G’day blogheads, hope you guys are happy, healthy and bursting with love. I for one am happy that I can put my socks and shoes on all by my self. It has been an interesting week and a half. As many of you might know when one does its back in, and I’m sure we all know how painful that can be and how demolishing it can be for one’s self esteem. Like losing by one point or having all the questions right except the last one and being told that if you had that one right you would have gone through to the next level.
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Being home bound or bed struck, or in any case not being able to do more than just rest and take painkillers, one might find one self resigned to the fact that there is always “telly “. This thing called ‘the box’ with its moving images, and clever speak by talking heads about matters that seem to matter seemingly to all of us that seem to take great interests in things that matter. I feel rather ‘mattered’ don’t you? We all know of course that what comes out of the box is of great value and above all is “the truth” for each and all of us but !!!!…..(Finger now pointing and shaking vigorously at innocent bystanders)… we could miss out on our daily valuable vitamins called ‘useless information’ if we don’t stay glued to the box.
So here I am, in bed, in pain, incredibly board and inundated with phone calls from friends and people who want to know how I’m doing. So the remote will help me find relieve, amazement and above all distraction. I must admit, on the box I’ve got in the bedroom I have not all of the channels. Mr. Cable has given me plenty in the lounge room but somehow the old spare TV is just a snag short of a barbeque and with only a hand full of stations one tries to keep entertained yet creative.
Not being a true blue watcher of ‘the box’ I was amazed at the shear value of the programs offered to me as a viewer. Had I not seen the program in its full, richness filled with valuable fullness and info, no problem, there was yet another chance for me to see it again. Wow!!
They would play me (the TV people I guess) the entire program again no worries. So, had I missed something important, the whole thing would fly by me again, and again if I would so desire, no extra charge. I didn’t even have to pay attention, you know, sometimes I would just dose off and wake up at the same spot hours later. Brilliant!
But then the effects of the painkillers would slightly diminish and I get somewhat grumpy and started to realize that this repeat mode on TV was happening on every station and every channel. Soon it dawned on me that I had no choice in what I wanted to watch. They tricked me in believing there was so much to choose from, yet the same segments and edits, the same commercials, especially them, the same emptiness was filling me up with absolutely nothing.
I felt stupid and contagious! (thank you Kurt Cobain)
Which brings us to something wacky and wonderful.
YOU wonderful TUBE!
How wonderful it is to be loved by you.
Now this has really saved me from going completely bonkers. Call me square-eyed Johnny. Maybe one could complain about the quality of pictures being “tubed out “, maybe one might have something to say about the sound not being what it should be, but you certainly can not get around the fact that you have choices. One can look up just about anything you want without being bullshitted to by beautiful looking (even that’s a matter of taste) dames, talking heads, sensational sounding teasers promising you the story of the decade only to find out they’ve shot their ammo already in the teasers and commercials.
No more “ we’ll be back right after this “, or “ more in a moment”.
I can’t believe people watching a movie that is half way through being interrupted by a completely different program with people talking a whole lot of nonsense about nonsense people in a nonsense world looking so incredibly involved, interested and sincere. Both programs they beam out have become events that have nothing to do with each other. They’re just fragments on the loose.
Yet we do feel quite happy to be camping out on the couch watching a James Bond movie being interrupted by a panel of geezers blabbing on about absolutely nothing at all.
Well if that’s entertainment I might as well be sitting in a tree shouting abuse to people passing by.
I stick to what I can find on YOU-TUBE. It’s hours of fun whether I want to watch old Beatle stuff or Not The Nine o’clock News series or the latest vids.
I get a lot of value out of finding new and unknown artists and if I don’t know where to look, plenty of my music students enlighten and inspire me with what they them selves have found.
And in that I do have a choice. Sure, just about anybody can put their stuff on the “innerned” but it is “ I “ who has the choice what to do with it. If I think its crap I’ll happily move on to the next thing, No commercials, no “ more after this” no more make believe no more feeding Mr. TV’s ego.
Just me and my laptop looking forward to be inspired, to be entertained, to be left alone just to be amazed by it all.
John Z