Television. Los Angeles. Grey. Sun?
"I don't know what physiological factors influence me to post blogs only when it's raining; perhaps I imagine I'm stuck inside with nothing to do (rainy day syndrome) or I got so used to it raining most of the time in Scotland that it only seems right to post when water pours from the sky. At any rate, that's what is happening in LA right now. The clouds are inflicting their pain.
I like it at any rate. I enjoy the feeling of raindrops on my face. The sorority girls in leggings & uggs? Not so much.
First off, updates on the driving front:
-Round trip to LA Union station, twice = feeling of bizarre accomplishment. Taking the 405-South to the 10-East to the 110-North to the 101-South is a bit of a struggle. And winning counts for something. Right?
-Fighting traffic down to Manhattan Beach on a rainy Wednesday night, departure time of 4.30pm = terrible. Terrible terrible. Anyone who was in the car with me at the time can testify to how many times it was said "I think we're getting near LAX now..." We were wrong all of those times. We barely made it there by 6.30. Just in time.
-Field trip to Malibu = Driving along the cost today (PCH, all the way!) on my way back from Malibu felt liberating. The sun on my face and seeing the deep blue next to me, it was a feeling of freedom and peace I hadn't realized I'd missed. Not sure if it's the grandeur of the California Coast, some fresh air, being away from UCLA, or just the boring phsyiological reaction of more vitamin D, but it was lovely. Aside from the whole having to drive there and back bit.
So, Television, the main point I'm trying to make."
So that's where I left off. A bit random, but I'll continue:
So, Television, the main point I'm trying to make. Several weeks ago I attended a couple TV tapings as fundraisers for our upcoming rugby tour to Hong Kong. (If YOU want to donate... I'm not going to stop you.) At any rate, the two tapings I went to were for The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and America's Funniest Home Videos (which is mysteriously shortened to only "AFV"). I don't own a television, haven't had regular access to one in over a year, and realized exactly why I hate TV and why the major networks are dying. TV sucks. The Late Late Show was pretty much utter dreck -- cheesy late night chat show at it's height, with a Scottish host thrown in for a little flavor. Craig Ferguson's watered down west coast/weegie accent was the only thing that kept it bearable. That and the fact that James McAvoy was a guest on the show -- the camera blocked him from my view the whole time, but he has a nice voice and I got to be the only person in the audience to laugh at the Scottish references he and the host made.
Also, this guy was a guest. Don't know his name, only that he's "the other dude from 'Two and a Half Men' who's not Charlie Sheen." Good enough.
(Apparently it's Jon Cryer. Who knew?) I suck at celeb-spotting/naming/caring. And to be honest, it makes life in LA just that much easier, despite the flak I catch from my friends. ("I'm gonna go find Fred Segal." "Oh, is he meeting us here?" "... No, it's a shoe store.")
On with the story! (Land the plane, Julia, land the plane!) Anyway, Craig Ferguson. I've never seen a Scotsman that tan, with teeth that blindingly white or straight. The whole episode taping experience was a hilarious/pathetic view into the artificial nature of television. There was some mid-life-crisis-aged middle manager charged with the job of getting us pumped up, telling bad jokes, waving his arms for us to clap, and throwing bite-sized candy bars at us. Horrible, laughable. In fact, that's about the only thing I genuinely laughed at the entire time. So all the things you think people are laughing at on the chat shows? They've been bribed. Or they're incredibly stupid.
America's Funniest Home Videos ("AFV", not "AFHV" for some reason...) was a slightly more enjoyable experience, mostly because I got to sit off camera and some of the videos were genuinely funny. The episode airs March the SomethingTH and I'm not allowed to tell you who won the big prize for funniest video, but I will say that my personal favorite was the baby getting clotheslined by two dogs fighting over a dish towel. Awesome. Most of the videos shared a common theme of fat people trying and failing to do things (two women getting stuck, trying to climb in a window of their trailer) which I find hilarious but sad at the same time. Pretty much a reflection of what our country's coming to these days. What's the word for that? Oh yeah, irony. Also, as with the chat show, there was a fat guy telling bad jokes and throwing candy at us to make us laugh. I'm sensing a pattern.
In conclusion, the artificial nature of the televisual episode taping process, as witnessed and reported firsthand, serves as both a useful indicator and reflection of the relative weaknesses of popular network television. Namely, it's crap. And they wonder why people increasingly turn to youtube and the internet for entertainment. It's fresh, it's not approved of by old white guy execs in a fancy office. It's democratic. Largely inane, but democratic nonetheless. Let the people choose the stupid shit they want to see, for free.
On that note, I leave you with a quote from one of the Kings of Snark:
"The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everybody else, and this is a feeling that I have always cultivated." -Oscar Wilde
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