1. Start watching “The Wire.” I’ve got a boxed set of Season 4 somewhere in the house, courtesy of being on some mailing list I probably shouldn’t be on, but I think I might just have to start with Season 5, supposedly shaped around the death of journalism, a story I expect to hit tragically close to home. Anyway, I’ve been inspired by the seemingly dozens of stories everywhere about how fantastic a show it is, but the one that pushed me over the edge is this New Yorker piece by Margaret Talbot from back in October. It’s a profile of showrunner David Simon and well worth the temporary paralysis to my right index finger brought on by scrolling through its massive length.
2. Stop reading anything related to Britney Spears. I know she’s an idiot, but what the media and the gossip hounds on the Internet are doing to her is disgusting. I’d rather watch seagulls tear apart one of their wounded brethren.
3. To whit, it is time to turn away from Perez Hilton. I’m pretty sure I fried 8 percent of my brain looking at his site this year. Instead I plan to limit my revolting consumption of Internet trash to reading dlisted.com, because the guy that writes that is actually funny and smart.
4. I’m going to listen to the commentaries on all my DVDs. I watched a batch while sick over the holidays. Some observations: 1. A team of three participants watching the Coen brothers “making of” piece on The Big Lebowski agreed that the brothers HAD to be stoned while making the commentary. 2. All celebrities should be forced to watch the DVD BEFORE they do their commentary. I’ve over-dosed on “My So-Called Life” the boxed set, and while it is fabulous, I found it completely annoying that Claire Danes had clearly not seen her own show in at least ten years. I knew more about the episode that she did! 3. Is the true definition of getting old when you realize that Jordan Catalano is a complete dope and that the true object of lust on the show is, oh, the horror, Angela’s Dad???? How I long to visit the restaurant he never got a chance to open, due to cancellation.
5. Continue to support the striking writers, even though I really want my Oscar fix.