
See, I find that morally superior attitude duller than "Hell's Kitchen."
Verification word: catzee. My mental state after being bitten by a cat.
Treasure Hunters on NBC is OK. Tune in just to be amazed at how stupid and ignorant the Wild Hanlons appear to be.
You're right. Enjoy your bread and circuses.
There was a time when I found myself talking about Buffy, Chandler, and Josh & Donna as if they were intimates. My husband found this amusing/satisfying. That alone sent me into reform. I now watch TV as an afterthought rather than as a task on my To-Do list. Not having cable or TiVo helps, likewise the series finales and the sludge left in their wake.
An unseen result of my less-TV-is-good-TV switch was the cascade effect I enjoyed. I started meditating more. Became more focused overall. Stopped doing perfection-prone housework. And I started fasting one day a week -- from food that is. (your diet-dreams can come true, too) Today, my skin looks 10 years younger (non-scientific). Ergo, lots to be said for less TV around here!
Tune in just to be amazed at how stupid and ignorant the Wild Hanlons appear to be.
Pay attention Gahrie! Constitutional Law Professor and Culture Vulture Ann Althouse is not, I repeat not, into moral superiority!
I agree. Even hgtv and foodtv don't thrill anymore. The weirdest, and thankfully most quickly canceled, summer replacement was the "reality" show about the couples in Arizona. After episode 1 I decided they were acting for the camera. Worse, they were planning a key party, ala Ice Storm, so I never watched it again. Yuck.
Good for you. You've got to catch up on your old-movie watching.
I just rented "His Gal Friday" (1938) with Rosalind Russell and the very dashing Cary Grant. The madcap adventures of two ex-spouses who share a frenetic newsroom.
Next up: 1930s "It Happened One Night" with Clark Gable. And, that's Frank Capra...who I adore!
Remember when, in Summer, all that was on TV was these old old old movies?
Fun stuff!
Peace, Maxine
Yes, there isn't much worth watching on television. Once the summer vegetables start coming in you can feast on them and probably shed a few pounds. Garden-fresh sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and green peppers with some olive oil, red vinegar, garlic, soy, salt, pepper, basil and just a tiny pinch of ginger - YUM YUM
only show I find myself oddly entertained by these days is Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel.
I think it's the mix of humor, frustration, and exposure to worlds entirely different than my own.
I've always enjoyed summer as a time when TV doesn't matter so much to me. Time for reading, preparing classes for the fall, traveling...it's not about moral satisfaction, just a change in life rhythm. But once fall comes, I'm in for the season.
So, and I'm embarrassed to admit this, when we evacuated our home in advance of Katrina, we packed one of our Tivos. I evacuated my Tivo. Jeez. Then we spent three months in a cabin in Massachusetts, with no TV reception. We'd hoped we could get satellite, then realizing that the costs were ridiculous. After that initial period, we enjoyed the quiet nights and an occasional DVD rental. It was good to find out that as much as I enjoy TV, it's just another thing. It comes and goes.
Elizabeth: Yeah, with my summer free-form schedule and the long sunlight, I find I don't have that time period at night when I really feel like watching an hour or two of television. I have more time, but more time seems to melt away. It's uncanny.
JC, I heard there was a good program on TV about living with Tourette's.
There's also some good "how to" sites on suicide, right on the net, JC. You won't have to sully yourself with tv.
Maxine, I'm with you, leave the set on TCM (try to forget Ted Turner), and every once in awhile, the best Hollywood ever will pop out in 40s & 50s B&W.
"Dirty Jobs" is a hoot, too.
About five/six years ago,our family chucked the TV. We were all addicts--glazed-eyed, zoned-out stoners on the couch. But the flat screen TVs called to me. So beautiful. So....flat. I bought one for my husband for his birthday. Still haven't got cable yet, but it's coming soon.
Must say, though, that I'm broke of the TV habit. No Oprah. Intentional TV viewing now. I've replaced the addiction with food and the Internet. So I'm fatter, smarter and morally superior.
Ann, I wonder if there's a language that accounts for that time slippage in its grammar? Or maybe one of those German words to accomodate that particular summer phenomenon wherein the more unstructured time one has, the more time melts, or folds in on itself.
Sommerzeitstrukturverkleinerungerklären (it's a verb that explains the phenomenon)
Elizabeth: Did you ever get a replacement iPod? Haven't heard an update, in months. And I'm worried about your iPod-less-ness.
Ricardo, what a spelling bee showstopper that would be. Can you use it in a sentence, please?
Thanks for thinking of my podlessness. I am still on hold. I want the 60 gb model, as I have a lot of music, so that means waiting until I don't feel guilty about spending the bucks; there are other priorities these days.
Losing the iPod has changed my daily life. I'm past mourning it, and whining about it, and I think once I'm hooked back up, I'll be enjoying music more deeply than ever. I confirmed that my music was backed up on a spare hard drive, so that alleviated the worst of my worries. I just keep wanting to hear the good stuff while I drive. Someone mentioned "Tomorrow Never Knows" on a thread in this blog this week. Oh, that sounds great in my car--I have a real nice system installed. I'm looking forward to The Harder They Come soundtrack, and Laura Nyro and LaBelle's "Gonna Take a Miracle." Soon! Very soon!
Ann: I'm pretty sure you'll be tuning in to Bravo on July 12. That's when the new season of "Project Runway" starts.
Matt: Definitely!
Laura Nyro and LaBelle's "Gonna Take a Miracle."
great album
Elizabeth:
I'll use the noun form:
Warum ist es dieses, obwohl ich soviel Zeit habe, es scheint, dass ich so wenig habe? Wie kann ich diese Sommerzeitstrukturverkleinerung erklären? (Oh, maybe you wanted me to use it in an English sentence?)
Of course, it's not a real word. But you wanted a compound German word, so I gave you a compound German word. :)
Again, I'm still sorry about your iPod. (In a way, your comments remind me of an old girlfriend ... you don't truly appreciate what you have, until it's/she's gone.) If you ever accept donations for your new iPod, count me in. I still chuckle, when I think about your blog. It's cute.
Ann: The next edition of Big Brother, and also Rock Star Supernova, begin next week. Both are eminently bloggable, if they suit your taste.
I've never been able to watch "Big Brother." Tried, first season. Ditto "Survivor."
Ricardo, you're sweet. Thanks! Maybe I'll update that blog soon.
knoxgirl, I knew we'd agree on something, eventually. That is a wonderful album. I hadn't understood just how deep the talent goes in LaBelle until I first heard that one back in the mid 80s.
Ricardo, LOL! Of course words like that are much less droll when sweating through German exams in grad school....
About no TV: It's curious, but our family, especially the kids (ages 10 and 12) have stopped watching television almost entirely. It's mostly due to everyone being so busy. For the kids, there're sports, there's music practice, there's chess and other games, there's homework, there's (strictly limited) time on the GameCube, there's (heavily supervised) time on the Web, there're chores, there's playing with friends, and, of course, there's reading. Who has time for television when, as my 12-year-old says, the shows are all so stupid and there's much more fun stuff to do? He goes outside and throws a baseball at a pitchback rather than watch TV.
This is a very unexpected situation. I thought everyone would be glued to the tube for ever after, but it seems we may be entering a post-TV world where there people get up and actually do things. As elizabeth says, it's just another thing, it comes and goes, and in our family, at least, it's mostly gone.
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