TELEVISION AND THE FOURTH

HOORAY! The Fourth of July. America's celebration day for our freedom from British rule. Well, at least from the unfair taxes their King George imposed (all comments on the currrent King George are welcome).

As you may have guessed, I'm a bit of a patriot.

And I love the Boston Pops Orchestra. So? Well, I watched the New York show first. Great fireworks and some decent entertainment. Then time for the Boston show. Their fireworks display was amazing. Absolutely mouth gaping fabulous. The entertainment featured some CW singer whose name I don't remember. Trying to mix guitars and real musical instruments is doomed to be a failure. It was.

Then we switched to the Washington D.C. show on PBS. Someone there needs to find another job. The "host" was an old, worn out, so-called comedian who was showing his affection for either the bottle or that crystal stuff. He was clumsy, out of pace and really looked like a few months in a recovery center might help him. That wasn't bad enough apparently. I don't know whether to hold the director or the producers responsible, but they kept jerking the cameras around until it became impossible for the viewer to keep his attention on the fireworks. And what really ticked me off was that they did it with money I had donated to them. Well, a part of the show, anyway. Some people's heads need to roll over this fiasco.

All in all, being the war monger patriot that I am, I still loved the very thought and the huge turnouts at the events. This is, after everything is said, the country I volunteered (at one time) to defend from the bad guys.

As long as I have talked about TV in this post, I might as well air a couple of my complaints. too. First off, I resent having to pay to have stations broadcast to me in a language I cannot read, write nor speak. Why should my money go to them? They are of no use to me. It's sort of like my buying a semi truck and trailer rig and parking it my yard. Then I can get to pay the registration, insurance, DOT fees and maintenance. For something I cannot drive, cannot do anything with and have no real use for. I'd like to thank the FCC for their thoughtfulness. Oh, yes and Comcast Cable (the biggest cable company in the US) for forcing me to do this. Unhappily, I cannot switch to dish TV cause I can't aim a dish at the satellites.

Another thing that is irritating is the unreasonable time spent on commercials. Eighteen to twenty two minutes of a one hour show spent showing me the latest ladies deodorants and gas guzzlers does not sit kindly in my mind. And speaking of commercials the TV networks (stations) now think it is good for them to underlay the picture one is watching with advertisements for coming shows. Oh, joy. See if you can find something else distracting and pleasure killing please.

Supposedly, the FCC has decreed that sometime in the future (I've forgotten when) the cable and satellite suppliers will have to allow viewers to pick which channels they want to pay for. That day can't come soon enough for me. I really have no use for the Game Show station G4 (a station bought by Comcast. Originally, it had been named Tech TV and a group of young, talented people had gotten together and created a truly useful site (after you learned to ignore the almost porn) that made them popular. Comcast turned it into a site that does not help anyone with computer problems, has eliminated all the free software they used to feature and has created another boring piece of crap for the semiliterate.

Another thing bothering me. A friend asked me when I was going to get an HD TV. Well, we already have three of a size we find adequate. None of them are HD ready, I've been told (Whatever that means.)

I looked him in the eye and asked him the already prepared question: "When you show me what TV show is worth three thousand dollars to view." The silence was astounding. The subject was dropped and he looks at me in peculiar way now.