I think I had a Bill Hicks moment

I am not sure whether to be happy or sad about this article:



http://momshomeroom.msn.com/?topic_id=6&section_name=InfoList&section_id=20152435&source=hp&gt1=25051



It's good to see someone advising people how important it is for brain function to READ a book. But sad at the same time that we need to be coached and reminded that reading helps boost our knowledge and keep cobwebs out of the head. Has that really become something that is no longer apparent at first blush? Really? Truly? I wrote a blog a couple of summers back about a friend of mine who lives inside the TV. Sad to say, he still does. Only I think he has increased his cable package and now has 4,000 channels to choose from on any given day. Not to mention a Netflix subscription so between having 8 DVDs from Netflix and the 4,000 channels, he could hole up in the house and never leave. Yet again I must say that I am not hating on TV or cable or Netflix. I am also not hating on being able to turn your brain off sometimes, relax and enjoy something purely for pleasure. We all need downtime. And when we don’t get it, we face overload and feel like shit. But it seems that I encounter more and more people who are like my friend—didn’t read much in school, don’t read anything now and want to subsist on television as a hub of the universe. I swear I think it makes him more gullible and naïve with each passing year. He won’t read a newspaper and he won’t interrupt his steady diet of crap TV to watch either a news broadcast or a weather forecast. I know it sounds like I’m exaggerating his exploits but I’m not. I have seen him walk outside in a t-shirt and shorts during the winter and, conversely, a coat and heavy pants in the summer not because he’s high or completely stupid but because he never watches the weather. You’d think common sense would say summer = hot and winter = cold but he gets so wrapped up in what he sees on TV that I think he doesn’t even want to invest the effort in taking time to pick out proper clothes. He just throws on whatever is handy in his closet and runs out the door. For he and I to go out somewhere requires that he make a list from the TV Guide and set his DVR to record what he’s missing while we’re gone. (Not kidding. Wish I was but I’m not.) If there is such a thing as full-out TV addiction, he’s there.


In keeping with my TV rant, my Bill Hicks moment came this morning. I’d watched the traffic report and since it was stormy in Tulsa, I thought I’d flip over to the Weather Channel and check the forecast. I took the long way around and while I was channel surfing, I saw an ad on VH1 for this Megan Wants a Millionaire show. I saw an old man ripping his shirt off and dancing around in a house and I thought, “Oh my God, tell me this is not real. Surely this is a sign of the Apocalypse. Surely this means the world is soon to end.” I was reminded on one hand of the line from Kanye West: I ask ‘cause I’m not sure, do anybody make real shit anymore? And I was reminded on the other of Bill Hicks and his stand-up about the woman at the Waffle House who asked him why he would ever want to sit and read a book while he drank coffee. As though reading was the equivalent of pulling one’s toenails out one by one at the dinner table. I bet my friend will watch this crap on VH1 and want to discuss it with me, which I will refuse to do. Somehow Andy Warhol was able to use a sorcerer’s power of divination into the future because he was totally effing right that everyone gets 15 minutes of fame. EVERYONE. You would think VH1 would run out of people to put on these dumbass dating shows. Oh no. No, no. They seem to have a never-ending machine that cranks them out 10 or 12 at a time. Uggggggggggggh.