Outer Space, Thanks For Stopping By

Have you ever tried to write while a satellite dish is staring at you? From inside your living room?

Long story short: DirecTV charged Big M a bunch of money, then proceeded to call him a liar when confronted about it. Research was done, we decided to go with Dish Network instead (hey, I like better customer service and lower bills), they installed new dishes and took down the old one.

How's the Dish Network service? Well, pretty good so far. This is actually saying a lot - I don't like most of what's on the tube nowadays, and I've been pretty resistant to getting any kind of television subscription. There's a rather decent 2 tuner DVR that came (for free) with our package. The reception doesn't leave anything to be desired. We opted out of the package that includes the Science Channel (no Space Week here, unfortunately, save for what's on NASA TV and up in the sky), but that's about the only channel I wish we had. There's Kung Fu, Mythbusters, Extreme Engineering, and Good Eats in HD. There's Star Trek on about twice a day. There's the occasional algebra lesson.

There's also TVJapan. TVJapan is (mostly) programming from NHK, and it's delightful. Dragon Zakura (with the motorcycle gang member turned lawyer trying to do good as a sensei) and Spring Waltz (with a handlebar mustache bearing German who shouts "Wunderbar!") are both great. There's a TVJapan special on rebuilding a 70 year old steam train on the DVR that I've been nibbling at, careful to not let it all slip away in too few viewings. I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I love watching the weather on the news, the design of it all. Yes, TVJapan (Dish channel 640) is my television Kryptonite.

The DVR makes a big difference - no channel surfing and waiting for shows to come on. I skip commercials when I can help it - when I do catch the odd set, it makes me wonder what the heck happened to broadcast advertising to make it so nauseatingly pedestrian (the brilliant exceptions are too few and far between).

I think, now, that I could probably learn to live with unadulterated television in my house again. It feels odd, as if having the luxury is gluttonous, a prime example of what has taken over many Americans and given them an image the rest of the world doesn't like. There's so much bad television out there - but at least there's a lot to learn, and the good television is worth the admission price. Besides, Big M and I run a production company, and we have to have a better idea of what's going on out there in Televisionia. End of story.

The defunct dish, for those wondering, is in our dining room now - a considerably better place for it.