I tried to watch the tribute to the 4th of July on Friday night. My television viewing habits have dropped to an all-time low lately and the local weather is usually all I need. The Macy’s Fireworks media event was impressive. They featured snapshots of the “local gal,” a barrel racer from somewhere in Oklahoma interspersed with just enough apparent celebrities who don’t orbit in my world. The barrage of advertising was quite frankly physically distasteful, all those ads for drugs to control things I didn’t know could go wrong. The side-affects of said drugs were merely bleeding from the rectum or possible death. These were followed by an uplifting message from mean old Walmart. Have you ever been in Walmart after 10pm? You will never make that mistake again.
When they jumped to an aging rock star in a stadium somewhere in this country-wide party, I had to call it quits. I’m not being political here but his number one hit song was in both English and Spanish. “Push one if you would like to continue in English.” One day a year we give ourselves a self-deprecating pat on the back for being such good people. I wouldn’t mind if we didn’t spend the other 365 days litigiously blaming our lot in life on “the local gal, guy, politician or corporation.” The finger-pointing eventually comes back to each of us and how we choose to be an American.
Therapeutic Misadventures 
One day to show what good Americans we are, one day to show our loved ones they are our world, one day to celebrate our veterans – it is all about advertising. The hell with how we act the rest of the year.
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So true!
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I’m glad that I missed it. I watch a little PBS but not much else.
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It’s sad that television has become such mediocre entertainment. Remember Ed Sullivan?
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Yes I do. I watched it every Sunday night and I watched as the Beatles changed the world.
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TV is something I rarely indulge in and, when I do, I record everything on Sky+ and whiz through the adverts. I’m pretty sure I’m not missing much 🙂
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It’s funny but the more media takes over my life in the form of intrusions from phone, texts, FaceBook, blogs to read and forums to follow, the less television has to offer me…
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Very true. I’d rather choose my entertainment myself too
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