Red, White and Roux

We just upgraded the computer with a new, flat screen monitor that has great quality. Combine that with Netflix streaming video, and you have found my new default viewing scenario. We have also discovered the NBC series “30 Rock.” I can sit in my office chair and watch episodes sequentially at whim. Without commercials they run about 21 minutes. It might not seem so comfortable to watch TV on a computer screen, and I haven't done a whole movie yet, but this seems to be working for me.

Previously, I only watched short videos posted by my friends on Facebook or clips I found on The Huffington Post. On Saturday mornings I use my extra computer time to watch various comedy snippets. If I really need a laugh I go to YouTube for funny animal videos.

We also added a plain vanilla DVD player ($39.95) to the television in the living room. Now we aren't limited to the bedroom for watching movies. I have basic cable so I really only watch Food Network on regular TV.

As my fiancé, Mark, was installing the new monitor, I started thinking about the media transitions we have all had to make over the past 40 years or so.

I never remember a time without television. We only received two broadcast signals via outside antennae and the reception was problematic. I learned how to cuss listening to Daddy trying to get a clear picture during a baseball game. We had to get up off the couch to change channels. That is quite simply beyond the imagining of today's kids.

We listened to AM radio (mostly WLCY from Tampa) from pint-sized transistor models. I found my little black number still in its leather case when I was recently going through a box of old stuff.

When I was about 12, Mama ditched the suitcase-style record player and switched to a turntable with separate speakers. Very Sixties. We listened to music as we cleaned house on Saturday mornings – Al Hirt, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Andy Williams, and soundtracks from “My Fair Lady” and “The Sound of Music.” I still know all of the words from those last two albums.

Eight-tracks ruled when I was a teen, and we bought them at the Tastee Freez along with our 19-cent hamburgers.

Cassette tapes and albums seemed to run neck-and-neck for me for many years. My husband was in radio and we accumulated hundreds of records. I can't play eight-tracks anymore, but I have a fairly new turntable, and the current stereo can still handle cassettes. I rarely play a record, but the collection stays. It is a comfort to know that I can play a cut from “The Supremes Greatest Hits” whenever I want. No way could I ever have bought cassettes for all the albums and then once again reproduce the cassettes on CD. There are just so many times one can bow to technology and buy a new copy of “Abbey Road.”

I have a feeling that from here on out I will always be behind the media consumption curve. I don't like things in my ears so MP3 players are out. I can happily leave my cell phone at home and function perfectly well. I don't need state-of-the-art sound in the car since I only listen to NPR anyway. My two televisions are big, bulky models with small screens by today's standards. I am perfectly comfortable not possessing the latest and greatest. I am enjoying “30 Rock” though. I do love the Internet.

And I did experience a bit of media envy when my old friend Bob Ross in Tampa described his set-up. We were instant-messaging about ideas for this column when I started asking questions. He wrote that he had a laptop in the recliner with five remotes (cable, television, receiver, VCR, and DVD) and a Blackberry at the end of the table. He watches on a 42-inch Sony LCD screen. I hate multiple remotes and just shoot me now if I ever consider a Blackberry. Then I asked about cable. He gets the usual HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Movie Channel lineup but, in addition, Independent Movie Channel, Sundance, Turner Classics, and Encore. He got me there.

Maybe I am not as content as I thought I was. Sundance? Independent Movie Channel? I thought I had plenty; now I want more.

Denise Roux is a regular columnist for the Apalachicola and Carrabelle Times. To reach her, email her at rouxwhit@mchsi.com