An alternative form of Television...
Something DIFFERENT, for a change...

I haven't followed any of the three major networks for years, and I have no idea what's in any of their prime-time programming. I've just lost interest. It got to the point where all the new sitcoms had plots I'd seen time and time again, only this time around, with different actors. I suppose that's what aging does to a person; it makes ya think you've seen it all before. So, I began tuning in to Court-TV, A&E, and occasionally, MSNBC; much of the programming on those 3 channels consists of real-life murder mysteries and whodunits. But, a steady diet of that is not healthy, although it took me 5 years to determine that, and lately, I haven't watched as much of that stuff as I used to. I was kinda revulsed the other nite when one of those channels aired a program about a serial killer who was also a vampire, and he drank his victims' blood. NOPE, NOT FOR ME!!! I couldn't finish that program. That's what remotes are made for. Change channel, NOW!!! So I did.

Down here on the Oregon coast, there is a little community channel that I stumbled upon, accidentally, one night while I was channel-surfing. Now, folks, this is small-town TV, for sure. No commercials. No actors. Just stuff. For instance, right now I'm watching a program in which the sole plot consists of Hummingbirds as they congregate at a feeder. They suck in that sweet stuff with their needle-beaks and then fly off, only to come back again, and again, and again. The program before that featured a lady, playing a harp (not a harmonica, but an honest-to-goodness HARP); she was playing songs such as "Tennessee Waltz", and she is great at what she does. One program shows her playing the harp in the City Park, and while the camera films her the majority of the time, it also pans back to show a beautiful man-made pond full of ducks and geese (and yeah, seagulls too...they're everywhere!); it's a beautiful sunny day, and people walk thru the park, or sit on a bench and listen to her play. Harp therapy, indeed.

In the program before that, an old guy who's a native of the area presented home movies of what this area looked like 50 years ago. Another program features a recent 4th of July parade, while yet another shows Halibut fishing (with a camera mounted on the mast of a boat way out at sea), while the fine art of tree-falling is dealt with in another program, in which a logger felled a huge tree, and 50 gallons of sap bled out of that poor ol' tree. And another program features a heavy-set guy with one of those huge baritone voices singing, while a lady sits at the piano in front of him, and that goes on for about an hour. There's other exciting programming on this little community channel; for example, if you tune in at just the right time, you can see a program on bee-keeping...or you can see the implosion of the big stack that used to tower above the lumber yard, which went out of business long, long ago. Community-access TV; there's nothing like it.
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Finally, for those of you who waded thru 'all of the above', here's a little visual treat for you. It has to do with Britain's Monarchy, which, for all practical purposes, is about as necessary as your appendix or your little toe. In short, if you got rid of 'em, there'd be no serious damage, and they wouldn't be missed at all. I do suppose, though, that if the monarchy went out of business, all of the photogs and beat writers for English Tabloids would be out of work. So I have a feeling we won't see the demise of the British royalty system anytime soon. But, it is definitely behind the times in a lot of ways...


I'll bet that www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/hbo would like to court-martial me for always defacing their photos...
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When things become a bit too tumultuous, the harp playing I referred to above is just the thing. Mental medication. Of course, there's another side to this...Once upon a time, a guy told his buddy, "My wife is an angel...she's always harping at me."