Monday, April 24, 2006

TV Turn-Off Week, Part I

April 24-30 is TV Turn-Off Week, and we are celebrating it here at Read-Think-Live.

This week, I also celebrate having my own blog, because I know from experience that anti-television sentiments don't go over well on even liberal-leaning blogs. I've been chastised every time I've expressed my television opinion in an open forum.

So here we are, I can say whatever I want, so "stay tuned" as they say. This week will be a veritable orgy of tv-bashing. It will be the virtual equivalent of what they did to the photocopy machine in Office Space.

Feel free to visit the official website. These people are even more radical than I am!

I'm actually not in a ranting mood this evening, and I'm going to let John Prine kick off the week for me, with a little song that goes something like this:


Spanish Pipe Dream
by John Prine

She was a level-headed dancer
on the road to alcohol
And I was just a soldier
on my way to Montreal
Well she pressed her chest against me
About the time the juke box broke
Yeah, she gave me a peck on the back of the neck
And these are the words she spoke

Chorus:
Blow up your T.V.
throw away your paper
Go to the country,
build you a home
Plant a little garden,
eat a lot of peaches
Try and find Jesus
on your own

Well, I sat there at the table
and I acted real naive
For I knew that topless lady
had something up her sleeve
Well, she danced around the bar room
and she did the hoochy-coo
Yeah she sang her song all night long,
tellin' me what to do

Repeat chorus:

Well, I was young and hungry
and about to leave that place
When just as I was goin',
well she looked me in the face
I said "You must know the answer."
She said, "No but I'll give it a try."
And to this day we've been livin' our way
And here is the reason why

We blew up our T.V.
threw away our paper
Went to the country,
built us a home
Had a lot of children,
fed 'em on peaches
They all found Jesus
on their own

(Woo-hoo!)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We live for TV here in my house, but every year or so we do turn it off for a week and enjoy it so much. We always say, "That was great! Let's keep the TV off," but slowly go back to our old ways.

You quoted John Prine. I'll see you with David Byrne and the Talking Heads:

I was born in a house with the television always on

Anonymous said...

i could NEVER turn off my tv for a week - i even have tivo... i too was born in a house with the tv always on!

mo