My parents watch a lot of TV. They are at a stage where they deserve to do whatever they feel like, really, and my dad’s health does not allow him to stray away too much or too often from stationary activities. That being said, there are three televisions inside the 800-sq-ft. 3- BR apartment, so yeah, they watch a lot of TV. I have realized after having left home for the U.S. in 1993 that the most precious yet the most difficult gift I can give my parents is simply being there. As a result, I end up watching a lot of TV when I keep them company.
It is always a quick and dirty way for me to get reacquainted with the here and now in Taiwan. The social mores in vogue. I am often reminded to be proud of where I came from, followed by a sudden wave of homesickness and dread while I am… at home… because of my imminent departure. On the other hand, I am also quite frequently flabbergasted, especially by the commercials. Since “a cultural critic / modern tribe ethnographer” was one of my answers to “What do you want to be when you grow up?”), I cannot help but have a running commentary scrolling through my mind’s eye, my mental news ticker. To be unabashedly confessional, I am fascinated and excited by the contradictions, the dichotomy, the ambiguities represented in the media messages now that I have had a chance to step outside, looking in.
Sometimes a virtual lower third is the only image superimposed on what I am seeing…
WTF MOMENT: I CAN TOTALLY WRITE A DISSERTATION ON THIS.
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(The first line of caption in the video says, “The 42nd day after breakup…”
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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFHk6nARDcM
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p.s. This post is being written as I watch TV with my father which we have been doing for about 2 hours now…
p.p.s. The first time we saw this commercial, my father said, “@#%%$. We are a bunch of crazy people.”
p.p.p.s. Yes, this commercial is being aired at all hours, not just “after hours” which do not exist here anyway.
That is hilarious. Thank you.
Anastasia recently posted…Why you all wet- baby
Thank YOU!
As you can tell by now, I’m stalking your blog.
This caught my attn (well, other than the video): “I am often reminded to be proud of where I came from, followed by a sudden wave of homesickness and dread while I am… at home… because of my imminent departure.”
I came to the US in ’94. I know exactly how you feel. Glad to find a fellow blogger I can REALLY relate to. 🙂
.-= Justine´s last blog…Future awkward conversations with my kid =-.
OMG. I came to the US in 1993. So I am an “upper classman (or woman)” to you. LOL. I am honored to be stalked by you. When I clicked on your blog, I went, “SHIT! I like her blog! How am I going to read one more blog? Now I have one more blog that I don’t have time to read! Shit!” 😉
I have run into this with my dad, too. It drives me nuts…..ALL THEY DO IS SIT IN COMFY RECLINERS AND WATCH TV! I love the time with him though, while simultaneously, it drives me batnuts.
Breakup=weightloss. For me, Always.
.-= Jennifer´s last blog…Wedding Event Part 1 =-.
That guy is pretty cute. I’d drink some of that weight loss tea for him.
I’ll have to ask Mango (my dog who is from Taiwan) if he feels the same way about the adverts. Although he’s a HE. And a dog. And the language barrier is STILL an issue.
.-= Brilliant Sulk´s last blog…Getting To Know Me =-.
Well, get to it then. I’d like to see a draft of chapter one by next week
.-= alejna´s last blog…an afternoon in early spring =-.
I tried that the other day and The Dish didn’t get a nose bleed AT ALL, well I guess it only works on exes….off to go find out where they live!
.-= A Vapid Blonde´s last blog…Half Full. Half Bald… eh Bygones. =-.
Diet Green Tea? I don’t believe you. I think that was Pledge. I also think that when she opened her coat, she injected him with a deadly serum. Furthermore, I believe I might have seen too many action movies.
Spending quality time in front of the TV is a pretty common occurrence with my family too. It always feels like we should be doing something more, but I’m a restless person so I can’t name what we should be doing. Just something different. We settle on a happy medium with a movie instead.
.-= KeepingYouAwake´s last blog…I Don’t Care if you Watch TV =-.
Oh, and I totally forgot my favoritest foreign commercial ever — it was Italian, and it had a woman in a very romance-novel-esque nightgown in her bedroom, brushing her hair or something, and she watches her creepy fat greasy-looking husband get into his car and drive away, and then she immediately rushes out the side door, across the lawn, and into the stable (it was a huge estate). Where the sweaty, muscle-y stable boy grabs her and they kiss passionately, and he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a condom, rips the package open with his teeth…and cries out in pain. It was a commercial for Italian sensodyne — toothpaste for people with sensitive teeth.
Best. Thing. Ever.
.-= Miss B´s last blog…Hallway Ninja =-.
Okay the beverage did it? Now, she is so hot, his nose bleeds? I think a dissertation is in order.
.-= Velva´s last blog…Blue Cheese Sirloin Burgers with Red Wine-Onion Jam =-.
So glad that you’re having time for some quality bonding with your dad!
