.
I only read first edition hard covers with deckled edges, when I want to relax I read some Proust and eat a bucket of fried chicken.
I was a rural kid and the only tv we watched was the news and documentaries, just not something I like doing, a lot of it makes me angry and anxious anyway.
These very large sets must consume a lot of energy, I bet if you were to ask these 4wd and plasma tv owning people if they cared about global warming they'd say "yes" which is a bit odd.
I agree Tynellbuyer--
Discussions about TV ownership & how TVs should be incorporated into one's living space are always sociologically fascinating.
There's Team It's-okay-to-own-one-BUT-it-should-be-small-and-discreet-possibly-even-hidden, then there's Team I-don't-even-OWN-a-TV, perhaps the most annoying.
No other item in the home invites such class anxiety & status posturing (can you imagine anyone ever bragging that they don't own a turntable, radio, or CD player?).
Needless to say, it's in reaction to the fact that lowbrows tend to own the biggest TVs they can afford, display them prominently, and watch indiscriminately 24/7. You see TV snobbery in the middle classes because they're terrified of appearing lower & thereby take great pains to differentiate themselves-- fretting if their TVs are "too" big or "too" visible within their sittin' parlors.
One of life's great tragedies is that others see us for exactly what we are... regardless of our TV's dimensions or where it resides within our house. You can run, but you can't hide.
I thought it was obvious I...
I thought it was obvious I was taking the piss a little bit, and fair point that its not really the thread to express those opinions but people who don't watch television tend to find what it does hard to resist passing comment on. What revolts me about it is the violence as entertainment and family and personal tragedies masquerading as news. I also hate what it does to families, when children have television in their own rooms and children and parents spend so little time together anyway...it also being both audio and visual is an imagination destroyer, if I'm reading genre fiction I prefer my own mental imagery, it doesn't have a budget.
The strange thing is the television watchers reaction to anti television opinions, its like the hick uncle who berates the vegetarian child, as though their diet is a personal attack, it's not you its the media and its affects, I apologise if it seemed that way.
Got to go, poetry slam at Marks.
I don't take anti-TV sentiments personally, Heath
But, I can't resist responding to ridiculous posturing about what owning a television implies. It reeks of insecurity & one-upmanship.
The person who declares that owning a TV ain't worthwhile is not only a liar... but a big fat pretentious liar. (I take that back! I'll instead say that the declaration itself is a big fat pretentious lie-- you've always struck me as an okay kind of guy, wouldn't want to call YOU "pretentious" or "a liar".)
Since owning a television allows the user the option of watching any of a whole century's worth of movies, and a slew of damn good things made specifically for TV-- I can only assume that the person who feels compelled to opt out of TV entirely (and especially to announce this fact to the world) has an agenda other than mere art criticism. It's brazen status signaling.
survival of the biggest
Prepare for extinction, small-tv people! We big-screen people are the future! Our massive flat-screens are growing bigger every day, and soon we will crush you and your puny 20-inchers into dust. Then we will nuke some popcorn and watch reruns of Desperate Housewives, and laugh.
So eat our electrons, tiny-screened Neanderthals!
It seems to me
that screen size has everything to do with (or ought to ?) the distance between the TV and the intended audience. That is, the further one is sitting from the screen, the larger the TV needed.
I regret to say that broadcasters seem in many cases to have assumed that the typical viewer is watching on a larger screen -- at close range: The typography is often too small to be read easily on a small screen, at any reasonable distance.
I like television.....I like ...
I like television.....I like a big screen.....I guess, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. Here is my family/media room/den. First two images are taken from the same position sitting on the couch. The third gives you an idea where the couch is. The room works well as a TV/play room for the kids, and as nice place to sit and read a book, play chess or shoot the shit with friends. The photos are horrendous...but they give an idea of how the space works.
Ai yai yai!
We do go off the rails around here!
H.K. Moon....I SO agree about Shantaram. One of the reasons I decided it was time for a re-read was that I devoured the book for the story last time and really wanted to stroll through it this time to saturate myself in the author's gorgeous prose. It is a beautifully written book, so few people can use the English language that well any more...and the philosophy he presents is just marvelous.
W-H-C, you are right of course, but the whole design addict thing gets in the way of good sense sometimes.
Heath, if it helps, I totally knew you were taking the piss, your humor is so much like my dad's. Tongue-in-cheek doesn't begin to describe the dryness. If you ever make it to this end of our little blue marble, I'll happily stand you a pint or six.
Mark...miss ya babe. You aren't around here often enough to deliver your acerbic, martini addled wit frequently enough for my liking!
The rest of our motley crew need step down from DefCon 1 and have a beer! It's all good, TV or no TV the world continues....at least until that japanese nuke plant actually does go nuclear.
If you need any help, please contact us at – info@designaddict.com