Year in Review, Reality TV, and Top Gear
Okay, so I'm a bit late to the party with my review of the last year, but I think I'll indulge myself anyway. Though I think I'll review the national and international year in review as opposed to looking back on my year. (To sum up: Ended a long term relationship, got robbed at gunpoint, went to Anime Central in Chicago, went to Los Angeles, went back to school to finish some work up, and still slogging away in the wash bay at the collision center.)
Okay, so the general consensus is that 2009 (I like to say twenty-oh-nine, get over the new millenium already!) sucked. Never mind the fact that Barack Obama took the White house...okay that might have sucked for a couple of you folks. But never mind that. In automotive news...wow. That sucked too. We lost Pontiac and Saturn while Hummer got sold off and Saab...well the jury is still out on that one at the time of this posting. Not to mention that Fiat will have their work cut out for them bringing Chrysler back from the grave. However, that's not what I'm dissapointed about with 2009. Nope, what I think was the bane of the previous year is tabloids.
To me, the people who run the tabloids are the same girls in high school who gossiped about how Rumor A was cheating on Rumor C because Rumor F got involved with Rumor B. Quite frankly, I really don't care about that stuff! Does Britnay's relationship with K-Fed have some effect on the Climate Talks? If John and Kate stayed together, would the Iran votes no longer be questioned? And try to explain to me how Michael Lohan getting a tattoo somehow has an effect on our daily lives.
Yet it seems that those same gossipy women have taken over the news for the past year. Okay, so David Letterman and Tiger Woods cheat on their wives, Kanye West interupts Taylor Swift at the MTV award show, and Jay Leno's new show isn't all that great. When did these things become newsworhty items that the public need to know about? So people have affairs, are rude on live television, and some people can't seem to gather a croud. So what? I blame reality TV for this influx on useless news.
Reality TV? Okay, so it's been used as a scapegoat many times before, but hear me out on this one. Two news stories that come to mind were the direct result of people wanting to be on reality TV. Remember Balloon Boy? Family wanted to be on reality TV (RTV). The White House gate-crashers? A desire to be on RTV. Really? Why the hell would you want to be on something that is THAT pointless? Don't people have enough unscriped maddness in their lives?
There is one acception to that rule of pointless RTV that I'm willing to make: Top Gear. Trying to explain it is a monumental task in itself. Oh, where to start? Well, there are three hosts, or presenters (as they are called in Britan, where this show is from) that mainly test cars. Okay, so there a shows on Speed that do that. It's the way that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May review cars that makes it so much fun to watch, as demonstrated with this classic review of Jeremy driving the Ariel Atom. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v4YNkurhLk&feature=PlayList&p=DC8B580BB8780FE2&index=10) Once the boys review a fast car, they then take the car out on their race track to see how the car comes together with power delivery, how it gets along with corners, and what happens to it under hard braking. The track is a challenge itself, so to get constantly good times out of the car, they have a "tame" racing driver. A man (or as they like to hype up, "something") who never takes off his helmet drives the cars around the track and can make the most difficult cars to control look like a stroll thru the park (at 120 mph mind you).
It's not just car reviews. It is what they do with old cars that is partictulary entertaining to watch. Like when they try to make a minivan a convertable. However, this isn't some high tech transformation like Pimp my Ride. Rather, it's something more akin to Red Green. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eoUutOsZoQ&feature=PlayList&p=DC8B580BB8780FE2&index=8)
Now, if RTV was more like that, I would have no problems with it. However, since we Yankes are stuck with Jersey Shore and The Real World, I'm going to have to make do with clips from YouTube and the late broadcasts of Top Gear on BBC America. Oh well. Least the Top Gear boys havn't taken over the front page...
Okay, so the general consensus is that 2009 (I like to say twenty-oh-nine, get over the new millenium already!) sucked. Never mind the fact that Barack Obama took the White house...okay that might have sucked for a couple of you folks. But never mind that. In automotive news...wow. That sucked too. We lost Pontiac and Saturn while Hummer got sold off and Saab...well the jury is still out on that one at the time of this posting. Not to mention that Fiat will have their work cut out for them bringing Chrysler back from the grave. However, that's not what I'm dissapointed about with 2009. Nope, what I think was the bane of the previous year is tabloids.
To me, the people who run the tabloids are the same girls in high school who gossiped about how Rumor A was cheating on Rumor C because Rumor F got involved with Rumor B. Quite frankly, I really don't care about that stuff! Does Britnay's relationship with K-Fed have some effect on the Climate Talks? If John and Kate stayed together, would the Iran votes no longer be questioned? And try to explain to me how Michael Lohan getting a tattoo somehow has an effect on our daily lives.
Yet it seems that those same gossipy women have taken over the news for the past year. Okay, so David Letterman and Tiger Woods cheat on their wives, Kanye West interupts Taylor Swift at the MTV award show, and Jay Leno's new show isn't all that great. When did these things become newsworhty items that the public need to know about? So people have affairs, are rude on live television, and some people can't seem to gather a croud. So what? I blame reality TV for this influx on useless news.
Reality TV? Okay, so it's been used as a scapegoat many times before, but hear me out on this one. Two news stories that come to mind were the direct result of people wanting to be on reality TV. Remember Balloon Boy? Family wanted to be on reality TV (RTV). The White House gate-crashers? A desire to be on RTV. Really? Why the hell would you want to be on something that is THAT pointless? Don't people have enough unscriped maddness in their lives?
There is one acception to that rule of pointless RTV that I'm willing to make: Top Gear. Trying to explain it is a monumental task in itself. Oh, where to start? Well, there are three hosts, or presenters (as they are called in Britan, where this show is from) that mainly test cars. Okay, so there a shows on Speed that do that. It's the way that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May review cars that makes it so much fun to watch, as demonstrated with this classic review of Jeremy driving the Ariel Atom. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v4YNkurhLk&feature=PlayList&p=DC8B580BB8780FE2&index=10) Once the boys review a fast car, they then take the car out on their race track to see how the car comes together with power delivery, how it gets along with corners, and what happens to it under hard braking. The track is a challenge itself, so to get constantly good times out of the car, they have a "tame" racing driver. A man (or as they like to hype up, "something") who never takes off his helmet drives the cars around the track and can make the most difficult cars to control look like a stroll thru the park (at 120 mph mind you).
It's not just car reviews. It is what they do with old cars that is partictulary entertaining to watch. Like when they try to make a minivan a convertable. However, this isn't some high tech transformation like Pimp my Ride. Rather, it's something more akin to Red Green. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eoUutOsZoQ&feature=PlayList&p=DC8B580BB8780FE2&index=8)
Now, if RTV was more like that, I would have no problems with it. However, since we Yankes are stuck with Jersey Shore and The Real World, I'm going to have to make do with clips from YouTube and the late broadcasts of Top Gear on BBC America. Oh well. Least the Top Gear boys havn't taken over the front page...