Monday, May 10, 2010

An year without cable TV

About a year ago, US went through its digital TV transition. I saw an opportunity to get rid or minimize my addiction to television and I took it.


At that time we used to have Time Warner cable at home and were pretty happy with it. I was aware that I am becoming more and more addicted to TV and used all kinds of techniques like, not watching repeat telecasts, watching only selected channels and so on to reduce my addiction but none seemed to work. My excuse for not getting rid of cable altogether is that the analog transmission at that time was crappy and getting rid of cable means end of TV and I had tried this once before and had failed (I watched a lot of movies and spent money on movie rental than cable TV). When the US went through its long awaited DTV transition I had no more excuses to get rid of the cable and with a strong mind and heart I took the chance and got rid of the cable.

I consider that to be a very wise decision and I must say, I had complete support of my wife in making that decision. The idea was we will give it a 6 month try (of which we were out of town for close to 2 months) and see if we miss cable.


I confess, initial few weeks were tough for me and I used to watch some of the paid programming on ABC and NBC and so on. But over time I discovered the flavor of network TV and I started following certain shows in a day instead of mindless surfing of channels and shows. Currently my favorite channel is CBS and I occasionally switch to ABC, NBC or FOX. I still haven't fallen for reality TV which most of the network channels want to emphasize or developed a condition that says "no David Letterman or Jay Leno", no sleep.


My own analysis says that I do not gain a ton of time on week days but I do gain a lot of time on the weekends. A trial that started with a time limit of 6 months has now reached a year and I am quite happy about the fact that I am saving money every month.


I realized how easy it is to fall back when I discovered Netflix streaming of movies and shows, I started watching the show 24 like a maniac (completed season 1 and season 2 in less than couple of weeks). Thanks to my breathing practices, I am able to get it under control without falling into the cracks.

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

STOMP


If you thought you need a precision tuned musical instrument to generate music then stomp is here to prove you wrong. If you ever tried generating noise using house hold things and imagined you generated music then check out stomp, they truly generate music with household things. 

Thanks to our Bahraini friend, some of us were fortunate enough to witness the show yesterday at paramount theaters in Austin. The show was spectacular, incredible, no adjective would do justice for the show. 

Never in my wildest imagination I had thought that somebody can generate music with things like broom stick, trash can, pipes, sticks, match box, cigarette lighters, gutter pipes, trash bags, news paper and on and on. They had amazing rhythm and the co-ordination among the members of the team was a feast to watch.  The short hour and half show was an interactive one with the artists interacting with the audience very frequently. The show had comedy too. Some parts of the show were pretty loud but not unpleasant  The show was performed in a single stretch without a break. I definitely would appreciate their stamina and teamwork. I came out of the show thinking, all I need is rhythm and music just happens. At the end of the show the artists got a well deserved standing ovation. 

It wouldn't be fair on my part if I do not complement the acoustics of the paramount theaters and their organizational skills.  I doubt if there is any other theater in Austin with better acoustics than paramount theaters. Their organization skill of employing just enough ushers and distributing them arond the theater in right quantities is something to learn from.    

The group is currently performing at Austin Paramount theaters and they will be there till sunday. The tickets are well worth the price and keep in mind the shows are running houseful.