Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Friday, January 12, 2007
Throw away your remote
Our very own Rosemarie Jackowski in the photo?
(I really hope I ain’t wrong . . . )Posted by Keir on from back in the hague 01/12 at 05:48 AMPS: Nice article MZ. Reminded me for some reason of this newish bit by George Carlin.
We have a remoteless little tv. We keep it in the closet and take it out once a week for a few hours. From that alone I am able to recall perfectly numerous Dutch ad jingles. Useful!
Posted by Keir on from back in the hague 01/12 at 05:58 AMi know you were implying that throwing away the remote is a first step to throwing the tv away but i want ot suggest throwing the tv away and keeping the remote so you can ping it off the head of the next tv salesman that tries to bother you
that said, i am unaware of any place where tv salesmen go door to door so the theory falls down a bit there
Posted by michael on from exile 01/12 at 06:36 AMoh and my viewing for this week will not be TV. i just managed to get a hold of a documentary called “The gravity of Light” about aldous huxley
i think i am going to enjoy it
Posted by michael on from exile 01/12 at 06:39 AMI think throwing out the TV and keeping the remote is a great idea. I’m sure there are bunny rescue groups pretty much everywhere, and remotes are among bunnies favorite toys! So you can rescue a bunny and make them happy by giving them the remote.
TVless since ... well, since I moved out of my parents place eons ago. On purpose too - the number of TV’s people have tried to give me when they hear I don’t have one…
Morning all!
Posted by Deb on from NoVa 01/12 at 07:48 AMwe have a teevee but it has dust on it, nobody turns the thing on. Lately I´ve got a lot on so I can´t sit still to even read, only feels like so much consumption.
When I lived in Dublin used to constantly hang around the house of friends who had fashioned an improvised remote from a broom handle with a ballpoint pen taped on the end, its name was Betsy.Posted by owen on from schmarcelona 01/12 at 08:21 AMWe have no remote and no cable either. Just CBC, CTV and Global. But even with those three channels one can spend way too many hours in front of the idiot box becoming, well, an idiot.
I think TVs would be ok (for watching DVDs etc) if advertising was just banned altogether. Wouldn’t that be cool? Isn’t that the case in Cuba? Could be one reason they aren’t all in such a clamour to overthrow the “ruling fascist dictatorship”. They just don’t know all the amazing, great things that they are missing if they too were living in a hyper consumerist society.
Captcha is radio, which I listen to a lot more of than TV.
Chau for now
Edson
Posted by Edson Castilho on from Halifax 01/12 at 08:50 AMHello Expendables...from a drizzly but relatively warm Astoria.
I love where you guys have taken this: toss the TV and create new uses for the remote. Tossing it at mythical TV salesmen and/or amusing bunnies sounds good to me...plus I’d imagine there are lots of art projects that could be conjured up.
Btw, I must admit I’m surprised to learn how many don’t even have a remote. You learn something new every day...if you’re lucky.
So, does anyone agree/disagree with Keir’s guess in #1?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/12 at 08:58 AMGood morning Expendables and oh but what a glorious dream that gwb should be sent to the Hague...although we could always end up with something worse in his place.
I agree with Keir’s guess that the lovely woman in the photo is our very own Rosemarie. I think the clue clinched it, or I wouldn’t quite be certain either.
(again)I’m sorry I missed yesterday’s discussion, I’ll bet Mudge could live with rap AND CATS if catlady had anything to say about it.
There’s a little bit of an inside joke among brown folks about tv’s...use the old one (the wooden type with the speakers on the sides and usually as heavy as an anvil) as a stand for the new one.
Bunnies enjoying remotes as toys? Deb - I’m completely missing that one - please explain. I’m as compelled by that as I am by Owen’s work with sea turtle rehab...who wouldn’t love to massage a turtle?Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/12 at 09:10 AMMickey I just got back to the link on your article reviewing the Lord of War...you know I had never heard of it when I picked it up as a cheap rental and was pleasantly suprised; seems like you were too.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/12 at 09:16 AMSo she’s always been gorgeous...if that really is RMJ. It’s got to be her…
I watch sports, CSI: Las Vegas and The Wire on television...nothing else.
I recommend The Wire to everyone here as undoubtedly the best show ever made. I know it’s not saying much when you think of all of the crap they turn out...but this show is different. It is a real world view of the Baltimore streets...the first accurate portrayal of black americans ever shown by our “liberal” hollywood media types.
I know...watching tv is bad...and I do a lot less of it than most...but if I couldn’t take my mind of this world for an hour or so here and there I would go completely insane.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 01/12 at 10:40 AMHello again, everyone. I guess my hint made it a little too obvious...but hey, that’s half the fun. Our dear RMJ is the strong, beautiful woman in today’s photo.
