Posts tagged as:

TV

Enjoying the World Cup

by Dirk June 20, 2010

I’m not one for watching sporting events. My relationship with sports, at least since my adulthood, is largely an analytical affair: I play in fantasy leagues and look at the stats “my” players accumulate but never actually watch the games. I pay attention to headlines and story lines to remain culturally conversant but am disinterested [...]

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The cautionary tale of Russell Hantz

by Dirk December 21, 2009

One of my guilty pleasures is the television program Survivor. This was a fascinating season, as easily the strongest player in the history of that game – Russell Hantz – employed his unique brand of ruthless manipulation, pragmatic dogmatism and unchecked ego for the entire 39 days of the show’s duration. Last night he concluded [...]

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“Dad would have liked this.”

by Dirk November 30, 2009

Watching a new show, “Pawn Stars”, for the first time tonight, I found myself chuckling and saying, “Dad would have liked this.” I wish we had a longer adult relationship, where making that observation would lead me to pick up the phone and tell him about it, as opposed to being left to wince at [...]

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Sympathy: a redemption story

by Dirk February 16, 2009

Once Upon a Time in modern popular culture, there were clear Heroes and Villains. My earliest memories of such things were seen in the old U.S. propaganda movies of World War 2 (Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini = Evil; The Allies = Pure as the White-Driven Snow), re-runs of the 1960′s era Batman TV show (Batman [...]

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“It is what it is”: the “stuff” of a new generation

by Dirk May 16, 2008

When I was a boy, the word “stuff” really bothered me. It was used frequently, and it didn’t really “say” anything. A typical exchange would be something like: A: “Hi B, what have you been doing today?” B: “Oh, you know, work and stuff.” Or… A: “So B, what sort of things are you interested [...]

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Why I don’t use Google to “Google” anymore

by Dirk April 10, 2008

Today it hit me that I rarely use search engines to find information anymore. The specific example is a little embarrassing: I was looking over the days’ headlines and read, “No ‘Secret’: CBS cans show after one episode” next to a picture of former Star Trek actor George Takei. This jogged my memory about a [...]

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Forgotten by history

by Dirk April 4, 2008

When I was younger, I wanted to be famous. Not so much famous-for-famous-sake, but more because I intuitively understood that through fame I could stretch my essence beyond the bounds of my physical life, in some clumsy way thus living beyond my actual lifespan. This greatly eased my fear of death and gave me something [...]

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Patterns and dreams

by Dirk April 1, 2007

Lately my dreams have been unusually sharp and – at least the ones I can remember – consistently involve the same two elements: 1. Poker. As my friends know, poker has been one of my preferred leisure activities over the last four or five years. Recently, I haven’t been playing much as I ran through [...]

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Ephemeral zaniness

by Dirk May 6, 2006

We’ve been watching Miami Vice lately via Netflix: at first it was just a nostalgic trip to “I wonder what it looks like now?” but we’ve ended up watching a lot of different episodes, largely owing to Fran’s enjoyment of the series, since she is from Miami which spurs an entirely different level of nostalgia [...]

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Thirtysomething

by Dirk April 8, 2006

So it has taken me about a year, but I finally understand and accept what I’ve become: a thirtysomething. Technically I’m about 32 1/2 at this point, firmly entrenched in a life stage once iconically represented by Ken Olin, Mel Harris, Timothy Busfield, Patricia Wettig, and friends. I’m no longer among the young, now one [...]

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