my goodness there's not been all that much of christmas cheer here on this blog so far. perhaps just a reflection of where "i" kind of "am" in the world at the moment, look you see, rather than a glimpse of a decaying world entire. up to who(m)ever is reading this to determine not so much which is the case but rather which you deem the least dull. or something like that.
anyway, as would be tradition at this time of year, a post from moi inexplicably ranting and raging about something which does not matter. which is what a good deal of the internet contains, when you think about it. in this instance, nothing major, just my usual gripe (or complaint) about the fall from grace of the celebrated christmas edition of tv guide magazines, with a stop along the way to lament that it is no longer big, impressive or important what they throw to the airwaves over the festive season.
with nominal (if not token) interest i observed that the christmas editions of the tv guides were on sale. a variety of them are available, with them all equally slumped on a "this will do" sort of stand. the premium, classic and once only ones you could get titles, Radio Times and TV Times, are priced north of £6 each, whereas the "regular" magazines (which offer the same information) were south of £2. it would seem that, maybe, this particular sense of nostalgia has (finally) left me, for i did not buy any of them. yes, briefly i considered getting one of the cheaper ones "for the sake of it", but ten went (internally) no, just f*** no, i am not indulging this sentimental hygiene any further. had i purchased any variant i can assure you it would have just sat in my lodgings in my place of exile, perfectly unread and simply languishing some ignored existence until it occurred to me to throw it out. yes, it did (as i typed) dawn on me that this is pretty much a metaphor for my life.
in practical terms these tv magazines are as an effective definition of obsolete as you could care to find. one cannot move for information in this day and age, with television broadcast information hardly kept a secret. most, if not all, televisions have a built in tv guide. then there's the internet and all them "social media" things what spread schedules, or highlights. newspapers (actual or online) also carry all the details you could want.
then there's the issue of just how wide television options are spread. i can remember growing up in the 80s wondering just how awesome life in America must be with all the tv stations they had when us in the UK had to make do with 4 (four). now that we have hundreds of channels (plus all that streaming stuff) it's not a struggle to pick something so much as it is a fight to find anything interesting. quite a lot of things appear to be shown just to fill up some broadcasting frequency.
not sure if the "magic" from christmas tv line ups has gone because it actually has, or if it just feels so because of my lot in life. perhaps a mixture of the two. for the former, well, the "big two" or larger four channels no longer own the train set, do they? our licence fee (and their lucrative international sales) seem to get spent by the BBC on anything but programmes, and ITV no longer has the large advertising revenue it once had. budgets are decimated, so what they can find for "big" entertainment is severely limited. a tv premiere of a "big film" from 3 or 4 years ago was one of the wonders of christmas tv. that's all gone now, modern "big films" are intentionally disposable and not really difficult to find via a variety of platforms.
ultimately the only reason i would have possibly picked up a guide would be to engage in a rather futile search to see if the classic Chas & Dave Christmas Cockney Knees Up was being repeated. yes, go on then, here is a link to more on that. doubtful it will be on, for i think they stopped the repeats of it, for no given reason, 8 to 10 years ago. quite a shame.
so what, exactly, shall i be watching over christmas if not any of the television offerings? probably just a couple of videos i have sat here. most i wouldn't be at all surprised to find me simply staring at some sort of dead space void, wondering for how long all of this shall progress.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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