Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Each day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined theme chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the eleventh day of the month is "Stranger."
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In general, I rarely watch television or movies. There are books to read, dogs to walk, and dinners to cook and I never learned how to watch flickering images on screens. I'm not even joking about this. I feel like at some point we teach kids how to sit still and watch tv, but I was never really given that lesson. I never know where to look at the screen and am forever saying "hey, what's going on in the left corner of the screen?" and my husband becomes annoyed.
I also really don't care much about sports. I admire athleticism (soccer players run so much, so far!), but as someone who is non-competitive, I don't really understand about rules or winning or the thrill of the game. Because I am rarely presented with live sports and you must watch a flickering screen, you can also see how I would perhaps miss the goal scoring bits because I am too busy watching the camera man on the edge of the screen as he kneels on the field to get a good shot.
(I also live somewhere with state sports teams that are ubiquitous and as someone who does not root for these teams, it can be dispiriting to live here. That's a rant for another day.)
So. Film and sports. Not my jam.
My husband started watching Netflix's Break Point, a show about professional tennis players, and I was reading on the couch and was suddenly really invested in the personal relationships of several tennis players whose names I had never heard before. But then! Then! He started Full Swing, the documentary series about golf players, and before I knew it, I was asking him if we had time to watch an episode before we started dinner and if he could wait for me to walk the dog before he started a new episode. GOLF! The most boring sport on the planet. GOLF!
Then today he texted me a news article about one of the players and I read it, had an opinion about it, and knew the journalist that was mentioned in the article. Who have I even become? What a strange turn of events. I'm sure that now that we've watched all the episodes, I will cease to care about golf.
When's the last time you had a brief obsession with something that is completely unlike your normal interests?
I get "crushes" on random stuff all the time. The current one is my obsession with visiting Frank Lloyd Wright houses - I know nothing about architecture but here we are. Tennis AND golf at the same time is pretty impressive.
ReplyDeleteI love curling up with a good TV show, if you stretch the definition of "good" to mean "anything that holds my attention" and I'm right there with you on sports.
Yes! Your FLW crush fits this exactly. You're so into it and I love it.
DeleteI'm like Birchwood Pie in that I get brief "crushes" on something, drain that subject dry by researching it and reading/viewing things about it, and then I move on. I did that with Vermeer and his art, the Titanic, redwoods, dog training, and a few other things. Some things I learn about in self-defense because of who I live with, like basketball, aspects of roofing and construction, and general contracting. As far as television, I love it, especially streaming, where the quality and variety of programming is astonishing.
ReplyDeleteYes, people do say we're in the golden age of television and I believe that. I'm so happy it exists for others who enjoy it. I would say we're in the golden age of fantasy novels and that is MY personal substitution for tv.
DeleteMy husband loves all sports. He used to golf too, but has had to really cut back due to shoulder and back problems. Now he just golfs once or twice a year, but he watches golf and follows it. The boys aren't into it so much anymore, but they went through a phase where they loved to watch wrestling, which is more entertainment and less a sport. I don't watch much TV, but sometimes there will be something that holds my attention. Last night my husband and I rewatched a couple of Ted Lasso episodes, which is a show that I really do like.
ReplyDeleteMy husband regularly golfs during the late summer and early fall. He broke his collarbone a few years ago and found it really helped his rehab. *shrug* Not my scene, but I'm happy to send him outdoors for a couple of hours a couple times a week.
DeleteWe did enjoy Ted Lasso, too! Ted Lasso and Derry Girls are some of the only new scripted tv shows I've watched for the last couple of years.
Good question and I know it's happened but I'm pressed to think when! I'm not into sports either all that much. Movies, maybe. Brit-TV, yes. But I'm often open to learn!
ReplyDeleteHa! I guess your interest doesn't have to be film-based!
DeleteWhen we watch tv, my wife notices a lot more than I do. She’ll comment on the wallpaper etc. I can’t help but lock-in on the face, particularly the eyes, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI think the eyes is my problem, actually. I'm socially awkward and don't make a lot of eye contact in real life and I think it translates to me avoiding looking at people's eyes on screen, too, so I miss stuff!
DeleteThe 15-year-old watches three guys (I thought they were teens but it turns out two of them are married, so maybe older?) talk about stuff on Youtube and I've gotten sucked into some episodes too on occasion. Ditto when they watch "Study with me" videos...
ReplyDeleteThose YouTube rabbit holes can get wild! You never know what you're going to stumble upon that hits you just in the right moment.
DeleteI think your daughter and I may have some of the same neuro-divergences. You should ask about whether she finds it hard to focus. I have a theory that it has to do with eye contact and since I avoid it in real life, I take this with me to tv!
ReplyDeleteThere's no way golf will become my obsession, but if this show has a second season, I will be watching it!
I do also get these bursts of being super into something. A few years ago it was FLDS memoirs. I'm not sure how I got so obsessed with reading religious cult books, but I read like 10 and now am SO burned out on that topic.
ReplyDeleteI saw the golf documentary and want to do it. I love sports documentaries. The Last Dance (all about Michael Jordan) was great.
I don't know if I have a ton of experience with sports documentaries, but I guess I do like them if my current obsessions are anything to go by. Maybe I'll have to try some more.
DeleteSports movies are my absolute jam. I am not into sports really, but a movie about sports? I WILL ALWAYS CRY even if it's not that kind of a movie!
ReplyDeleteHa! I'm definitely not going to watch a fictional movie about sports. I will be asleep during the first hint of sports jargon! I'm glad they're out there for you, though.
DeleteWe watched Full Swing and loved it! We didn't make it through the first episode of Break Point, though. I would have continued to watch it but Phil had no interest and the first guy they profiled was such an a-hole. Oddly, I have come to love watching golf. I find it incredibly soothing to have on in the background. Phil is a HUGE golfer so has rubbed off on me. Generally sports documentaries falls in our very thin venn diagram overlap. We also do not watch a lot of tv but generally will spend about 30 minutes watching something together.
ReplyDeleteI thought Full Swing was much more accessible for folks who don't follow sports. My husband is a frequent golfer, too, but he has not swayed me to his side that it would be fun! I leave him to it!
DeleteI love that you love sports documentaries - and part of me wonders if it's not just *sports* but stories about the people who play those sports? So less focused, maybe on the games themselves (or matches, I suppose...) and more on the interesting, and um, weird people who play them? I've heard good things about Full Swing - but not enough to watch it. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's good to have little crushes like that every once in a while :)
ReplyDelete