Living overseas, the only time I’ve been on the pop-culture cutting edge was when J-horror flicks were the rage, or when Tarantino used Tomoyasu Hotei’s music for Kill Bill.
Movies lag behind by a bit, but not too much (having a new child puts me further behind the crowd for new films than any geographic separation). TV shows, however, lag waaay behind, with programs coming here at best two seasons after they air in America (if they come here at all). Combine that with irregular airing hours and long work hours, and I’ve given up watching all but a small handful of programs.
I generally have no idea what half the Cafe threads on a given day are talking about.
Way back in the early eighties I read about the coolest thing ever on the Games page of Omni magazine. It was a three-dimensional puzzle the likes of which had never been seen before. I managed to lay hands on one (25 or so years later I can’t even remember how or where I got it).
My high-school age sister stopped by, and I showed her my new treasure: “You’ve got to see this, it’s the coolest thing ever!”
She looked at it and rolled her eyes. “Everybody,” she sniffed, “has got one of those.”
Of course now I realize I should have said, “Yeah, but can they solve it?”
I’ve been watching 2 1/2 Men in reruns. While it isn’t excellent, it is watchable and sometimes funny (if raunchy). I didn’t know Charlie Sheen could do comedy, and the supporting cast is very good.
Oh, I ADORE Two and a Half Men. As far as I’m concerned, comedy is all Charlie Sheen can do, and his Charlie character on the show is basically himself, as far as I can tell.
I tend to have an aversion to popular or trendy things while they’re popular, so this happens to me often.
Example #1: I scrupulously avoided Stephen King’s work throughout the 80s and early 90s (my high school years), when he was the best-selling author in the world. I was actually proud to tell people, when they wanted to discuss It or The Tommyknockers with me, that I’d never read any of his books. I finally read The Stand in 1998 at a friend’s urging, and was totally hooked. I have read 20 or 25 more of his books since then, including the entire Dark Tower series in April and May of last year.
I watched one episode of Futurama when it was new and I didn’t like it. Then last year I saw another episode and found it hilarious. So I acquired the rest and I couldn’t be happier, except that nobody else I know likes it.
For me, it was with the Buffy and Angel series. My husband and I just started watching them a few months ago (gotta love Netflix) and were pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed them.
But do you have any idea how hard it is NOT to be spoiled with random Buffy/Angel comments? We’re only up to season 4 in Buffy and season 2 in Angel and I’ve already been spoiled to several major story lines.
This happens to me all the time, though. I seldom jump on the popular bandwagon and get caught up in the hype while something is current.
