I love my TV!

Last month I decided to cable-up. Blame it on those long winter nights. We also got a better deal by bundling our computer hook-up, telephone and television. Now I can surf the web, call my cousin in Arizona, and watch a Sopranos rerun, all at the same time.

Our only TV for the last six years or so has been rabbit ears, which got us the three networks, Fox, and PBS, all for free. I usually watched the nightly news, which runs maybe one or two overly brief stories of any substance. The rest is fluff and commercials. Is it really a lead story that the East Coast is getting a big storm in February?

PBS has occasional good programming. Fox has The Simpsons. Beyond that, nada.

But the new cable, coupled with the DVR which allows me to record any program and fast forward the commercials, has proven to be better than I expected. Now I record the network news and watch the whole program in about fifteen minutes, skipping both commercials and any stories about a beached whale. I can pause to go out to the kitchen and start dinner, usually beans and rice, or rice and beans. We’re not immune to the recession, you know, despite having the luxury of living on a fixed income. (Remember when people used to complain, “I’m living on a fixed income”? Now it’s not polite to boast about your good fortune.)

I record The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, both of which manage to bring humor to the news, which otherwise is overwhelming in its depressingness.

Yesterday, I recorded the first motorcycle road race of the year, an epic battle between a seasoned veteran and promising rookie at Phillip Island in Australia. Great race! The only American rider is Ben Spies, who looks like he might dominate the season. And BMW is fielding its first team of two bikes, returning to racing after almost three decades. The Beemers finished in the top ten, and former world champion Troy Corser looks like he’ll be in the running.

Is Troy Corser an absolutely perfect name for a motorcycle champion or what?

And finally I’m finding that there actually is something worth watching on television, as long as you can watch it when you want and skip most of the commercials. I usually watch an hour or two a night. And of course I still have DVDs. Saturday I watched Pan’s Labyrinth, an excellent film loaned to me by my Spanish tutor. “Don’t read the subtitles!,” she commanded. Right. My tutor is very strict, but I cheat.

I watched the big Obama speech to Congress, fast-forwarding through the long interruptions for applause. And the Bobby Jindal rebuttal had to be the strangest and most amusing thing I’ve seen in years. I actually did a replay of some of the best parts. (BTW, his story about being in the office with the local sheriff while Washington bureaucrats foiled rescue attempts turns out to be as true as Sara Palin just saying no to the bridge to nowhere. Kenneth the Page comparisons were right on the mark. So much for now for the rising stars of the new Republican party.)

All of this raises the question of whether television, like the newspapers, can survive a new technology which makes its advertising irrelevant. In the long run, maybe not, but by then I’ll be dead. In the meantime while I’m not dead, I’m once again enjoying television as one part of my entertainment and news on a daily basis.


Cage fighting is fun, too.