How I Got By
» Quotidian
Pop Culture to the Rescue!
During the months when I was half shut down and in retreat from the external world I - as we say in 21st century America - consumed a great deal of media. (Another disgusting locution is referring writing on the web as “content.” I’m not writing a note about my life, I’m producing content.
Quite shamelessly I listened to and watched Kylie Minogue. (I pause the thumb my nose at pop music fascists who make saints out of chart toppers only after they are dead or at least retired.) I discovered her on a Pet Shop Boys CD. Listening to her makes me happy. I have no idea why but very happy. Hooray for dopamine!
And I was delighted to find that Moloko’s Rσisνn Murphy is delightful outside the duo.
Thanks to Hulu and Netflix I watched lots and lots and lots of movies and TV shows. Not feeling up to reading, having no desire to move I might watch eight hours of Adam 12 reruns. And sampled hitherto unknown horrors like The New Adam-12. Old sitcoms like The Dick van Dyke Show and The Bob Newhart Show. Assorted British crime programs.
I particularly enjoyed Hu$tle (Jamie Murray*), Doctor Who (David Tennant), Dexter, Torchwood. For some reason I’m still watching Ugly Betty. Desperate Housewives might be my favorite sitcom since Bewitched.
Lots of trashy movies. Martial arts movies but didn’t really run across the amusing ones: those with just lots of fighting bore me. I bought several of the Mill Creek 50 packs with with creaky and silly films that have fallen into the public domain (they hope). I like creaky and flawed. The highly polished major studio releases nowadays leave me feeling I’ve sat through something impressive but inane.
I like romantic comedies and chick flicks. Old and new. Far more so than the guns and testosterone action movies men are supposed to like. Watching old Fred Astaire and Busby Berkeley movies made me want more. Slowly I crept through the decades until I found myself in the modern age.
Some days I’d start watching when I got up in the morning. Others I struggled to make time pass until my Netflix discs arrived. (Eventually I discovered Hulu and used Netflix’s Watch Instantly inventory.) I might watch sixteen straight hours of Desperate Housewives. I went to bed when I finally felt I could stop being awake.
That was one reason my websites went silent. There was no life, virtually no consciousness to describe.
* I even watched Valentine to see her. Thankfully ABC cancelled the show.
