How do you stay inspired during uninspiring times?

[PrettySquareGal]

You, my dear, are probably the very reason these shows are on! You're flipping through the channels, are stopped dead in your tracks by the reality moronathon you see on E! (fer instance) and the Nielsen box sends the info to the deepest bowels of TV ratings headquarters where they then determine that this new crop of shows is making a gazillion bucks for the advertisers, whose scruples are no better than the producers of the shows. <tongue now removed from cheek>

I don't have a Nielson box.

 

[scottyrocks]

I do love ME-TV so I can watch The Brady Bunch, That Girl, Family Affair, Bob Newhart and other sitcoms. I need to stop rubbernecking when I flip through the channels; sometimes I stop on a "reality" show with my mouth agape and eyes crossed trying to take it all in because they're so incredulously inane. Next thing I know 30 minutes have gone by and my eyes and mouth are sore.

I have found youtube to be a decent source of old tv shows. I've been on an I Dream of Jeannie binge for a few days now.

 

[scottyrocks]

I don't have a Nielson box.

Hence the <tongue now removed from cheek> comment.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Hence the <tongue now removed from cheek> comment.

yeah, I know.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I have found youtube to be a decent source of old tv shows. I've been on an I Dream of Jeannie binge for a few days now.

I know, but there's something magical about watching the old shows on TV. I can pretend I'm actually back in time. Same with Twilight Zone. I own the complete series but still watch the July 4th marathon.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I can't stand to watch television or movies online -- it hurts my eyes, which are a mess to begin with. And my computer doesn't like it much either, sputtering and stalling and crashing and such. I can't even view the pages full of YooToobery here on the Lounge because of that.

I own a few of my favorite shows on DVD, but I don't like to watch them in marathon sessions -- when you watch fifteen episodes of something in a row, it sort of takes the edge off, sort of like having ice cream every day for breakfast dinner and supper. Better to parcel them out one a day -- last year I got thru most of the winter watching "The Goldbergs" every night after work.

 

[Miss Golightly]

Believe it or not, women's magazines actually used to be written for intelligent, thinking women -- the Ladies Home Journal from the thirties thru the fifties was one of the most progressive, well-written bastions of serious women's journalism ever. And not a single half-clothed pneumatic-bosomed anorexic-bellied androgyne in sight. Nothing better than leafing thru an issue or two on the front porch with the ballgame on the radio and a cold Coke to sip.

There used to be a really good UK magazine called Eve that I used to buy every month - it was such a great magazine - covered everything from fashion, career, health, cars, holidays - a mature and intelligent read. I really looked forward to getting my next copy. Well I guess it didn't contain enough inanity for the masses - not enough "Get your bikini body NOW!", "Celebs with Acne/cellulite", "Who's Broken up this Week?!"and the magazine closed. Very, very disappointing - particularly when you see what passes for women's magazines these days.

 

[C-dot]

Believe it or not, women's magazines actually used to be written for intelligent, thinking women -- the Ladies Home Journal from the thirties thru the fifties was one of the most progressive, well-written bastions of serious women's journalism ever. And not a single half-clothed pneumatic-bosomed anorexic-bellied androgyne in sight. Nothing better than leafing thru an issue or two on the front porch with the ballgame on the radio and a cold Coke to sip.

I quite enjoy my midcentury back issues of Woman's Day magazine. There are some great stories and articles written in them. One of the only magazines I can think of these days that remains to that standard is Vanity Fair, but even it toes the line sometimes...

Agreed. I have several 1940s issues of the Ladies Home Journal and they had some very good articles - I especially love all the short fiction and even entire novels that they published. Some of the editorials are very good, too, nothing like the inane stuff you see today in Cosmo (though to be honest, I haven't picked up a Cosmo magazine in years so I don't know how much further it's degenerated...).

I hate that so many women read Cosmopolitan. It's good for nothing but filling women's minds with trash. Case in point: In the T.O. Night, a free magazine that circulates in the evening in Toronto, there is a section for "shout outs" where people can text or e-mail in their comments. One of them I read was in response to some story about a man being unfaithful to his wife. This girl wrote "Maybe if she was pleasing her man properly, he wouldn't have cheated on her! Read Cosmo, girls, its seriously your bible!" There were several explosive responses to that in the next issue (one of which was mine), but that comment made me so tense I had to take a Tylenol.

