B.H.D. / A.H.D. · Jun 28, 10:17 AM by Mike
One of the deals the wife and I made when planning to move was that we would get a new TV when we sold our old house and bought a new one.
We didn’t really watch a lot of TV before, and I thought it was because of a lack of quality programming. Now I realize it just looked like shit. See, the programming can be shit as long as it doesn’t look like shit. I’ll watch almost anything that is a high definition broadcast and cringe when faced with a standard definition (I call it low def) show on my glorious 42” plasma. We don’t understand what took us so long, and how we watched shows in low def all these years that HD has been available. You know what they say, once you go to 1080i, you never go back.
I’m embarrassed to admit having watched an episode or two of According To Jim, just because it looked really good in HD. Sadly, it was announced today that the show has been renewed for another year, so I will probably and unfortunately continue to follow the sitcom life of the unfunny Belushi for another season.
One show that we never, ever watched before that has really captured our eyes is CSI Miami. So far, just entering month three of my HD life (my version of being born again), this is the most visually attractive show on TV. I don’t know any of the character names, but I know the helicopter shots of Miami in HD are borderline absurd.
I’d rather the Kentucky Derby be raced by horses not being hit with a stick because I think the horses should want to be the fastest because of their competitive spirit and not because they know the beating will cease after a mile and a quarter. Nevertheless, the detail of the dirt being kicked and the flaring nostrils of the horses was beautiful.
I was watching the final round of the U.S. Open a couple weeks ago in our bedroom on a pathetic low def TV because my 3-month-old daughter was there playing (apparently my priorities are not completely out of whack just yet) when the TV made a popping noise and went black, with a burning plastic smell in the air and smoke coming out of the back of it. I quickly unplugged it and yelled to the wife to get the daughter out of the room in case the stink was toxic or an explosion was pending, and it wasn’t but a few seconds after that I thought, “I can now get an HDTV up here too and I don’t need a reason or excuse. Happy Father’s Day to me!”
A few days later on my way to work, the morning after some nighttime storms, I was driving on a tree-lined road as the sun was on its way up. The light from the sun was hitting the still wet leaves, creating a beautiful, glistening shine, prompting me to proclaim to myself, “Wow, real-life is in HD.”
I think as long as I try to remember that from time to time I’ll be OK, and won’t end up spending the entire summer in our basement, numbed by the glow of HD.
Really? Seriously? Wow.
— Brian Jul 1, 10:54 PM #