Fri 12 Mar 2010
Get Ready To Rock In The Depths Of The Saucer
Posted by laup under Discussion, Meditations, Music Quest, Organic Interocitor, Outbreak, Random Encounters, Tell-a-vision
[3] Comments
Way back in the days of great doom there used to be this crazy cable station that played music videos all the time. For those of us too poor to afford access to this fountain of culture, there were television shows with videos. That is, when you didn’t have to pay cable companies for the privilege of television with commercials.
One such television show was Friday Night Videos. They showed many if not most of the popular videos, along with a handful of oddities. Had a rockin’ intro too. It was like a weekly ritual with my folks and me for a while.
Friday Night Videos disappeared. But it was okay because the crazy cable station moved down to the level of “standard fare” and I could see videos galore. It was a golden age of seeing what was happening in music for me.
Then a strange thing happened–the cable channel began mixing shows in with the videos. At first it was edgy programming like Beavis and Butthead and The Maxx. But slowly, those videos faded away until all that was on were fake reality programs and weird attempts at gameshows. The videos disappeared.
Rumor had it they’d moved to a clone station somewhere. They lost me. See, this thing called the Internet had become the place to hang out and hear the latest. I remember when I first heard of MP3—I thought it was crap and would never catch on (dial-up was still the rule then).
My folks got rid of their cable subscription. The free channels are awesome, because they aren’t beholden to the big corporations (there’s no money in “only commercials TV”) and you can see things you don’t normally see anymore. Local stuff. Personal stuff. International stuff that isn’t whitewashed with Hollywood phony baloney culture.
I don’t miss the cable. The other day, Comcast came through the neighborhood with a two-man team. They sent one guy one day and the other guy the next day—my guess is to wear down resistance and get past first-impression blocks due to psychology incompatibilities. They were hyper aggressive and refused to take no for an answer, trying to barge in and sign us up.
See, when I had Comcast their service was horrible and their product stunk. I’ll never go to them again, even if it means no television. All these tactics do is remind me how much I hate them and never want to hear from them again. It also makes me laugh because if this is their new tactic—they are desperate for cash and just don’t get why.
The new economy is about consumers getting what they want, when they want it. You can’t ram stuff down our throats anymore. Unwanted, irrelevant, inconvenient come-ons and advertising gets NO PLAY with me. And from the attitudes of these guys, and the look on their faces when I said I only watch Netflix or the Internet, I can tell I’m not alone.
K, the folks, and I sat down on Friday and watched a free television program come on. Two hours of videos, from mainstream acts to obscure weirdoes and local artists. It blew our minds how cool this stuff was. Friday Night Videos is gone, but its spirit is back and better than ever. We sat down as a family and watched with an excitement we haven’t felt in years.
Rock on UFO Girl, rock on.
Discussion open for a limited time. Closes at the stroke of psychological midnight, or when it’s done, whichever comes first.
Man, I LOVED Friday Night Videos! And that cable station, when it was still cool. I remember watching that cable station when it first went live, over at my grandmother’s house. I was hooked. We didn’t have cable at home, but I could watch that station all the time at my grandmother’s house. It was radio for the eyes.
We’ve ditched cable too, and only watch Netflix and Hulu and stuff we buy off of Amazon-on-demand now. And Cox, our local cable company, sends us some incentive at least once a week to return. These incentives become fodder for the recycle bin. If we had a bird, we’d line the bottom of its cage with them. In fact, I might go out and buy a bird right now, for the express purpose of showing Cox exactly how I feel about their service.
You couldn’t pay me to go back to cable now. I hate the TV anyway and rarely ever turn it on, except to watch WHAT I went, WHEN I want it. Right now I’m hooked on Supernatural. I’m finishing up the season finale for season five and debating whether to pay $2 per episode to watch season six on Amazon, or to wait until season six comes out on DVD at a decent price. (I always wait until the price goes down to $20 or less.)
ChiaPet and I often think that cable should go to a pure a la cart or on-demand structure. I’d happily pay $5 or even $10 per month just to get the SciFi channel. I’m seriously considering paying $2 per episode right now to watch the current season of Supernatural. These big cable companies could probably make fistloads of money if they offered cable on this basis rather than hundreds of channels of crap that they do.
Cool, you remember that show too!
Cox is another cable company I’d rate as godawful poor. I’ll never go with them again either.
The companies don’t want ala Carte because it means changing the huge profits they make from one form to another; they’ll be out of business soon.
I mean, yeah. Supernatural–that’s on my queue too btw–can’t wait to see it. Hard to say no to on-demand low-price great selection. Those cable dinosaurs are outta town!