Friday, March 20, 2009

Quote of the Day: TS Eliot One More Time

"The remarkable thing about television is that it permits several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely." I think this will be our last TS Eliot quote for a while but I promise he shall return. I've always kind of identified with Eliot because he worked at Lloyd's Bank of London while he wrote some of his best poetry. I guess software sales is kind of my Lloyd's of London although I really hope the stuff I am writing now is not my best stuff.



I've been thinking about the way we watch TV because I missed "The Office" and "20 Rock" last night and plan on watching them when I get home from work today. In reality, I may watch them at work while everyone else is watching basketball. Most people I know don't watch TV shows the night they are broadcast any more anyway. The DVD or On-Demand routes seem to be much more popular. For instance I just watched five seasons or years of "The Wire" in three months. Compare that to how I watched my favorite show "The Shield" that ended last November. I watched that baby at 10 o'clock every Tuesday night for seven years. It was just a very different experience. I enjoyed "The Wire" but I didn't obsess about it like I did "The Shield." I think mostly because I didn't have a week in between episodes to think about it. The other difference was that watching so many episodes in rapid succession like that made me realize how the un-unified the medium of TV is as an art form. Plots and characters are picked up and dropped and then never heard from again. Although "The Wire" was less bad about that than other shows. I think our new method of TV viewing may act as a "refiner's fire." Hopefully, the gold will rise to the top and the dross will be burned away. Once TV shows can no longer manipulate us with cliffhanger endings we may see how awful some of them truly are. Not having to wait a four months to find out who shot JR may make us realize that we really don't care who shot JR.


I heard the names of two bands for the first time this week that are now battling it out in my head for the title of "Best Band Name Ever." Say Hi to your Mom is one and the other one is The Whitest Boy Alive which coincidentally describes my dancing style.


Here's my favorite exchange of the day that may also explain why I have no friends (Yes, I'm kidding about the friend thing. I have one, the janitor.):

New Employee: "Hey, Collin. I'm trying your method today."
Collin: "What? The being awesome method?"

2 comments:

  1. I love that The Whitest Boy Alive describes your dancing style. That is just hilarious. I'm glad that you can be a role model for new employees.

    (By the way, you have helped me realize my obsession with exclamation points, and I have been back. What I am trying to say is, I am a exclamation-holic. Thank you for helping me realize my problem so that I can battle it! Oops.)

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  2. Did you know that Say Hi to Your Mom is changing it's name to just "Say Hi"? At least that's what Brady told me..regrettable, I must say...

    And Pandora gives me The Whitest Boy Alive every once in awhile, and I'm liking them! I wasn't a fan of the name, though, at least until you used it to describe your dancing style. :)

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