Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Nothing new under the sun

What's great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking.
--Andy Warhol

Thought of this last night while I was watching the season finale of Medium. I am a daily reader of the blog dooce.com, which is written by wife, mom, writer, ex-Mormon, Heather Armstrong. I have become slightly obsessed with checking the blog. I check it as often as I check heatherfeather's and machineghost's and they are friends of mine, people I know, people I have lived with. (OK, I'll admit to obsessively checking Chris Cope's blog now, too. I can't help it. He's one funny mofo. )

So, back to my Warhol/Coke moment. As you may know, I watch Medium on NBC every Monday. In the past, I have not been a primetime-drama-watching kind of person. (Most of my favorite shows have been animated comedies.) Recently, though, I've taken to watching Medium and House religiously. I say "religiously" because, let's face it, I don't have any religion in my life and I probably need some. Having spent my formative years staring at Sesame Street for hours a day, it's no wonder I have found such ecstatic bliss in television watching. You may think it is sad, but I don't really find it sad at all. I have finally gotten to where I am OK with this. I'm a junkie for Patricia Arquette and Hugh Laurie. In the grand scheme of things, I think I'm gonna turn out just fine nurturing this jones.

A couple of weeks ago, Heather Armstrong (dooce) made a comment on her blog about a cheesy piece of dialogue in an episode of Medium (which she did not identify by name). I let out a gleeful little giggle followed by a disgusted moan of self-loathing. Why was I happy that she was watching one of "my" shows? Can't exactly say, but I was. Then, last night, as the opening credits were running, right after the teaser-dream that always precedes them, I had this thought: dooce is watching this right now.* Then I had this one: Andy Warhol/Coca Cola. And that Warhol quote just exploded in my mind. It was something I had forgoten, but something that had really struck me hard the first time I ever read it.

I will admit that I felt a dirty, at first, when I was happy to find out one of my favorite bloggers watched the same TV show as me. It just didn't seem like the kind of thing someone like me would get happy about. Yes, I am a horrible TV-watching junkie, but I'm not much of a starstruck groupie starfucker who likes to look at magazines about celebreties and famous people. I don't care what toothpaste Angelina Jolie uses. I don't need to know that Paris Hilton scratched her cootch on the beach and I certainly don't need to see a picture; however, I was as giddy as a boy-band fan that dooce and I have the same TV tastes. So, it's been a weird set of feelings for me to try to unpack.

But, I suppose, what it is that excites me is the kind of thing that Warhol discussed: no matter who you are, where you live, or how rich you are, how known you are, there are certain commodities that you--as an American--will have access to. And, many of those commodities are accessable in the same way and variety for everyone: there isn't a special Coke that rich people get; there is not even a different brand of soda that is an elite brand and is vastly more expensive or inaccessable than what we all have access to. Coke is the shiznit of sodas and you can't get a better one than I can, even if you're Trump.

And TV's the same way. OK, OK, granted, the extremely poor cannot afford a TV, but they can watch TV almost anywhere they go nowadays: restaraunts, bars, banks, stores. Also, I am not so naive that I don't realize that many poor people will pay a cable bill before a few other bills that are probably more vital. How do I know? Well, for starters, I grew up pretty poor and my parents eventually declared bankruptcy, but we never, NEVER had a lapse in cable television. Just didn't happen. Wouldn't happen. Nope.

I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with all of this, but it's something I'll probably drone on and on about for a few days. My apologies.

*This morning, I realized that this is actually not even likely to be true. My guess is that the show airs at a different time in Utah, but why don't you just play along, OK? Thanks.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Yes, I am probably a socialist

You are a

Social Liberal
(88% permissive)

and an...

Economic Liberal
(18% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Socialist




Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
You can just start calling me Gandhi if you want.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

I forgot how to knit

Sort of, but not really.

I was super busy at work for the last three weeks, so I had no time to knit. I was only getting an hour or so in on Sundays; aside from that, I was working or sleeping. I'd say "or eating" but the eating was all done while working, so it was still considered working.

OK, I bathed, too. That's about it.

So, yeah, the knitting. I have been trying to knit this shirt for T for a long-ass time, and I just keep making mistakes over and over again—stupid mistakes, leaving out steps. I have had to start over again four times already, and I'm a bit frustrated with it. It's a pretty simple pattern, but, for some reason, I just keep forking it up. So, I have set it aside and will work on it when I have a more clear head about it.

So, I started a sock! I've never knit a sock before and I am told that it is pretty simple if you just follow the instructions—just a few new techniques to learn. These are techniques I will be able to use in the future, so it's good to learn them sometime. The great part is, I already know kitchener stitch, so that's one down.

Right now I am just on the cuff, so nothing tough. I already know how to knit on two circular needles, and I like to do so, so this part is easy and fun. I got some very soft bamboo yarn that I am in love with now. Seriously, it's the softest yarn I have felt yet. I had no idea you could make such a nice and soft yarn out of bamboo.

I can't stop buying CDs. I have a problem. It seems like everyone has just put out a new CD: Tool, Bruce Springsteen, Dresden Dolls, The Flaming Lips, Pearl Jam, Rainer Maria. I'm happy, but, geez, I'm breaking the bank.

Then, this guy at work tells me about this which is soooo just the shit. So, that comes out today. *sigh* What else? The Dr. Katz first season DVD comes out today. God damnit, I'm not made of money. I did, however, get a fatty fat tax refund check. But I really need to control my spending. grrrrr.

So the man and I are planning on going out to Red Rocks to see a show later this summer. I really want to see Ben Harper. That one's in August. There's a 311 show on July 28 and a Ween/Flaming Lips show on July 29. I'm really tempted to go for that and see both of those. I have not yet seen the Flaming Lips in concert and I am dying to. I just saw Ween a few weeks ago and it was spectacular.