Ideas, Insights,& Intuitions

Of course, I know that “Blu-ray” is some kind of video format, and that there is such a thing as a Blu-ray player, but it is not clear in my 70-year-old mind whether this player plays a disk that resembles a DVD, or what? Whatever it is, I am sure that it’s too expensive for me, and I’m perfectly satisfied with the quality I get with my plain DVDs (which are not even HD.)
I’ll admit that the DVD is better in almost every way than the VHS cassette. The way in which it is not better is that most people, including me, can’t afford a stand-alone DVD recorder. Nor can they afford to subscribe to a service like Tivo. Anyway, digital recording, so that you can watch any program you want at a more convenient time, is totally beyond my poor low-tech brain’s ability to grasp.

I kinda “get” that the digital recorder is always “on”, but how you find the program you want to watch when you finally have the time, and how you can pause the playing of a live show while you go to the fridge, and then start watching again where you left off , is too complicated for me. I would never learn to use it if I had it!!

The thing is, I still have a VCR, and that’s what I use to record a show that I can’t watch because I have to be away from home, or because I want to watch another show that comes on at the same time. But I just read that they have stopped selling [new] VHS tapes in the stores. And this makes me think that I won’t be able to buy blank VHS tapes, either, pretty soon. I know how to use the VCR, and if it’s not too long between times that I want to timer-record, I can even manage that without forgetting how to set it correctly.

For the DVDs that I buy or receive as gifts, I have a very good CD/DVD player, without Blu-ray, whatever that is. I can even play my CDs and DVDs on the computer, but I’d rather use the big TV screen and stereo sound instead of wearing out my computer.

But what will I do when I have worn out my blank VHS tapes and can’t buy any more? Do I have to go out and buy up a couple of dozen now while I can still find them?

This little abandoned wolf and his siblings were raised by a human, but not to be socialized with people. Watch him learn how to howl!

Living with wolves

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The other night Cinemax showed a movie entitled “Queen of the Damned.” The TV Guide blurb described the film this way: “In this thriller based on Anne Rice’s novel, the vampire Lestat…is a rock star conspiring with the Queen of the Vampires (Aaliyah) for world domination…” Why do people apparently enjoy this *crap*?

I have an intelligent, well-educated friend who has become a devoted follower of the HBO series, “True Blood,” another show about vampires that attempts to portray vampires in a most sympathetic way. They want to become mainstream citizens, and to do this, they no longer consume human blood, but survive on synthetic blood so that they don’t have to bite humans. (Is this kind of like becoming vegetarians?) There are a couple of things wrong here. First, there is no such thing as a vampire. It is a literary invention. And second, if there were such a thing as a vampire, why on earth would anyone want to associate with him/her and learn to *understand* him/her ? Forbidden fruit?

OK, so I am missing the point here, I guess? Everyone knows that vampires are not real, no more than hobbits, 900-year-old Jedi masters, or Vulcans with copper-based blood, who have been trained since birth never to  do anything illogical. But hobbits, Jedis, and Vulcans are the good guys, and it’s OK to believe in them. A vampire shuns the sunlight, sleeps in a coffin all day, and comes out at night to bite people on the neck and suck the life’s blood out of them! His/her canine teeth can suddenly grow into fangs, and then just as suddenly shrink back again. He/she is hypnotically attractive and supernaturally strong so that humans fall helplessly under his/her power…and then the most “exciting” thing happens: the helpless, infatuated human gets bitten, losing so much blood that he/she turns pale, and then turns into a vampire, too! (How this occurs is never explained–evil magic, I guess.) A vampire, of course, can only be killed by a stake made of aspen wood, driven through the heart. But no one really believes this, do they?

Most of us, if we receive any upbringing at all, are taught that witches, vampires, wizards and the like are evil, and are in league with the devil. In children’s stories, these evil creatures always meet a horrible death at the hands of the hero. Why then, do many children grow up into teenagers and adults who love scary movies, Stephen King novels, and “scary” *reality* shows on TV? Even worse, they are attracted to drugs that have the power to enslave them. We see more and more of this kind of “entertainment”–drugs, violent crime, and horror–since, apparently, this stuff of nightmares is what people will pay to see, and the more realistic and gory, the better.

Where does that come from, I wonder? I know I risk offending some people who are fans of certain writers because they are so skilled at making their fantasies seem real. If it is the writing they admire, I guess I can understand that. But if it is because they get off on being drawn into a nightmare, then no, I don’t get it.