Video Killed the Radio Star
Feb 5th, 2008 by Marilyn
We are wired. I mean really wired. One of the last – and one of the more unusual – steps in finishing the house was to use the services of a true audio-visual professional to hook things up and make all the speakers, screens and music work together.
Audio-visual guy at work. I’m just glad it’s not me.
I was a little unsure as to why we needed this. All the lovely old things in the new old house. Screens and speakers and remotes are useful, but so big, and…unfriendly. Shiny. We watch movies, sports, news. Play a few tunes once in a while. We didn’t need all this ugly tech hoo-ha – did we?
Screens
This family loves its movies – okay, this family cannot live without its movies – but we’re not really ginormous home-theater people. More like faded, slightly seedy old movie palace people.
Our true loyalties lie with classic Hollywood films of the 30′s and 40′s. My idea of a great night usually involves Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant – though Greg and Josie sneak in loud and endless viewings of “Empire Strikes Back.” Hey, he’s no Cary Grant, but who doesn’t love the Emperor?
We feed our movie obsession with a heady combination of Tivo, Turner Classic Movies, and now, a few very nice screens on which to enjoy it all.
There is also a little basketball team here called the Kansas Jayhawks.
If you are not courtside in Allen Field House, large-screen viewing is a good thing.
Speakers
Greg really wanted speakers. A lot of speakers.
Maybe it’s a guy thing, or maybe we still think we just might tap a keg and dance on the dining room table, but we did get us some speakers. Speakers up around the fireplace, small speakers in the sun room, tall ones in the media-bar, in-ceiling speakers in the kitchen, even a few outside. Because you never know when this miserable, snowy-muddy February gloom might lift – we could have dancing under the stars.
Throw in his beloved college-era stereo components, and we had the makings of an a-v wire jungle.
Music
Wiring our house for glorious stereophonic sound is a little amusing when you consider that we both think ‘the music died’ somewhere right after 1987. Much to our daughter’s chagrin, we believe it’s all been downhill since then.
She’s a pretty music-savvy kid, but adolescence seems to have put her more varied Bing-to-Beatles tastes in the closet; when her friends and their iPods are around, it’s all wailing emo boys and Crank that Soulja.
No, I can’t do the dance. I am the “Elaine Benes” of the Soulja Boy.
Luckily, her parents can now drown all that out by blasting XTC and The Smiths on their newfangled hi-fi.
Honestly, what’s the matter with kids today?
Acceptance
So, fine. It appears that we do have plenty of entertainment, both new and old, in our lives. And when you’re building a house from scratch, it seems crazy not to wire up and let it in.
We did find that “media” furniture is getting better-looking, and that’s good, because if more TVs meant more ugly stands, this family might be reading sonnets by candlelight right now.
The super-OCD stereo guy (is there another kind?) was worth every penny. A guy like this spares you the brain-busting task of connecting miles of cable and spending hours guessing remote codes. I highly recommend going the “Geek” route whenever possible. It’s not very “DIY,” but it is very “Save Your Marriage.”
He even set it up so that TV sound gets beamed into the kitchen. And you know what that means?
It means that when they’re watching basketball and Our Lady of The Martyred Nachos is making their detestable but delicious snack in the kitchen – she can also hear the game.
And that’s a miracle.
***special props to the first commenter who names the band that sung the title of this post.
Greg, Mary O’Connell and iloveupstate’s Jean may not play. It’s just not right.
