I am here to educate you that today is #4 of my Television series.
Fire Food
Some Television is fire food. That means it’s really HOT and it burns you. How were you educated? By being taught not to eat that food again. With the food you need to drink a lot of cold water and just wait for the heat to pass.
When I first started working at Eulipia Restaurant in San Jose, California back in 1981 the kitchen staff tested me a bit. The dishwasher (who eventually moved up to head chef actually) gave me two pieces of green pepper. He said they were both mild, but I knew better. I ate them both, knowing I could handle hot peppers pretty easily. My eyes watered a bit, no big deal. They saw I could handle it. But I made the mistake of wiping my nose while I still had the oil from the pepper on my fingers. The oil caught part of the moisture from my nose and traveled up into my sinuses. It was PAINFUL and my left side of my face felt like it was going to explode! It took a long time for that to go away. I was educated by the fire food that day!
With TV it’s the same way. It can’t be unseen, you are stuck with this grotesque and painful image in your head that actually hurts your brain. You might have to take a cold shower, or change your pants. You might have to go to hypnosis counseling to rid yourself of the memory. It’s really not the type of educational TV you want to watch more than once, if at all.
What is an example of this kind of TV in your mind?
Fine Food
Some Television is Fine Food. It’s the type you eat slowly. You savor it. It enlightens you, teaches you, something new about how tastes and textures can combine to give you a sublime experience. You might even go back to the restaurant as soon as you can so you can have the same dish, the same experience, again.
Linda and I went out for our anniversary last weekend. We went to Bodean’s, a seafood restaurant in Tulsa. It easily ranks at the top of our restaurant list in terms of quality. Amazing food. The type of food you want to cut into little pieces and eat slowly so you can make it last a long time.
The fine food TV show is the same way. It’s something you savor, amazed at the concept, script, the acting, the sets, everything. You watch it again because you know you will see new things you didn’t catch the first time. It enlightens you, teaches you something new about life, history, psychology, relationships, science, faith, and more. You feel empowered after watching the show.
What shows are Fine Food for you?
Fast Food
Some Television is Fast Food. You aren’t there to have a sublime eating experience, you are there to feel a need, get some food in your belly and be done with it. You might have a hankering for it, like comfort food.
Like me and a quarter pounder. I barely ever have one, but when I want one, I REALLY want it. It tastes good yes, but it is really just a cheap thrill that I want, nothing fancy, nothing complex or sophisticated. I wanted one last week after having my colonoscopy and I indulged. Then I had that same hankerin’ again last night, coming home from a photo group library session. And I indulged again. I think I will need to discipline myself for a while, until this hankerin’ lets go of me!
Fast food TV is the same way. It’s pretty mindless entertainment, it is unlikely to teach us anything new or profound. It is ok in small doses but if your TV watching time is filled with it, you might be wasting your time without even the side benefit of learning something.
What is your fast food show?
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Nicholas Johnson
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Trivia question of the day
What caused Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of the Television to proclaim, ‘This has made it all worthwhile.” ?
I think there are plenty of shows on TV that appear smart at first watching but end up being pretty mediocre, without a lot of intelligence behind them. I believe this is because television is a very intense and collaborative process. Many elements and many talents have to come together to make the entire production excellent and smart. Perhaps the concept is compelling, but the execution is poor. Maybe the script is top shelf, but the delivery from the actors is stiff and boring. Maybe the concept is so derivative it just doesn’t matter how great all the other contributions are, it’s just never going to be good.
Smart Ass
Then there are the shows that are highly watched and are often said to be ‘smart’. But what they really are is smart ass. They are often reality TV shows that get their kicks by cutting others down. They are promoting mean judgmentalism, intense drama and pathos for the sake of getting viewers. The programs are manipulative and petty. My wife and I made a decision last year to turn off those shows and not give that negativity room to breathe in our living room.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who once made his family give up TV for a month, way back when.
Quote by Gallagher (updated to include a button on a remote instead of turning a knob)
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TV Trivia answer from yesterday.
The question was: What was the first reality TV show?
The answer is: Candid Camera. It first aired in 1948.
The reality is that I would invite a lot of people I see on TV into my home if I could. I would say probably 75-85% of the people I see on TV I would end up enjoying letting them in for a cup of joe and a nice conversation in the living room (with the TV off). The other reality is there is a certain proportion of people on TV who I wouldn’t want in my neighborhood much less my home. There are just some I wouldn’t feel comfortable with. Who would you invite and not invite to your home? For me, many who you might think I wouldn’t invite in are the ones I would.
Reality TV
There is a concept in physics that says the very act of observing particles changes what the particles do. You can never see them and not affect them. I think the same is true of humans. I don’t think it is possible for a camera to be present and the human it is recording to not have some change in their behavior. It might be subtle, it might be barely perceptible, but it is there nonetheless.
Reality TV Reality
I don’t think it is wise for us to pretend we are really seeing who these people are. Perhaps we are seeing more of them than if they were acting a role in a scripted series, but that doesn’t mean we are seeing them accurately. The first, most obvious reason is the editing that goes on. The producers need to create conflict and villains and heroes and drama. The can’t do that by showing boring people coping well with life and getting along. They find characteristics and they exploit and manipulate the people, situations, environments, to make those characteristics clash. That doesn’t mean certain people on reality TV aren’t really jerks, I am sure many of them are, but they aren’t ONLY jerks and the jerkiness they exhibited might have been greatly exaggerated in that made up situation.
Reality
As long as the person watching is smart enough to recognize that is what is happening then I think it’s all good. Unfortunately I do think many don’t realize that and they go away under the illusion that they know that person. They don’t. Those people who come across as jerks? Those are some of the ones I would want to invite in, if for no other reason than to balance out what I saw on TV with a more accurate dose of who they are in reality.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, whose wife thinks would do really well on Survivor if he could get past the first day or two when people might think he was an arrogant jerk. Who me?
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Trivia question of the day
What was the first reality TV show? Hint, it aired before most of you were born (including me). Answer tomorrow.
I am probably not alone in this – I Love Television. I Love television But I don’t always like television. It’s like members of your family – You love them and you aren’t going to leave them, but you don’t always like them. You sometimes need a break from them. That is how I am with television.
Alone Together
It is very comforting to be alone together. As a matter of fact, married people often say they just like knowing the other person is somewhere in the house to make them still feel connected. Even though they are doing something alone, they are alone together. This is because they can talk about what it is they did while they were alone with the person with whom they were alone together. I read an article and I tell Linda about it, she finishes a work project and she tells me about it.
Alone Together Alone
What I don’t like is being alone together alone. That is when you might as well have been completely alone in the first place. The ‘together’ is cancelled out. You watch something on TV but you have no communication about it. It’s what happens when you don’t share the experience in any way. That is when I don’t like television. That is when I don’t like a lot of things.
What about you? Is it ok for you to just experience something? Or is it incomplete unless you share the experience as well?
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, whose favorite shows growing up were Bonanza and Felix the Cat
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Television Trivia
The first TV advertisement was broadcast on July 01 1941. It was a 10 second spot for Bulova Watches before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The commercial cost Bulova $9.00 to put on the air.
To tell you the truth, I had to be a bit crafty about posting this drawing on Facebook.
Hide and Seek
Do you seek to hide who you are, what you do, what you think? What are the consequences of that? For one, you are protected from having something bad found out, right? Maybe it’s an affair, or spending money on something you shouldn’t, maybe it’s an addiction, or maybe it’s simply hiding what you believe from those who would disapprove. But in all those cases, you have rationalized that it’s important to lie, to be crafty, about what you let people know. It’s for self-preservation after all, right?
Breaking Bad
Recently we started watching the TV series ‘Breaking Bad’. It’s the story of a high school chemistry teacher who becomes a Crystal Meth manufacturer and distributer. He ‘breaks bad’ in a big, big way. The most intense and educational part of the show for me is how he works so hard to hide what it is he is doing from his wife and family. He has good reasons of course, after all is brother in law is a DEA agent, his wife is expecting a baby and his teenage son has Cerebral Palsy. But the price he pays for hiding it all is so immense in both his family life, health and his psyche, that it is painful to watch.
Crafty Manipulation
I have done my own share of crafty manipulation over the decades. I came from an alcoholic mother and father who hid a lot. I developed some of the very same techniques even after I stopped drinking almost 20 years ago. In the past year I have made some rather amazing breakthroughs in that area and it’s felt pretty darn good. My wife and I both have moved to be much more willing to just say the truth and be done with it. I feel much freer and at ease as a result.
Be a Stripper
I don’t know your situation of course, but you might consider being a stripper. Strippin down to tell the truth about who you are, what you do (and why you think you do it) and what you want and need in life. It’s not easy and it could have some serious consequences so it’s not to be done lightly if you do indeed have some secrets. Perhaps you just start with telling the mirror. Even that is liberating, I can tell you that. It is a journey and it’s ok if you aren’t naked right away, but stripping off some false fronts isn’t beyond your capability, and it is a start.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Anonymous
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Trivia of the day
Number of alcoholic liver disease deaths: 15,183 (2009)
Number of alcohol-induced deaths, excluding accidents and homicides: 24,518 (2009)
And finally I win something – even if I made it up myself!
