[Seth Says] Channeling Dissatisfaction
Q: Where does a BBC host drown their sorrows?
A: The English Channel
As someone with a Netflix subscription, a Disney+ subscription, a partner who works at the library, and a small infinity (aleph-null) of video games, I exist in absolute media abundance. If I never purchase another piece of media as long as I live, I will still have access to more appealing media than I can possibly consume in a human lifetime.
And yet there is a part of me that hears Murderbot is on Apple TV, and is eager to watch it once the series finally wraps. I enjoyed the Murderbot books, not least of which because it's fun to sing "Murderbot" to the tune of "Lollipop" (ba bom bom bom). But also because in spite of being a robot created for murder and some murder happening in the book, there's a spirit of light and fun throughout the book. Which is important.
I'm a big sci-fi and fantasy fan but there was this trend for a while where media got really grimdark and was just sort of hard to enjoy. Of course, the latest show to go down this road is one you may have heard of called "The News". (Do people still watch The News any more? It's really gone downhill since last season.)
THE SHARK, SHE IS JUMPED
I mean, I occasionally enjoy grimdark media. I've even been playing a game with an old college friend set in the Warhammer universe (the game, not the friend)(although I definitely have friends who might enjoy being set in different universes) where everyone is amoral and chaotic and there aren't any good guys and murder and evil is commonplace and EVEN THERE if you were to pitch a plotline where the world's richest man, sick of having his racism contradicted by his social media platform's AI which examines facts, reprograms the AI to be as racist as possible, causing it to declare itself MechaHitler and spew racism non-stop, you'd be like, "this is a bit much".
And it's not even in the top 5 for worst things in the past fortnight. If this was on TV, I would definitely change the channel. (I was going to make a channel changing joke, but it wasn't remotely funny.)
FREEZE, PEACH!
Meanwhile, while more Washington Post employees quit as they find out they're not allowed to write true things that Lord Bezos wouldn't like (even innocuous things such as, apparently, an editorial saying a pay raise for federal employees might be "well-deserved"), I am pleased to say that I continue to write my column calling out the truth as I like for a newspaper which isn't owned by a tyrant-cozying billionaire.
I am, alas, less pleased to note that one consequence of this is that my newspaper has apparently been pushing the paywall harder so even the usual nonsense may or may not work for this week's column. Which is a shame, since I put together a bit of an homage to an old MAD Magazine gag on channel surfing I saw 30 years ago that stuck with me ever since as a clever idea, and I've finally put it to good use to talk about some of the current nonsense going on. If you're a local with a subscription, or good at computers, perhaps you can enjoy this week's column:
But if you can't get through the Berkshire Eagle paywall, it's possible I could also start posting links to reprints in the Bennington Banner and see if that's an easier wall to jump? Here's one from the other month, in case you couldn't read it in the Eagle but can get through here:
Unpaid Bills and Overpaid Bills
If this is useful to anyone, please let me know! If at least one person tells me they can't get through the Eagle links but can read the Banner links, I'll start including the latter in this newsletter as well. But absent any missives informing me thusly, I'll presume that people either:
a) Are able to circumnavigate (do you need a mohel for that?) the BEagle's paywall
b) Are unable to circumnavigate the Banner's paywall
c) Hate clicking on links anyway, because they've spent years clicking on links and the results are always disappointing
d) Have been eaten by a grue
YOU ARE STANDING IN AN OPEN FIELD WEST OF A WHITE HOUSE
Obviously outstanding in your field. Although I'll admit, if I were to hand out an award for outstanding in the field of cooking this week, Debbie would win the award for a pretty fantastic pad see yew which is good enough that I'm planning to go to bed at a reasonable (well, Seth-reasonable, not like people-reasonable) hour so I can wake up and eat some delicious leftovers. I'm half-tempted to eat them now, but I would be sad not to have them tomorrow.
On the other hand, if I don't start imbibing some other media now, I'm not going to be able to stop thinking about them. So that's it for this week's newsletter. As always, I thank you for reading, will be back in two weeks with another column you may or may not be able to read (sorry about your illiteracy)(I think that was a Mike Birbiglia joke: "I shouldn't say mean things about illiterate people... I should write them."), and bid you some sort of enjoyable media.
Me, I'll just be dreaming of delicious carbs.
Want Some Rye? 'Course I Do,
Seth