Turn off the Television

We haven't had our television on for an entire week.

Well, I take that back -- I turned it on briefly to listen to the news this morning while getting dressed, but other than that - nada.

The impetus for this little experiment came about accidentally as Mr. SIGIS and I were sitting outside with friends one evening recently; we were talking about how listening to baseball on the radio is not the same as watching it on television.  I much prefer the radio because then you have to engage your brain to visualize what is happening.  We talked about how people don't remember things anymore because everything you need to know is in your smartphone -- why make the effort to remember?

Our digital age has changed the way our brains work, I think.  And not necessarily in a good way.  We have access to more knowledge, but we are not necessarily smarter.

As a veteran teacher, I have seen a change in the way we must teach kids, too.  Kids that have never not known life without a cell phone, computer, or XBOX now must be entertained in order to learn.  Learning has to be "engaging."

At any rate, we turned the TV off a week ago and as a result, Mr. SIGIS has read two and a half books so far, and I have read the nearly eight-hundred page Pultizer Prize winning The Goldfinch which I fished out of our Little Free Library on the corner.

It's been a worthwhile experiment and we will likely just leave the blasted thing off for a while.  We really haven't missed it.  And there is so much to be read!  To that end, make note that The New Yorker has opened its archives through the end of summer and there is a whole boatload of stuff to read there - both fiction and non-fiction.  Business Insider has a pretty good list to get you started.

Checking In

Sometimes life takes us in the strangest directions, and sometimes it takes you exactly where you somehow knew you were meant to go.

Cryptic?

A little, I guess.  Things have been so busy at school this week: some of it truly work related and some of it self-imposed.  We are gearing up for our standardized testing soon and that's involved a little extra time this week, what with meetings, in-service training, and coding sessions.  Wednesday was just crazy: I had duty before school and at lunch, a meeting during my planning period on testing, taught three classes, and had a meeting across town after school.  Thankfully, that's not a typical day.

The self-imposed part comes from the fact that I'm behind in grading papers and research papers and grades are due next week.  That's my fault.  Ever since my two friends at work got me tuned in to HBO's True Detective, I got lost for about three weeks getting caught up on past episodes and then down the rabbit-hole of the internet in all the conjecture theories.  It's been a truly fascinating ride and as much as I'll hate to say goodbye to Rust and Marty tomorrow, in a way I'll be a little glad.  Maybe I can get back to my life!  True Detective is an absolutely brilliant show: the writing is amazing.  Just mail the Emmys to Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrellson, Nic Pizzolatto, and the cinematography people.  That's a lock.  Best show on TV.  Maybe ever.  I'm serious.

Anyway, life goes on.

I've picked up a weekly paid blogging slot at Da Tech Guy's place and so that's another item on my list of things to do.  I'm honored by the invitation and am looking forward to getting to know some new people there.

And finally, I'm in the very early stages of a new project.  I don't want to jinx anything by talking about it much just yet, but I'm very excited about it.  It's a good fit for me.  It will be a quite extensive project and take a lot of time and focus, but it'll be worth it.  And as a very wise woman once said, "you can't tell what you can do till you do it," we shall see!  I'll fill in more details as things progress.

So, if the blogging gets a little slow here, don't give up on me.  It's not burnout this time.  That same wise lady I just mentioned also pointed out that "you can't serve two masters!"  And so I may have to slow down here to keep focus elsewhere.

Have a happy weekend and light a little candle for me as I venture down this new path.  I'll be checking in.

"Let's make the car a place of silent reflection from now on."

Are you watching this freakin' show?!  True Detective on HBO?

I'm so damn addicted!

No spoilers - I'm catching up to the most recent episode, but oh my gosh Matthew McConaughey is mesmerizing!  For those who have no idea, this show is about two Louisiana State Police detectives who were investigating a serial killer in 1995.  The show is framed around current day interviews with the two detectives who are obviously no longer on the job.  They are being interviewed about the case (separately) because supposedly all the files and records were destroyed in a hurricane.  The then-and-now intertwines and intermingles and soon you realize there is more going on here.  The acting is phenomenal, the writing is airtight, and the photography is stunning.  I haven't been this excited about television since The Sopranos.

A couple of friends at work told me I needed to watch this show:  "It's the most tightly written show I've ever seen!", one said.  The other told me she's had to watch episodes a couple of times to catch everything.  I find this to be true.  I'm so caught up with the photography, the scenery, and the filters they're using I miss dialogue.

