Light On Dark Water

An Hour in CrazyWorld

Smartphones, of course, are not the only crazy-making technology we have to contend with. One day last week I ate lunch at a sports bar of which one whole two-story wall was filled with TV screens, two huge and eight very large. That's a total of ten video screens, which were playing a total of eight different programs or channels (the eight very large screens were in groups of four, and each group showed the same four things).

The picture doesn't really get the idea across, because I couldn't fit the entire ten screens into the frame of the camera. You can really only see six of the ten here.

Sportsbar
The sad thing is that I found myself thinking it might actually be fun to watch a football game there, at least if they put the same game on all the screens.

Maclin Horton
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10 responses to “An Hour in CrazyWorld”

  1. Mac

    I don’t think I communicated just how big this whole installation is: something on the order of 30 feet wide and 20 feet high.

    Reply
  2. Rob G

    There seems to be a trend in which all bars, except perhaps some of the small neighborhood taverns, are moving towards being “sports bars” of one sort or another. You can’t seem to escape TV’s no matter where you go to have a pint.

    Reply
  3. Craig

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen a TV-wall like you describe, but I’ve been in plenty of places with TVs mounted in each corner. My usual strategy is to try to sit underneath one of them, facing the wall. That way I can’t see any of them very easily.

    Reply
  4. Mac

    The three or four restaurants where I eat fairly regularly all have them. I can think of a couple of higher-priced ones that don’t, but those are special-occasion-only for me. I can only think of one ordinary one that doesn’t, but it’s my less-favored (food-wise) of two Mexican restaurants. It isn’t necessarily sports–sometimes it’s just CNN or Fox. I’m actually getting to a point where I don’t notice them that much. The sound is always off. I’d go nuts if it weren’t.

    Reply
  5. Grumpy

    Every cafe and bar in Spain and even tiny bakery shops has a flat screen TV. Or at least all the ones on the camino.

    Reply
  6. Mac

    Well, I’m glad it’s not just us (and Canada, apparently).

    Reply
  7. Grumpy

    I have this dreamlike hope that somewhere far away it’s not like that. That it’s just us.

    Reply
  8. Mac

    There probably is such a place, but also probably the only reason it isn’t like that is that it’s too poor, and so has other disadvantages.

    Reply
  9. Marianne

    I have this dreamlike hope that somewhere far away it’s not like that. That it’s just us.
    We may have to kiss that dream goodbye: “You see some strange sights in Outer Mongolia, like tents on a hillside with satellite TV dishes“.
    Outer Mongolia.

    Reply
  10. Mac

    That makes me think of the South in the 1950s: it was much remarked that all but the very most poverty-stricken houses sported a TV antenna. It’s really pretty astonishing how strong the pull is.

    Reply

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