I haven't written anything for a while because I couldn't decide what I wanted to write about first - my adventures in ska at a Reel Big Fish concert, surviving riding a tandem bike with my hubby, or TV. (Hopefully I'll get on to Reel Big Fish later)
I chose TV, because there are 3 major UK-to-US remakes doing the rounds at the moment, and oh boy, what a lot of drama there is.
In particular, the American version of Skins has been causing a wave of controversy after it first aired on MTV a couple of weeks ago. Yes, it is about teenagers, and yes, there is a lot of sex, drugs and rock n roll, but it is on at 10pm on a cable channel in the upper 200s. Why the fuss?
This is where Janet Jackson comes into this. Remember nipplegate at the SuperBowl? (If you don't, type 'nipplegate' into Google - brilliantly, a variety of relevant websites come up) Many Americans would argue that Jackson's wardrobe malfunction was the start of a new wave of excessive censorship in American TV. In reality, the Parents Television Council has been in existence since 1995, but Nipplegate brought what was considered 'indecent' firmly into the spotlight.
And this is where I can't help but be frustrated by the double standards of it all. This is a country which has a burgeoning porn industry, strip clubs next to churches, and shows the uncut version of Saving Private Ryan at 8am. Blood and guts before breakfast is fine, but an unblurred shot of side boob after bedtime is outrageous.
I live here now, so I have been making major efforts to understand the American way in many things. The grass is greener syndrome really isn't going to help me survive out here. But this is one that just drives me to distraction. Failing to treat adult viewers as grown-ups by giving them a choice over what they watch - and making sex and the human body taboo for younger viewers by throwing histrionics every time there is a kiss with too much tongue - is an insult to the intelligence of most adults and takes responsibility away from parents. A ten-year-old should not be watching television at 11 at night, so why censor television to a ten-year-old's level at 11 at night?
Interestingly, the American version of Shameless, which started a few weeks ago, has caused little stir (and is, by the way, excellent) - despite the first episode showing the oldest daughter, Fiona, getting a shag on the kitchen floor and high school age Lip getting sexual favours of the oral variety in return for maths tutoring. But Shameless is on Showtime, which is a premium cable channel that you have to pay extra to receive. There is also a reason why some of the biggest American exports of recent years - Sex And The City, The Sopranos, etc. - have come from the HBO stable, which is also a premium channel. Both these networks do not rely on advertising, and can therefore be riskier in their programming - even though the UK versions and exports of their programming will readily be found on the BBC or ITV back home. After the 9pm watershed, of course.
I am not saying that I want all TV to be sexed up or that excessive nudity is necessarily correct. But mainstream American TV would have you believe, a lot of the time, that life is as innocent and saccharine as a trip down the road to Disney World. For now, though, I will be paying for HBO/Showtime, and for the privilege of being treated like a grown-up.
Friday, 28 January 2011
Monday, 17 January 2011
Work? Study? Other?
I'm having a major duvet day today, because it is absolutely foul outside. The local news stations are breathless with excitement, because there are tornado watches out. "Severe weather" is central Florida TV station crack - people, it's just raining quite hard, and anyway, your weather forecasts are rubbish!
In the absence of any outdoor activities to do I am watching a marathon of The Tudors on BBC America (starting to get quite hard going, given they have cut out all the good bits - in fact, I'm surprised there is anything left to show at all) and trying to figure out what to do with my life. That bit is quite hard going too.
I always knew I would have at least 4 months where I would be unemployed and chose to look at this as an opportunity to decide what to do with my life. I will have been here 3 months this Wednesday and I still haven't figured it out - not even close!
The American job market is very much a different animal to me. Given the level of unemployment in the US (and especially Florida), it is an employer's market - entry level management positions are demanding 5+ years of experience and a related degree. With 2 years at management level under my belt, I am in employment limbo - I am over-qualified for non-management positions and under-qualified for management positions. Couple all this with the fact my degree is not strictly 'related' to any position, and that a Bachelor's degree is nowhere near as valued here as in the UK, and I have my work cut out for me.
