The first thing I did when I came home from my Artist's Way class tonight was update and clean out my TiVo. Why? Because it is media deprivation week. And I gotta tell ya, I'm kinda freakin' out!!!
What that means is that there is to be no exposure to mass media for the whole week. Nothing with words to clog our own creative pathway. That means obviously no TV and no radio except for classical or jazz background music. No newspapers. No magazines. NO BOOKS EVEN!!! No internet surfing, checking email is allowed as is anything work related. But otherwise, no media to get in the way of creating or thinking about creating.
I totally get the purpose of the assignment. But that doesn't mean I'm not very wary of it. Although, when I lived in Prague I experienced a sort of involuntary mass media deprivation as far as broadcast media was concerned. And I enjoyed it. So much so that I didn't own a TV for about a year after I moved back to the states. I read sooo much more and was so much more aware of my surroundings. But that was a long time ago and media has not only crept back into my life but apparently has taken over.
I'm looking forward to the experience in one respect but terrified on another. I know for certain that I am dependent on mass media. I love my shows. If it's Tuesday, it is "Gilmore Girls," "Amazing Race," "House," "Boston Legal" and "The Shield." Wednesday, "Project Runway" and "Lost." Thursday, "The OC" and best of all Sunday with "Grey's Anatomy" and now "The Sopranos." But not this week. Hence the TiVo preparedness.
TV is not my only addiction to media. I start and end my days with NPR and even sometimes in the middle of the night. If I wake up and can't get immediately back to sleep, I set the radio to snooze and turn on BBC news. First thing in the morning I listen to "Morning Edition." On the weekends, forget it. It's all about "This American Life," "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" and of course Scott Simon on Saturday and Liane Hansen on Sunday.
During the day while I am working, my ipod is in it's Bose Sounddock and set to shuffle and at 2 p.m. I take lunch and watch my story, "Passions."
And I didn't even mention the newspaper, two on Sunday, and the periodic check of my homepage, CNN.com.
Oh yes, and reading before bed, with the radio on of course, is the only way I can get to sleep.
Basically, there is never any silence in my house. I can't stand silence. It frightens me.
And that is why media deprivation week frightens me. I will be confronted by silence and will be able to clearly hear what is going on in my head.
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!! How long will I make it?
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