My wife took the special summer offer from Digitürk: a few second-tier premium channels for only TL 3 a month through September. The first thing I did was click on the E channel, E for Entertainment, showing the life story of Tyra Banks, a fashion model I had never heard of before. I switched the channel and happened back upon it an hour and a half later: still the life story of Tyra Banks. Subliminal message: She must be important.Years ago I would read blurbs in the paper about the series “Friends” and wonder, for I'd never seen it. Still haven't. My wife's brother gave us a DVD of the first season, but that has never appealed to me, watching TV shows any time you want. Oh gosh, 24 episodes of whatever!
“Sex and the City” is another series I've never seen, partly because it's shown in Turkey on one of those premium channels that's just beyond reach of my pay grade. Imagine my confusion when the E channel ran a special on Carrie Bradshaw, whom I guessed must be the star of the show. There's Sarah Jessica Parker talking about this person, on and on. Finally it hit me: Carrie Bradshaw is the fictional character she portrays on the show.
Now imagine my surprise when I hear that the interview is really about the movie of the same name coming out, that the series stopped production five years ago. I guess I only learned about this show once it had been a hit for several years and had run its course.
I met an actor from a hit police drama in the US and had to admit I'd never seen the show, asked was it based in L.A. or New York. He said New York, but for all I knew it could have been Chicago. Of course, I take a perverse pride in being out of touch with all the TV out there.
The famous actor inspired me to give up The New York Times for the Daily News. A purist would give up the news all together, but that's a difficult proposition for a working journalist. The actor said he had a friend who refused to read the Times, thought it was all slanted to the establishment. For example, my friend said that in the writers' strike the paper only reported from the perspective of the producers, as if the writers did not exist or had no base to their grievances.
I've often gotten sick to death of The NY Times, same as the tone of the Financial Times gets to me after a while. So I lopped the American ‘newspaper of record' off my toolbar menu and replaced it with the Daily News. Wow, what a change.
Moving down-market may be the most democratic step I've taken for my intellectual life in decades. This week, for example, I didn't see a word about the Nabucco signing. Didn't happen. But I did learn that a brothel in Berlin is offering a “green” discount to customers who arrive on bicycles -- $7 off the usual $100 fee. That was listed under World News.
Notwithstanding this digital down-market splash, my book diet remains literary; I have yet to take up reading People magazine. This week I read Homer's Odyssey for the 18th time… Odysseus heading home after a long war and even longer trials on the salt sea. Even if I know the outcome it is still a great read, still suspenseful, still thrilling.
Next I'll reread “The Iliad.” That, too, is a great story, a fun read. And I can tell you why the film “Troy” of a few years ago failed to live up to its source material: the writer and director bowdlerized the tale, took out all the gods. The gods are the story. Just imagine Brad Pitt's performance if he'd played Achilles to Angelina Jolie's Athena.
