After Having Run For The Hills

There are those of you who, kindly, tell me I'm out of the loop. In fact I am so far from the loop that I need a telescope to see it.

When we gave up television some years ago, we knew we were missing out on some good drama series, of course, but it was no real sacrifice as we could always buy boxed DVD sets of anything that came highly recommended, and we have a few.

The funny thing is, we don't actually buy many. We do other things instead. What you don't have you don't miss, and the idea of plonking in front of a screen and just staring at it has just sort of...gone.

This screen? No, THIS one is interactive. Here I work, study, write, and play. Not just stare. Mattter of choice, obviously, MOST people love to sit and stare. I get bored too quickly. Even if I watch a 90 minute movie on DVD I have to have some knitting or I can't make it all the way through.

Anyway, that's not the issue. The issue is, that since I gave up TV a lot of bright new stars have arrived on the scene. Highly talented actors and actresses (and indeed, because I'm not afraid to show how shallow I am, some incredible eye candy in the actor department) and plenty of them.

So many in fact, that are "new", that I now find myself saying "WHO?" more often than not. Yesterday I read something on FB which included a friend's wish list of ideas for casting in an upcoming production, and I'd only heard of one of them.

I no longer see award shows anyway, obviously, but if I did, I would only be quite certain to recognize the "lifetime achievement" recipients.

In a way this is bad. I'm missing out on some talent, without a doubt, but it does reflect on the entire concept of celebrity. To put it bluntly, you could have an oscar AND a golden globe, and I wouldn't know who you were if you knocked on my door.

A similar thing has occurred with music. When I lived in England, I was the one you needed on your Trivial Pursuit team for the music questions. Not any more! Now, you could argue that it was because I was a lot younger, and that young people tend to be more "into" this stuff. But actually that wasn't the whole of it.

Back then if I listened to the radio, no matter whichever popular music station I chose (i.e. current as opposed to oldies or classical), it played a wide variety of music, and I listened to it most of the day, so I became familiar with everything, whether I liked it or not.

Here in Canada you chose your station by genre. This has its pros and cons, but be that as it may, I have always opted for the stations that play rock/alternative/indie, so for the last 20 years I have been OBLIVIOUS to any other music, save that of world music for which I have my own sources. I don't think it gets played on the radio anyway.

THEN, once we stopped receiving satellite TV we also lost the radio stations, and we have no other radio other than in the truck, so I only really listen to new music when out, or when my kids say "Hey Mom, listen to this, you'll love it!"

95%+ of the music I listen to is recorded, and while I have a good selection, I don't add to it that often. I do discover new stuff (I'm a huge fan of the Kings of Leon) then play it over and over, like a small boy with a Thomas the Tank Engine DVD.

So, if you name a current superstar, I frequently don't know what they sound like, and may not even know their face. An example would be Katie Price. I know the name, I don't actually live in a cave you understand. But I can't name any of her songs, I've never heard her sing, and I have no idea what she looks like. I do know what Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus look like, unfortunately, but I've never heard either of them.

And I don't give a rat's arse about it either.