Apparently it's one genre per customer...

I was out and about Saturday afternoon after seeing a movie and decided to go and look for some Cd's and books to lay my grubby hands on and by grubby I mean obsessively clean. The same thing happened in both stores and then I thought about all the times it has happened and decided to ask others to see if it's just me. I assume it isn't but you never know.

Anyway, it went like this, I browse for a while, make my selections and take them up to hand over my cash in an empowering display of capitalism. The person on the other end of the transaction feels the need to comment on what I've chosen to buy. Not in a "Your taste sucks and I mock you" way but in a "Your taste is strange to me and I feel the need to say something to get you to say something so that I can better understand" kind of way. In both stores this is and it's not like this is the first time.

Does this happen to anyone else? Have you ever been questioned or had a comment dropped because you bought things that, on the surface, may not seem to be of the same sort? Most people I know (granted this particular group isn't exactly the ideal control group) enjoy lots of things across many genres and find absolutely nothing strange about that but the repeated comments and questions sometimes make me wonder if that's an aberration and not at all the norm.

Almost forgot, the movie was Hot Fuzz. Go see it. Now.

So it goes.

I've been in mourning all day over the passing of Kurt Vonnegut but as the man himself would say, so it goes. Even for a giant of literature and an absolute genius. So it goes.

I first discovered him for myself with Cat's Cradle and that continues to be my favorite of his works though he never wrote anything that wasn't worthwhile. Novels and plays and essays and stories all with a brilliant wit and a gift for words that was truly humbling.

To quote the man himself:

"...a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit."

Mission well and truly accomplished, sir. Being neck deep in a Vonnegut book was to be alive and to be more than appreciative for it.

So even giants have to pass eventually and here's to wishing that this giant will be remembered for the treasure to the species that he was for as long as the species endures.

So it goes.

It can't just be me

I don't watch "reality" television. Ever. I know a lot of people say that but then they will turn around and say that they watch it sometimes for a laugh. I mean I actively avoid it like it might infect me some horrific disease (which I half fear it might) that will cause me to be unable to stop watching as much of this garbage as I can find.

*shudder*

It's out of control and I just don't understand the attraction. I can barely get through an entire day without hearing someone talk about one of these piles of excrement and often they try to talk to me about them. Some of the ideas seem like they could be cool but then you hear about it from someone that watches it and it all falls apart.

"Wait, you mean there's a show where they drop people on an island and the last one left wins money?"

"Yeah."

"That's fucking awesome!"

"Yeah, every week someone gets voted off and there are challenges and..."

"Stop. Voted off?"

"Yeah."

"Not killed?"

"What? No!"

"I may never recover from this horrible disappointment."

I mean really people, what is the big deal with this stuff? I don't want to watch a bunch of people sing shitty songs off key and then vote for one of them. I don't want to watch people race, in a very controlled way, from point A to point B. I have no desire to watch D list semifamous people skate, dance, live together or lose weight. It's more entertaining to watch my fingernails grow. What I want is well written, well acted tv shows. Doesn't matter what they're about (Though shows about cops, doctors and/or lawyers are seriously getting on my nerves these days. There are other things on this planet!) so long as they're good. And when they are good, give them a chance to succeed. Arrested Development, Firefly and Studio 60 spring instantly to mind.

It might not be so bad if there weren't so many of them crowding the dial. There seem to be more and more of them and less and less of the scripted shows. Fewer scripted shows means fewer quality scripted shows. And the networks wonder why cable is gaining viewers over them. How many reality shows does HBO air? None that I can think of. How many shows would HBO have on the list if I decided to make one of the best shows of the last ten years? Five or six at least, and that's just in the top ten.

Please, please, please network type people, stop spoon feeding the lowest common denominator at the expense of people that can actually follow a plot. For the love of all that is good and pure stop tormenting me.