Across The USA by Dodge
Chapter 11
I bought a dozen or so CD's in the States including Al Stewart's new album "Rhymes In Rooms" which still hasn't been released in Australia plus re-releases of two of his old albums "Modern Times" and "Past, Present and Future"; also a Residents tribute to Elvis Presley called "The King and I" -- weird!; old Wall of Voodoo and Stan Ridgway albums I didn't have; a Jack Frost album and some others.
CD prices are reasonably cheap compared to here. The recommended price is around $13-$15 but you don't have to look very hard to find any new release for $11 maximum. That converted to about $Aus14.50 at the time, although our dollar's crashed since then.
Computer software (games at least) is also amazingly cheap. Sierra games were going for around $25 ($Au 33) while I picked up four games for $5 each. They were "Die Hard", "Shark Attack" (Greg Norman's Golf Game), a sports collection and "A Nightmare On Elm Street".
Television in the U.S. is pretty amazing. [I keep using that word but it really is appropriate when talking about America.] In Australia I watch maybe five shows a week max but in the States there's some great stuff on, especially with cable which all the motels had with a choice of up to fifteen to twenty channels. There's heaps more stations but you've got to pay more for access to certain groups of channels.
Therefore while I didn't get to see some of the weird stations you read about or see snippets of on shows such as Clive James, I did get to glance at quite a range.
I'm just trying to remember some that were available. I'll make a list. OK, for starters there were the main commercial stations which are pretty similar to here, then on cable there's:
ESPN, a totally sports orientated network.
Nick, which plays old TV shows such as "F Troop", "Superman" and "Get Smart" -- endless half hour shows (many in B&W) all day long. Only in America, as the saying goes.
HBO (and a number of other similar stations) which plays all the recent movies before they get to video.
Then there's CNN which is 24 hours a day news; an all day weather station ("in Mud Flat, Arkansas it's going to be 78 degrees today with a chance of rain in the afternoon"); and at least four shopping channels -- just like Demtel but taken to extremes. You've probably seen Peggy watching these type of shows on "Married With Children".
OK, there's MTV which plays video clips non-stop (there's also Nashville, a countrified version of MTV where you can watch Dwight Yoakam, Clint Black, Garth Brooks and Billy Ray Cyrus to your hearts content); and a number of comedy channels which are great. I watched quite a few of their shows at night and there were some really funny comedians that I'd never heard of before and probably never will again but are apparently "big" in America.
One show that sticks in my memory is a stand-up routine by Tim Allen which was very very funny. He's in the TV show "Home Improvements" which I quite like. Another very funny show I remember was with Rick Ducommen who you've probably seen in movies.
A couple of other good shows I watched a few times were "Gary Shandling" (a send up of late night talk shows); "Dream On" where the main character's thoughts/feelings are emphasised by brief clips from old movies (do you understand that, it's rather hard to explain) and "Seinfeld" a clever sit-com which features one of the hottest comedians in the States, Jerry Seinfeld. If they ever get shown out here take a look, you might like them.
Mentioning that "Nashville" station reminds me of something. When I reached Arizona (where everybody wears jeans and a T-shirt), every second person and their dog was wearing a T-shirt with "Achy Breaky Heart" on it in red writing. What the hey does "Achy Breaky Heart" mean, I asked? Oh, it's the number one song on the Top 40 at the moment, haven't you heard it? And I get back to Australia and have to go through the whole thing again! How unlucky can you be?
Chapter 12
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