Incidentially, I no longer read the T.O. Night.

 

[Flicka]

I almost never visit 'the real world' in my free time. It's not really that I live in the past, more that I'm creating a world for myself which only contains the things I like.

I don't watch a lot of tv, except a cable channel I have which shows nothing but historical documentaries. I do watch the occasional murder mystery (Christie, of course, but I admit I like Inspector Lewis too), and I'd love to TCM but there's no way I'm paying for a gazillion more channels I'm not going to watch. I listen to music I like, which means basically everything from The Black Keys to Händel via Bessie Smith. I sew and fiddle with millinery. I only talk to people I like (caller ID is wonderful), which usually means people whom other people find a little weird. I read; mostly historical non-fiction and historical fiction (I write hist fic so it makes sense). I write - nothing makes me as happy as making stuff up. Nothing like ruining a few lives before breakfast!

Generally, I live 'slow' - cook from scratch, walk or bicycle where I need to go, go to bed when I'm tired and get up when I wake up. Every Sunday evening, I'm convinced the world is good, and every Monday when I'm plopped back into the real world, I'm shocked.

 

[lindylady]

One of my favourite escapes is to read The Complete Sherlock Holmes or to watch the excellent Granada Holmes series with Jeremy Brett, of which I have all the episodes on my computer.

I avoid reading or watching the news because frankly modern media is horrendously inaccurate anyways, so why bother?

I escape with Sherlock Holmes, too, or one of Hammett's hard-boiled detective stories

I don't like how today's media is designed to make you angry, scared, or simply desensitize you when it comes to violence and sex. Not saying I'm a prude. Some aspects of today's society are an improvement over yesteryear (more racial tolerance, opportunities for women, etc.), but I do wish we could return to higher forms of entertainment and have more respect for the way we conduct ourselves.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Some aspects of today's society are an improvement over yesteryear (more racial tolerance, opportunities for women, etc.), but I do wish we could return to higher forms of entertainment and have more respect for the way we conduct ourselves.

It's a pity that our more "enlightened" society of today comes with such a crappy culture.

 

[AmateisGal]

It's not really that I live in the past, more that I'm creating a world for myself which only contains the things I like.

Flicka, I LOVE this quote. This is what I try to do, too. I have no t.v. in my "formal" living room and I spend most of my free time in there, reading or writing, or in my office (which also has no t.v.) where I can listen to my old records. And then, of course, my very modern husband ruins it all by turning on the t.v. too loud (it's in the basement). lol

 

[PrettySquareGal]

My time capsule house really makes a difference in my life and I love spending time in it. It's taken me ten plus years to get the vintage things I have inside and it's an ongoing quest.

 

[Miss Golightly]

If I need a pick-me-up or something to recharge my spirits I usually put on an old movie or read (usually biographies and autobiographies) - sometimes even watching some old interviews/footage on YouTube of my favourite Hollywood stars usually does me the world of good (Phil Donahue interviewing Audrey Hepburn is one of my faves).And then there is coming on to the FL - to see that there are so many people with the same mindset/values as me makes me feel like I am not the only person left in the world who feels/thinks this way.

 

[Undertow]

I just thought of something - I find inspiration in architecture. I'll head downtown and look over old warehouses and residential hotels. Or I'll cruise around small towns and look for banks. Consolidated schools are good, too.

I like to find buildings erected around the 1890's-1930's. There wasn't much building in the 1940's, at least nothing that's survived. I found a round pump-house out by a resevoir that was built in 1942; it was pretty sweet. We had quite a revival in the 1910's with Beaux Arts and Neo-Classical, some fountains and parks, bridgework. Most of that's gone, but any time there's construction, I head out with a shovel and pick through the dirt. I've found some bottles, plates, shave cups, etc. Basically garbage. lol

So yeah, I guess that's not much. Kinda boring. It's very peaceful though. Helps break up a balmy Sunday afternoon.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I just thought of something - I find inspiration in architecture. I'll head downtown and look over old warehouses and residential hotels. Or I'll cruise around small towns and look for banks. Consolidated schools are good, too.

