bondage

it’s almost midnight. i’m watching house on bravo with my girlfriend and now there’s an iphone commercial playing. i’ve promised myself for years i wouldn’t buy one but god knows i’ll probably pull the trigger this summer.

that made me think back for a second to my childhood. i was never really a video game kind of kid. i was always playing guitar or playing football or even hiking. but i remember the first time i played an xbox 360, jay’s house in venice. we spent countless hours battling, my patriots against his chargers. really, my patriots against any team he chose. he beat me every time. before that, i remember the first time i ever played a ps2. brian’s dad’s house in high school. we’d skip class and play tony hawk and experiment with his father’s liquor cabinet. before that, i remember my first playstation and being the first person in america to buy a copy of final fantasy vii. i remember playing for days without the walkthrough guide and then for even longer with it. i remember getting to the last disc and realizing the entire cd was a single battle. i beat it once and never tried again. before that, i remember my dad buying me this “virtual reality” headset game system that came with this one tank war simulator. pretty crazy stuff. before that, i remember unpacking the enormous package that included my super nintendo and this ridiculous bazooka gun. before that, there was my sega genesis and playing road rash with florence while my father was working or jurassic park with audren and eating doritos cooler ranch and drinking capri sun pouches. before that, there was my regular nintendo and playing zelda with my grammy and never beating the original mario bros.

it’s disarming how i can retrace the steps of my life through video game technology. it has me thinking about how we all get lost in the “new” and “hot” things we’re pushed to want and think we need.

consumer technology and our capitalist society as a whole, really. it’s crazy.

do we need the ipad or kindle or sony reader to get lost in good fiction? absolutely not. is it more convenient? perhaps. but there’s something about the feel of paper between your fingers that you can’t replace with some advanced form digital bondage.

do we need an ipod to enjoy the original beatles or beach boys recordings? i still have this cd that i bought years ago, the original junior kimbrough studio tracks. incredible stuff. there’s no way you can convince me it needs to be remastered. but someone will do it.

one of my favorite movies, mr. smith goes to washington, looks no better in blu-ray on some huge, flat lcd tv than it does on one of the half-ton wooden tv boxes you’d find in your grandparents’ basement.

these are the ramblings of a tired, still very sick, probably too old-fashioned and conservative kid from new england. and entirely hypocritical…they’re coming to you via blog…on the internet…from my laptop.

but, for the record, i just renewed my promise to stay iphone free this summer.

one day at a time, friends.