Empress: There was a brief period in 2006 when Hollywood released a handful of films with social conscience, e.g. Lord of War, Jarhead, Good Night and Good Luck and Syrianna.
As for TV, I indulge now and then. Like JOS, I’m a sports fan. Also, there is a show Michele and I watch that I feel is powerful: The Dog Whisperer We don’t have a dog but the lessons put forth are for everyone...of any species.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/12 at 11:26 AMThe Dog Whisperer is very popular with my family here in Chicago...we all have dogs.
Isn’t this a crime...shouldn’t there be an investigation...international courts or something? Oh, I forgot...they can do whatever they want:
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 01/12 at 12:46 PMI need my remote control to turn on the Battlestar Galactica dvds my brother lent me. I tried to train my cats to do it but they weren’t having it, any of them. Um… I guess I should better head back to the office. They do tend to frown on this 2-hour lunch hour I’m fond of taking.
Posted by James on from Hell's Kitchen 01/12 at 01:41 PMHey everyone, its bloody horrible weather over here, squally and cold.
My telly mainly gets used for DVDs. I also like CSI Vegas, even with its “infallible incorruptible cops tirelessly pursuing justice” thing. The theme tunes not half bad.
Since there are sports fans here you’ll have an opinion about this... I was foolishly trying to find out what the hell was going on in Bangladesh from the TV and that story constituted 100% of the news. Apparently we’re very excited to be exporting our has-beens to you.Posted by Mew on from london 01/12 at 01:47 PM#9 - Amelopsis, I don’t have a bunny myself, but I know several people who have rescued bunnies (house bunnies), and it seems to be a universal trait that they love remotes! It is all in the buttons. There are actually some toys made with this in mind. Unfortunately the best I could do is this blog: http://baerana.com/toys - there is a picture about 2/3 of the way down the page. (or just search “remote")
Every other link that google found for me had to do with vibrators. hehe.
Posted by Deb on from NoVa 01/12 at 02:00 PMRMJ is one beautiful lady, inside & out.
I have no problem living without TV whatsoever. However, this damn computer is another story.
Greetings to one and all from a dreary, damp Montreal. Where has that winter wonderland gone?
Posted by Canadian Observer on from 01/12 at 02:21 PMHi all...about TV, sorry to admit that I am guilty. I agree that 95% of what is aired is not worth watching, but the other 5% is OK. I first heard about Bill Blum and many others on C-span. Once in a while “Frontline” deals with an important topic. The best expose’ of the child welfare system was on “Frontline”, the title of that program was “The Taking of Laura Mars”, the true story of a child who was taken away from the mother. The mother was not guilty of neglect or abuse, but was poor. The little girl was then bounced around by the system, adopted by the State child care officer. The child ended up dead while in the care of the “expert”. One of the saddest true stories I have ever seen.
About the photo...it was taken at work before I became enlightened. I was working for an engineering company that was designing the Vertical Assembly Building for Cape Canaveral.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 01/12 at 02:41 PMplease take this as storytelling saturday in advance but RMJ got me thinking with her comment that 95% of tv is nonsense
if a relationship (most peoples relationship with tv has become as important if not more so than their relationship with reality - depressing but true) is 95% abusive is it worth preserving?
as it happens i have been in an abusive relationship and it is a weird thing for a man to deal with.
what the #### r u supposed to do?
i am 6’3” . the girl that regularly physically attacked me (including one time burning a cigarette THRU my skin [she started it and i only let it go that far because i wouldnt hit back but she was so wrong that i wasnt backing down either, i just took the pain and stared at her] was 5’11”.
she did that because i gave up smoking and one night while drunk i lit a cigarette. that seemed to be enough reason for her to leave me with a scar i still have today, seems a bit harsh to me.
she used to try to set about me all the time. i would never hit back but she was tall and strong.
i can’t be expected to stand back and accept being beaten. so what did i do? well, the only thing i could do was to sit on her. doing that would of course only make someone more furious.
what is a decent non-wife-beating non-cheating man to do?
i relate this back to TV
TV - Don’t watch it
THAT GIRL - Dump heri dont see any other options
Posted by michael on from exile 01/12 at 03:06 PMI hear you, michael...had a similar situation at one time myself.
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 01/12 at 03:22 PMI agree Mickey...throw that damn remote away..throw it hard and far. Better yet, smash the remote control repeatedly with a 26 ounce ball-pean hammer. While smashing the remote, you can chant vulgarities about Bill Gates, virus filled, CorruptionWare operating systems and the entire computer industry that is lower than Whale dung!
