I have so many more important things to write about, but it’s been hectic and my husband and I were in a car accident yesterday (we’re fine, his prius is a total loss) and then, literally, as we were walking up the stairs to go to bed last night our least accessible smoke detector started to beep.
Don’t even get me started. Who puts a smoke detector here? The ceilings in this house are, for the most part, ridiculously low. This seems spiteful.
Anyway, after getting into the attic crawlspace and confirming it was hardwired (of course) and confirming that there was no way to pop it out, and reach down to replace the battery (because of a joist) Spencer and I trekked to the tool shed and found a very tall a-frame ladder left by the previous occupants of the home. We brought it in, put it about halfway up the stairs, and propped it against the wall so Spencer could climb up and reach it.
At this point I should mention that this ladder wasn’t in the shed, was incredibly dirty, and was housing a number of spiders and other bugs prompting me to promise that I wouldn’t let go even if a giant spider starting coming for me and meaning that I spent about 5 minutes hurking as a series of beetles unpacked themselves like nesting dolls from hell. But the beeping has stopped. So, that’s a win, right? (And we learned that we need to get into the attic and wire off the vents because we’ve had some visitors, the small kind that bring bird seed in with them.)
Anyway, this is how life has gone for the past few months. So, excuses are excuses, but this has been my summer of slacking. DVD Project, fitness, diet, you name it. The simplest tasks have taken twice as much time and energy to complete. What I have done is started listening to podcasts, and I mean I have been gorging on podcasts. Specifically pop culture podcasts talking about shows I watch, shows I don’t watch, music, movies, books, you name it.
And that brings me to the first real bloggy thing I want to talk about: media saturation. I am there, folks. Between podcasts, Entertainment Weekly magazine, and watching actual television I am completely immersed in shows I’ve never even seen. And more than ever I recognize that network television needs to reevaluate how they look at viewers and the statistics surrounding viewing numbers. I’m also really engaged in wanting to have some complex discussions about the shows I’m watching and some of the deeper meanings and cultural impacts that they have. That could mean that we could get knee deep in some discussions this fall, but it also means that planning my fall television is getting complicated.
Guys, have you seen the shows that are being offered up for fall? We lost 30 Rock and Happy Endings and we’re being offered Dads and something called Trophy Wife? Seriously? The worst part is that both of these shows have people I like in them! But from everything I’ve read about Dads I cannot watch it based on principles alone, and I haven’t even heard anything about Trophy Wife but the name makes me recoil in horror. The show I’m most looking forward to (other than the obvious Michael J. Fox Show) is Sleepy Hollow and my rave review of that to Kelli was, “This is either going to be amazing or awful.” And, really, with Grimm (CSI Fairytales) and Once Upon A Time (Dallas, Storybook Style) do we really need Sleepy Hollow and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. (Because of all the shows to get a spin off, that was the most likely candidate?) I’m not even a super discerning television watcher, remember, I loved Animal Practice.
Things I’ll give a spin because I’m either genuinely curious or morbidly so: The Goldbergs (praying on my weakness for 80s nostalgia), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (could be okay, I guess?), Super Fun Night (purely in support of Rebel Wilson), The Crazy Ones (purely because I was a Mork and Mindy fan), The Michael J. Fox Show (I have a cat named Alex P. Kitten, case rested), Dracula (sure, why not), Hello Ross (my god, do I adore Ross Matthews), Witches of East End (I’m not even sure why, more why not?), and Sleepy Hollow (because I loved the Legend of Sleepy Hollow as a child). I’m also adding Raising Hope and The League both of which I shot-gunned on Netflix this summer and decided are great.
Podcasts I’m listening to and recommend: The Nerdist, The Dead Authors Podcast, Grantland Pop Culture, How Did This Get Made, How Was Your Week, The Moth Podcast, NPR Topics: Pop Culture Podcast, NPR: Ask Me Another, NPR: Pop Culture Happy Hour, NPR: Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me, Slate’s Culture Gabfest, The Talking Dead, This American Life, Wits – APM.
p.s. Being down to one car means I’m going to be running home from work most nights until Spencer gets a new one. So, silver lining of nearly dying is a smaller ass? I guess? I needed a reason to start running again, I just didn’t really need one this extreme.