Entry #7 - Consumption of Media - 1.26.07

With so much time on my hands in here, a huge part of mine is spent consuming media. This serves both as a means of killing the days, as well as a means of escapism—a window of sorts to the outside world. Media has a major influence on my mindset and how I’m doing my time.

The media that we are permitted are infinitely more limited in here than on the outside. For someone like myself, weaned on punk rock and independent outlets, this was a very difficult adjustment to make. I’d spent so much time on the outside as an active consumer, seeking out niche bands/artists, films, and reading materials. I now find myself forced into mass consumption, which forces many concessions on my part.

In here, we have 9 TV’s on the whole compound for almost 400 people. We have personal radios that allow us to hear the TV, that also allow us to tune in to area radio stations. The latter option requires some profound concessions as many of these stations are either as pop focused as Disney Radio or stuck in the mediocrity of the past. (In the past 2 months I’ve heard “It’s Raining Men” 8 times, but at least they play Billy Idol.) There does happen to be a college station that isn’t horrible (except the students get a real kick out of being “ironic” by playing Journey), and the rock stations occasionally play something I’d actually listen to on my own. The only way to listen for more than ten minutes is to accept and even learn to enjoy music that I’d have snubbed in any other situation.

Watching television requires much of the same yield. Henry Giroux would have a field day with some of the selections that prisoners choose. We do have basic cable but I never get to see “The Daily Show” or “Colbert Report.” Instead, I’m subjected to Fox News as though it were an actual news station. Aside from that we get 24 hr. BET, Univision, and the weekly sagas. (Prison Break is naturally #1 here.) I’ve even become an avid American Idol viewer.

One thing that has struck me as odd was the experience of being solicited by advertising for products that I’m not able to purchase. Not that it’s a bad thing. If anything, it allows one to realize how absurd the commercialization of America really is.

It’s probably obvious as to why I end up spending more time reading than anything else. Periodicals are essential and I read just about anything I can get my hands on from Spin to The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal to The Onion. Despite my disdain for the sensationalization of Hollywood, I even pick up Us or People, if someone has it and I lack alternatives. This way, I feel America joining me in my envy of a world I am not a part of.

I subscribe to a wide array of magazines but can’t afford most that I would really want such Utne Reader and zines since their subscriptions are expensive due to a lack of advertising. It’s yet another way that prison inadvertently ends up marginalizing and turning us into automatons.

Books are ultimately the saving grace as many people (myself included) get them sent in. Prior to prison, I’d read virtually no books cover to cover. In here, I finish one to two books a week.

- The word for today is…vicarious.-

I will start from time to time including a playlist of what media I am willfully consuming, so as to give you all a better idea of what is helping shape the composite of my reality. *Anyone reading similar or even the same material – I’d love to have a discourse.

Songs – “Love Like Winter” - AFI The closest I get to quality punk love songs these days “Say It Right” – Nelly Furtado – As an old breakbeat DJ, I’m happy with the recent movement of pop into electronica ground. Used to be a rarity in American radio.

TV – Tonight we have our weekend-films pumped through the institution from the medium. Magazine – AP – My buddy, who used to be the music editor, got me a free subscription. It’s one of my only sources for indie rock in here.

Books – The Spooky Art by Norman Mailer – The icon discusses writing.