Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Big, Rich Texas Review and drunken ramblings, i mean rambling about being drunk

I feel like it and so I will do a mini-review of the television show "Big, Rich Texas".  This is a reality show that I recently watched .... and then again ... and then again.  I am not normally a huge reality tv show fan.  In fact, I am not even much of a tv fan.  To be honest, I never really had a tv in the USA.  I was always behind culturally.  I did go to a friend's house once a week to have a beer and watch "Gilmore Girls" for a few months.  That was fun.  But yeah, I have largely been anti-television since getting my first apartment.

I did join the "Lost" movement eventually, but not under normal circumstances and not even ones I am particularly proud of.  Here is how it started:my dear friend Sadiqa and I had gone to Raleigh for a night on the town.  We started out the night having sushi and saki.  Next we went to a wine bar and had some wine.  Finally, we went to a dance club where I threw back at least four martinis.  Yeah, I know.

I am not sure what the hell happened that night.  I hadn't been that drunk for years, if ever and have never since then either.  It was really out of form for me.  I don't think just eating SUSHI helped.  Certainly  mixing the wine, saki and martinis didn't help matters either.  I was a mess, but for the next three days I had a hangover that was so severe I couldn't move my finger without feeling like vomiting.  I couldn't keep down even a teaspoon of water.  It was so incredibly miserable, all I could do was lay in bed.  I can't remember why exactly now, but I wasn't even able to read.  So, Hicham burned the entire season one and two of Lost on disk for me and I layed in bed watching episode after episode for something like three days while nibbling on tums.

That is how found Lost.  After that, I was all caught up and we couldn't wait for the next episode.  It became a topic of conversation for Hicham and I.  I read the Lost forums and the reviews and so on.  It was really fun.  I felt like a member of the tv watching world and could chat about storylines and characters etc without feeling left out in a crowd.

The same was not largely true for other tv shows though.   TV seemed to me a huge time suck, a waste of creativity and worst of all giving up the most precious thing we have: our life and living purposefully.  I know it sounds totally mellow dramatic, but indeed television is us passively watching other people live THEIR lives as our own passes by.  I think the turning point came for me when as a teenager, someone asked what I "did" over the weekend.  I said I watched tv and they asked what I watched and I couldn't recall.  That really bothered me.  Minutes, hours, days, weeks go by as we watch television and our lives remain largely unchanged.  We create nothing.  We contribute nothing.  We may share observations or a good laugh with a friend later, but that can also happen by telling our own stories about our own experience or conversation. 

So, why am I about to tell you my opinion about the show "Big, Rich Texas"?  Well, because as this blog reflects my life and what is going on in it, that is what I "did" today worth (or not) commenting on.  These days I continue to declutter and organizg.  I am cleaning.  I have the cute kid, so obviously we played and stuff.  I went on a walk blah blah blah.  But ultimately, the only sort-of interesting topic for me today is about a tv show after all that shuffling objects around.  What about that?

As a slight disclaimer though, I am more inclined to watch American TV since I miss my people, especially the Big, Rich Texans in my life!  No, but seriously, it is not only totally stereotypical, highlighting human conflict, after all,  it is a "Reality show".  We all know that that means, most of it is not really real.  But still,  in BRT there are some colorful characters and women who take pleasure in being in charge.  I like that.  While there is some catfight stuff going on, largely the women maintain their composure and express themselves with their dignity in tact.

Of course, there is a huge exception.  That would be the daughter of the Phd glamour mama called Whitney.  She is jerk.  She wants porn star boobs (her words) and had the word cunt tatooed on her foot.  But that is only the outside, her inside is ugly too. She is a real jerk and one that is in for some big damn surprises when she gets out from under mama's protective wing.  Her mom is cool and she cares for her daughter unconditionally.  But that speaks much more of her mother, than the little spoiled brat even noticing how much her mom does for her.

All the other moms too seem really down-to-earth and conscientious, even if they do blow out their hair with a personal stylist team.  They take their role as mentor seriously. They want the best for their daughter, and that seems to be rather refreshing compared to other reality shows I have heard about.   I would also say that their daughters are all upstanding, ambitious, thoughtful young women whom I would be happy to know.  Note this does not include Whitney, although given the chance to meet her I would, just to slap her face.  No, just kidding.

Anyway, I know that many people are slamming this show for all the regular reasons, but I would say that it is inspiring to me to see these healthy, ambitious women going for it!   





No comments: