Thursday, July 22, 2004

further broadening

Earlier I wrote about my musical tastes broadening, leaving only Enya and Cannibal Corpse. On the way to Jefferson City a yesterday, I learned to like Death Metal. That means I like everything in the world when it comes to music, except Enya. Someone told me that this means I have no taste in music since I don't discriminate. Sorry about that, maybe they're right. But I know more about music than most people, so maybe I am just tolerant.

Speaking of tolerant, also on this trip I realized that I can listen to just about ANYTHING on the radio. Mid-Missouri has talk-radio on FM (not even on AM up here, I don't think), and that doesn't drive me crazy. Neither does NPR (talking or eclectic). I can listen to a guy screaming about Bush's failed foreign policies, or some church sermon from a guy with a southern accent. Last year I could not stand church on the radio. I listened and sang along to country, easy listening, classic-rock, rap, pop, and of course my spanish-language channel. (On the way home I was singing so happily to Selena's Como la Flor that I just about lost my concentration on driving. Salena!) I sing about as good as Will Ferrell, if that helps you make the mental picture.

The only thing I don't like to hear on the radio is sports-talk. I like to hear sports, in fact that is the best way to enjoy baseball, since you can read or work. No, I mean those opinionated sports call-in shows.

I am not as open-minded about television. (I get a kick out of church-TV, which Amy detests). I only like 92% of the channels. This includes all the music channels, news & financial channels, shopping channels, and documentary channels. The problem is that my wife likes the other 8%. She doesn't have a bizarre taste in tv-viewing, either. She likes the networks, which I don't seem to watch for some reason, as much as Bloomberg, MSNBC, CNN/FoxNews (same channel, really), MTV, ShopNBC, or the History Channel. I miss television, I guess we will turn that back on in about 5-6 weeks. I can't wait to watch people selling knives, computers, or hand-creme on the QVC. I can't wait to watch Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network. And of course the music channels. We have 5 or 6 of those, not including whatever videos are shown on BET or gala/univision.

Opinionated people say that television is bad for your mind. But I don't think it is any worse than reading fiction.

--gh

4 comments:

m said...

What about Helmet? Cuz I like Helmet. My entire experience with Helmet consists of the 47-second blip I heard before my friend Craig turned down the stereo so I could ask him for beer. I like Helmet.

Anonymous said...

We both like Hank and Peggy.

-ah

m said...

i don't think tv is comparable to fiction.

1) there are almost an infinite number of choices with fiction, not so with tv, even with the biggest satellite dishes

2) melville, twain, hemingway, etc., were not trying to sell you bathroom cleansers

i'm not an anti-tv elitist. i would watch tv if there was good stuff on, like Sifl n Olly. then i would watch tv all the time.

-m

BlackLineFish said...

That's true, both of us like King of the Hill. Maybe it's that dog...

--gh