TV, A La Carte
Mike: Logan, did you see this op-ed in The Los Angeles Times written by John McCain? Essentially, he wants cable TV to be unbundled—”an a la carte approach to programming rather than the take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum we have today.” This is a topic that’s actually been talked about for a few years now. Putting aside for a minute whether or not that kind legislation could actually pass, would you like to be able to, say, build your own cable TV and pick your own channels?
Logan: I saw some tweets about it. And now I just read it. He makes some points, obviously. I don’t subscribe to cable right now because subscribing to cable would involve monthly bills and set up fees and also buying a TV, ha. And that’s okay for my lifestyle. I mostly watch TV on my phone, at this juncture in life. One day it will be nice to have a couch again, a TV. For now that’s a luxury I enjoy at my parents’ house, mostly. My friend Rebecca has a nice TV. We mostly watch Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Hulu and like, Beyonce videos. So me, now, no, the way I buy cable wouldn’t change if The Way We Buy Cable changed, because: I still wouldn’t buy cable. But yeah, I mean sure, of course it’d be better to pick your channels and only pay for your channels.
That’s basically how it works now, with upgrading to premium packages, except you have to pay for all the sports channels just because you want one sports channel, or all the movie channels if you just want TCM. Everything is going to get worked out like it should be, eventually, mostly, is my opinion on this and most matters. READ MORE
10 Possible Reasons Why My Hot Yoga Studio Didn’t Respond to My Respectful Plea for a Discounted Membership Now That My Groupon For 1 Cheap Month Has Expired
1. Garish neon sports bra distracting, jarring against cool muted raspberry color themes of rest of studio and undulating creamy aurora print of very popular Lululemon tops everyone has.
2. Kicked neighbor’s Smart Water over in midst of desperate floor flailing during third class, bottle fell into metal wall heater, noise so loud, everyone momentarily less centered with all energy suddenly focused on hot, moist hatred for me.
3. Did not sweat enough? Not committed. Am lazy, sweatless unbending monster with chakras all askew, like in a garage sale. Garage sale chakras.
4. Fell out of Dandayamana-Bibhaktapada-Paschimotthanasana last class like fucking complete uncivilized idiot, like was born yesterday, like beamed down from Planet Doyyyyyy.
5. Did not sound like was having most intense, gorgeous, brain-addling orgasm during each exhale of pranayama breathing series, rather sounded like screaming goat of meme fame but 60 years down the road and after nasty bout of the flu and while standing in front of box fan.
Open Thread
Special report: Because of nationwide shortages, Washington hospitals are rationing, hoarding, and bartering critical nutrients premature babies and other patients need to survive. Doctors are reporting conditions normally seen only in developing countries, and there have been deaths. How could this be allowed to happen?
This is a must-read story for the weekend.
Photo: Leonardo Aguiar
Labor Labor Labor
Josh Eidelson was on Talk of the Nation earlier this week talking labor. If you are like me and can’t get enough of Josh Eidelson, listen or read the transcript. Good convo great convo learned some things.
I Am Fastidiously Frugal And Exorbitantly Flagrant (Because: Balance) (And: Parents)
Ways in which I am fastidiously frugal (father’s influence):
• 80 percent of my wardrobe comes from thrift stores, second-hand shops and sidewalk free pile foraging.
• I live in a tiny shoebox closet bedroom in a house with three other people and a single bathroom—because the rent is unbeatable, and because my housemates are sweeties.
• I haven’t bought shampoo in years—I wash my hair with baking soda and apple cider vinegar.
• My hairdresser is my friend who went to beauty school once. She cuts my hair in her kitchen. I lighten it with Sun-In and a hairdryer, $4.68 for a bottle that lasts months. READ MORE
Materialism in Youth Culture
In the essay about Fast Forward on your website, you said that the world has changed since you started working on the project in the ’80s. A lot of the things that you saw in these communities of privileged kids has now become the norm across the board. How do you reconcile something as changeable as youth culture or the economic climate with your desire to document particular phenomena?
I’m not really thinking about those things when I’m working. When I did Fast Forward, one of the things I was looking at was the homogenization of youth culture, and how kids from very different socioeconomic backgrounds were affected similarly by the same media. It was a time when MTV was blowing up and rich kids were being exposed to the materialism in gangsta rap, but there was this over-the-top materialism in the ghettos of L.A. that was also influenced by hip-hop culture. When I look at Fast Forward now, the clothes are dated, but the phenomenon is not. With the internet, cable, globalization, and international branding, it has just gotten that much stronger, that much more pervasive. I go to China, I go to Moscow, I go to Dubai, I see that those forces affect people in a lot of different parts of the world at all different ages.
And now that I have a son who’s going through the bar mitzvah phase, I can’t believe I’m living it. Yesterday he told me about an attraction they had at a party at somebody’s home where they had a fan and a box, and the kid goes in the box and the fan was blowing REAL MONEY. And the kids would catch as much as they could and take home what they caught.
Rookie has a really great interview with Lauren Greenfield, a photographer and filmmaker who made The Queen of Versailles.
Also, OMG, that box that blows money for children to grab and take home. I distinctly remember having one of those once at my middle school. We were selling boxes of candy for a school fundraiser and the kid who sold the most candy got to go into the money box. What a scam that was.
Friday Estimate
Good morning! It’s the Friday before a three-day weekend, which is exciting. Our schedule will be slightly shorter today. Let’s do some estimations.
Unfortunately, the weather will be not-so-great this weekend, which ruins some potential “being outside in the park and having a picnic” plans. But there is Arrested Development on Netflix, plenty of places to order BBQ, and time to laze around, read, and write a letter to my pen pal. I’m going to start the weekend tonight meeting up with a friend, ordering in food, and watching episodes from the newest season of Mad Men, which we have been saving. Otherwise, I’m estimating $200 for the three-day weekend.
What are your estimates?
Photo: supermac1961
So Like Here’s My Business Card With My Contact Info Or Whatever Cool
is a writer, cat person, and Jew (in that order). He is an associate editor at Vulture.com and has about 495 unused business cards that say as much. This is where he plugs his twitter.
What Happens to a Gift Card if a Store Goes Bankrupt And Closes?
There are 17.7 million people who hold $210.5 million in unredeemed gift cards from Borders, which closed the last of their stores in 2011. A judge recently ruled that Borders owes nothing to those people, effectively making those gift cards worthless. Which reminds me of this question: Is giving someone a bad gift better than giving someone a gift card? It’s the thought that counts, right?
Today in Terrible Job Ideas
“If I tell you, you’re not going to believe me,” Torres said. He was crying as he told them an incredible story about being recruited by the Defense Intelligence Agency to participate in a secret operation testing the security of Washington-area banks. He said he’d been assigned to rob a half-dozen banks over four days. And he told them about Theo, the man who hired him and gave all the orders—even though Torres had never met him.
