For the first time in some years I own a television. I'm like most people, because I like to watch it. I don't have a cable subscription, so I plug an old laptop that is all but useless for useful things into the box, and I stream and stream to my heart's desire. I'm ashamed to say that it makes me feel validated as an American grown up to have my own box to look into. It's weird though, because I don't really turn it off when I'm not watching it. Sometimes I'll be doing something useful, like writing this song for example, and it will be on for some reason, scrolling through my old photos like a portal into the past. Sometimes I stream videos of fishtanks and leave them on while I'm rewriting my resume for the one dillionth time. Why not? Lately I've been reading at night with a youtube video of a fireplace flickering on my television screen for ambiance. The device that was heralded as the new family hearth in the mid twentieth century has taken an all too literal turn. Even when I'm not watching TV, I'm watching TV. It's strange, and I know it's probably bad, but I like it anyway. This song is about having mixed feelings about my TV.
lyrics
God I love my television
'Cause I feel like an American
Yeah, I feel like an olympian
Run another marathon
And God I'm lacking supervision
And my face is locked in paroxysm
And I crave my fiction's optimism
I'm gonna keep it on
I'm gonna keep it on
I gotta leave it on
When the leaves begin to fall
We gaze into our synthetic conflagration
And my karaoke ball
Bounces word to word
That I might sing them all
And dreaming is like television
And I dream like an American
Yeah I dream like a barbarian
I'll do it all night long
And somewhere in my optimism
Is a feeling like an aneurysm
Is a dream of panoramic vision
It's gonna keep me on
It's gonna keep me on
It better leave me on
When the night begins to fall
I stare into my electric exaltation
And my karaoke ball
Lands upon battered phrases
And I sing them all