That's Entertainment?!

I have a very nice large, flat-screen television. We have a complement of streaming movie and TV show services. Somewhere around here I even still have a DVD player that I very rarely use.

The thing is, I almost never use even the television. We're getting ready to cancel most of our subscriptions to various services via our cable (we still have cable and not satellite, although that may change soon as that formerly modern device seems to be justifiably dying off). And the reason, honestly, is that we very rarely turn on the TV. We will go--and I am not exaggerating--weeks without using the damned thing. So why pay for services that we use so rarely?

I can't tell you when the last time I went to televised news for information. I just don't do it. The very act is pointless. And I loathe pretty much all of the drama and comedy shows promoted for popular consumption when I encounter them. There might be something there I would enjoy, but by and large so much of it is relegated to subscription services that I'm just not going to victimize myself to this ploy of economic vampirism.

So. We're moving toward getting rid of all but the most basic of Internet services. What we're going to end up with is a WiFi connection whereby we can access streaming video. If we want to sample something, then it'll be there at what we consider a fair or bargain price. No more signing up for services we rarely use, and no more pissing away our hard-earned dollars.

I long ago lapsed into getting most of my news through foreign sources that I access via the Internet. And I cannot tell you the last time I followed a network television show. Decades, likely, as I haven't been a fan of such things since my days as a teenager back in the 1970s. Frankly, I just don't know what the attraction is toward modern pop culture.

Admittedly, I am not hip to such matters. And, frankly, I just don't care.

And it has occurred to me on more than one occasion that as I bemoan the death of things like bookstores, and the periodical comic book, and the wealth of daily newspapers, perhaps there is a current crop of 30-somethings who decry the extinction of early video game consoles, Saturday morning cartoons, and rock music.

Recently, on our eleven-day vacation to celebrate my recent retirement from the grinding 40-hour workweek, we noted that we did not once set up our television in our travel trailer. Carole and I talked about it, not because we felt like watching a movie or viewing what passes as news in the USA, but because we had not one iota of desire to do so. The little flat screen stayed in its cupboard storage and we read books during our downtime relaxing from a day of sightseeing or kayaking or hiking.

And that's the thing. We both still read. Books are what we generally retreat to for entertainment and relaxation and education. Yes, I admit that I sometimes use an e-reader of some type, but even there we both prefer real books made of bound paper. I suppose, in that way, we are among the last of a dying breed, soon to lapse into extinction.

And that's okay. I really don't want to live in a world without bookstores, and without the people who grew up reading print books. As I wind down this mortal coil, I am struck by the things that I no longer chase. I may write of them this week. Or I may not.

For now, Carole and I are planning our next trips. Except for June, which is full of things like Father's Day, my son's birthday, my birthday, and our wedding anniversary (our 35th!), we plan to be camping or travelling elsewhere on a pretty much monthly basis. I've been waiting for decades to be able to do this kind of thing. We've found a couple of mountain locations that look attractive for both July and August. I'll post photos when we've logged those trips into our history.

I'd much rather explore this trail (which I did), or plan a trip to another such wild place, than bother with a TV show. I will be doing more and more of this as my active life builds up (and then, inevitably, winds down).

What's around the next bend in the river? I'll find out.

Mainly, TV Sucks

I grew up on television like almost everyone else has. My parents may have been unusual in many ways, but we always had a TV in the house and I always had access to it. Since my parents both preferred to read rather than watch TV I found that I could generally watch what I wanted to watch. So, like most Americans I watched way the hell too much TV.

As I got older I became less and less interested in the old boob tube. It was rare that I liked anything enough to anticipate it and work my schedule around it. I pretty much stopped paying attention to television when I was in my mid 20s. It just wasn't my bag.

However, over the years, I would occasionally stumble upon something that I liked that was made for television audiences. And sometimes those shows would surprise me with particularly good writing and singular performances and productions.

Here are two such productions that did so:

The first one I want to mention was a two-part episode done for a TV show that I seem to have watched alone, in all of the USA. It was called FRANK'S PLACE and starred Tim and Daphne Reid (real-life husband and wife) who own a restaurant in downtown New Orleans. When I mention this series to anyone they don't know what the hell I'm talking about. I never encounter anyone who has heard of it, much less watched it.

By Jove, I watched it. There were only 22 episodes and I don't think I missed but one or two of them. And, yes, I was bummed out when it was canceled.

The most powerful episode was actually a two-parter. It was called "Cool and the Gang Part 1" and "Cool and the Gang Part 2". The thrust of the story dealt with the experience of one of the

Frank's Place employees, the youthful Cool Charles portrayed brilliantly by William Thomas, Jr. In this two-parter the kid becomes involved in drug dealing and soon finds himself with lots of money. But things do not go well. He descends quickly into a hellish life but realizes before it's too late that he has a good way out--toward his friends who love him. The acting is spectacular. Some might call it hokey and false, but they'd be wrong. I found it to be the best of what drama can offer.

Not from that episode, but a brief clip from FRANK'S PLACE.

The other TV production that stunned me was an episode of THE X-FILES. I will assume that most of the readers here are familiar with the alien-chasing FBI agents of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. So I will dispense with explaining such familiarities.

There had been a number of really well-written episodes of the show. I should know, because I watched most of them, since it was one of the few horror/fantasy oriented TV shows on prime-time television in those days.

The episode that amazed me and showed me how good TV could actually be was written by Darin Morgan, directed by David Nutter. That episode was "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" and co-starred Peter Boyle as a life insurance salesman who can sometimes see the future deaths of people he encounters.

