Most people have Netflix these days. That is good.
Recently I noticed that Netflix is now streaming EVERY episode of Saturday Night live. Well, maybe not the current season. The important thing is that there are sketches that I haven't seen in (seriously) 30 years (yeah, some of my earliest memories are watching SNL with the fam).
I just dug up a couple of my favorites that have been on my mind for like 20 years.
This first one is about a new high school trying to decide on a mascot.
It's 1987, Season 13, Episode 3. Try this link and then it starts at 24:31.
Here's one from when Alec Baldwin first hosted the show. This is my favorite Alec Baldwin.
1989, Season 15, Episode 18. Link. Starts at 22:12
If you know me well at all, you know I'm a huge fan of the Nickelodeon television show iCarly.
On a recent episode, one of the kids developed an interesting iPhone app (actually in the show it's a Pear Phone (apples are pears in that universe)) that would take a picture of someone's face and then through math and science would measure the facial features and reveal that person's precise mood. In the episode, the dangerous side effect of doing this was revealed when one character's mood was measured as "in love." Then, wackiness!
Would such an application be a good thing?
It very well might, but I would fight against it. I would hate the forced vulnerability.
Next step. What if the application revealed who we were in love with? Good?
I would vote horrifying. You may agree with me once everything's in the open. I think most people's hopes would be dashed. The people we're in love with would be in love with the people we're in hate with or they'd just be thinking about food. We'd realize the people in love with us are people too nice for our depravity and/or have lame taste in music. We'd be pushed away from love right from the start because we'd have no hope. We wouldn't be deluded enough to think we had the chance with that certain someone -- and therefore we wouldn't get around to deceiving them into liking us.
We're not getting together though. Surely if everyone said who they were in love with all the time, two like-minded people would agree and immediately get together and live happily ever after.
Or would the TOTAL openness dissolve the romance? If you think about it, most of what makes courtship exciting is what's not said. It's intimacies that have potential to be revealed over a steady period of time. Perhaps if we simply said to one another "I don't mind mixing my genetic material with yours" we actually wouldn't mix our genetic material.
Have you ever wondered what it's like living on the USS Enterprise 1701-D? Deanna Troi lives on that ship. She can read your mind. She comes from a planet where everybody reads each others' minds all the time. Everyone knows who's in love with everybody else. There wouldn't be room for any games. A paradise or a prison? According to Deanna, the open book lifestyle is a wonderful way to live. That's easy for her to say. She's the hottest chick on the ship. We don't see what life's like for the ugliest empath on Betazed. For Deanna it's constant validation that she's the hottest girl around. Her mind either receives that or disgusting, sexist harassment (which would still actually be validation if you ask me).
Anyway, this is reason 524 why I flog love out of my system.
Listen to this song. It's my favorite at the moment.
This news isn't as exciting as I thought it would be because the exclusivity has worn off.
Earlier this week, Overstock.com announced its vacations program to the public, which previously was only available to Overstock.com employees. I don't even know if the deals are good, but one in particular caught my attention.
Recently I learned that my heritage is not nearly as Danish as I thought. Just about all of me originates from the British Isles (although I maintain that I'm quarter Mexican because my grandmother was born there (to white Mormon colony settlers no less (I don't think she actually ever knew Spanish))).
Perhaps as a result of this, I've had an insatiable calling toward going back to the Motherland -- or is it Fatherland? I'm not sure because I'm pretty sure Germany is the Fatherland, but yet Russia is the Motherland. They never taught us country gender identification in school.
This may also explain why my Netflix queue has suddenly swelled with British "programmes." The IT Crowd, Fawlty Towers, Skins, etc. I've even gotten pretty addicted to Downton Abbey. Have you ever heard of this show? It's ridiculous. So British. It's a show that takes place in a mansion in like 1912 and there's all the manners and protocol with the ruling family and then there's the intrigue and humanity seen behind the scenes with the large assortment of servants. Class system on display! There are remnants of the Victorian age, but also the dread of progress throwing a spanner into everything. I laughed out loud when I read that the keywords Netflix actually uses when describing this show are actually "cerebral" and "understated." I finally realize that wearing my emotions in an "understated" way may be based on my British heritage (it's certainly explained my method of NEVER telling someone how I feel about them). It's dreamily, delightfully British. It's so British that I'm sure several people in England tuned in and after five minutes actually said: "Blimey! This is too British for me!"
I may be the only person I know who feels that the revolution thing that happened in the 1770s wasn't really that great of an idea.
Anyway, the really staggering thing is that even though I watch lots of British TV shows and strictly listen to British music and also enjoy tailored white wigs, I've strangely never ever been to the United Kingdom. I have the option of five nights there for about 200 bucks in August. No doubt, my agoraphobia will kick in and I'll chicken out (or realize I'm out of money again). If you'd like to convince me to go -- go ahead. Also if you'd like to come along -- convince me of that too. It may be fun although you may not want to do the same things I do (hanging out at Basildon looking for fixtures from Depeche Mode music videos or trekking all the way up to Manchester to sneak into Factory Records). At least the shopping will be good.
It's 1987, Season 13, Episode 3. Try this link and then it starts at 24:31.
1989, Season 15, Episode 18. Link. Starts at 22:12
