I went to the gym at lunch and had a choice of three TVs to tune into. I chose the one showing reruns of Law & Order: SVU over the two showing sports talk shows. I have never watched an episode of Law & Order of any kind. I am now very grateful for that. I know I can be a terrible snob, but seriously? This is what passes for quality television programming on the networks? It is unfathomable to me that such mindless, derivative, predictable dreck has ruled the airwaves for all these years. I have never been a fan of crime procedurals because they are predictable by definition; after all, they are about following procedure, right? But I was honestly shocked at how lame the dialogue was, how stereotypical the characters are, and how little nuance there was to the plot. Now that Breaking Bad has retired to the meth lab in the sky, I have been seriously contemplating canceling my cable altogether because other than sports, I don’t watch any shows (I do like The Walking Dead, which starts again soon, but I can live without it). I know there is good television out there but I don’t want to make the commitment. My stack of unread books just keeps getting higher, there are papers to grade, lectures to write, research articles to outline, crafts to make, friends to hang out with… I just don’t have time for television, and I think today’s shock just nudges me closer to cutting the cord.
Tag: Mini Rant
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Mini Rant: Overheated
Southern California is in the grip of the first real heatwave of the summer. It’s hot. It’s humid, by SoCal standards. There is a lot of thunderstorm activity in the mountains and deserts. I would be lying if I said the heat wasn’t a bit much, but I also happen to be one of those people who would prefer to be too hot over too cold so it’s not getting to me that much. However, I would also be lying if I said I wasn’t incredibly irritated by the constant exclamations and complaints over the heat. If I see one more ridiculously stupid “news” article referring to how San Diegans are escaping the heat (BREAKING NEWS: MALLS AND MOVIE THEATERS ARE AIR CONDITIONED!) I am going to snap and start sabotaging ACs. Yes, it’s hot, and we all know it (i.e., no social media pictures of car or patio thermometers needed). But boy does this bitching start to sound like a case of “My tiara is so heavy it’s giving me a headache.” We live in a country where most people have air conditioning or access to air conditioning. Heat is no longer life-threatening to the majority (although sadly, there are still heat-related deaths amongst impoverished people in the United States who have no AC and no easy access to cool places). Yes, heat sucks sometimes. It makes you sleepy. It makes getting outside and getting things done uncomfortable. But have some perspective, people! AC is a very new invention. Humans have adapted to and survived heat conditions worse than this for millennia. In most parts of the world, they still do.
Photo by Saurabh Das / AP
This photograph shows people in India in 2009 attempting to escape the 120° heat by sheltering under a bus. In May 2013, India had a heatwave that resulted in 500 heatstroke deaths in three days in the state of Hyderabad. I guess my point is that those of us who can escape the heat should have a little perspective before indulging in the constant carping about the temperature. I’m not saying we can’t acknowledge our own discomfort; I just want people to practice remembering how fortunate we are.
This post is a preface for a new series to come, in which I talk about what people want vs. what they need, and how the high level of confusion between the two has led the world to a pretty perilous state. Meanwhile, I’m going to make myself a frozen fruit smoothie and enjoy the 78° setting of my thermostat, and feel fortunate that I have access to such relief.
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Mini Rant: Opium of Irrelevance
I’m taking a yogurt break at work, and as I headed towards the fridge to get my snack I heard the downstairs lobby TV blaring with the latest irrelevant bit of nonsense from the Jodi Arias trial. If you’ve been following this blog you already know how I feel about this sort of thing being dressed up as real news. For whatever reason, though, today I felt incensed. For crying out loud, a bunch of people, including children, died yesterday in that huge tornado in Moore, Oklahoma. Syria is in the midst of a civil war where even more people are being injured, traumatized, killed. The US Justice Department is essentially staking out reporters and potentially threatening press freedom. We’ve now surpassed an atmospheric carbon load of 400 PPM – beyond the threshold where we can recover from the effects of climate change. And THIS is the day’s big news? I’m horrified, saddened, jaded, cynical. This is the bullshit – the irrelevant, completely pointless crap – that lulls people away from the real news. Jodi Arias should only be relevant to Jodi Arias, her family, the victim’s family, and the criminal justice system in Arizona. IT IS NOT NEWS. It is an opiate that keeps people sated and hallucinating that what they hear is relevant, and it makes me furious.
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Mini Rant: If A Phone Rings in the Woods
I saw a commercial today that normally would have set me off like a bomb, but I must be getting resigned because I just watched and sighed. It was for Verizon and featured a teenage boy, his dad, and the boy’s friend on a hike in the woods. The boy is schooling his dad on the use of his phone and explaining how he can still access the web even though they are in the wilderness. Meanwhile, the friend is taking video of the trees and sending it straight to his web page. In the back of my head I felt the vague urge to throw something at the TV, but inertia kept me slumped on the couch waiting to see which cell provider was responsible for this latest assault on our ability to indulge in an unplugged pursuit. I have to admit that I was less aggravated by Verizon’s ad than I am by the AT&T ads that tout “faster is better.” I know this is the world we live in now; I know the cell providers must compete with one another for our increasingly short attention spans; I know that I risk hypocrisy by ranting about media, TV, commercials, the internet, social media, et al when I use those technologies myself. Yet, I continue to be angered and saddened by what these things herald for the future. I find myself both attracted and repelled by tonight’s Oscar telecast blow-by-blow that I can read either on my friends’ Facebook feeds or on sites such as E! Online, or even on NPR of all places. And, I know that this new world of instant technological communicative semi-social gratification is not a harbinger of a complete societal breakdown; but I am sad for the quiet moments that seem to be losing ground. If a phone rings in the woods, no one should answer it.
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Mini Rant: FU, National Association of Realtors
There are many reasons I don’t watch much television, but one of the big ones is how infuriated I can get at commercials. Last night I saw one for the National Association of Realtors that made me want to put my fist through the TV. Over a picture of happy children throwing a ball, the commercial intones that “home ownership contributes to higher self-esteem and better test scores.” Hey, NAR? FUCK YOU. Don’t you think everybody would like to be able to own a home? Do you really think that you are stimulating epiphanies amongst people who are renting? ‘Cause yeah, sure, they’re renting because they want to, and not because they have to. And now, because of your commercial, they’re thinking “Oh yeah, I should totally buy a house so my kids will have better self-esteem and test scores.” This commercial absolutely infuriates me with its tone-deaf message and implicit criticism of those who are unable to afford home ownership. Of course home ownership improves feelings of self-worth and benefits educational outcomes – that’s because those who can afford to buy a home are generally already living in one of the upper tiers of the social and economic hierarchy. What a solipsistic, circular, insulting, and demeaning piece of BS.