Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The Men in My Life: How We Met, What I Learned, Why We're Not Together Anymore

posted by Jenny @ 1:01 PM 0 comments

Why (and When) I Stopped Watching Television

Six weeks ago a friend gave me a story called, "xxxxxx" by Anne Niffenegger, a Chicago-based writer/artist who has a vivid and fertile imagination. I Googled Anne's name to find out more about her and discovered an interview she gave several years ago through BookSlut, an xxxxx. The interviewer asked Anne how she became so prolific and wildly imaginative and Anne said she could tell her in six words. The interviewer, of course, asked what those six words might be. Anne said, "I do not own a television." This was her answer and -- as it happens now and then -- the proverbial lightbulb flashed very brightly. I thought, "Gee, this means that if she did own a TV and she watched it (say, as much as I do) maybe the story of Jakob's angels might not have been written. Maybe all of the wonderful collage and print work she's done would only be a maybe-dream." Then I thought, "I wonder what I can accomplish if I stopped watching television." So I kept the TV off for a weekend. Sunday morning was the toughest because I've been hooked on CBS Sunday Morning off and on for 20 years. But I remember reading about Phoenix's classical music station KBAQ ~ 89.5 that featured a program called "Sunday Baroque," on from 9:00 'til 12:00. I found the new sounds refreshing (new to me, old to the world) and I discovered that I could read, or blog, or just sit and stare outside and feel, well...a lot different than when I watched TV. The last TV show I saw five weeks ago was an early-on episode of "So You Think You Can Dance!" I liked last years host, Lisa Sanchez. She was sultry, articulate, even mesmerizing. She seemed sure of what she was doing and it showed. And, as it turns, boy, can SHE dance, as she showed in the final episode of the program. But this years host is a blonde Brit who left me cold. Although her accent was not fake, it sounded it. And when she would say, "Welcome back to Los Angeles, she pronounced 'Angeles' like 'Angaleez." So pretentious. I also noticed, after just a few days absence, how intrusive the commercials were, "We'll announce our winner...after these announcements." Who wants to live "on hold," stopping and starting your attention button a dozen times or more an hour? Not me. And what stood out especially was the violence in many of the TV programs. "24" for instance. Just normal looking people trying to get a job done but using guns, bombs, bad language, and back-stabbing. No thanks, not for me. So, thanks, Anne, for giving that interview to BookSlut and for answering the well-phrased question as you did.

posted by Jenny @ 7:18 AM 0 comments