Another chance to turn it all around.

"Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around." Vanilla Sky

Woman, writer, editor, geek, redhead, new yorker, brooklynite, consummate culture consumer and critic. I'm T of T-Sides. You can also find me on Popdose and Bullz-Eye.

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Give me what you've got: taylorlong at gmail dot com.
Jul 24
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Let’s talk television for a minute. This is my new favorite thing. I cannot stop watching it. It is fascinating, intense, dangerous, filled with great characters, and completely real. While not working, I’ve pretty much run the course of television. One morning last week, I decided to watch an episode of “Deadliest Catch” while I had my regular breakfast of coffee and an english muffin with spicy peanut butter. I could not believe what I was watching (in all of the best ways that that implies), and started looking for it whenever I was in front of the television. Much to my luck, the fourth season just ended, so Discovery has been running it 24/7 more or less. (Also, it has THREE MILLION viewers a week and is one of the most successful shows on cable.) I’ve now seen most of the fourth season (some episodes twice!), a “Behind the Scenes” episode, and have the first season coming up on Netflix. If you want to get a good idea of how things go down, read this NYT article, which captures the spirit of the show perfectly (aside from a few minor factual errors, like how the weight of the crab pots is actually more towards 900 pounds, not 800). This show is overwhelming. There have been episodes that I have been unable to remain in one place for because they’re so incredible. Things I’ve seen on the show - in one season, no less! - include: fishermen getting hit in the head by giant hooks, fishermen falling overboard, fishermen getting frostbite from freezing temperatures, leaks in engine rooms, fishermen beating the crap out of eachother while sliding around on a frozen deck, fishermen wrestling with giantmotherfuckingfish, captains who refuse to leave the wheel while they cough up blood, 50 foot waves, countless near death accidents and more wildly dangerous things that won’t do me any good to explain. These dudes are so manly it hurts! My favorite - above - is Capt. Jonathan Hillstrand, of the Time Bandit. There are a lot of great anecdotes about him in the NYT article linked above, but one of my favorites that they don’t mention is when a wounded bird flew onboard and he took care of it to the extent that he gave it gave it its own box, named it, let it bunk in his room - all the while trying to maintain his manly image by pretending to not really care about it. Also, he saved a dude from another F/V (fishing vessel - I’m even up on the lingo) who fell overboard, and once the rescued guy was on his boat and wrapped in a blanket, they just kind of hugged, out of camraderie, gratefulness and relief. There are few things as heartwarming as watching two dudes hugging who risk their lives daily. There are times when I thought to myself, “Oh, it’s going to get boring watching dudes just bring up huge metal crates full of crab,” but, you know, it never does.

Let’s talk television for a minute.

This is my new favorite thing. I cannot stop watching it. It is fascinating, intense, dangerous, filled with great characters, and completely real.

While not working, I’ve pretty much run the course of television. One morning last week, I decided to watch an episode of “Deadliest Catch” while I had my regular breakfast of coffee and an english muffin with spicy peanut butter. I could not believe what I was watching (in all of the best ways that that implies), and started looking for it whenever I was in front of the television. Much to my luck, the fourth season just ended, so Discovery has been running it 24/7 more or less. (Also, it has THREE MILLION viewers a week and is one of the most successful shows on cable.) I’ve now seen most of the fourth season (some episodes twice!), a “Behind the Scenes” episode, and have the first season coming up on Netflix. If you want to get a good idea of how things go down, read this NYT article, which captures the spirit of the show perfectly (aside from a few minor factual errors, like how the weight of the crab pots is actually more towards 900 pounds, not 800).

This show is overwhelming. There have been episodes that I have been unable to remain in one place for because they’re so incredible. Things I’ve seen on the show - in one season, no less! - include: fishermen getting hit in the head by giant hooks, fishermen falling overboard, fishermen getting frostbite from freezing temperatures, leaks in engine rooms, fishermen beating the crap out of eachother while sliding around on a frozen deck, fishermen wrestling with giantmotherfuckingfish, captains who refuse to leave the wheel while they cough up blood, 50 foot waves, countless near death accidents and more wildly dangerous things that won’t do me any good to explain. These dudes are so manly it hurts!

My favorite - above - is Capt. Jonathan Hillstrand, of the Time Bandit. There are a lot of great anecdotes about him in the NYT article linked above, but one of my favorites that they don’t mention is when a wounded bird flew onboard and he took care of it to the extent that he gave it gave it its own box, named it, let it bunk in his room - all the while trying to maintain his manly image by pretending to not really care about it. Also, he saved a dude from another F/V (fishing vessel - I’m even up on the lingo) who fell overboard, and once the rescued guy was on his boat and wrapped in a blanket, they just kind of hugged, out of camraderie, gratefulness and relief. There are few things as heartwarming as watching two dudes hugging who risk their lives daily.

There are times when I thought to myself, “Oh, it’s going to get boring watching dudes just bring up huge metal crates full of crab,” but, you know, it never does.