So the boys and I finally broke down and got cable TV. Got a ridiculously good deal from the guy who lives in our garage who decided to charge us just the extra ammount it cost to hook up our part of the house. 30 bucks a month between the 3 of us. No premium nothing but an absurd number of channels and OnDemand goodies the likes of which I've never seen. I'm still used to cable boxes that don't go above two digits. It took us a while to figure out that if you want to watch CNN you have to press 059. This is the first time since heading off to boarding school that I've had cable TV in my life. It is fucking awesome!

For years I've been a PBS watching, rabbit ear owning, broadcast TV purist. I like my music on vinyl and my TV to have a little fuzz in it. I like the localism of broadcast TV. There's something about adjusting your antenna to point at a building several miles away that's beaming the hometown sports team into your living room. I'm also still technically a film snob so it's nice to give the DVD collection a little advantage over the junk on TV. But as movies keep getting worse and TV keeps getting better/weirder, I can't resist any longer.

But even as I'm unabashedly excited about the prospect seeing what all the fuss is about and adding Stephen Colbert and Steven A. Smith and the Mooninites to my life, I am fully cognizant of the dangers that lie ahead. My TV is huge and HD. My couch is comfy and leatherish. When it comes to channel surfing I can be like Moondoggie from Gidget, laconically riding wave after wave all day long to the detriment of my social and economic prospects. Aside from the dangers of passivity, I foresee conflict on the horizon. After a summer of flipping past Baseball Tonight, the fall will come and with it, the National Basketball Association's 2007-2008 season.




It would be nice if I lived in a house with people who know what it means to get the Basketball Jones but alas I do not. Back at home, the bleatings and whinings of little siblings could be tuned out with ease. With roommates who are unrelated, strong-willed and casually violent, I'll be lucky if I win as many battles over the remote as I lose. It has the potential to make for some epic confrontations. Stay tuned.