.-= Jane´s last blog…A Blogger’s Law of Averages =-.
I feel really thirsty.
.-= Unknown Mami´s last blog…I Comment Therefore I Am =-.
I fucking love the differences in our commercials. That commercial was probably about the drink…that was there for all of two seconds. Awesome.
When we were in Ireland there was this commercial about speeding (because that’s what the Irish do I guess) and how it can kill. I was totally shocked at how gruesome and graphic the commercial was. Unfortunately, the video was taken off youtube at some point so everyone just has to take our word for it.
.-= Robin´s last blog…Because TV is Life =-.
That is hilarious! I’ve never looked so hot as to cause a nosebleed, so now I need to search for some bottled green tea!
.-= TheKitchenWitch´s last blog…EEK! It’s Big! And Green! =-.
I love to watch bad television late at night when I’m alone in hotels in foreign countries. It’s always a thrill to see terrible American shows — like CSI: Miami, for example — dubbed into foreign languages. When I was in Amsterdam in November, though, the commercials were what totally amazed me. They show massively dirty chat-line commercials — and not just late at night, but all the time — that are waaay more explicit than the sort they show here (you know the sort I’m talking about — always a blonde tan chick in a midriff-exposing tank top and really tight, really low-cut jeans or a mini skirt or something, prancing around her palatial apartment while “connecting” with “local, available singles” on her phone). The ones in Amsterdam have topless women in really sleazy lingerie or bizarre sexy costumes, exaggeratedly masturbating and moaning into the phone. Amused me much more than it should have done.
All of a sudden I have this desire to visit Amsterdam… 😉
So, she melted down his brain with her beauty or what? And the tea made her that way, because prior to drinking it she was a beast? I don’t get it.
.-= secret agent woman´s last blog…My USA? =-.
Sorry for not adding more explanation: it’s a commercial for diet/weight loss green tea, the new fad in Taiwan right now. The tea being the new fad, not weight loss. Keeping thin and watching one’s figures has been a national obsession, esp. for, surprise surprise, women for as long as I can remember. Fortunate for me i guess since I am big-boned… LOL
The nose bleeding part has something to do with the guy becoming so horny upon seeing her new figure… That’s why in Japanese anime & manga men are often depicted to have a bleeding nose…
The nosebleed is like a fresh rose upon the table at a restaurant. Victoria’s Secret? Totally has dusty plastic carnations. This is the real deal. I want to know I’m driving him into apoplexy with my bodacious ta-tas. This is the product for me.
.-= Seer McRicketts-McGee´s last blog…Froggy went a courtin. Froggy is a cannibal =-.
Drinking green tea in a plastic bottle makes me confident enough to wield the power I never could access without said beverage. Once I realize how wonderful a human body I am, I can exact revenge on those who don’t appreciate me. And I can bring that pain to them because of the portability of my beverage.
Green tea in plastic bottle makes me powerful. And really skinny.
Please buy more green tea in plastic bottles. And a high quality trench coat.
.-= Naptimewriting´s last blog…Roget and me =-.
LOL! OMG that was hilarious. So apparently, her total newfound hotness caused, what? A brain hemorrhage? Aneurism? Random liquidation of body organs? I WANT THAT DRINK.
-Jen
.-= Jen @ NathanRising´s last blog…The call of the front yard =-.
Holy @#%%$! (to quote your dad!)
Anna Quindlen said that her preteen daughter asked her once, “Mom, why is everything in the world about sex?”
LOL about watching TV all the time. My mother’s theory was that she’d save TV for when she could no longer hold a book, which I thought was a smart plan. Her sister and brother-in-law, however, sat for hours watching a muted CNBC, copying their stock numbers in notebooks each time they scrolled by, with occasional breaks of shopping on QVC.
Your response to what you wanted to be when you grew up… I LOVE IT!!! What do your kids say? You go, Girl! (excuse me. . . Dr.!)
So what’s the big deal? We get to see Victoria’s Secret skeletons prancing around in diamond bras and wings so this commercial would probably not cause a big stir on American TV–unlike the fat girl lingerie commercial that has everyone up in arms because the model has big boobs and everyone knows that big boobs make men all uncontrollably horny and violent.
.-= Chris´s last blog…Friday Cavalcade of (Girly Girl) Stuff =-.
So this kind of vengeance thing for the ex-boyfriend, this is to sell some kind of beverage? And the idea is that on Day 1 of the breakup she didn’t look so good in her underwear, but now, after drinking this stuff for 42 days she does. She looks so well that he gets a nose bleed looking at her? Fascinating retro sexism.
I just want to point out, as an aside, that every time I went through a breakup, after 42 days I was about 30 pounds UP not down. I would’ve had to flash a muumuu from my trenchcoat, not my undies.
.-= Linda at Bar Mitzvahzilla´s last blog…The ‘F’ Word: Football =-.