Out of it, still

The Golden Globe Award nominations were announced a short time ago and I was painfully aware that I have not seen one single nominated movie or performance. On the TV side of things I do better: I know Glee and Hung; I loved Mildred Pierce, The Hour and the first season of Downton Abbey; I like Game of Thrones and am hooked on Boardwalk Empire. But still, it’s a tiny piece of the American entertainment pie that I feast on.

I did watch the Live from Lincoln Center broadcast of New York City Ballet’s The Nutcracker – or, as they awkwardly insist on calling it, George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker -- last night, but that probably makes me less in-touch rather than more, considering how few people watch PBS over all.

I’ve said it before: I am NOT your average American consumer. I see no advertisements on television, watching everything time-shifted via TiVo; I listen to no commercial radio; and, apparently, I go to no movies. I have never consciously heard a Lady Gaga song and I know that Kim Kardashian is someone who got married and divorced in little over two months, but I don’t know who she was or why people care.

I have never seen American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, a Barbara Walters interview or whatever Simon what’s-his-name’s new show is. I also own no clothes that have graphics or writing on them, nor any designer label items. (Thank Fran Lebowitz for that; she famously wrote “most people don’t want to talk to you; what makes you think they want to hear from your clothes?”)

Yes, I admit, I say all this with some small amount of pride, but it’s really just a fact of who I am and where I live. I was telling my friend Don just yesterday that, living near New York, I see some of the best the country has to offer in theatre, dance, opera and music. It does make me far less tolerant of anything less than wonderful.

And it does make me wish more people got off their butts, out of their houses and downtown – wherever they live – for some true, live, meaningful culture. Being a couch potato should be something we are ashamed of.

Note: Lebowitz also said “When you leave New York, you are astonished at how clean the rest of the world is. Clean is not enough.”