It is just so Louisiana.  My friend said, "That's what is so cool about it.  It IS Louisiana; it's the flower in the swamp."

From Shane Ryan at Paste:

This is McConaughey in long hair, beat down by life, trying to convince himself and the detectives interviewing him that whatever state he finds himself in is a kind of “victory”; he knows himself, he says, after years of toil he has resolved that he’s a drunk living in the middle of nowhere, waiting for death. But the charisma of this man … this is where words begin to fail, if they haven’t already. McConaughey is almost too goddam massive for the screen. Watching him act, as latter-day Rust, is one of the most intense experiences I’ve ever had with TV. He’s beaten-down, but he can’t hide the life force that struggles to emerge. The medium can barely contain him; he belongs in a spaceship among alien beings. There’s something bursting out, and when he delivers certain lines—“start asking the right fucking questions,” for one—the experience is so visceral your own blood starts to pound. And Fukunaga, who, thank God, is directing all eight episodes, knows the weapon at his disposal. He lets the camera linger on Rust’s face at length, allowing McConaughey to dance from emotion to emotion with a word, with an expression. Working in tandem, they only need a moment to devastate.

I'm kind of like this reviewer: I'm almost speechless about this show.

If you aren't watching this show, get HBO, find a friend with HBO, something, but watch.  It's amazing.  But don't leave any spoilers in the comments if you're already watching!  I'm going now to get all caught up.

I Think I Can Save the Government $2.7 Million...

It's really easy after you read this:

The Department of Health and Human Services is spending $2,797,979 on a study that brings television to more than a dozen remote villages in Vietnam to study its impact on their culture and reproductive behavior. 

“In cooperation with the Vietnam government, we have selected 14 villages in a remote, mountainous area of Vietnam that currently lacks electricity,” according to the grant description for ‘Television and International Family Change: A Randomized Experiment.' 

“Treatment villages will receive televisions and generators with gasoline to operate the televisions. Control villages will not receive generators or televisions.”   

I think the key word in that title is "Randomized."

Next thing you know these poor people in remote Vietnamese villages will be hooked on Downton Abbey and Honey Boo Boo and then who knows what will happen.

They're only getting four channels:

“One is really a news channel, one is a sports channel, one is a mix of entertainment and a little bit of education. For example, ‘if I was a farmer, what should I feed my pig to make my pig healthy?’ kind of things, and then the fourth channel is also a mix of entertainment and news,” Jayakody says.

If only I got channels about pigs on my DirectTV, but no, I get Wives With Knives and Rodeo Girls.  I try to ignore my television most of the time.

Apparently we have no other pressing needs here at home for $2.5 million bucks.

Downton: So What Did You Think?

Sans Matthew...

Sans O'Brien...

(No spoilers for the DVR folks).

"Choot 'Em!" Returns Tonight!

SIGIS is breaking from politics tonight because tonight is the premier of the third season of Swamp People! 

Okay so I don't watch a lot of television and about the only time I blog about things on TV is when a debate is on, but, this has been in the back of my mind for a few weeks now.  There seems to be a rash of new reality series on TV in which the main purpose seems to be to make people in my state look like backwoods, ignorant hillbillies.  A couple of weeks ago CMT premiered two shows:  Bayou Billionaires and My Big Redneck Vacation. 

I watched the premier of each of those.  Now, Bayou Billionaires is going to feature my friend Milly Rose in a couple of episodes (she's appraising their antiques) and Milly swears these are really nice people.  In the one episode I saw, they did in fact seem to be pretty normal.  The show features a family that has hit big money in the Haynesville shale.  CMT, for their part, puts them in scenarios that make them seem ridiculous (like going to join the country club), however, I've only watched one episode.  I'll reserve judgment. 

Same thing with Redneck vacation.  CMT describes it this way:

From the creators of My Big Redneck Wedding comes a new series chronicling the adventures of one countrified, loud-mouthed family from the swamps of Louisiana as they take over a $4 million house in the Hamptons of New York. Watch as this mud-slidin', four-wheelin', beer-slingin', dixie-whistlin' crew learns how to live the high-life and show them Yankees how the South gets down. From polo lessons to wine-tasting to a truly Hamptons nuptial, this rowdy bunch is in for a summer they'll never forget on My Big Redneck Vacation. 