On top of the, I-need-any-job-just-to-pay-the-bills situation, I am also trying to figure out my calling in life. I've considered teaching, nursing, project management, personal banking, and public relations - I think this tells you if nothing else that I still have no idea. Oh to be one of those people with a true vocation - fewer decisions to be made! But maybe it's OK I don't have an exact path to follow. My main goals are: be regarded as a leader in my area, have a job that makes me want to get out of bed in the morning, and be successful enough to not struggle. But I still have to figure out what that is.
On the side I've been looking at ways to combat the annoying bachelors-is-the-new-high-school-diploma situation. A Masters is almost considered standard in the US now and I've been considering the possibility of going back to school - part-time, of course, given the cost of such things. Online MBAs are easy to find - I could even do my MBA at Warwick Business School all the way from Orlando if I so chose! - but the main problem is once again money. $25,000 minimum - would such an investment, though, lead me to earn over $25,000 more over time?
Many decisions to be made, that I am failing to make. Sigh. And still at least 30 days until I get my work card. Still, one can't be serious all the time, so the rest of the time I have been dreaming about me and Jason getting our own place, and puppies. I want one of these:
In the absence of any outdoor activities to do I am watching a marathon of The Tudors on BBC America (starting to get quite hard going, given they have cut out all the good bits - in fact, I'm surprised there is anything left to show at all) and trying to figure out what to do with my life. That bit is quite hard going too.
I always knew I would have at least 4 months where I would be unemployed and chose to look at this as an opportunity to decide what to do with my life. I will have been here 3 months this Wednesday and I still haven't figured it out - not even close!
The American job market is very much a different animal to me. Given the level of unemployment in the US (and especially Florida), it is an employer's market - entry level management positions are demanding 5+ years of experience and a related degree. With 2 years at management level under my belt, I am in employment limbo - I am over-qualified for non-management positions and under-qualified for management positions. Couple all this with the fact my degree is not strictly 'related' to any position, and that a Bachelor's degree is nowhere near as valued here as in the UK, and I have my work cut out for me.
On top of the, I-need-any-job-just-to-pay-the-bills situation, I am also trying to figure out my calling in life. I've considered teaching, nursing, project management, personal banking, and public relations - I think this tells you if nothing else that I still have no idea. Oh to be one of those people with a true vocation - fewer decisions to be made! But maybe it's OK I don't have an exact path to follow. My main goals are: be regarded as a leader in my area, have a job that makes me want to get out of bed in the morning, and be successful enough to not struggle. But I still have to figure out what that is.
On the side I've been looking at ways to combat the annoying bachelors-is-the-new-high-school-diploma situation. A Masters is almost considered standard in the US now and I've been considering the possibility of going back to school - part-time, of course, given the cost of such things. Online MBAs are easy to find - I could even do my MBA at Warwick Business School all the way from Orlando if I so chose! - but the main problem is once again money. $25,000 minimum - would such an investment, though, lead me to earn over $25,000 more over time?
Many decisions to be made, that I am failing to make. Sigh. And still at least 30 days until I get my work card. Still, one can't be serious all the time, so the rest of the time I have been dreaming about me and Jason getting our own place, and puppies. I want one of these:
All I need is a good job so I can get a big enough apartment to put a Golden Retriever in....simple, non? :)
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
New Year's Day is College Game Day
I spent the first day of 2011 in a bar in Lake Buena Vista, nursing what I felt was a somewhat unreasonable hangover and being educated in the finer points on college (American) football.
Those of us who have been educated in the British university system will have a hard time understand exactly how huge college sport is in the United States. For my friends who went to the University of Warwick, a school of about 20,000 students - imagine the Warwick vs. Coventry varsity rugby game (the pinnacle of the Warwick sports calendar) being broadcast on Sky Sports 1. And taking place in a sold out stadium the size of Old Trafford.
The National College Athletics Association is the monolith that administrates university sport in America - but especially American Football, Basketball, Hockey and Baseball. All have large followings, but college football is the really big one. Many people I have spoken to, both my friends here and random people I have met along the way, argue that college football is becoming more popular than the NFL due to the NFL becoming so singularly driven by money.
