Opus 2026-248: A Little Imagination, Please

Somewhere in the last few months there was a takeoff on Star Trek.  I think it was called Star Trek Academy.  I don’t think I saw anything but mocking comments.  Will they ever try to actually redo the original series?  

You would have to vastly expand the command deck to make allowance for all of the currently popular ethnic groups and genders that we have in our culture.  You might need to develop new technologies to give each of them an important place in the pecking order.  You might also need an off-screen secondary control deck that actually worked the ship around the DEI hires but that might be too much honesty.

Which points out you would have to rework the introductory dialogue where it talks about going where no man is gone before.  That would be unacceptable.  You would need to work in some kind of pronoun recognition.

What if conservatives decided to remake the series?  You would, of course need to rename the ship.  You might want to make it the Free Enterprise.  There would need to be episodes where they could not get the dilithium crystals replaced because of government price controls and maybe issues getting the registration renewed.  There is a whole universe of topics that were ignored.

The opening monologue would need to make allowance that intellegent watchers might wonder how they could go where no man has gone before and keep finding men.  And the problem of everyone speaking English would need to be addressed.  I noticed in VI they talked about universal translators but I don’t remember that in the series.

It is questionable that such a remake would be recognizable.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-382: After the Cameras Stop

Did Dr. Kildare ever get married?  Did Doogie Howser ever grow up?  Did Marcus Welby ever get forced to join an HMO?

To be honest I don’t believe I ever watched these programs consistently.  In fact, I’m pretty sure I never saw some of them.  I know that Dr. Kildare was in the comic strips at one point and I remember at least trying to read them.  At that stage in my life the romantic hijinks of a young handsome doctor really didn’t appeal to me much.  Maybe I remember him totally wrong.

But what happens when these popular figures are forced to deal with real life?  I was sitting in the dentist’s office recently and realized that leaving my book in the car was a mistake.  I was forced to read People Magazine.  It was depressing.  I wasn’t bothered by the fact I didn’t know any of them or their claim to fame.  What got me was the futility of their lives.  The beautiful young women would soon age and begin to appear in AARP instead of People.  The men would put on weight and drink too much assuming they were not doing so already.

It is hard to live in fantasy.  I don’t know how you can keep your script separate from real life.  A few times I have been forced into role playing situations and found that it took me hours to break out when we were done.  I can’t imagine what it is like to do it for long periods of time.

I would rather read the faces I see at church than in the pages of People.  I prefer the reflection and inner fire of joy and purpose.

It could be just me.

homo unius libri

Opus 2023-046: Humor Dumb

I have never found Barny Fife funny.  I went through my time of watching The Andy Griffith Show like the rest of you.  Barny was like Lucy or the Three Stooges to me.  He was so sad I could not get into his humor.  

I think I identify with him too much.  He replaced his insecurity with a false macho strut.  He never learned from his mistakes.  He was gullible at the wrong times.  He was totally self centered.  He never noticed that he was being patted on the head.

I wonder if that makes me a liberal.  Liberals don’t seem to have much of a sense of humor.

I hope not.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-184: Headlines: The Boob Tube Really Is

I followed an interesting link from Instapundit that took me to a site called Medical-X-press.  The article had to do with a study that showed people who watched a lot of TV were made dumber in the process.

In the study group the ones that watched the most TV had something like a 7% reduction in grey matter.  Their theory was that the sedentary nature of TV watching had something to do with it.  My questions was if it was lack of movement then reading should show the same results.  At the end they suggested that reading was mentally active while watching TV was passive.  They never did address digital devices that are so prevalent today.

So if someone warned you that watching too much TV would make you stupid, we now have some backup.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-073: On the Street: I Look at the Checkout Counter

I would never pick up one of the magazines at the check out counter.  It would be embarrassing if someone saw me.  That doesn’t keep me from reading the covers.  Once in awhile something catches my attention.  I happened recently.  I noticed to special editions of Life, side by side.  One said that All in the Family was a ground breaking comedy.  The other said that the Mary Tyler Moore show was ground breaking.  It must be really easy to be ground breaking in the Time/Life world.

I know that I watched both and remember enjoying them.  It occurred to me that if they were to bring them back as reruns to a audience that knew nothing about them they would still be ground breaking as well as scandalous.  

They would be ground breaking because they were funny.  It is possible that Archie might need to be retooled for modern politics but he was still funny.  I didn’t like the way they made fun of my world but I still could enjoy good writing and acting.  They would be scandalous because the women were portrayed in a way that you cannot portray women in this day and age.  Ignore the fact that that was part of the satire.  Liberals today have no sense of humor.

Similar things could be said about problems in the character of Mary Richards.  She was the classic weak woman who was always falling for the manipulation of the men around her.  The actual scripts, if you could get past the politically correct police, would need little change to be funny because it wasn’t making fun of society as much as playing off of the characters.

I don’t like the politics of the stars but I could enjoy their talent.  I don’t know that I can say that about any entertainers today.  The world is poorer because of it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2020-228: Vast Wasteland

I am constantly reminded of why I don’t watch TV if I can help it.  At this point I am not evaluating the content, although that should be enough reason not to watch.  What keeps coming home to me is the amount of time wasted on posturing and self aggrandizement.  I have been trying to come out of my protective shell a little bit.  I have people telling me I need to watch this or that.  They send me links to interviews and documentaries.  I have watched a few.  Some are of value.  I could get the same value if a trustworthy source would cut out all the self advertising and bloviating.