In the episode I saw, the ladies were in a store in the Hamptons asking the butcher for "nutria rat" for their dinner.  Seriously?  C'mon.

To me, Swamp People is different.  Series star Troy Landry has become a cult icon already and the stars make appearances all over the country.  Over 750,000 people "like" their page on Facebook.  Troy and his son Jacob were on Fox News this morning promoting the new season.

What Mr. SIGIS and I like about Swamp People is that the show teaches about the culture of the people in south Louisiana that live this way of life.  They are family oriented and they live off the land.  These people aren't hunting alligators for sport or to make trophys.  It's a way of life. 

The season is only open for about a month (in September).  It is strictly regulated and you must have a license to hunt; you are granted only so many tags and once you've filled your tags, you're done.  The purpose of the alligator program is primarily species protection and control:

The goals of the Department's alligator program are to manage and conserve Louisiana's alligators as part of the state's wetland ecosystem, provide benefits to the species, its habitat and the other species of fish and wildlife associated with alligators. The basic philosophy was to develop a sustained use management program which, through regulated harvest, would provide long term benefits to the survival of the species, maintain its habitats, and provide significant economic benefits to landowners, alligator farmers and alligator hunters. 

 The show often highlights the family gatherings of the principal characters - children, grand children, and even great-grand children. Generations of families living the only kind of life they've ever known and making a living off the land.  They teach the kids solid family values.

While some might complain that Swamp People makes Louisiana people look ignorant, I'd say just the opposite.  I'd suggest looking at the life lessons and the culture the show displays rather than the "brutality" of shooting alligators.  It's so much more than that and they are lessons everyone could use.

The series premiers tonight at 9 ET, 8:00 SIGIS time on The History Channel.

The Pacific

I guess I'm slow to hear about this upcoming mini-series from HBO - The Pacific. You can be sure I'll be watching this one:

Executive produced by Tom Hanks, Stephen Spielberg, and Gary Goetzman, The Pacific is an epic ten-part miniseries. The Pacific tracks the intertwined real life stories of three U.S. Marines: Robert Leckie, John Basil0ne, and Eugene Sledge across the vast canvas of the Pacific Theater during World War II. The miniseries follows these men and their fellow Marines from their first battle with the Japanese on Guadalcanal, through the rain forests of Cape Gloucester and the strongholds of Peleliu, across the bloody sands of Iwo Jima and through the horror of Okinawa, and finally to their triumphant but uneasy return home after V-J Day.

I'm a long time fan of Eugene Sledge's With the Old Breed which is one of the sources for this miniseries. I'm going to have to get busy on the other three: Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie, and Red Blood, Black Sand by Chuck Tatum, and China Marine by Eugene Sledge.

This won't be everyone's cup of tea, so to speak, but I'll be watching.

thirtysomething on DVD!!

I got a message today from Nikki who wanted to be sure I knew that thirtysomething is coming out on DVD (legally) finally! Woot!

This was my all time favorite show from day one of its run until the bitter end. I watched and taped every single episode. Hope and Michael were like old friends and Elliot got on my last nerve. I had a weird fascination with Miles Drentell! Loved the music in the show too - lots of Van Morrison.

Here is the scoop if you were also a fan.

Remember these guys!?

Review: On the Road With Gary Sinise

What a true patriot Gary Sinise is! I just watched the FOX special, "On The Road With Gary Sinise" and it was great.

He's been to Iraq several times as well as Afghanistan and many other places, but this special centered primarily on his most recent Iraq visit. You'll have to catch the rebroadcast, or get the soon-to-be-released documentary, but it's a great story.

Sinise is not at all self-promoting here, although he could easily be. His focus is all about the troops, their service, and their sacrifice. The segment on Hussein's palaces was incredible and horrifying. The gratitude of the troops to Sinise for his visit was very moving, especially the guy on the C-130 that wrote a message to Sinise on the brim of a hat and passed it down the line to him. Sinise read it then looked up at the guy who smiled, nodded, and thumped his own chest over his heart with his fist - a thank you.

On that same flight Sinise opened and read a note he received from another soldier at the base which said how much his visits meant to them. He was clearly overcome with emotion at the words of the letter. Very moving.

