Friday, August 29, 2008

Wait--that's end of the summer?!

Holey moley, how'd that happen? I was just sorting out this vacation thing....

Some random notes as we move into Labor Day weekend:

Raymond Williams, an early theorist of television, was jolted into writing while stuck in a Florida hotel, watching US TV from his British perspective--and being totally flummoxed at how the whole deal was going down. I felt a similar shock at getting cable installed (first time in five years). The biggest new toy is "on demand" (no, still no DVR). Not only can I find movies from 20 years ago (Back to School, anyone?), I can score music videos from 30 years ago ("Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" features MJ's real nose, I was reminded).  The upshot is being able to watch things like Obama's speech or M*A*S*H reruns, but man there's a lot of crud on TV.  (How did ultimate cage pummeling become our national sport?)

Facebook has already moved beyond being a reunion machine to a virtual door collage.  Who makes all these different add-ons?  And what information am I giving away each time I sign up for things like Packer Fan Forum or Virtual Bookshelf or whatever?  Minimalism is clearly not a virtue for the Facebookers....

Wi-fi saved our butts for the first few weeks of our new home... but once it blinked out for a few days, it was time to pony up.  The whole reason we have cable at all (see above) is that 1. the cable company is the only DSL provider in our town, and 2. TV w/ internet was like $7 more than internet alone.  For the first year, of course.  Unless they are having some kind of price war with Verizon, I think cable will be a one-year deal....But I'll still have YouTube!




This blog will be even more musically focused than normal (?!) this semester, as my only blogging class will be my COMM 399 course, "Popular Music, Communication & Culture."  I'm going to be using YouTube to organize videos that go along with readings, and will post a link for easy access from this blog.  That reminds me: gotta find some good Celine Dion concert footage!  (The early 33 1/3 book on Let's Talk About Love will be a good litmus test for all of us!)