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Wednesday, Jan. 01, 2003 / 4:48 p.m. ~TV Marathons Rule~ I think I'm going to conduct a study on the potential harmful effects of watching too many consecutive episodes of "The Twilight Zone". One might especially take note of what happens when one sleeps with "The Twilight Zone" left on the television, in the same room of course. God only knows what I dreamed. I have no recollection, save but one this morning. One in which I'd gone to work on my day off because I didn't want any more days off in the middle of the week. I was talking to a co-worker, one I otherwise never talk to, one who indeed does exist in reality, one who works in another department, and I was saying how I never wanted it, I didn't want to stay home, I had no plans, it was a waste of time. Which is, strangely enough, almost exactly how I feel about yesterday and today. I've been in the Twilight Zone myself. It's my period, so I'm bleeding, I was crampy yesterday, I lay in bed all day really, watching TV. I watched a little other than the aforementioned marathon, one "Felicity" (which is disturbing at this point, or more likely distracting, as Keri Russell came back from pre-fourth season hiatus looking like she'd aged 5 years and ten pounds. Not that she's fat, she'll never be fat, but she's filled out, and she seems unhappy - er, the character, not the actress, although..... but I can't get past it, she looks SO different), and part of a very interesting little documentary on Food Network, "A Century Of Food". Otherwise, it was "Twilight Zone" all the way, "The" or not. I felt really ill last night too, woke in the middle of the night, which to me is around 4:40 a.m., to sit on the toilet - too much information? I guess it was too much spicy pork. And earlier in the evening I had no appetite at all, which was unfortunate seeing as how I had so much food to eat. Today I slept, and it was really hard to find a reason to get up, which on the surface immediately sounds like depression, I know, but I didn't feel especially sad or low or down, just like I only wanted to sleep, sleeping was good, fun even, I was enjoying the comfort of my bed, and it's so dark and gloomy outside, nothing to do but get up and clean, or watch "The Twilight Zone", or what? Alas, I'm up, they showed the episode with the guy and the big Old English Sheepdog, which I always loved because when I was a very small child my family had a dog just like him. But every episode is just so damned bleak, so cynical, so jaded, all the stories about how much we suck, we humans, how we're all doomed. But maybe the one with Jane Hathaway from "The Beverly Hillbillies" - even though it was about how much we suck, as human beings, it had a positive spin in that the little girl was not only healed of having to wear that leg brace, but she got to go to the planet where the old man ruled, and of course it turned out in reality he was actually a hunky young man, and they got married eventually and lived happily ever after, she his Queen. All the actors are so old too... I never really noticed before, not consciously, but the parents of the small children all seem to be in their 40s or 50s, not like today where they might be in their 20s or early 30s. Either people had children later in life in the early to mid '60s, which cannot be true, or the casting director of the show simply couldn't find any young actors that could overract so appropriately as the old farts. If you watch enough shows consecutively you will also recognize many of the same actors. I think Burgess Meredith starred four times total. Oh, reminds me, the one where he's the man with the thick eyeglasses, the one who loves to read, but has to sneak away to the bank vault to do so on his lunchbreak, is coming on in a bit, at 8:33 for all you East Coasters who devour my diary on a daily basis (those with cable of course - tune in now, SciFi Channel). Also, take note of some rather famous actors, Elizabeth Montgomery, Agnes Moorehead (I watched that documentary on food last night while that one was on, it's a harsh one), Robert Redford, Burgess Meredith of course, and in one particularly horrific episode last night, about a man quarreling with his wife, seeing his life played out on his television set, one just repaired by one Sterling Holloway (have you ever SEEN this guy?, he's the voice of Pooh!, and to see him as he talks, well, he's fucking POOH, so it's really really really weird!). See, that's it. Really. Two days off, nothing but sleep, TV, food. Two cats keeping me constant company, which is nice. They're alright. Really, "Twilight Zone" has a lot of meaning for me, and as I watch these little morality plays I wonder if I didn't form a lot of my own moral values, scruples, from watching this show. I grew up with it, as a kid, late '60s and beyond, watching while my mom was at work (she worked nights after my parents separated), sitting with my brother. We loved anything remotely SciFi back then. "Star Trek", "Night Gallery", "The Twilight Zone", "Lost In Space". But "Twilight Zone" has lessons to teach. The bomb shelter episode, about how people so easily slip into mob mentality, the one with the sheepdog I saw today, about how people would so easily destroy to have what they think is the answer to the world's suffering. The ironies, so constant, the writing so sharp, the music, the sets, so sparse, so bleak, always. But man, whew, what a good show, the best, really. The best. The study concludes that 'watching too many consecutive episodes of "The Twilight Zone"' can only be a good thing, improving one's life dramatically, and causing one to think, think, think - and if you picture Sterling Holloway as Pooh saying that, "Think, think, think", don't see him as a television repairman who fixes the TV so that it shows the horrible horrible future. *******Minor programming note!! The episode with Burgess Meredith as the sole survivor of the Holocaust, along with stacks and stacks of books, is on SciFi at 9:39, not 8:33. The ep at 8:33 also stars Meredith (and what a great name, eh? Burgess Meredith...), but it's quite different, though it involves books. Please, change the settings on your alarm clocks. Thank you, and goodnight. Cost of the War in Iraq
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