Do what you want, I don't care.
Whatever makes you happy.
I've taken every drug going, but this is the only one I thought was really wasting my time and rotting my brain.
Saturday 22 December 2012
Fagburn: Free Xmas TV Guide!
Do what you want, I don't care.
Whatever makes you happy.
I've taken every drug going, but this is the only one I thought was really wasting my time and rotting my brain.
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There are some major similarities between the idiot box and the internet.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I can spend hours on the web monging out and really doing or learning nothing of value - going from site to site, page to page.
If I then switch the TV on and there's a good documentary I genuinely feel the gloom that's accumulated beginning to lift.
The same crap from the TV has long since bled into the web and constitutes a lot of what people read/watch still.
I've never liked the distinction between TV and cinema, which has gone on for decades - to the point where I used to hate British cinema as much of it seemed much much closer to our TV dramas/programmes than to "proper" US cinema, for instance.
Then some years ago a pretty good British film came out (a Shane Meadows film, I think) and some douche on Newsnight Review said that it wasn't cinema it was television, which really made me think: the only difference between the two mediums is size (of screen) and scope (TV serials, like Breaking Bad or The Wire, say, can explore the story to a far greater depth than any movie can). Therefore, both TV and cinema have their respective strengths and weaknesses.
And I think that saying a cinema film is actually a TV movie and shouldn't be at the cinema is probably nothing more than snobbery. A story which is filmed with a camera is just that - the distinction between TV and cinema is arbitrary and short-sighted.
My point is, TV is fine, the web is fine and cinema is fine and you can experience extraordinary things on all - but they're also full of the same sort of crap across all mediums.
There's a funny Brian Eno interview on Australian TELEVISION where he tells the interviewer/crew that he thinks TV is dead and on the way to becoming obsolete... he doesn't realise until he's well into full flow that he's talking to people whose livelihood depends on TV production, haha.
What I'm saying is, even though the vast majority of stuff on TV/interwebs/cinema/radio is bunk we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater, as it were.
Having said all that shite, I'm feeling a little low right now and probably agree with you all things considered.
I caught a bit of the Jeremy Kyle Show the other day and that is without doubt the worst, most immoral, frustrating and annoying shite that's ever been shown on TV and it's obviously popular.
Just like your point about gun laws and capitalism - though in a different, much less serious and tragic way, of course - I think the problem here is elsewhere. I DEFINITELY think one of the major causes of so much SHITE on TV is that it's driven by a capitalist mindset - look at how many shows are about middle class cooking or buying big (or second) homes etc - in the middle of a fucking recession.
And the lower classes, the disenfranchised, the people who are suffering from this turd-shower we're currently being shat on by is entirely ignored - unless it can be packaged into a short "issue" programme that almost certainly changes fuck all.
Maybe TV's always been shit, though...
Very good.
ReplyDeleteI hate TV cause it took too much of my time, which I then realised was a sign of me being robbed of my time - by being exhausted all the time by the man.
There is no answer to this...
PS I hope you're feeling weller.
ReplyDeleteIn an ideal world we'd have a day-time TV show and I could give you a big hug.
xxx
What are you talking about? The Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show is on tonight. Unmissable.
ReplyDelete