Saturday, March 20, 2004
Telly Tubby
Okay, I'll admit it. It's getting to me. Either I've contracted M.E, or else the nights are getting to me.
Re-minisce is turning into a telly junkie. It's been a long time since I've had a television to myself. You know how it is, when you're at someone else's place and you politely demur the telly remote. Watching TV is one thing, mastering it is another.
So now that re-minisce has an on-call room with a tv in it, he pretty much spends 10/7 (ie the waking hours) watching tv. There's a lot of rubbish on which he watches, including a bizarre TV series that makes people shack up together and go on serial dates for the day, before having one of them choose to boot one of the others out. The blonde bimbo with the body made for sin (who actually works as a topless dancer by night and a nude model by day) just got the boot today from the astrophysics graduate, who's looking for an intellectual equal (doh!). Till yesterday the "in control" person had been a bloke who fancied the pants off topless barbie (pun intended). Nuff said.
Something that IS really good is a kid's show entitled "Feather Boy" (the fact that I'm watching CBBC probably says it all about my current existence) which is a slightly sad story about a boy dealing with his parents divorce in the real world, and strangely living his ?dreams at the same time. It's complicated and difficult to explain. I suggest doing a google search for Feather Boy BBC for an idea. (The lead is that kid from "About a Boy", yknow, Hugh Grant?) But it truly boggles my mind that they make stuff like that here for kids, and adults. Powerful, timeless stories about... stories. With adult themes of infidelity and divorce, sure - as bad things, and with a lingering sadness reflected by the music - but yet set in childhood, with childhood issues of bullying and hope mixed into one.
They paint a picture of the intense richness of childhood in this country - and yet at the same time remember the sad reality of how wrong society is today.
They put my childhood, which I barely remember, to shame. There was something very sterile about growing up in perfect little Singapore; where unemployment and pornography are sins, and where stories for children, are (?were?) stories for children.
But that might not be such a bad thing.
**********
Watching Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail! I reflected that:
Firstly, it's strange how we, almost all of us (even blokes) crave at some level movies about life and love, that embody, (and are meant to represent?) the ideal lives we desire. And yet our own lives are, sadly more like Reality TV. Which we also feel compelled to watch.
It appears that we either want to watch utter lies, or grim truth. In between thingies are mediocre. Movies that almost reflect our lives, and movies that our lives almost reflect.
Secondly, I don't really know how this ties in, but I remember As Good as it Gets. I don't remember the movie at all. I remember ruining it for You, in the Aftermath. I didn't say this at the time, or perhaps I did, but I'm sorry about that. It wasn't a particularly memorable movie anyhow. I'm sure your "friend(s)" felt the same way.
Okay, I'll admit it. It's getting to me. Either I've contracted M.E, or else the nights are getting to me.
Re-minisce is turning into a telly junkie. It's been a long time since I've had a television to myself. You know how it is, when you're at someone else's place and you politely demur the telly remote. Watching TV is one thing, mastering it is another.
So now that re-minisce has an on-call room with a tv in it, he pretty much spends 10/7 (ie the waking hours) watching tv. There's a lot of rubbish on which he watches, including a bizarre TV series that makes people shack up together and go on serial dates for the day, before having one of them choose to boot one of the others out. The blonde bimbo with the body made for sin (who actually works as a topless dancer by night and a nude model by day) just got the boot today from the astrophysics graduate, who's looking for an intellectual equal (doh!). Till yesterday the "in control" person had been a bloke who fancied the pants off topless barbie (pun intended). Nuff said.
Something that IS really good is a kid's show entitled "Feather Boy" (the fact that I'm watching CBBC probably says it all about my current existence) which is a slightly sad story about a boy dealing with his parents divorce in the real world, and strangely living his ?dreams at the same time. It's complicated and difficult to explain. I suggest doing a google search for Feather Boy BBC for an idea. (The lead is that kid from "About a Boy", yknow, Hugh Grant?) But it truly boggles my mind that they make stuff like that here for kids, and adults. Powerful, timeless stories about... stories. With adult themes of infidelity and divorce, sure - as bad things, and with a lingering sadness reflected by the music - but yet set in childhood, with childhood issues of bullying and hope mixed into one.
They paint a picture of the intense richness of childhood in this country - and yet at the same time remember the sad reality of how wrong society is today.
They put my childhood, which I barely remember, to shame. There was something very sterile about growing up in perfect little Singapore; where unemployment and pornography are sins, and where stories for children, are (?were?) stories for children.
But that might not be such a bad thing.
**********
Watching Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail! I reflected that:
Firstly, it's strange how we, almost all of us (even blokes) crave at some level movies about life and love, that embody, (and are meant to represent?) the ideal lives we desire. And yet our own lives are, sadly more like Reality TV. Which we also feel compelled to watch.
It appears that we either want to watch utter lies, or grim truth. In between thingies are mediocre. Movies that almost reflect our lives, and movies that our lives almost reflect.
Secondly, I don't really know how this ties in, but I remember As Good as it Gets. I don't remember the movie at all. I remember ruining it for You, in the Aftermath. I didn't say this at the time, or perhaps I did, but I'm sorry about that. It wasn't a particularly memorable movie anyhow. I'm sure your "friend(s)" felt the same way.