Most NFL fans also have a college team that they support. I sat in the bar on Saturday afternoon with 2 of my good friends - one of whom is a Penn State fan, and the other a Gators (the University of Florida's sport teams) fan. And here we come across another unique facet of college sports here - neither of my friends actually went to the university they are supporting, and this is far from uncommon. Those who went to schools with large and well-known teams follow those teams; others simply choose a college to follow based on their performance, playing style or because they like their coach. It is absolutely accepted to follow a university that you didn't go to and/or isn't local. This extends into the professional leagues as well - after ten years of getting stick for being a Manchester United fan who wasn't from Manchester, I am getting some fairly strange reactions for supporting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, my local NFL team, because they're shit. Sometimes you just can't win!
Anyway, back to college football. Saturday was a big day in the college football calendar with a large number of bowl games going on. The bowl games mark the end of the college football season, but there's about 20 of them, none of them producing a clear college champion. It's ridiculously confusing, so I am going to direct you to Wikipedia to see if you can make any more sense of it than me. The sheer volume is driven by the sponsorship opportunities available (who says that college football is less money driven than the NFL?!) - but people go wild for them. Saturday's big game was the Outback Bowl, Penn State vs. Florida.
Despite all my ramblings above about the madness, I actually really enjoyed it. College football fans can be totally bonkers, but that simply makes for some great Saturday afternoon banter. What I am realising about American sport is that if you are into it, you are really into it. No half-hearted efforts here. And that's what makes it fun to get into on a Saturday afternoon - even if it has taken me 5 years to truly understand what the hell is going on in college football or NFL.
Oh, and I've decided to adopt the Gators as my university side. As someone who didn't go to uni here, I think I have the privilege of choice!
Those of us who have been educated in the British university system will have a hard time understand exactly how huge college sport is in the United States. For my friends who went to the University of Warwick, a school of about 20,000 students - imagine the Warwick vs. Coventry varsity rugby game (the pinnacle of the Warwick sports calendar) being broadcast on Sky Sports 1. And taking place in a sold out stadium the size of Old Trafford.
The National College Athletics Association is the monolith that administrates university sport in America - but especially American Football, Basketball, Hockey and Baseball. All have large followings, but college football is the really big one. Many people I have spoken to, both my friends here and random people I have met along the way, argue that college football is becoming more popular than the NFL due to the NFL becoming so singularly driven by money.
Most NFL fans also have a college team that they support. I sat in the bar on Saturday afternoon with 2 of my good friends - one of whom is a Penn State fan, and the other a Gators (the University of Florida's sport teams) fan. And here we come across another unique facet of college sports here - neither of my friends actually went to the university they are supporting, and this is far from uncommon. Those who went to schools with large and well-known teams follow those teams; others simply choose a college to follow based on their performance, playing style or because they like their coach. It is absolutely accepted to follow a university that you didn't go to and/or isn't local. This extends into the professional leagues as well - after ten years of getting stick for being a Manchester United fan who wasn't from Manchester, I am getting some fairly strange reactions for supporting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, my local NFL team, because they're shit. Sometimes you just can't win!
Anyway, back to college football. Saturday was a big day in the college football calendar with a large number of bowl games going on. The bowl games mark the end of the college football season, but there's about 20 of them, none of them producing a clear college champion. It's ridiculously confusing, so I am going to direct you to Wikipedia to see if you can make any more sense of it than me. The sheer volume is driven by the sponsorship opportunities available (who says that college football is less money driven than the NFL?!) - but people go wild for them. Saturday's big game was the Outback Bowl, Penn State vs. Florida.
Despite all my ramblings above about the madness, I actually really enjoyed it. College football fans can be totally bonkers, but that simply makes for some great Saturday afternoon banter. What I am realising about American sport is that if you are into it, you are really into it. No half-hearted efforts here. And that's what makes it fun to get into on a Saturday afternoon - even if it has taken me 5 years to truly understand what the hell is going on in college football or NFL.
Oh, and I've decided to adopt the Gators as my university side. As someone who didn't go to uni here, I think I have the privilege of choice!
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