Skip to main content

T.V. Eye

When I got a place of my own in Dallas back in 2002, I didn't get cable TV for one primary reason: to save money. Whatever I would've spent on it each month would go towards books, CDs, DVDs and/or a high-speed Internet connection. Plus, the chances of me really liking the books, CDs and DVDs were much greater than the repeated viewings of the Creed Behind the Music episode.

Despite moving into a bigger place with a housemate in 2004, neither he nor I have seriously considered getting cable. Speaking for myself, I think my life is a lot better this way. I don't know if I will always feel this way, but it sure is nice to have options whenever I want to entertain myself.

For some reason, if I had cable, I'd feel obligated to watch it. I'd watch a lot of it, actually. I'm paying for it, so I should get my money's worth, right? Besides, I just can't channel-surf for a few minutes and turn the TV off. There's always something worth finding to watch, even if it's something as silly as Secretos: Houston. This can go on for hours and I wonder where the time goes. So not having the obligation to watch cable, I watch stuff on YouTube, read blogs/message boards, watch a DVD or read a book or magazine. It's pretty liberating.

(I still have a pair of rabbit ears on my TV. They barely pick up any channels, but the one channel that comes in crystal clear is ABC. That ensures the only show I actively watch gets taped every single week.)

Why I find this all so liberating is the reduction of exposure to crappy programming. I don't feel compelled to see how bad Jeeper's Creepers is. I don't feel compelled to see wall-to-wall coverage of the Anna Nicole case. I don't have to be bugged about this stuff because it's not coming through my TV. Of course, there are plenty of great programs to watch on Comedy Central, HBO, VH1 Classic, IFC, and Bravo, but the cost doesn't justify forking over all the dough to get all these channels.

Again, I find something much more worthwhile with reading books about the making of Star Wars or people talking about their jobs than watching another interior design show or a lame "reality" show. I can get something more out of watching a rented DVD than seeing the same movie in pan-and-scan with commercial interruptions. I want to be entertained just like everybody else, but I don't want to just settle with the TV to be my main form of entertainment. And this is coming from somebody who watched TV for most of his life.

Comments

Random Kath said…
I'm totally there with you. I'd love to get rid of the cable, but Mr. Random is one of those people who likes to watch mindless television to decompress. Knowing how busy he is with grad school and how much crap he has to deal with over the course of a day at work, I don't want to begrudge him that, but then I get sucked into viewing stuff along with him in the name of togetherness, all the while shouting "This is SO stupid!" - to which he replies calmly, "Yes. yes it is. That's why I'm watching it." The man will watch ANYTHING, although there are worse vices he could have . . .
1:06 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air...
4 comments
Read more

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five

Originally posted on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 : For some, Ben Folds Five was merely a one hit wonder. For others, the trio was a life-changer. Myself, I’m one of the latter. Being formally introduced with the “Battle of Who Could Care Less” video on 120 Minutes , I was very intrigued to know more about this piano-bass-drums combo. Once I heard Whatever and Ever Amen , I was hooked. As a matter of fact, out of all of my favorite bands, Ben Folds Five is one of the few that I liked right away and I have held the same kind of admiration ever since. Their three proper albums (and one b-sides collection) are staples in my record collection and they may very well be (or soon be) staples in your collection too. For a band that was once described as “punk rock for sissies,” you may realize how effortlessly these guys walked between fun, semi-goofy pop songs and some really deep and powerful stuff too. It helps that they had it right from the beginning and kept maturing. Ben Folds Five (1995) ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Politics Shmolitics

Yesterday, the more pleas I saw for people to go out and vote, the more uncomfortable I felt. Plenty of the blogs I hit up everyday said something along the lines of "Vote and if you don't, don't complain." Folks, this is why I find discussing politics so alienating. There are plenty of reasons why I don't discuss politics on here or in my everyday conversations. The biggest reason is because I don't have a lot of interest in politics in the first place. By what I've seen, heard and read for the last eight years, political debates are usually pissing contests. Judging by the views I've processed, it would be easy to think that we're all slowly going downhill either on the left, right or down the middle. Yet I don't think we're going totally downhill or totally uphill. Debating the direction we're going seems futile, especially when adults start screaming at each other like they're in grade school. To my ears, political debates are s...
11 comments
Read more