Tag Archives: Tee Vee

Some ‘Splainin to Do

Posted on by

I’ve been putting up regular content here at the JBE since 2012 when I first launched this site. The primary purpose of creating this WordPress platform (my first time designing my own website, btw) was launching my personal brand. At the time, given what was happening—basically, getting down-sized—plus, I was reading Seth Godin, Daniel Pink, and others; personal branding seemed to be the proper exit ramp to free agent nation.

The most important aspect of the JBE now looks like it’s been centralizing where I blog. That’s one reason why I chose to include one as part of the website in the first place. At the time, my plan was to write about reinvention and other things central to my personal brand.

With all that’s transpired over the past three years, the blog remains the primary reason I keep the site up and running. My efforts the past year to reinvigorate my own freelance writing is the reason why I also maintain another site where I post my freelance writing clips and keep my online portfolio up-to-date—something that seems like it would be a requisite for a free agent writer these days. The personal brand thing—I’m not as bullish on that anymore. Continue reading →

Kill It!

Posted on by
Not really missing my television.

Not really missing my television.

“But it is much later in the game now, and ignorance of the score is inexcusable. To be unaware that a technology comes equipped with a program for social change, to maintain that technology is neutral, to make the assumption that technology is always a friend to culture is, at this late hour, stupidity plain and simple.”
-Neil Postman, “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business”

For 19 days, I’ve been on a television fast. For the first 11 of those days, I watched no television whatsoever. On the 12th day, I couldn’t help myself and had to watch five minutes of the morning weather forecast (I could have gotten it somewhere else, like my smartphone or computer).

Since then—a week ago, Thursday—I haven’t turned either one of our two televisions on. Neither has my wife.

Each evening, after dinner—a time when our television would always be on for two or three hours until we decided to go to bed, Mary and I have been reading. We are both avid readers, but without the television, even more reading is taking place. So are conversations that don’t have to compete with the 32 inch flat screen. Continue reading →

Investigating the News Through Movies

Posted on by
Redford and Hoffman starring in "All The President's Men."

Redford and Hoffman starring in “All The President’s Men.”

Bumping your head and puncturing a lung forces you to slow down just a bit. Slowing down allows you to take the time to smell the roses, or at least include a nap or two as part of your recovery. Naps aren’t a bad thing, but in America, napping is seen as weakness. That discussion about our hustling nature will have to wait ‘til later, when I’m back at 100 percent. Continue reading →

Vox populi

Posted on by

“The Voice” on NBC; American entertainment at its best.

Tee Vee is a strange phenomenon.  Some say what we watch as Americans speaks to something deep and disturbing about us as a people. Or possibly, it’s just a reflection of what entertainment has become in these latter days.

Our Tee Vee watching is Balkanized like just about everything else—how we gather news and information; how we select and listen to music. Everything is just one big personalized smorgasbord, part and parcel of our vapid 21st century lives. Continue reading →