A lot of things strike me about the show, but don’t worry, I’m not going to go into all of them. Instead, I’d like to get a little more meta and talk about programming. The running time of classic Hawaii Five-0 episodes is 50 minutes. Each show has three commercial breaks (wipes). So if you sat down to watch the show for an hour, you’d have seen 10 minutes of commercials.

Okay, so that’s the setup.

Today at my gym, I decided to do the AMT, which is a freeform elliptical and is pretty intense. Although there is a great view out the window, it is obscured by a large personal entertainment center, mainly for network news and basic cable TV. Although they don’t have our local PBS station, WGBH, they do have MTV.

I cut the cord to cable in 2007. I’m not adverse to media, but I didn’t like how the large telcos were bundling and packing it through cable. The offerings and corporate attitude really rubbed me the wrong way; more is not always better. I still watch TV, just in better, and evolving ways. Except today I decided to watch MTV for a grueling half hour.

The show on was MTV’s True Life, a long-running documentary series that follows two young adults around as they make decisions and grow up. The theme of this show was, “I Might Disappoint My Parents.” One kid was poor, hispanic and from a single parent household; his issue was transitioning from DJ-ing for free to getting a paying job. The other kid was from a Persian family from Beverly Hills; he was writing a “memoir” about embracing American Life/LA Culture and rejecting his Persian heritage. This second kid’s parents, needless to say, were not thrilled with their son’s book idea; they were particularly irritated with his chosen cover, [below].

These kids’ stories, as fascinating as they are, apparently didn’t leave much to be gleaned by MTV’s producers. It hit me at about 18 minutes into the workout; I’d been watching more commercials than the show. Reliable Sources (IMDB) say that the show is a one hour documentary. If that is so, I would hazard that the actual runtime is between 35 – 40 minutes. At best, you would spend 1/3 of an hour watching commercials. I actually felt like I was watching the commercial channel with bits of TV breaks.

While this simplistic observation does not factor in DVRs, it is nevertheless worth noting.

Classic Hawaii Five-0 : MTV’s True Life
Shogun : e-book
Magazine Article : tweet

I’m cool with technology, but I’m not cool with the shortening of the human attention span. When a TV show from a generation ago seems like a paragon of thoughtful storytelling compared to today’s interrupted life, I’m reassured that much is indeed amiss. I like good stories like I like good people; both take time. If only I could turn that TV aside and just enjoy the view.

~WD

The whole ordeal showcased how poorly we’ve done in America. First, why didn’t this guy, who was mobility challenged, have someone helping him? Unless it was a point of pride for him to travel solo, which it might have been, he would have benefitted from a hand. Second, why does the bus driver need to do this at a major transportation hub? Can we not afford to staff station agents who could help make such boardings as comfortable and efficient as possible? And third, what impact has the ADA had on smart transportation growth. To what level should the disabled be accommodated in public transportation? When do investments in para-transit pay off for all users?

I think these are all some tough questions that lay bare our priorities as a society. As we strive to build a better society from the shell of the one we’ve been bequeathed, perhaps we can start with the bus.

I meet up with my friend and we went out for dinner. After dinner, I walked him home, said goodnight, and continued back to my place. About half way there, I see a young guy standing in the street looking down at the curb, and as I approach, I notice that there is a man lying half on the sidewalk, half in the street. I asked the guy what had happened, and he responded that he had just come across the man lying there, and had called 911. I asked if he was going to wait until help arrived, and when he said yes, I continued back to my apartment, passing a fire truck responding to the call en route. The sight of the man in lying there has stuck with me. His legs were on the sidewalk, and his torso and head were on the street, near the curb. I’m not sure if it was the same guy I saw earlier sitting on the stoop, but my gut tells me that it was.

I wonder what happened to him; how did he end up there, in that sad position, all alone. The street where he was lying borders Logan airport; he had come to rest not far whence jetliners ascended and descended daily in their mechanical monotony. Where was he from? Did he lose his housing at the end of last month? Will he be okay? Such are the sights that one does not see in the sanitized streets of self-segregating suburbia.

It was a melancholic encounter, for sure, but it forced me to reflect on what I have and what I have to give.

First was a group of kids, late teens, transferring from the blue to orange line. Each one of them was wearing baggy pants about three to four inches below their hips. Now mind you, I’ve seen this look a lot on young black males, but this was the first time I had spotted it on a group of white kids. By the way, they looked equally, if not more stupid. Second site was that of a young black man, about my age, with a baby in a stroller. He looked well put together, and had he been white, I would have paid him no attention whatsoever. But truth be told, I don’t often see black men taking care of the kid by themselves. As the train traveled from state st. to downtown crossing, I was straphanging between this man and a obese and slovenly white family. Apparently this young man had caught this family’s eye as well, as they remarked, quite audibly, that “you don’t see that too often.” True; but sadly they, the obese, slovenly and unintelligent white folk, seem to be in no short supply.

These vignettes provided an interesting backdrop to Nicholas Kristoff’s column in today’s NYT which spoke of the white underclass, and how the general impoverishment of our society is laying bare any preconceptions of innate superiority once held by the near-extinct white working class. In other words, if it hasn’t already, the ghetto is coming to a neighborhood near you! Ultimately I got my keys and made it home about an hour later. All said and done, the detour wasn’t so bad; perhaps it was meant to be.