Stupid tv show water-cooler talk

[Phideaoux44]

I used to think American Idol was completely inane and refused to watch it. When my wife was pregnant we wound up watching a lot of tv and she got me hooked on it. I don't get off on the drama of the contestants . . but what I find absolutely fascinating about the show is that you get to watch the inner workings of several wildly successful entertainment professionals as they try to identify and coach prospective entertainment superstars purely with an eye for commercial success. It's a world that's pretty alien to me, so it's a trip to see their minds at work. It's also neat because the judges have very different backgrounds and skill sets.

Randy Jackson - former bass player with Santana, Jean-Luc Ponty, Jerry Garcia and Journey,etc.; grammy award winning producer of a bazillion albums - he's a professional musician and producer and has a recording studio engineer's ear.

Paula Abdul - idiot, but she was a real life arena pop star and provides the perspective of someone who has made being a superstar a profession - and was successful at it for quite a while.

Simon Cowell - British A&R guy, tv producer, built up a few record labels to make them very successful. Instead of displaying Randy's studio honed ear, he mostly seems to work on evaluating the commercial viability of a candidate's overall sound and appearance.

The actual performances are somewhat entertaining . . but the real value is getting to watch true professionals at work.

Of course no one wants to talk about that part of it . . .

I at least applaud you for trying to find the good in things.... Even when there is no good.

 

[mmb]

Of course no one wants to talk about that part of it . . .

nerd








That's the same as everyone likes to drink my beer but doesn't care how it's made.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I used to think American Idol was completely inane and refused to watch it. When my wife was pregnant we wound up watching a lot of tv and she got me hooked on it. I don't get off on the drama of the contestants . . but what I find absolutely fascinating about the show is that you get to watch the inner workings of several wildly successful entertainment professionals as they try to identify and coach prospective entertainment superstars purely with an eye for commercial success. It's a world that's pretty alien to me, so it's a trip to see their minds at work. It's also neat because the judges have very different backgrounds and skill sets.

Randy Jackson - former bass player with Santana, Jean-Luc Ponty, Jerry Garcia and Journey,etc.; grammy award winning producer of a bazillion albums - he's a professional musician and producer and has a recording studio engineer's ear.

Paula Abdul - idiot, but she was a real life arena pop star and provides the perspective of someone who has made being a superstar a profession - and was successful at it for quite a while.

Simon Cowell - British A&R guy, tv producer, built up a few record labels to make them very successful. Instead of displaying Randy's studio honed ear, he mostly seems to work on evaluating the commercial viability of a candidate's overall sound and appearance.

The actual performances are somewhat entertaining . . but the real value is getting to watch true professionals at work.

Of course no one wants to talk about that part of it . . .

If that makes you feel better about watching it, then more power to ya.

 

[Bobby_M]

So the moral of the story is that you don't want to engage in discussions about inane BS unless it's inane BS YOU are interested in. It's also very hip to judge people based on their choice in entertainment and later ridicule them to strangers. If you want to excel at this behavior you cannot under any circumstances own a TV and if you do, it can't be plugged in ever. Also, you can't just not have a TV, you have to act like a virtuous ass and make sure you tell people you don't have one as if it were the last original thing to do.

Someone talking to you about American Idol is the equivalent of us talking to ANYONE else about diastatic power of Vienna malt. The only difference is, they probably wouldn't talk to your other coworkers about what a ****** you are.

 

[Madman]

So the moral of the story is that you don't want to engage in discussions about inane BS unless it's inane BS YOU are interested in. It's also very hip to judge people based on their choice in entertainment and later ridicule them to strangers. If you want to excel at this behavior you cannot under any circumstances own a TV and if you do, it can't be plugged in ever. Also, you can't just not have a TV, you have to act like a virtuous ass and make sure you tell people you don't have one as if it were the last original thing to do.

Someone talking to you about American Idol is the equivalent of us talking to ANYONE else about diastatic power of Vienna malt. The only difference is, they probably wouldn't talk to your other coworkers about what a ****** you are.

Amen, QFT, etc, etc

 

[Phideaoux44]

So the moral of the story is that you don't want to engage in discussions about inane BS unless it's inane BS YOU are interested in. It's also very hip to judge people based on their choice in entertainment and later ridicule them to strangers. If you want to excel at this behavior you cannot under any circumstances own a TV and if you do, it can't be plugged in ever. Also, you can't just not have a TV, you have to act like a virtuous ass and make sure you tell people you don't have one as if it were the last original thing to do.

Someone talking to you about American Idol is the equivalent of us talking to ANYONE else about diastatic power of Vienna malt. The only difference is, they probably wouldn't talk to your other coworkers about what a ****** you are.

Well, but I bet they do. We all are all guilty of the same things we chastise others for. I have definitely seen people roll their eyes and whatnot when I talk about beer. And if they have a forum for American Idol, which I bet they do, I bet they make fun of us for, as I've heard it so aptly put "it's just ****ing beer man. You know they make it and it's cheap, right?"

Nothing wrong with him ranting. Perhaps, like the rest of us, him ranting and getting it off his chest might be the thing that stops him from saying something like a dick to his coworker and thereby ending whatever friendship they had.

Good job for venting in imaginary land instead of actually being a dick in real life, OP.

And just the other day Bobby, you "man card revoked sir" someone for using epoxy instead of solder. Nobody got mad, or at least I didn't see it. I thought it was kind of funny, but the point is we all judge others(whether we'll admit it or not) when people do things very differently or like things we don't. You weren't telling that guy he sucked, you just don't like the way he does it. OP doesn't like the tv they watch. No harm for either of you to do either of the things you did. Not trying to invoke the thunder gods, just pointing out that ALL of us do it, even if on different subjects.

 

[Bobby_M]

Obviously the spirit of my post was tongue in cheek and didn't think it would be taken any other way (you really think I'm mad?). Yes, I revoked the man card in the spirit of the DIY nature of brewers. Voicing my opinion on how NOT to engineer a piece of brewing gear seems pretty appropriate for this audience.

Carry on.

Just for the record, here's a list TV shows I regularly watch (none of which do I ever bring up in conversation):

How I Met your Mother
Biggest Loser
Hell's Kitchen
American Idol
Survivor
The Office
My name is Earl (thinking of skipping this one)
CSI (vegas only)
American Chopper
Dirty Jobs
Modern Marvels
Man vs. Wild
Mythbusters

Judge away. I usually DVR everything and condense a 2hr show into 25 minutes.

 

[jmulligan]

Good job for venting in imaginary land instead of actually being a dick in real life, OP.

Thanks.

Is this not the DRMM forum? I'm not rude to my coworkers about it, and I even stand there politely, and will listen for a few minutes while they talk about it (after having only said "No, I didn't see it."). I don't mind "inane BS" if it's about THAT PERSON - AKA that they like to show purebred dwarf poodles on the weekend. Fabulous. THAT is something REAL. The tv is not. That is where I have a problem.

 

[MBrusky]

Nothing tells me more about a person than what he/she is willing to sit and watch on television. This may be of interest to some Writing

 

[Phideaoux44]

[yawn] Good ol' internet. Everything sounds angry and gets taken out of context no matter how hard you try. Ever noticed that?

jmulligan, I was just saying I'd rather you "criticize to a bunch of strangers" any day rather than bottle it up and then end up boiling over one day and being a dick in real life. I recently did a project with my neighbor and he started getting on my nerves toward the end. So when I got home at night, I'd talk about it with my wife rather than just let it sit there and fester which I knew would later make me snap on him one afternoon. I was more saying that I agree with you. If I didn't get on here and tell you, for instance, how tired I am of hearing about my secretary's cat and "cute thing he did", I would probably end up losing my mind.

 

[jmulligan]

jmulligan, I was just saying I'd rather you "criticize to a bunch of strangers" any day rather than bottle it up and then end up boiling over one day and being a dick in real life.

Yeah, I got that. My "thanks" and smiley were sincere (in case you took them to be otherwise). I was glad you understood where I was coming from.

 

[Phideaoux44]

Yeah man, no sweat. I think I might have secretly wanted my own chance to bring up how much I just LOVE hearing about her cat. I absolutely agreed with your stance and know what you mean.

Ya know what I think is far more egregious? People talking about TV is one thing. I try to let it slide because boy can I ever get off on a tangent about beer... But when people pass up living in the real world for tv!? I could write a book on how angry that makes me. I refer to this as "substituting Actual Reality with Virtual Reality". A good friend of mine was invited recently to go out on the river with us, fishing, drinking, etc... He said "nah man, I can't".

Seeing as this is normally something he loves to do, I inquired what he had.

"Gotta busy night on tv. My games are on, and so are my shows, and then American Idol".

I try to see things from other's perspectives, but honestly I can't wrap my head around passing up on legitimately living your life and having real world experiences so that you could sit there and watch someone else have fun with theirs. I mean, yeah, to each their own and all... but that IS sad.