Last week, and weekend, was fairly draining emotionally and physically - not to say it wasn't very rewarding.
I'm watching fairly mindless sometimes bizarre TV - one of my guilty pleasures every so often.
This morning I watched part of an episode of The Waltons on the Hallmark Channel. John-Boy was struggling with whether he wanted to become a librarian. One of the other brothers (Jason) had joined a gospel/hymn singing musical group that was playing guitars, singing hymns on the radio and selling bibles on the side. At night Jason played barn dances with the same group. Jason was attending a musical conservatory to learn "serious" music too. Mom Walton was worried that her son was spread too thin. I quit watching before the end...but it's an interesting start to the day of T.V. sampling, to consider what was being aired on T.V. in 1976 the year that episode first appeared. The simple stories, that were easy to make fun of at the time, seem like a relief compared to some of the garbage on T.V. today. It's still a little too much sweetness and light for me...but might be worth watching with some youngsters. Maybe throw in "Little House on the Prairie", "Beverly Hillbillies", "Green Acres", "Andy Griffith" and "Petticoat Junction" for some variety. Things were a lot simpler then.
The afternoon lineup started with Tiara Girls on MTV-2.
MTV.com says, "Tiara Girls documents the struggles of several young women and their journeys to win what they believe is the most coveted sign of succcess - a beauty pageant crown."
At first I thought it was sort of funny and cute to see her fat old dad, and her mom...and whoever else was in her entourage encouraging her. When Jamie didn't get picked for the final ten I realized how stupid the whole thing was. She's broken hearted, at least for a moment, saying how she was good enough...
Good enough at what? Being pretty, and semi-quick witted, and an "object" to be picked by the judges. It's so stupid - not like a sporting event, or academic competition where a person can take pride in being in the competition, and have some understandable reason for winning or losing and therefore a goal to strive for to improve. The fact that you are born with your looks leaves little room for working hard to look like a beauty queen - but who the hell would want to do that anyway?
I can't fathom why any parent would encourage a girl, or young woman to define herself in such shallow terms. Pure idiocy.
Speaking of shallowness and pure idiocy....here's a couple of other shows I've been watching - one funny and one accidently (maybe) very educational for young people.
I've seen Andy Milonakis on T.V. a few times and thought he was pretty funny. Watching his show on MTV-2 this morning provided a few laugh-out-loud moments. He's good in small doses, but he works hard and his looks (he's an adult who looks like a kid) make a lot of his stuff funnier.
This is an episode from earlier this year. My favorite part is the dog with telekinetic powers.
Finally I watched a little bit of MTV's - My Super Sweet 16. Ohhhh my gawwwwdd it was so weirddd! ;-)
The super "sweet" sixteen year old was picking who would be invited to her party to end all parties (one that would cause her to be remembered...not for who she was or what she did...but for what an AWESOME party her daddy bought her). She says, "I'll talk to dorks or geeks but I don't want them at my party."
Well alrighty then.
I think the people behind MTV are very smart (thank goodness). This isn't a show about how cool these sweet sixteens are - it's an educational tool to show impressionable young people what jackasses people who have too much given them can be. Thank you MTV.