I Was NOT Loopy
So I went through the colonoscopy procedure last week. I remember the anesthesiologist asking me what I did for a living and me saying I was the Napkin Dad, then I blanked out. I woke up and the nurse and Linda were there. I got my clothes on a few minutes later and was out the door. When I got in the car Linda said I had been pretty loopy after the procedure. I didn’t think I had been.
Oh, Yes You Were!
Later, we went to lunch and she started telling me about the Dr. coming in and saying how I had no polyps, nothing wrong at all. That I looked great and should keep eating what I am eating, etc. I stopped her and said, “When did we talk to the Dr?” She started to laugh and said, “He was in the recovery room, he was there for about 5-10 minutes telling us all sorts of things. You were Mr. Chatty, asking him the same questions again and again about all sorts of things, in particular you wanted to know exactly what diverticulitis was. He explained it to you and then you would ask another question about it. Then you went on and on about being a runner and about how you were going to run on Sunday with Lora and other people. Then you explained it again about how you were going to run with Lora. You were quite loopy.” I had NO recollection of that AT ALL. Very odd. Makes me wonder what else I said!
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Drawing by Marty Coleman, who has to get another one in 7 years.
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Fact of the day
Diverticulitis happens when pouches form in the wall of the colon. If these pouches get inflamed or infected, it is called diverticulitis.
Here I am getting my colonoscopy today. It was uneventful, mostly because I was knocked out. The last thing I remember was the anesthesiologist asking me what I did for a living. I told her I was the Napkin Dad. She said, ‘Oh, I know who you are’ and boom, I was out. Afterwards they said I had a very nice colon and had nothing to worry about. That’s good news. Linda says I was a bit loopy afterwards but she always thinks I am so that isn’t that strange.
The rest of the day I supposedly was going to be taking a nap, knocked out by the drugs, but nope, I have been working away on various things ever since I got home. I have a feeling I will go to bed early though.
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Drawing by Marty Coleman, who also was knocked out in 1973 when I had skin taken off my butt for skin grafts after me being burned. This time was easier.
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Fact of the day
I was knocked out with drug that killed Michael Jackson, scary!
I am flush with excitement over my first colonoscopy tomorrow!
The Long & Winding Road
Yes, I am getting a colonoscopy tomorrow. It isn’t due to any issues, just part of my annual physical. My last annual physical was 7 or so years ago and I didn’t have a colonoscopy that time around. My wife has been insisting I do this for many many years and finally it is being done.
Polyp Want a Cracker?
The fun part of this is today, or so I have heard. Today I get to be on a liquid diet all day (but that includes jello so all is right with the world). In the afternoon I take a magic elixir of frog brains and newt tongue and it will miraculously make my escape tunnel be all clear. Tomorrow the guy in the white coat and some other people in other colored clothing will search the same tunnel to see if there is anything for them, or me, to worry about. This is most likely going to consist of either nothing or little protuberances called polyps. This polyps are sort of like the weird fish in the aquarium that stay in the sand at the bottom and poke their heads out just a little bit to get little teeny weenie things to eat. If they find some of these pokey outey things they will snip them off with an official mini-snipper.
The Big Soft Hammer
The bad news would be if they found something bigger, like a tumor. Then they would tell me I need to get it taken out with something bigger than the official mini-snipper. That would suck so let’s hope that doesn’t happen. I won’t know what they found until later because I will be knocked out by the knocker outer person. They use a big, but soft, hammer to do it I have been told.
Loopy Is as Loopy Does
They said I will be loopy and will need someone to drive me home. My wife, Linda, will do that and laugh at me all the way home because I will say things like, ‘so, I think a horse would make a good tattoo for me on my face’ or ‘should we stop at the red cross and donate some pencils? Then I get to go home and do nothing in my loopy state except watch TV. I am only suppose to watch loopy shows though, so it will all make sense and I won’t freak out. Above you can see an accurate rendition of what I am expecting to look like this afternoon. Fun.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who was last knocked out for a medical procedure in 1975 when I got me wisdom teeth taken out.
The freckled ghosts with no bodies huddled together when they started to trick or treat in the cold. Penelope had her best lipstick on but no one answered the door at the beach house.
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Drawing and story by Marty Coleman
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Trivia of the Day
There is no scientific name for the fear of candy.
