Time Compression

It might be nice to write a quick little blurb about screenwriting, or storytelling, and my views and ideas on how to do it well and all that fun helpful interesting stuff...but no, this entry is about something much different. Because I'm like that.

I had cable installed in my new apartment yesterday. Not because I feel I need a hundred channels, but I do feel I need to be able to see and hear whatever channel I do happen to be watching, and the reception here was so shitty that I opened my checkbook and signed up for digital cable...during a promotion, of course; I'm no spendthrift. Anyway, this particular promotion includes On Demand (is that trademarked?) programming and 11 HBO channels. None of which I feel I really need, but they show SO MANY MOVIES. And it's all included. Granted, much of it is not widescreen, and I hate the idea of fullscreen/cropped images/pan & scan SO FUCKING MUCH that it's certainly worth a rant on these pages at some point, but still...it's all free.

Okay, yes, I realize I am actually paying for it, but I'm paying for the cable and its regular programming; the HBO & On Demand are included, therefore, free, by certain definition. And how could I possibly pass up free movies? I can't, really, but there are only so many hours in a day and night, some of which simply have to be taken up by things like sleeping, working, and other aspects of modern existence. So I've got about a hundred movies at my fingertips, plus there's a branch of the good 'ol Chicago Public Library RIGHT around the corner where I can borrow all kinds of DVD's for a week at absolutely no cost to me...whatever shall I do?

What I'd like to do is somehow absorb an entire movie experience instantaneously instead of sitting there for 90-150 minutes, actually watching the darn things. Now, don't get me wrong, ha ha, I'm not saying the experience of sitting and watching a movie is too drawn out to be enjoyable and I'm nothing but an impatient lunatic...I may very well be one, but I would not trade a movie-watching experience for anything in the world. I live for it. But this sudden plethora of ready-entertainment is a bit overwhelming, and I'm simply saying it'd be nice to have a time-saving option such as downloading a digital format directly into my brain which would still give me the full experience of having seen the movie but also allow me to do all the other things I need to do with myself such as go to the grocery store like I did this morning.

Would that be so wrong?