Posted by Joe of Maine on from 01/12 at 03:52 PMTV certainly ignites passions, doesn’t it? I was without it from 1972-1992, and I missed nothing of import. I got a TV when I had the worst attack of gout ever anywhere, lasting 7 months and causing me untold agony. I was without insurance, and ended up losing a toe after all the damage was done. TV distracted me. I watched PBS and NOVA became an addiction. I watched FOX and The X-Files became an addiction. And let’s not even talk about the soaps!
Empress, not even CatLady givin’ it up could convince me to listen to rap or deal with cats. Not that he’s offered, I hasten to add, being boringly straight.
Speaking of straight...va-va-va-VOOM, RMJ! A brain like yours in a bod like that...! Good thing we didn’t meet back then, or even today in person, or I’d have to consider very seriously the abandoned heterosexual option. No, not abandoned...rejected...but then there are women like you who make it so tempting to backslide....
Posted by Mudge on from Austin, Texas 01/12 at 04:09 PMHi Joe from beautiful Maine.
michael and JOS...have you read the book “Stop Walking on Eggshells”? It might be a good book for anyone who is now or has ever been in an abusive situation.
Mudge...I would throw away my remote if you were here to keep me company.
My captcha word is “action”.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 01/12 at 04:32 PMHi, everyone. My name is Zenprole and I’m an Expendable.
Throw away the remote? Throw away the programming. A TV for watching films, especially when homemade projects have come of age, is an important tool for media and political literacy (plus, one of my cats loves to sleep on it). Monitoring commercial offerings for political nuances and changes in the propaganda line is also useful, if you can stand the pain.
But like RMJ sez, sometimes an interesting/useful program sneaks through. The Discovery Channel once had Martin Sheen narrating an undersea show on Cuba’s near-pristine coastal waters, now a novelty in the corporate-dominated/polluted/overfished Caribbean. Lowell Bergman’s “Frontline” show on The Drug War (sic), also years ago, was another gem. A DEA agent, speaking in silhouette, opined that the US banking system would collapse in 48 hours if the illicit drug money were removed. I think he was being kind.
I vote to attach news anchors to large ships, for immediate use. Captcha sez “local.” That would be a start, then national and cable.
Posted by Zenprole on from Urth 01/12 at 04:34 PMhey Zen…
RMJ, wow, that book sure as hell would have come in handy...I took a look and it was right on. Your insight is pretty amazing…
Posted by JOS on from Chicago 01/12 at 04:39 PMI have not elaborated on my television habits because I watch more of it than I choose to disclose, but in my defense, most of it tends to be educational...bbc ‘World of...’ series are stupendous. That and I have a penchant for science fiction.
Deb, thanks for the link, that rabbit is gorgeous and I had no idea about their preferences for nobbly button things, nor did I know they’d be quite so social in their play habits. Displays of animal intelligence never suprise me though; they are FAR more capable than most humans give them credit for.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/12 at 04:50 PMTo be sung to the tune of “Unforgettable”:
Expendable, that’s what you are
Expendable though near or far
Like a song of love that clings to me
How the thought of you does things to me
Never before have so many been more
Expendable in every way
And forever more, that’s how you’ll stay
That’s why, darlings, it’s incredible
That so many so Expendable
Think that I am Expendable, tooPosted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/12 at 06:05 PMYou have got a point, Mickey - unfortunately some of those modern ‘appliances’ can only be operated by means of a remote. One would be hard pressed to find the right buttons on some video/DVD players for example. Still ..
Hello and best wishes for the upcoming weekend to Keir, Michael, Deb, Owen, Edson, Amelopsis, JOS, James, Mew, Rosemarie, Canadian Observer, Joe of Maine, Zenprole and, last but by no means least, Mudge. What illustrious company!
Ciao expendables.
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 01/12 at 06:14 PMRosemarie really is a beautiful lady!
And ‘The Dog Whisperer’ sounds like a very interesting program - both Mr and Mrs Helga are dog people.
Now I really have to go - so bye, all you fellow expendables.
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 01/12 at 06:25 PMRosemarie is gorgeous - but why is she holding a triangle?
Posted by Mew on from london 01/12 at 07:01 PMHelga...thanks
Mew...spectacles, I’m far-sighted.
Mickey...and I can just imagine Nat King Cole singing it.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 01/12 at 07:14 PMDoh! I thought it was some monochromatic sci-fi plot device…
Posted by Mew on from near my bed, hooray! 01/12 at 08:31 PMI recently read that, if Americans collectively cut down their consumption by 50%, we would be going back to a 70s era lifestyle. Hardly the caveman days! Such a small sacrifice on our part…
Posted by Kate on from Washington DC 01/15 at 03:10 PMThanks, Kate. It’s so simple even a caveman could do it.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/15 at 03:11 PM
Next entry: Local or Express?
Previous entry: The People's Republic of Me
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
