I’ve been watching a number of movies and TV shows lately. What surprises me is that I find myself much more compelled to keep watching “Boston Legal” or “24” than “The Johnny Carson Show” (his show before “The Tonight Show.”)
It’s not because Carson was an older show. When I delivered pizza I got hold of CD collections of “The Jack Benny Show” (the radio production.) and couldn’t stop listening to them long enough to listen to my new album for the week. I justified it that I still listened to playlists on my computer and there was music on the show. At the same time I had “The Abbot and Costello Show” (radio) and they were just as funny, but it took me forever to get through them.
Later I found 16 episodes of “The Jack Benny Show” (the TV production) on You Tube, and I burned through them in a few nights. Again Johnny Carson is just as funny, but it’s taking me forever to get through them.
I’ll probably explain it to myself as just being the mood I’m in at a given time, and that may be all it is. I just remember reading Clive Barker’s “Imajica” and loving it, but taking four years to read it. Literally. And it was a library book. The library had no recheck limit and another copy of the book. But Clive Barker’s “The Great and Secret Show” which I liked almost as much I flew threw in a little over a month.
I’m probably just over thinking this, but I think the reason it matters to me is because I get this way with my own writing, and at times it keeps me from prioritizing my work. I have ideas that are really good that don’t get written. I guess that would be ok if everything I wrote came out as certified gold, but since it doesn’t, I really wish I would give more focus to the good stuff. I realize that the simple act of working on one project to its completion whether I’m in the mood or not would bring about the result of prioritizing the good work, but how nice would it be if I could pinpoint what makes similar work more compelling than its peer group? You’re all rolling your eyes, but you know you would want it too.