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| And the winner is...me! "I'd like to take this time to thank my sponsor..." |
Working on my own has obvious high points. I wear what I want (or not) when I want (or not). Then there's the extra free time that comes with my high level of productivity because, honestly, I worked in service to others who are far less gifted than me when I was younger and learning my trade. It was fine and I was glad to do so, but there are now gaps where there once was frenetic activity, just in time for my systemic middle age slowdown, the perfect time when most advanced experts strike out on their own.
So, there's a bit more daytime t.v. watching, though (also, to be honest), not as much as the average viewer, because most content is repetitive and boring. Why watch someone else's show when you can make your own? That's what happens naturally, kids. A lot of nighttime viewing is a bunch of artificial, canned, redundant, and equally awful "entertainment" shows that are anything but. Did you know most "celebrities" who are consistently featured on these types of shows are really fucking boring? I mean, like, a total formula for conformity: an early rise to fame, horribly dysfunctional stage parents, a plunge into drugs, alcohol and crime, followed by widely publicized stints in jail and rehab, then a viciously dull cycle of "lather, rinse, repeat", in a boring commoditization of tritely "rebellious" pseudo-types who appear over and over again on t.v., like the eerily identical Fembots produced by the Playboy franchise.
I understand that's what makes them appealing to viewers: it's comfort brought on by the familiarity and similarity of it all, but you have to draw the line somewhere. How many ass photos of a pinup can one look at onscreen?! Who cares? The opposite then is supposedly the "craft" of Acting, which the media serves up in ball gown after ball gown, again, in a supposed contrast to the barely clothed porn star, but only slightly. There's plenty of crossover. And what do we get for watching le grande "Cinema" (with a capital "C") over more commercial fare?
We get (by this count in 2010) 564 different entertainment industry awards. That's right. You read it correctly, 564 of them: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=101295. Wow! What a triumph of art over commerce right? We must be absolutely glutted with quality fare? Right? No? I hear crickets! My mom, and many other people like her, like to dream and fantasize more than they like living, and being a t.v. addict feeds that jones whenever she (and they) want it, but it is far from healthy. When I gave her my honest good review of the latest pretentious art house piece of crap that I had to suffer 3 hours of, hailed by "critics" as "brand new" and "revolutionary" because some shut-in director filmed a kid over the years (like many a long-running t.v star before him) in some long, boring, emo (https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=emo) teen angst story, she immediately chafed against it, because she's been trained to.
"But...it won the (insert name of dull award show here) prize?" Bad? How?! It won an....wait for it...award. So, a pompous director won some award given out by other pompous film directors. Huh. Well, that is new. Oh, I have versions of it in my industry and so do you, but the particular vanity behind people addicted to the hype beast keeps these functions going, fueled on the idea that more is better PR, which is so not true.
Witness this tidbit. Well-known long-running actress Dianne Wiest can no longer afford her plush NYC apartment (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/dianne-wiest-pay-rent-article-1.2092324), times being what they are. I know! Oh, boo hoo :( But the conceit of these shows hangs upon one central idea, and that is this: if you win a golden statue, it means you're really good, and that means you win yet more gold! Be careful what you lust for. It is not the guarantee in this lifetime that you seek. Amen to you today, my children.
The Golden Calf.
1 When the people saw that
Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around
Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as
for that man Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not
know what has happened to him.”a
4 He received their
offering, and fashioning it with a tool, made a molten calf. Then they
cried out, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you* up from the land of Egypt.”b
6 Early the next day the
people sacrificed burnt offerings and brought communion sacrifices. Then
they sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.c
8 They have quickly turned aside from the way I commanded them, making for themselves a molten calf and bowing down to it, sacrificing to it and crying out, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!”
9e I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are, continued the LORD to Moses.
10 Let me alone, then, that my anger may burn against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation.
