another season of 'reality' tv (?)

Did we all have a good holiday?

I survived a very busy concert season. Lots of great gigs. More impressively, I survived some very fabulous social events. Very fabulous! I'll spare the details, but they involved: Boston hotspots, media execs, and a 'Party Bus.'

Christmas in Connecticut rivaled the one spent by the Griswolds (as always, my family is the best!) followed by breakfast w/ a special someone before being whisked away to a very cold but wonderful week in Orlando. An awesome vacation! I got used to that lifestyle. Then I got dumped by Harry Potter and yada yada yada it's 2005, hooray!

Thank heavens it's finally January!
For two, long, painful seasons I existed on re-runs: Sex and the Cities, 24s, Sopranos, Angels, L Words, even the much revered Twin Peaks. The lack of new broadcasting was nearly killing me.

but now, now I think (I hope!) we're in for some good watching! Two more weeks until Simon. Just a few months left of NYPD Blue but tonight began (oooooh aaaaaah) 24. I don't want to hear any complaining. Yes the cast turned over and we liked the old president better (yeah, when else have you heard That before?) and yes, the action is a bit more over the top. So what?! Bring it on. And I have to add that, I especially relished tonight's episode, b/c, I recently scored a spot in a professional womans' chorale. Rehearsals begin tomorrow! However, an unfortunate side effect is that I will never, ever be able to watch 24 in its EST time slot! Tivo could become my new best friend. But, as it stands now, we don't have Tivo. not cool enough. Although, we are capable of recording the shows to dvd...muuuahaha.

Funny how conditioned we humans become to stimuli.
Watching 24 tonight was like a Pavlov experiment. After three seasons of a virtually sexual relationship w/ 24 in high definition, Dave went through a hell of a lot of trouble to put that oh-so-recognisable CTU ring on our cell phones. The first few months we got a tiny adrendaline rush every time our phones rang. Tonight, we kept checking our pockets every 2 mins. Doot Doot DOO dooooooooo. hahaha.

Right now, I'm having a very Carrie-like blog moment as I contemplate the profound and complex paralells between tv and our lives.

The basic evolution of any creative processess seems to begin w/ function. (i.e. news broadcasts) followed by parody (the realisation of the ability to mirror life) then we reach the apex of dramatic development and achievement (complete fiction) afterwhich there's no where else to go but full circle, and we degenerate into the realm of....reality television.

What happened?? My guess is a genius documentary producer married a coked-out B-movie writer and their slut of a daughter couldn't find any other way to pay for the college degree she earned on the internet.

and when is reality tv ever real anyway?
They have freudian trained casting agents and,Hello!, staff writers for chrissakes. How many people do you know that go around remodeling a kitchen in a half hour, or drink beetle and rat brains milkshakes, or have sex with ALL of their housemates? And don't we all dream of the day we race to a remote island to run obstacle courses? and puh-lease! there is not a SHRED of anything 'unscripted' in The Simple Life.

I'm not trying to say that fictional tv isn't more 'real' than the so called reality genre, but, well, it is sorta. I have more friends that act like bonafide Trekkies, or Simpsons, or Seinfelds than those that act like 'apprentices.'

(Shut up. Shut up! Whatever you're thinking - - leave Idol out of this discussion. It is THE exception and I won't have you talking about my future husband like that!)

Could it be that we mirror ourseves after tv and Not vice versa?

We created tv characters as whatever we imagined ourselves to be - over glorified, perfectly lit, sexually fulfilled, occasionaly out of this world, super heroes. Beefed up extentions of oursleves. And now, we expect to become the very caricatures of ourselves that we created.

It's a case of life imitating art, not the other way around.

I know I'm not alone when I say that certain shows (all classified as "fictional" except for American Idol) empower me. Make me feel 'connected' to the world, comfort me, give me confidence, make me feel sexy, teach me all sorts of things. Beyond pure entertainment. An offset to the (often much needed) escapism aspects of amusement.

I know I'm not alone b/c sadly, many people take it too far. Immaturity re-enacting violence, couples expecting perfect relationships. There's a fine line between entertainment and disillusionment. But, that's not a reason to enact over zealous censorship.

I'm segueing into potentionally rocky territory so I'm going to wrap it up now. Perhaps someday I'll write a sequal. In summary, I'm not going to really tie up the loose ends of this post, except the say that I'm grateful for television and film - and for the limitless extensions of life, both of the real reality, and the digital reality variety.