Muse back!
July 24, 2008 / Thursday
Maybe I Should Just Talk To Myself
I turned the TV on just now to a guy ringing a bell and then yelling something in Italian. There are phone numbers and credit card signs displayed on the screen, along with his name: Shamir. I think he's some sort of magical soothsayer man. On satellite TV.
Darn, all the on screen tuner menus are in Russian.
I was looking for CNN or some other American station so I could feel a little like I was home, but all I could find was Obama's speech in Berlin on France 24. Good enough!
If I spoke Arabic, Italian, or wanted TV sex, this satellite box would be perfect for me. I've come across two stations with American accents (not counting Obama's speech, which is over now) so far: GOD TV and The Word Network. Nonstop evangelical preaching. It's kind of soothing. The accent, that is. Even if it is black American English, and not the Ohio non-accent.
How many TV stations are there in the world? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? I have 500+ channels of not much more than what I described above.
Okay, now I'm watching some weird cartoon with Hitler. It's in German with subtitles in a language I can't recognize. I'm grokking bits of it from the German. Hitler's watching a green ogre man compete in a poop hurling contest.
And now there are tiny space aliens walking around earth with "Hello" signs trying to meet humans.
And now cartoon Hitler is back. Okay, time to turn the TV off.
Oh look, if I turn just the satellite box off I can watch local TV. That would have been nice a few days ago, but right now I'm pretty Russian'ed out. These channels taunt me; they show American programs completely dubbed over in Russian. Sigh.
I think I'll go to bed early tonight.
July 24, 2008 10:30 AM | St. Petersburg
Comments
I remember all too well watching The Simpsons in Portuguese. Funnily enough, "Ha! Ha!" still sounds the same. It always bothered me that I couldn't find anything locally produced, just American shows dubbed over. (Except for the "Perky Japanese Lady and Older Japanese Lady Cook Things" show...)
Posted by: Mike at July 24, 2008 12:36 PM