Some really great quotes...

I would not have stumbled across these quotes if I had not been having a chat (okay, more of a soap-boxy rant) about television with my parents this morning.  We actually had a discussion that allowed me to hold the floor for a whole hour while the television was paused on a football game (what else?) and talk about a number of different subjects, and there is another post to follow. 

I have already explained to Ashley that I am feeling "Blogolicious" today.

So on with it.

I was explaining to my parents my feelings about television.  Don't get me wrong, I love television.  I even have shows that I can't live without.  But I also hate television.  I miss having conversations with people.  And having conversations with people while the the TV's on is often very difficult.  Much the way it is when someone whips out their smart phone mid-conversation.  And even I'm guilty of that.

I think the Art of Intelligent Conversation should be practiced more often, lest we all make ourselves dumber, Idiocracy style.  I don't wan't my future children to go to law school at Costco and watch shows like "Ow, My Balls!" *Do yourselves a favor and watch this movie.  The humor may be sophomoric comedy, riddled with gratuity and bathroom humor, but the message is actually pretty important, and well executed in its dichotomy.

I once had a syllabus for a theatre class with a cover page that read "Theatre is Life.  Cinema is Art, Television is Furniture."  That has stuck with me for years.  I just think it's so interesting, and accurate in it's abstraction.

So I looked up the quote to see who had said it, and found this page of other quotes about television from some very prominent people (whose names, even if you don't know who they are, will likely sound familiar anyway). 

The Quote Garden

I'll leave you with one of my favorites on the page:

When television came roaring in after the war (World War II) they did a little school survey asking children which they preferred and why - television or radio.  And there was this 7-year-old boy who said he preferred radio "because the pictures were better." 

~Alistair Cooke