The Irony of Highlights

Last night I hit rock bottom. After a very good and rejuvenating film production meeting with Kevin, at Grendel's Den, I went home to watch the Major League Soccer Cup. The game - in and of itself quite gnarly, a rough-and-tumble fight to the finish - was fun to watch, but I followed it up by watching SportsCenter. I watched SportsCenter longer than I ever have before - longer than I thought possible - for one goddamn hour and a half. Rock bottom.

And while that hour and a half was the culminating moment in a hazardous series of strung-together-moments of sitting in front of the television, I had my reasons. As far as football is concerned, I'm not the biggest fan, but I take an interest from time to time. Whereas I'm lukewarm about Favre, I love wreck and carnage in the arena of professional football. And Favre and the Vikings have proven martyrs in my spectacle of carnage this season, perhaps most exemplified by their 31-3 defeat at the hands of his old team, the Packers. And I had a perverse desire to see those highlights and the post-game interviews on SportsCenter.

Instead, I get to see briefly the highlights of the Pats-Colts game, which is good, but then I'm subjected to one hour of highlights and interviews from the Giants-Eagles game. While I'm lukewarm about Favre, and feel an intense dislike toward Peyton Manning, I have almost no feeling whatsoever about Eli Manning. And I have absolutely no interest in watching him - or for that matter, anything that is not the actual game - for one hour. But I also had no idea it would take that long. When it's finally over, the knuckleheads at SportsCenter go back to the Pats game, only for much more in-depth "analysis." I don't care anymore; when will it end? No carnage, so I give up. One hour and a half that I will never get back.

But "Today...

tomorrow is not within your reach
To think of it is only morbid:
If the heart is awake, do not waste this moment -
There is no proof of life's continuance. (Omar Khayyam)

...today I found out about Buy Nothing Day and Carnivalesque Rebellion Week, an attempt at organizing a bit of creative opposition to the Spectacle and drudgery epitomized by SportsCenter and Black Friday. It appropriates one of the most estimable situationist mottoes - "Live without dead time for a week" - as a means to mobilize this opposition. By itself, this attempt does not necessarily amount to much (that mostly depends upon how successful it is in garnering participation), but it is something. Something to go on... and to be honest, I find it inspirational. I have no illusions about what I must do to survive in this world, but the more I can cut out the time I spend watching Eli Manning's post-game press conferences and replace that time with potluck dinners and walks in the park, the more I come to life. Imagine the possibilities if Dr. Frankenstein, rather than directing all his resources toward the creation of the monster, had directed them toward creating his own authentic life.

* Incidentally, I really would like to organize something creative for Buy Nothing Day - in Boston, Vermont, wherever. I haven't put any thought into it yet, but we still have four days... if anyone's interested, hit me up.