DVR and the Slow Food Movement

DVRs, Apple TV, Hulu, and Netflix streaming are all drastically changing the way we watch TV. Gone are the days when you’d rush home to catch an episode of Seinfeld or even try to properly time your bathroom or refrigerator trips. It’s becoming rarer that you are left out of a conversation at work if you didn’t watch a show live the previous night. Fortunately, many of us utilize one of these services to allow us to watch TV on our time. We don’t need to schedule our evening around the final episode of Seinfeld (If you haven’t already noticed, Seinfeld is my TV show of reference due to its popularity at a time in which DVRs did not exist.). Only sporting events keep us chained to our televisions because who would want to watch a sporting event after it already happened? Many people are cutting cable altogether in part, to save money and also to save time. One of my friends who recently parted ways with cable said he realized how often he would just have the TV on to watch something that he didn’t really even care about. Perhaps not having limitless choices would help one actually filter out all of the junk that you don’t really need to watch (there’s a related joke here about the Cheesecake Factory menu, but I can’t nail it down).

By now, you might be questioning why I am on a seemingly random crusade against cable. There is no hidden agenda to rid you of cable or your satellite, but more of a question as to how this applies to our eating habits or how it should apply to our eating habits. We’ve established that DVRs, and the like, have created more time for us, as it relates to TV. With this free time and no need to rush home or rush at the dinner table, how will you handle it? How will the US handle it? In theory, shouldn’t this allow us more time to enjoy our food? We can prepare food at home without worrying that we are missing something funny that Franklin said to Bash (please note that the humor is never intentional). Good food takes time. It takes an investment involving some planning and prepping of ingredients. TV dinners should have been cancelled several seasons ago. How much more shame do you need than sticking your meal repeatedly with a fork before shoving it into the microwave? We now have time to eat better and eat right. For what reason, other than laziness, do you need to visit the drive thru when you shouldn’t be short on time? People consistently argue that they do not have time to eat better or prepare food, but I believe you do have the time. Perhaps there is a fear or intimidation or maybe you’ve been burned or more accurately, the dish has been burned. Practice does make perfect and we’ve now established that there is more time available to practice. Make this important.

My Place

"Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name." I have always wanted to have my restaurant that I always frequent. You know, the type of place where you know all of the waiters, they recognize you by name. Maybe they even know what dishes you prefer. It would kind of be like my own Cheers. Perhaps many of us want this type of place. I remember that throughout college my roommates and I looked for a coffee shop (despite the fact that none of us liked coffee) similar to that in Seinfeld. We wanted a place where we could all meet. Somewhere we could say, "Hey, meet me at the coffee shop." We thought we found the place, we went there once, and no one liked it. I'm sure it's harder when you live out in the suburbs and there is a high turnover in staff, but I really hope to find that place. If I were to open a restaurant, I would want to know my customers on a first-name basis. The closest thing I have right now is a barber who knows my name, and that feels pretty good. Perhaps, it's really simple on my part. I just want recognition, but I know I'm not alone. I think many of us want this place. That place where we feel like old friends catching up again. That place where it's like hanging out in the neighborhood. Maybe we've watched Norm one too many times and wanted our own Frasier to listen to our problems.