Bill's Bulletin Board
By Bill Rea

I make no bones about the fact that I'm a workaholic.

I have been for many years, and I anticipate I will be as long as my body, mind and wife permit it. It's part of who I am, and apart from occasional bouts with fatigue (which have been getting more frequent with the passage of time), I have no problem with the designation. It's somewhat more satisfying that being known as an unemployed and unemployable bum.

But the fixation with work does mean I miss many of the trends, fads and current happenings that make up contemporary culture. Unless I run smack into them in the course of my work, when it comes to being knowledgeable about what's hot, I'm not.

I'm not up on contemporary music, but the truth is I have never been too aware of what was happening in that sector of culture. I was discovering just how good the Beatles were around the time they were breaking up, and for the most part, I prefer their early music to what came toward the end, with a couple of exceptions. If Hey Jude comes on the radio, I switch stations.

I couldn't now name the top musicians in the current charts, not that I ever could.

Some years ago, when I was working in the big megacity to the south, there was much excitement all around the metropolis. I received a phone call asking if I was planning to cover an appearance that evening by Ricky Martin.

"Who's he?" I replied, knowing just enough about the music scene to conclude he had not been one of the Beatles. It really didn't matter, since the event was not taking place in my coverage area.

I couldn't tell you what movies are hot these days. With the exception of the film I took in in Bolton as part of the recent film festival in support of Family Transition Place, the last time I paid to see a flic was last summer, and it was the Simpson's Movie - The perfect meat for a cinematic fashion plate like me.

There was a time when I would have been very aware of the movie world. For a while, I would have gone to at least two movies per week, and sometimes three. But then the girl with whom I took in these films and I got married, so we didn't have to go out on dates any more, so we didn't. How times have changed. Before I was a married man, I would devote at least one of my weekly columns to listing my Oscar predictions (for some reason, I was very good at picking Best Supporting Actor). This year, I didn't even bother watching the telecast. Beth found something interesting on PBS, and we watched that.

Even television, something my parents used to hound me for watching too much of, doesn't get a whole lot of my attention these days. I couldn't tell you what the top shows are, and there are only a few that catch my eye. And since my workload significantly increased a couple of months ago, it's kind of hit and miss whether I get to watch any of them.

A lot of shows we used to watch regularly, like The West Wing or Six Feet Under, today only exist in memory or re-run. I tried watching an episode of the Sopranos once, but I just couldn't get into it. It was Beth who got me interested in House, but I haven't seen that show in weeks. We also used to watch The Tutors a lot, partly because the period of history through which Henry VIII reigned has always interested me, and the fact that I attended high school with Henry Czerny, also known to fans of The Tutors as the Duke of Norfolk. He and I even appeared on stage together in a musical production; he dressed as a member of the clergy and me in my underwear (I am absolutely not joking). But I haven't had time for that either of late, old time sake or no.

In the last several years, the closest I came to capturing contemporary thought with my TV watching was Jerry Springer. Beth and I sort of stumbled on him shortly after we were married. The very first show we watched dealt with a girl who had been involved with her boyfriend's roommate, and it offered the predictable reactions, with a bit of a twist. After a few blows had been exchanged, the two roomies decided they had been buddies for too long to let this girl mess everything up, so they turned on her.

"I'm getting angry," Beth commented, as the attacks on the young lady got more heated.

"OK," I said, reaching for the remote. "I'll find something else."

At that point, she stopped me. Although she found the stuff on the screen infuriating, she said it was getting her mind off of other trivial concerns of the day. Thus was born one of our early household traditions. It didn't last too long. Anyone who has seen more than half a dozen Springer shows knows its low-level stupidity amounts to little more than cultural junk food.

So when it comes to capturing the taste of culture, in large measure I have to settle for what's gone before.

I took a day off a couple of weeks ago, which I admit was a remarkable occurrence in its own right. I spent the day doing all the things a man should do during his down time, like sleeping in, taking a walk, taking a drive, etc. I even took a nap. Beth was very impressed.

I also took time to watch some of the old boob tube, and actually found an episode of Star Trek to watch - I mean the original series, a show I watched religiously when it was in its first run, and with equal regularity in the many years that followed through the magic of syndication. So I spent a whole hour of my very rare downtime watching a program I have seen scores if not hundreds of time, with William Shatner in combat with Ricardo Montalban (true Trekkers will immediately know the episode I was watching).

Entertaining, to be sure, but such activity does little to bring me up to date with current cultural trends.

On the other hand, outside of the demands of my job, what real reasons would I have for trying to be hip? I'm too old and far too poorly coordinated to pick up latest dance trends. I'm not in a position to go out trying to impress young ladies, and even if I were, my wife wouldn't let me.

Being trendy is nice, but maybe it's not essential.

So rather than worrying about the music, or movies or TV shows, I'm just content with what I like.

Example; for the last couple of weeks, Beth and I have been watching reruns of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Not current, to be sure. But it's fun and it helps get my mind off of trivial concerns of my day.