Today I came across claims involving the CDC theoretically admitting that the China Virus deaths are grossly exaggerated.  One of the sources I found for information was a video by Ron Paul.  Sounds good.  He is a generally reliable source and a doctor.  So I clicked on the little arrow.  It was a 27 minutes video.  Three minutes into the video he and his co-host were still chewing the fat and socializing.  I went back to looking.  I don’t want to sit listening for 30 minutes to get what could be conveyed in 5.  It isn’t like I am listening to my wife.  I have no commitment to them.

So TV still has not won my heart.  I learned to read years ago and I can still read much faster than people can talk.  Factor in all the warm, fuzzy conversations and reading is far faster.  I am getting old and I don’t have time to waste on ego gratification.

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-033: Is It a Boycott if You Never Watched?

We went to lunch today and the sign on the door said that today they closed at 6:00 P.M.  That puzzled me until I realized the Super Bowl would be played today.  I am guessing some time after 6:00.

I keep forgetting.

I will not be watching the Super Bowl this year.  I would like to say it is because of the millionaires protesting how brutal life is in the United States by showing a lack of respect for our flag and national anthem.  That would be a lie.  The truth is I stopped watching the Super Bowl years ago.  I almost wish I was still watching football on TV so I could make a protest, but it is not to be.

You might be better off if you took a walk or read a book.  Enjoy your evening.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-324: Football and Pork Belly

First a bit of disclaimer.  I am not an interested party.  I can’t remember the last time I ever watched an NFL game.  I find that as I get older and my time of playing football gets further away, I have lost interest.  I can remember how New Years Day was a line up of football.  Now I don’t even know who is playing.  The same goes for baseball.

I can’t help but notice the headlines I keep seeing about the decease in interest in professional football.  The first time it came up was when the snowflake quarterback knelt during the national anthem.  I began reading comments of people saying they would not watch NFL games any more.  Since then we have had more and more rich, spoiled athletes protesting the terrible harm that America has done to them.  More people tune out. 

It is really cause and effect?  I don’t know.  I hope so.  It is the way a free market is supposed to work.  Professional sports offers a product.  It is not a needed commodity like corn or gasoline.  It is not pork belly or soybeans.  It is part of the luxury market.  They need to attract customers.  That is why the forward pass was made legal.  It is why they have those silly cheerleaders.  You have instant replay and all kinds of innovations.  It was to expand the viewer base.  People are free to tune in or tune out.

They seem to be tuning out.  Should players be free to sit during the national anthem.  Sure.  Should I be able to take a nap during Monday Night Football?  (Is there still Monday Night Football?)  Of course.  Could I read a book instead?  Or I might even go to the closet, pull out my old football and go out to throw it around.

So keep protesting, snowflakes.  Protest the system that has made you rich, famous and pampered.  It may raise the intellectual level of the nation and improve my health.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-285: On the Street: Beauty Is No Longer Skin Deep

Whatever happened to the beautiful people?

I noticed it years ago on airplanes.  When I first started flying it was only women serving.  Men need not apply on most airlines and would have been considered strange if they did.  In addition, every stewardess seemed to be a fashion model.  They were young, attractive and easy on the eye.  They fit well in the aisles.  They also had wonderful attitudes. 

No more.  Now they are normal people.  You can’t tell them from the passengers except they get to stand up when the seat belt sign is on.  They often are forced to go down the aisle sideways like many of us that have size issues.  They are definitely not young and attractive. 

Recently I have been noticing it on TV.  I remind you that I do not watch TV on my own.  I have not turned on a TV for personal consumption in years.  I do see things in passing and occasionally am forced to sit and watch or expect a divorce.  What I see does not bring me back.  Leaving aside the insulting content, corse humor and insipid plot lines, what happened to the beautiful people?  I have a vision, recently delivered, of two fat, sloppy men in a seedy bar, drinking beer out of bottles and talking about something.  I think they were two of the stars.  On another pass through the room I saw what appeared to be four women kneeling around a coffee table doing a parody of praying to Jesus.  There was not an attractive women in the bunch and they all could have posed for “before” pictures in a Slim Fast commercial.

It seems that attractive people have gone the way of the nuclear family on TV.  I don’t need super models or perfect families.  Although I have lost weight, I am still considered overweight on the official scales.  No, I would settle for mildly attractive people and families that I would want to be a part of.  By lowering the bar we are creating lower expectations.  Lower expectations drive us to lower the bar again.  If it were confined to TV I could live with it, but it is spilling over into the rest of culture.

I can run, but I can’t hide.

homo unius libri

Opus 2013-280: Headlines: Stating the Obvious

I had to laugh on Saturday when I looked at the Drudge Report.  One of the headlines was “‘Duck Dynasty’ turns to God.”  Well, duh.  I wonder if the writer had ever watched the show.

Normally all I would know about Duck Dynasty is that they have a lot of logo merchandise for sale in all the stores I walk through.  Since I spent the summer doing family stuff , I watched TV that I would normally be able to avoid.  My wife was into Duck Dynasty which means I had to be into Duck Dynasty.  So I watched a fair number of episodes that my son had recorded for her.

The headline I read acted like the inclusion of God is some newfangled addition for ratings or something.  I hate to point out to you, every episode I have watched ends with the family around the table, ready to eat but waiting for the family patriarch to offer up a prayer of thanks.  Some of those prayers are simple thanks for the food.  Others mention Jesus and thank Him for salvation.  There is not hidden agenda here.  These people have God as an important part of their lives.  They don’t rub it in.  They don’t get nasty.  They don’t look down on others, but then real believers never have.

So watch and enjoy if you can handle it.  If your bigotry won’t allow you to watch and enjoy then you can join me in not watching.  My bigotry is against TV as a genre, not Duck Dynasty.  I have good reasons for my attitude, do you?

homo unius libri