Beginnings and Finales

Taking a cue from a good friend of mine, I thought it would be a constructive use of my time to allow the rest of the world a peek into my strange mind. This is I believe the fourth blog I've started, but this time, I promise it's going to be a keeper (no, really). I've been unemployed since late January after the record store I worked at for nearly four years closed its doors rudely and abruptly. During that four year period, I consistently either worked two jobs or went to school full-time while working, or sometimes worked two jobs while going to school full-time. Basically, I'm just trying to let you know that I'm not lazy. Well, I wasn't lazy; right now let's just say I'm taking advantage of the down-time. As a dear friend of mine recently told me, "Kate, you're not wasting time, you're just opting out of it." While his statement is a euphimistic way of telling me I'm not doing anything with my life, I still like the sound of it.

There is no theme to my blog, no rhyme or reason. I just want a forum to gush and excercise my dormant writing muscles. My only ground rule is that there will be absolutely no angst, no drama, no dirty laundry. If I break this rule, I give everyone advance permission to chastise me, deduct cool points, take me off your top 8, or whatever punishment you see fit.

Seeing that I'm smoking while I type this, I suppose it's time I indulge another vice of mine--television. I just watched the season finale of my beloved House and am still drying my tears. I won't include any spoilers in case some of you plan to catch it online (http://www.fox.com/fod/play.php?sh=house). After watching The Office season finale, though, I'm noticing a trend: disappointment makes for good television. This isn't to say that I'm disappointed in the writing; it's that my expectations are disappointed, but that's what keeps me coming back. Long gone are the days of laugh tracks and happy endings. I only watch two shows on network television, so I'm not the most qualified observer, but I'm only left to assume that audiences have grown more cynical, and the producers are catering to that. Do we want to see characters happy or do we want their lives to reflect our own pitfalls and frustrations? We should be proud of Pam for going to art school, but we're not. Like a jealous girlfriend, we don't want the status quo disrupted in fear she will move on to better and brighter things, find a new television audience that has a better job and better clothes with a year-round tan and leave the rest of us in Scranton, sitting at the same desk with the same people putting up with the same shenanigans week in and week out. Don't leave us, Pam. You're the best receptionist an office could ask for. If we convince Toby to stay, will that change your mind?

Related cool thing you should check out: This American Life episode 328, "What I Learned from Television" http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1241