Sunday, March 22, 2009

Reality Check

Big news. I got cable. I'm off of network and onto cooking shows and design shows; so I can sit around like a slug on my couch and wonder what it would be like if I actually cleared away the clutter in this house and made the most of my "space" so I could actually cook something or "entertain". I'm not ashamed to say that I'm currently trying to friend David Bromstad on Facebook.

When I veered off of the instructional and into "reality", I got a rude awaking. I was really enjoying Jon & Kate until it struck me that Kate says, "our kids deserve this" an awful lot...and I realized that they get tix to Phillies games and ski trips sponsored by athletic gear companies an awful lot. Of course they can do what they want with their lives and their kids, but it's got me thinking about privacy and celebrity and the ramifications of turning the spotlight on yourself and your family. I still watch, but I'm much more jaundiced about the whole process. I wonder what their kids will think of them when they're old enough to realize their parents are the ones who shined that spotlight in their eyes. I'm thinking Franny And Zooey.

I find the Countess and her NY society friends ridiculously entertaining...it's like staring at a car wreck, I can't seem to turn away. They have no compunctions about talking about each other like dogs in the asides, between air kisses and Hampton parties, ON AIR. I'm reminded of the anonymous nastygrams that breed on internet message boards; only these chicks are lobbing their little grenades in a forum where they're sure the bombs will go off in each other's faces...while still not directly handing them to their target. That's rather chicken-sh*t, isn't it?

I could go on for days: Tori & Dean, the quest for even more families with multiples or a thousand kids, the Little People, the Bad Girls, the Playgirls, the Matchmaker and the people that want Extreme makeovers. What does it say about us as a society when we are entertained by this?

More importantly, what does it say about me that I feel the need to comment on it?

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