What do I remember about 2022 and plan for 2023? My retirement funds tanked, inflation gnawed at the family budget, I got Covid at a wedding in September, I spent more time on Twitter in 10 days than I had in the past 10 years, I had knee surgery in November to fix a torn meniscus, some of the people I voted for in November actually got elected, and I kept working on blog posts and performing at open mics.
But for real lifestyle impact going into 2023, I think of
2022 as the year we cut the cable cord. My partner Naomi and I had Verizon FIOS
for years, topped off by Netflix, Amazon Prime, Showtime and HBO. While I liked
the series we watched on streaming services (Babylon Berlin, Russian Dolls, The
Girls from Ipanema), I’d still use broadcast to check in on the local news,
Spanish-language programming like telenovelas and the talent contest Tengo Talento, Mucho Talento to
test my limited Spanish understanding, PBS programming, and—my weekend treat—football
and baseball games. Mostly I mindlessly clicked around expecting to find
something to hold my interest among the hours of advertising-clogged dreck.
Well, I did like watching that Canadian show about big-rig blizzard rescues, Highway Thru Hell.
But this fall, as we overhauled our Verizon spending, we
dropped FIOS, the landline and network/cable TV, but kept the Internet services.
Roku became our source for programming, along with streaming channels.
Imagine my shock when after we did the Big Snip that I
couldn’t get the World Series! No Houston Astros, no more college football, no more Greg Gutfeld
on Fox News, no more On Patrol: Live on Reelz, no more Dallas Cowboys! I felt a
physical withdrawal at lacking access to enjoyable programs. The
compulsion to plop down on the couch and mindlessly slog through the digital wasteland
was stronger than I ever suspected.
My response: like any resourceful American, I adjusted to changing circumstances. I found I could listen to baseball on
the radio, just like I did in the early 1970s. I found a radio station, KURV in
Edinburg, Texas, that broadcast the Astros online so I tuned in to that station on
my computer. For those rare moments where I want to watch the local news (mostly crime, celebrities and funny animal videos), I can
get New York’s CBS News on a Roku app. Saturday Night Live? I can see segments
online, if I ever cared again to watch that tediously predictable show.
Roku is a source of wonders on our TV monitor. We get the PBS Passport for documentaries and British crime dramas. The library-supported Kanopy service keeps me stocked in film noir, musicals, Italian neo-realism, French New Wave and European Holocaust fare I can’t find elsewhere. They’re the standard entertainment during my morning exercise routine; it may take a week to work through lengthy masterpieces like L’Avventura and Rocco and His Brothers, but I like the black-and-white company at dawn. As the three films at the bottom of the screen shot below show, I'm into director Lina Wertmuller these days.
On the aural front, I recently discovered a Roku app called iTuner, with access to radio stations worldwide. As a music fan, this is tremendous. I now listen to broadcasts from Israel, Brazil, Mexico, Haiti, Portugal, Italy, Cuba, France and Cape Verde. Combined with the equally awesome and genre-searchable radio.garden, I get all the music I can handle.
With brain cells and attention freed up, I’ve increased my time both working on my long-gestating mystery novel and also reading novels. I just started The Lying Life of Adults, by Elena Ferrante. She wrote the novels that inspired the HBO series My Brilliant Friend, which we’re watching and enjoying.
So, the bottom line: For 2023 I’ll use my expansion of free
time to write and perform more. And if the Dallas Cowboys get into the Super Bowl,
I’m sure I can listen to the game on the radio.
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