Evolution, or, How I got my TV

I guess my life, like most people's, could be broken up into little bits. One big bit would be labelled 'Before Mark', and the other, smaller, more evolved, remaining bit would be labelled 'Since Mark'.

Before Mark, except for my youth, I never watched tv. I didn't have cable. The extent of my visual technology included a 13-inch color tv and bunny ears. My remote control didn't work, so I changed the channel with my index finger. I was in the Dark Ages.

First, the cost of cable put me off. Then there was the very real fear that I'd lose myself to something huge and inescapable. My tv boycott was also a matter or principle - why pay money to take points off my IQ? And why squirrel myself away from the city where I was so lucky to live?

A few years ago, I met Mark, who works in tv. He knows almost all the commercials ever made and quotes them regularly (tonight's reference was the Hershey's 'messy Marvin' campaign from the 80's). And so this woman of principle acquired HDTV, a flat-screen LCD, and DVR. It helps, when you have someone tell you what to get and hooks it up for you. Our heroine is now hooked on Kitchen Nightmares, Family Guy, Top Chef, Project Runway and (gulp) America's Next Top Model.

My tv is now a little over a year old. I bought it over Labor Day weekend, when it was on sale at PC Richards. For whatever reason, I couldn't bring it home right away. Mark brought it to my place in a taxi (this was post-Mark and pre-Clive). He set it up for me (bless him) and I came home to a brand-spanking, humungous IQ-depleting television.

Sitting on the couch, engulfed by yet another Law and Order episode, the tv issue seems the biggest 'Since Mark' change. I'm sure there are a few others. They'll come to me.


For an earlier post about Law and Order, click here.
A Messy Marvin clip below:




Top photo by myself in Soho.