We Rethink Media
The last two shows I got excited about were The Mandalorian and Wandavision. Then my eyes glazed over and I caught episodes of things here and there. This weekend, I was given reprieves on a couple of deadlines because I ended up writing three obituaries for people young enough to be my kids. The last time I had to do this was almost every other week during the summer of my second year covering NHL.
I've never been good about appointment TV. What happens is I see enough of something to know I like it and then I binge it on disc much later on. Right now, it's watching parties and/or lone foraging through the strange outer shores of streaming. And comfortable. Maybe this is a function of being worn out by work and the brave new frontier that is daily life. Risk assessment was a "What if?" I engaged in when writing stories. Now it's something I engage in when deciding how to get groceries, renew my tags, take my mother for a ride, deliver art, and on and on.
My viewing habits are far less adventurous than they used to be. I want to be entertained and to see the comfortably familiar. Night Court is on IMDB as is the original Japanese Iron Chef. I will catch an episode of Crazy Delicious on Netflix because Jayde Adams and Carla Hall are so wonderful. Otherwise, it's the forbidden fruit of Channel Four via VPN and DVDs. Raves about Yellowstone and The Only Murders in the Building can wait and percolate for a year or two before I watch them.
"Do you still buy media?" Pia asked this while Zooming with me to get some recommendations for Mubi.
Yes, occasionally. I have more patience for looking through my library for what I want than flipping from streaming service to streaming service to see if they have it. For me, all this availability was never about all this availability. It was about having what I love and sometimes need to see or hear right there. The tin-foil hat version is that it's nobody's business but mine if I want to hear Hooked on a Feeling or Learn To Fly or Fifty Mission Cap three times in a row. Yes, I know those spins are probably counted on my computer. Leave me my illusions.
Before the pandemic, before we all got lost in the shitstorm of hate and cultish balkanization of this country, I used to log in to Facebook on certain mornings to see the reactions from fans of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. I never watched either of these shows, but I feltlike I knew the stories because my friends talked about the characters like they were people they knew. It was fun. Those tales served as intellectual/emotional connective tissue between people. Maybe that's part of the reason some of us hang on to at least one or two streaming services. When we are completely on our own to entertain ourselves, we are also isolated. We've got too much of that already.
I've never been good about appointment TV. What happens is I see enough of something to know I like it and then I binge it on disc much later on. Right now, it's watching parties and/or lone foraging through the strange outer shores of streaming. And comfortable. Maybe this is a function of being worn out by work and the brave new frontier that is daily life. Risk assessment was a "What if?" I engaged in when writing stories. Now it's something I engage in when deciding how to get groceries, renew my tags, take my mother for a ride, deliver art, and on and on.
My viewing habits are far less adventurous than they used to be. I want to be entertained and to see the comfortably familiar. Night Court is on IMDB as is the original Japanese Iron Chef. I will catch an episode of Crazy Delicious on Netflix because Jayde Adams and Carla Hall are so wonderful. Otherwise, it's the forbidden fruit of Channel Four via VPN and DVDs. Raves about Yellowstone and The Only Murders in the Building can wait and percolate for a year or two before I watch them.
"Do you still buy media?" Pia asked this while Zooming with me to get some recommendations for Mubi.
Yes, occasionally. I have more patience for looking through my library for what I want than flipping from streaming service to streaming service to see if they have it. For me, all this availability was never about all this availability. It was about having what I love and sometimes need to see or hear right there. The tin-foil hat version is that it's nobody's business but mine if I want to hear Hooked on a Feeling or Learn To Fly or Fifty Mission Cap three times in a row. Yes, I know those spins are probably counted on my computer. Leave me my illusions.
Before the pandemic, before we all got lost in the shitstorm of hate and cultish balkanization of this country, I used to log in to Facebook on certain mornings to see the reactions from fans of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead. I never watched either of these shows, but I feltlike I knew the stories because my friends talked about the characters like they were people they knew. It was fun. Those tales served as intellectual/emotional connective tissue between people. Maybe that's part of the reason some of us hang on to at least one or two streaming services. When we are completely on our own to entertain ourselves, we are also isolated. We've got too much of that already.