One of the things I like doing when I have a weekday off - or a sick day - is catching up on one or two of the soap operas I loved as a teenager. And late Monday morning, right on cue, I realized I'd missioned myself right out of my soaps. Eek --- no Newman family Memorial Day barbecue on Y&R! No picnic and fireworks amid mob shootouts in the park on GH! Am I actually going to have to start living my own life? I clung to my vintage radio programs like a lifeline on Monday.
Day Six
I've become accustomed to ironing with American Idol. It's one of those chores that really goes well with television. I'm listening to some music instead tonight. Right now, a May 27, 1936 episode of "Your Hit Parade" is playing. It was the Top 40 of its day. They only featured 15 songs per show, but the songs were covered live by their house orchestra and vocalists. You know, ironing to music isn't half bad. I think I'm actually working a little more quickly. Maybe I'll have to add some more musical programs to my collection...
After announcing my mission last Thursday, I've had to make some additional decisions about what I meant exactly by "no TV." After all, TV is available online now - sometimes in full episodes, sometimes in clips. You can see TV on DVDs, too. I gave it some thought and decided that none of the above would be okay during these seven weeks. Also, no movies on DVD. If I want to see a movie, I've got to get up and leave the house to go see it in a theater. Or watch something with a group of friends. If I'm going to treat myself to a movie, it's got to be something I get out there and exert some energy in order to see.
There's always been a little something off to me about shutting myself up in my home and privately consuming entertainment. And yet that's the outcome of the story of entertainment during the last century. Once upon a time, people went out to vaudeville shows or community theatricals of some sort - maybe a dance at the local Grange hall - to break up the workaday routine. As radio came in and the record industry boomed, they began retreating a bit more to their homes. Hosting parties for friends of their own choosing. Even when television began being broadcast, people would watch it in roadhouses or have viewing parties at home. They still enjoyed being entertained in the company of others. While we haven't closed ourselves off from the world entirely, I know plenty of folks who don't even watch TV or movies with other family members. Couples who share the same Netflix account, but rarely watch the movies together. Our music is wired directly into our earbuds, movies downloaded right to our computer screens, and we can program right through whatever commercials or slow-moving storylines might have interrupted our favorite TV programs and watch a whole day's worth of favorite programs in no time flat.
I'm vastly over-generalizing here, I know - and heaven knows what a boon my iPod has been to me, especially while walking - but there's something very antisocial in the way we keep ourselves entertained in 2009. We can target very precisely the things we want to watch or listen to, but is that quite as good a deal as it sounds? Are we missing out on anything? Maybe in hearing or seeing the reactions of others. Or in discovering something randomly wonderful that we'd never have picked out for ourselves... Just some of the things I'm finding PLENTY of time to think about these days! I'd be interested to know what y'all think. Will unplugging the TV force me out of this cocoon to seek the real thing?
11 comments:
Wow, the change in the furniture arrangement in that room is very telling! I don't have a t.v. Although I do have a version of netflix and I do watch some things online. Most of the time, I survive just fine!
Are you allowing Internet Radio? Better than anything on TV: "This American Life" is on National Public Radio pretty much everywhere and also on Internet. It's hard to describe and it is not always funny, but it is very interesting.
Also, BBC radio is not just one station, it is SEVEN. BBC 1 and 2 are pretty much like any obnoxious Top 40 radio station here, but BBC 3 specializes in classical, jazz and informational programming. BBC4 has serials and BBC 7 has many more serials. They do a lot of plays and documentaries. The Afternoon Play is usually pretty good. There is a serial called "The Archers" which is a radio soap opera about a small rural British town. I think it has been running for about 30 years but you can pick up the thread of it easily. There is a Food Programme and many programs reviewing books and interviewing authors. There are concerts. It is a lot of great stuff! The main BBC homepage is about BBC television, so you have to click through to get to BBC Radio, channels 1 through 7.
I think it's funny that they're so dressed up for this "entertainment."
I think our society barely dresses up for ANYTHING now.
I think it's wonderful that you are doing this. We do spend way to much time on the couch just watching tv in a world of our own.
I often wonder what teh people did all night before tv. I do think they all went to bed much eariler then we do now a days.
Hugs,
Joanne
When faced with a choice of spending precious life-time either watching something (on a screen) or actually doing something, that doing something is the better choice.
First congradulations on the pounds lost. I'd be dancing too but too much late eating since I get home late from work.
Hang in there on the tv thing your doing great. What about scrap booking your photos or some other project you never have time for? I think the radio thing is great. Although I have tv I often do not sit in front of it but move about doing house work and just listening. Must have been from my childhood of radio days.
I know at first no tv is like having withdrawl. It may take a while but I know you can do it! We are all rooting for you! I have family to talk to but as you are alone I know it is harder.
It is a shame that the people in the picture are eating in front of the tv also. I guess this is how all the bad habits started. The couch potato syndrome.
The thing that makes me smile in that picture is how stylin' everybody is. Like Roxanne says, they're so dressed up to watch a TV program together! Yes, we see some proto-TV dinners at work there, but it's neat to see people still enjoying television as a group. The only time you probably see that kind of thing these days is on Superbowl Sunday.
prairieknitter01, I'd be all over internet radio if I actually had broadband. Alas, I'm one of the accursed remained few with dial-up! I do love "This American Life" when I catch it on the weekends. What a great program.
Joanne, here's how I picture '40s evenings at home (who knows if it's actually anywhere near the truth!): Mother, Dad, and the family are most all in the living room. Mother's knitting or catching up on some mending, Dad's reading a newspaper and smoking, the kids are reading books or listening to records or playing a game. Everybody listens up as the radio is turned on for a favorite family program...
Maggie, I'm in complete agreement.
Jeanne, I like your suggestion about getting at some of the projects I've had hanging about for a long time. It'd be great to clean up that to-do list!
We've cut out TV from our lives too and while it was hard to get used to at first, I find we rarely even look at the thing anymore. We automatically do a project, read or listen to the radio. I much prefer listing to my OTR or the radio as "frees" me to be active while being entertained. I can wash dishes, knit, sew, play with the cat, whatever. Good luck and keep the detox up! You'll find it easier as the days go by.
There is an episode of "Friends" where the groups heads to the Caribbean, and Joey thinks he's been spotted by a loyal "Days of Our Lives" fan. Turns out, she was there to see Ross give a paleontological speech and admitted she didn't own a TV. Joey looks at her in shock and says, “No TV?! What’s all your furniture pointed at?”
Sigh. Too bad they don’t do the old shut off during dinner time like they used to!
I remember that episode! It is funny how so many living rooms entirely arranged around the TV, while decorators are always trying to get people not to do that. Hey, maybe this'll be something I can work into my own living room redesign at some point!
Kathy, thanks for the light at the end of the tunnel... The last two evenings have been very interesting. More later.
I grew up in a house with no TV; I should say, we did own a tv but it was rarely turned on. I married a man who grew up in a house where the tv ran 24/7. It's been a tough adjustment.
Post a Comment