Bedridden in the Land of Sick TeeVee

I took suddenly ill a couple days ago. Appears to be food poisoning from a local Indian buffet. I'm still achy with waves of flu symptoms but the violent eruptions from both upper and lower tract have finally subsided. An alien burst out of my stomach and ran out the back door, which I'm hoping indicates that I'm past the halfway mark of my illness. At least I found a new use for the LA Weekly as a spatter absorber.

As a result of this incapacitation I've been watching lots of daytime television. It's been a succession of local news; Oprah, Dr. Phil, etc... in one big blur. The visual pace of everything seems more accelerated than I recall somehow, as each generation of limited attention-span sets a new low. In the end though it's all thoroughly disposable and empty.

I find car commercials especially annoying, where there's a premium put on austere pedestal-building; on being more clever against last years model's visuals and the obsessive continuance of the "bleach by-pass" look. Big-budget dross.

I did enjoy the the Aflac Insurance Duck rescuing the woman from the railroad tracks commercial, done in silent-film style. But that was little compensation, as the balance of my TV viewing was like a Doctor prescribing a Tilt-a-Whirl ride as therapy for my stomach flu.

It's one thing to work in television, and very much a different thing to suffer through watching it. What sort of cultural degradation have I helped to wrought upon this once great land? I apologize to each and every one of you.