Cutting the Cord

Late last year when I became homeless I decided that I was going to try an experiment.  Since I was moving to a temporary apartment in hell, aka Lake Oswego, I decided that I would “cut the cord”.   This is a term that is being thrown around in the context of people who are ditching their cable subscriptions and getting their television “over the top”.   Over the top, in this context, means over the Internet.    I love how we always come up with little catch phrases for things.   “Cancelling cable” is 15 letters.   “Cutting the cord” is 14 letters;   that’s a big savings right there.    I suppose it does have a more ominous sound though.   Cutting the cord makes it sound like it’s forever.   There is no coming back from cutting the cord.   If you’ve just cancelled cable, then you could just sign back up.   I’m afraid I’m digressing though, so I’d better get back to the point.

I bought myself a Sony Playstation III to be my new television entertainment hub.   The Playstation has a wireless internet receiver, a blue-ray player, and I think it can play games or something also.   I also signed up for Netflix.   Netflix is really a fantastic deal.   I pay them $9.99 a month and I can have one DVD mailed to me at a time.   The more important part of this deal to me though is that I can stream movies and television shows.    There is a lot of stuff available.   I’m never hard up for something to watch.    I can get my two favorite food shows streamed in, “Man vs. Food” and “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern”.    I can get tons of movies.   I can also, currently, get anything from the Starz TV network.   I hear this deal may go away pretty soon, but for right now it’s awesome.   I’ve been watching the two seasons of the Starz original series “Spartacus”.    Every episode of Spartacus starts out with a warning.

“Spartacus depicts extreme sensuality, brutality and language that some viewers may find objectionable. The show is a historical portrayal of ancient Roman society and the intensity of the content is to suggest an authentic representation of that period. “

This actually means that the show is soft core pornography mixed with graphic violence.   Ah, but it has a story line and some intrigue.   I supposed I can justify anything if I try hard enough.   

Yesterday I was having a conversation at work about the movie “Heavy Metal”.   My friend was telling me that he hadn’t seen the movie in years.   Heavy Metal was released in 1981.   It’s hard to believe that it was 30 years ago.   It’s even harder to believe that I remember it better than “Black Swan”, which I just saw a month ago.   That’s an aging brain for you.    I decided when I got home that I would see if I could stream Heavy Metal from Netflix.    I was very excited to find that I could.   I fast forwarded to the “Den of Earth” segment.   What an awesome story line.   A geeky kid from earth is transported to another world where he’s got a chiseled body and can fight.   Fantastic! 

“Eighteen years of nothing and now twice in one day!”  (that’s a quote from Den if you haven’t seen the movie)

 I’m afraid that the animation is just a bit too dated though.   We’ve become very spoiled with animated movies over the last 30 years.   

In any case, I don’t think I’m going back to cable.    I think I have indeed “cut the cord”.   When I can just go home and fire up Heavy Metal, I believe I’ve arrived at my entertainment nirvana.