Although dealing with the darkest of dramatic elements (murder, suicide, loneliness, despair),
the telepaly is punctuated by wry humor and is wonderfully played by all of the actors, most notably Peter Boyle who portrays the most unfortunate Clyde Bruckman of the show's title. As I watched that story unfold I knew that I was seeing something special and brilliant and that I would not likely see this kind of thing again. And I was right. Since that show I don't think I've seen anything that has come anywhere close to the quality of that episode of that particular TV series.

The late Peter Boyle.

Pulp Fiction

I enjoy many aspects of pop culture. Not music so much, because for some reason I cannot delineate, I stopped listening to pop music when I hit my mid-20s. I still listen to the stuff that came out during that time (and before), but anything since is largely foreign to me and does nothing for me.

But I do enjoy a lot of the more vulgar forms of pop culture. Books, comics, movies, some TV shows. I also don't muck about with video games, the appeal of which is totally lost on me. But if it floats yer boat, then fine.

My main interest in popular fiction and film is what I would term "pulp fiction". This originated as a largely derogatory term to describe the output of the fiction magazines that were quite widespread and profitable from the late 1800s until around the mid-1950s when TV killed them off. Today, there are only a bare minimum of pulp magazines remaining on the marketplace--ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE, THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, ISAAC ASIMOV'S MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE FICTION, ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION & FACT...and that's about it. I can't think of any other pulp fiction magazines on the shelves of modern newsstands, bookstores, and convenience shops.

Pulp fiction has generally gotten bad press from the critical community. And to be sure it's pretty basic stuff. You aren't going to get much in the way of deep meaning or thinly-veiled philosophy from the likes of Robert E. Howard, John D. McDonald, Mickey Spillane, or their contemporaries. And as the pulps faded the practitioners of that kind of fiction had to migrate like an animal fleeing the effects of global warming. They had to move higher up the slopes or farther toward the poles. In the case of the pulp writers they transitioned to film, or to paperback originals, or to teleplays. There were so few markets for the kinds of modern fiction-speak they were creating that they had to do something.

One thing that I have always liked about pulp fiction, whether it's in comic books, or magazines, or paperback books, or on a TV or theater screen is the simplicity of it. The genius of pulp fiction is that everything is boiled right down to its essence. In this case, conflict. That's what pulp fiction is all about: conflict. You don't have to wonder about anything or dig around trying to figure out what it's all about. It's about a bad guy versus a good guy, or a bad guy against an even badder dude. There are slight variations, but that's basically the theme.

And it's there in all sorts of pulp fiction. Westerns, crime, suspense, science-fiction, fantasy, horror...you mention it, and the name of the game is conflict--the more violent, the better.

That's where, I suppose, the bad rep came in. Pulp fiction was about the basics. Violence and vulgar language and hot sex. As the years progressed, the hotter the sex became and the more bloody the violence, the more crude the language. I've enjoyed the whole sorry lot of it.

The old pulp venues are long-gone, it seems. Those pitiful few volumes on the newsstands, the dwindling bookstores with their paperback books...all going or soon to be extinct. This is sad to me. I am left to find it in film and TV, I suppose. Even the comic books are fading slowly away, supported, I reckon, because it seems for the moment to be fertile ground for the entertainment industries to grow their crops.

Here's to the pulp fiction of old, though! Raise yer glass high for the guys and gals who wrote the great old stuff and the ones who are still with us writing the great new stuff. They'll be gone too soon.

Jove help me, I loved it so.

Five TV Shows I Liked

I am one of those folk who doesn't watch TV very much. It just doesn't appeal to me, mainly. It's not that I'm a snob about it, but I just can't stand most television shows.

However, there have been a few things that I like. I'll list them.

FRANK'S PLACE. This was a show that got cancelled. I'm not sure if it even lasted an entire season. It was well written and had wonderful performances and starred Tim Reid (best known these days as a semi-regular from THAT 70s SHOW). I wish it had caught on. One episode still haunts me--the show was technically a comedy (and it was indeed very funny) but the best episode dealt with a young person on the show descending into drug use and then climbing back out. That one was spectacularly effective and was pure drama.

Tim Reid

DEXTER. I don't subscribe to premium TV channels. However, we once got Showtime as part of a promotional cable pitch. So for two years I got to watch DEXTER as each episode premiered. To me, it was the best "real" superhero done as cinema. Because to me, that's what the character Dexter really is. He's a superhero with secret identity and everything. Nifty. Of course I haven't seen it in a few years. I'll pick up the DVDs as they get cheap.

Dexter. Everyone's favorite serial killer.

THE SOPRANOS. See above. I only saw these on DVD. I still haven't seen the sixth and final season. It's on my Christmas list. Great acting, superlative writing, only rarely falling off the tracks into soap opera land.

The Boss.

BREAKING BAD. To my way of thinking, this is the best writing I've ever watched on television. It's just good on every level. I've seen most of the episodes (there are a few I haven't seen), and it's rare that I have any quibbles with the logic of the scripts. And of course the performances by every single actor on the show is just flawless. I really, really love this series!

Walter White, anti-hero of BREAKING BAD.

THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW. This is one that I would catch when I was on the road. Usually the hotels where I'd stay in those days had cable and I could catch this series. The writing here was the best! And it was generally so funny that my stomach would hurt from laughing so hard. And of course peppered with enough drama to keep things interesting. It's probably the best comedy show I've ever seen.

Two of the funniest actors I've ever seen on TV: Garry Shandling and Rip Torn.