advanced manipulations
05.26.08 • comment (1) • trackback
I love my high definition television.
It was my one totally irrational purchase before starting grad school: a thirty-two inch Westinghouse bought second hand from a pathologically cutting-edge friend. I took him to Best Buy so that he could explain the finer points of high definition, which had somehow passed me over. Although I could’ve used the advice, it was mostly pretense. Like I can’t sort out the difference between 720p and 1080i on my own? Please.
My friend had mentioned something about wanting a bigger set, you see. His current television was, after all, eight months old, which is practically a pregnancy. I knew that once surrounded by flat screens he’d be unable to control himself. He’s one of those people who makes the purchase of a three hundred dollar 5.1 Dolby surround system for your desktop sound totally reasonable. After about fifteen minutes in Best Buy he was looking at the forty-two inch TVs the way some people look at women. I knew I had him. I made my offer and he said he’d “think about it”. Three days later the TV was mine, one hundred dollars cheaper than retail and in pristine condition.
Sometimes I remember why people have this irrational fear of the Psychology Department.
All this is to say that the Westinghouse is a great television, especially if you’re watching sports, which I don’t. More commonly, I watch HGTV, which also looks amazing in HD. David Bromstead’s color disasters just explode off the screen.
05.29.08 #
One of the TV’s at my gym is usually set to home improvement porn, and I’m usually in when David Bromstead is on. I often think, “That is going to look so dated in 3 or 4 years” while watching his show. The color choices remind me of certain colors that were only popular on specific cars in specific years, like the really loud green that was popular on Honda del Sols and Ford Mustangs from 1997-1999, or that obnoxious aqua/teal that was on every Pontiac Grand Am and Buick Skylark between 1993 and 1995 (Apple used something similar on a lot of the G3 units). That aqua/teal color is to the 90’s what avocado was to the 70’s. I’m not sure what the god-awful color of this decade is, but I suspect it’s one of those fluorescent oranges or reds that often appear on HGTV.