TV Free Zone (Originally Published 4 Dec 2008)

TV Free Zone

The great "No Telly" experiment is still going strong.  I have to admit I miss television.  I am a child of television.  I was raised on Saturday morning cartoons with "Schoolhouse Rock" and "Land of the Lost", Wednesday nights watching "The Waltons, "Star Trek" reruns during the dinner hour and mornings with dear ol' "Captain Noah".  As I got older, my tastes changed.  I surreptitiously watched "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and "Saturday Night Live" in my room, the sound turned low and sitting close to the screen (which is why I probably wear glasses now), my mom wasn't too keen on my staying up so late.  I wanted my MTV and I got it!  Along with VH1 and all those wonderful cable channels, most of which don't exist anymore.  Anyone remember "Prism"?  I became a news junkie later, with the advent of CNN and the rise of Peter Jennings on ABC although I had always watched Channel 6's Action News, even back when the channel's call letters were WFIL (now WPVI).

Not having TV sucks.  I admit it.  

But it doesn't suck, either.

I read a whole lot more.  I have poured through my little library like a voracious bookworm, eating each page with an insatiable appetite.  I have seen the rise of and lived with Pope Alexander, the Borgia Pope (The Family by Mario Puzo), I have fought the thinking machines that enslaved humanity and learned the affects of spice (Dune: The Battle of Corrin by Brian Herbert), I have fought alongside Hector and Paris at Troy (Whom the Gods Would Destroy by Richard Powell) and now I am proving that English artist, Walter Sickert, was Jack the Ripper (Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper Case Closed by Patricia Cornwell)

All of that is a good thing.   

I find myself out of the penthouse more.  Taking longer walks, even in the chillier temperatures.  Making contact with my friends more, probably driving them mad with my frequent visits.  Although I am in a TV free zone, they aren't.  It's nice, though, to see people face-to-face, to have that human interaction.  My depression is lifting, my need to hibernate, to nest, to leave humanity to it's own devices is dissipating.     

I am writing more, working on a few things.  Newest idea: A vampire book set in Atlantic City/Philadelphia.  Being a vampire and knowing these cities like the back of my hand, it's a no-brainer!  I have already written the opening.  It's good.  It's real good! (Although who knows if it will ever see the light of day)

I have also been watching movies, lots and lots of movies.  Movies I wouldn't normally have paid attention to and some I would rather poke my eyes out before viewing again.  Although quite a few have been surprisingly good (like that insipid yet catchy "The Sound of Music"). 

So, the experiment continues.  TV, I miss thee. 

I miss thee, not.