The special closed with Sinise doing a voice-over of how much it meant to him to receive the Presidential Citizen's Medal in December. What impresses me so much about him is his attitude of celebrity. He points out that he makes a good living and appreciates his freedoms, as should we all, but that he feels that the way HE can serve is by entertaining the troops. His Lt. Dan Band is pretty darn good!

In this day and age when so many, not all, but many, celebrities are so self consumed, it is more than refreshing to see someone like Sinise or Chris Isaak (who was on one of these trips) and others who give their time to support the men and women who volunteer to wear the uniform of our country.

Sinise closes with a reminder to us here at home to thank those folks who serve whenever we see them. It means more than you know.

On The Road With Gary Sinise

Saturday night FOX News is airing a Gary Sinise special called On The Road in Iraq with Gary Sinise; here's what Sinise, who recently was awarded the Presidential Citizen's Medal, says about it:

"My brother-in–law Jack Treese served as a medic in Vietnam and wore his dog tags on a rosary with a St. Christopher medal. I wore that same rosary and dog tags as my character, “Lt. Dan”, in the movie “Forrest Gump”. With the help of the USO, my brother-in-law Jack, and my friend Jonathan Flora who used a handheld camera, you will see what happened on a seven day trip I took to Iraq last summer which will air this Saturday night on the FOX News Channel. It was my fourth trip there with the USO. My goal, as always, was to cover as many miles as possible and to take pictures, sign autographs and shake hands with as many troops as I could in the time I had."

As previously posted, Sinise is a huge supporter of our troops and is one of the most active celebrities working in the old Bob Hope USO fashion. I remember all those Bob Hope specials on TV as I was growing up. Sinise works tirelessly to thank our troops for their service.

If you get the chance this weekend, check it out, or at least set your DVR! You'll see Sinise meeting troops throughout Iraq and a bit of his Lt. Dan Band!

The Emmys

On Sunday night I will be in front of my television switching back and forth between the Emmys and the final night game in Yankee Stadium. The Yankee festivities kick off in the afternoon and go all day; my kleenix and I will be ready.

As for the Emmys, I, who watch very little television, have an interest because of the 23 nominations for the John Adams miniseries. I honestly don't watch very much on television except for news and such, but I've watched the Emmys in the past because I've always had one or two shows that I'm anxious to see win. Like the Sopranos. LOVED that series. I love watching House, but probably would not watch the Emmys just for that. Ditto for Grey's Anatomy.

But, as I have posted before, the John Adams series was really well done and I enjoyed watching it. I learned a lot about American History that I (sadly, embarrased) did not know. Laura Linney was inspiring as Abigail and Paul Giamatti as John Adams was also great but the actor that swept me off my feet was Stephen Dillane as Thomas Jefferson. Dillane is tall, as Jefferson was, and had the swagger and slightly superior demeanor that Jefferson is reported to have had. He was great. The series is also nominated for a cinematography award, but for me, sometimes the camera angles made me seasick. Sometimes they were all titled and crooked like you were on a ship on rocky seas. I also loved the theme music and hope it wins its category.

The series really gave you a sense of what was at stake for these guys and what sacrifices they made for their country. Of course after the series was over I had to go out and buy McCullough's book, which was excellent. The series left little out. If you have not seen it, you absolutely should! I hope it rakes in the awards tomorrow night!

Here's the scene where Adams and Franklin get their first look at Jefferson's draft of the Declaration of Independence:

Come To My House

I don't watch a lot of TV; most of what I watch is either news or old movies (1930s, 40s, 50s) . But, I can't wait until September 16 and the return of House! The Teenager is actually the first one who introduced me to this show, about 2 or 3 seasons in. We both loaded onto our iPods for the gazillion hour drive to Iowa from Louisiana. I watched the entire first season on that trip!

Huge Laurie is such an engaging actor and I have a sick fascination with his character on this show. His sarcasm and his ego are so, well, those aren't good qualities, are they? But on him they are.

The show has changed some through the seasons, adding Sela Ward and changing the "team" that assists House, but he's constantly adorable.

I'm also awaiting Grey's Anatomy. They lost me a bit on strike-year, but I'm going to give it a shot. I'm kind of over the soap-opera-everyone-sleep-with-everyone else thing, but if the writing gets back up to par I might stick it out. They' re on probation with me for a few episodes.

Other than that, I hardly notice the new tv season. I have a feeling I'm going to be watching a lot of politics over the next couple of months!