I like to find buildings erected around the 1890's-1930's. There wasn't much building in the 1940's, at least nothing that's survived. I found a round pump-house out by a resevoir that was built in 1942; it was pretty sweet. We had quite a revival in the 1910's with Beaux Arts and Neo-Classical, some fountains and parks, bridgework. Most of that's gone, but any time there's construction, I head out with a shovel and pick through the dirt. I've found some bottles, plates, shave cups, etc. Basically garbage. lol

So yeah, I guess that's not much. Kinda boring. It's very peaceful though. Helps break up a balmy Sunday afternoon.

I love old buildings but later than what you like. One of my favorite things in the world is to go to estate sales in houses from the 50s and 60s that have changed little over the years.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's a pity that our more "enlightened" society of today comes with such a crappy culture.

The question to ask is "can a society that produces such a crappy culture truly be considered to *be* enlightened?"

Undertow's comments put me to mind of one of my favorite escapes. It no longer exists, alas, but when I was a kid, there was an abandoned 1920s-era neighborhood grocery store next to my grandparents' house, and when some friends of ours rented the property they gave me free rein to paw around in the remains. There was a lot of old stock stored there, including a nice pile of magazines, assorted old packaging, furniture, trunks full of clothes, all sorts of stuff. I don't think I ever had as much fun in my whole childhood as the time I was able to spend digging around in there.

 

[R.G. White]

I stay away from the TV, internet, and people. That's the best way for me to stay inspired.

Something interesting I've noticed is that times were more interesting when people were more oppressed. There was more 'scope for imagination.' I would honestly WANT to live in tougher times; I know it sounds crazy, but it was just more exciting, even though in bad way. And I'm saying that as a gay man. I don't think humans like things to be easy, we just say we do because we're supposed to. But easy is boring.
All right, I'm probably insane, so I'll go now.

 

[Swing Motorman]

R.G. White, you've got a good point. People do need a cause to work for, or else we languish (and boy, with apologies to Jerry Lee Lewis, there's a whole lotta languishin' goin' on). I always think that if you can find the ways in which our times are still hard (and work to make them better), you don't need them to be any harder. This would be a strictly individual thing, but I wonder if some people turn to drugs, alcohol, abusing others, or other nasty things because nothing else seems significant or, in your words, interesting enough to them. Like us in this thread here, we're all looking for inspiration.

But really, there are plenty of causes to support if people look around. I work passionately on the front lines of the sustainable transportation cause every day, and that's my #1 motivation.


-Steven

 

[Miss Moonlight]

But really, there are plenty of causes to support if people look around. I work passionately on the front lines of the sustainable transportation cause every day, and that's my #1 motivation.

That is a noble cause, also. My main inspiration is my daughter, who is almost three.

But as for vintage inspiration... every night I fall asleep listening to OTR, right now it's The Great Gildersleeve. My favorite episodes of pretty much all OTR are those right before, during and after WW2. I love hearing how everyone came together to do what had to be done. Although I'm only getting the story from the media of the time, it's still lovely to not hear any blame, no 'this party or that is at fault' and to hear people talk about what really matters. Last night's episode featured a epilogue by Harold Peary about how so many kids were knocking around the streets; dad's at war, mom's working at the factory, and a lot of kids didn't have anyone to really look after them after school. He entreats the audience to please watch out for the kids, think of ways to help them out.

I find the way people pulled together in the WW2 era very inspiring. There was so much horror in the world at that time, and sometimes I can find it ironic that the thing that comforts me most in this time of history is from a time when atrocities and loss of life were a big part of the era. I imagine how scary it must have been living in that time. Not only for people who were living the atrocities, but for those who had loved ones in harm's way, and even for people who were in the USA, just trying to live their lives and help the war effort and wondering if it was possible that war would cross the ocean and onto US soil again.

But here, in the 21st century, when something horrible happens, I find the only thing I can listen to or watch or read is something from the far past.