There’s a show on one of those cable channels where people engage in extreme eating, ride roller coasters, show you how Pixie Stix are made, taunt ghosts, and turn their noses up at the very idea of a ceiling fan, that I’ve somehow started watching.
Lots of people say they don’t watch TV, but I really don’t. During the four days I’m working each week, I don’t see any television at all. Not one minute. And on my days off it’s not much more.
We like Friday Night Lights, take semi-advantage of Netflix streaming (which is pretty awesome), and sometimes flip through the aforementioned cable channels, while enjoying a few adult beverages at the end of a day. And that’s about the extent of it.
Yet I’ve gotten hooked on an unlikely show, called Selling New York. Have you seen this? It follows a group of real estate agents around, as they attempt to sell breathtakingly expensive apartments in New York City, or match a client with a breathtakingly expensive apartment. I think I’ve watched every episode, thanks to our always-lurking DVR, and enjoy the hell out of it.
The prices of the properties are insane, and the people live in a world that’s more fantastic than most science fiction movies I’ve seen. Amazing! Many of the clients are eccentric (or just plain crazy), and even though they’re all wildly wealthy, they often act like children. They pout and whine, and hold grudges…
It’s fascinating to me.
I also appreciate the show’s leisurely pace. Most programs seem to be edited by people who want to see how many grand mal seizures they can trigger. But Selling New York is comparatively laid-back, which I like.
I recently asked someone (purposefully vague) if they’ve ever watched the show, and their response surprised me. They said they can’t relate to any of it, and therefore “hate” the program. WTF? What kind of attitude is that?
Heck, I can’t relate to it, either. And that’s part of the reason I like it. Every time I go to New York I wonder what the interiors of those great old buildings look like, and how the millionaire residents live. Is that unusual? Or should I just start hating everything I’ve yet to experience?
Of course, I’ve always regretted not having lived in NYC, so that might have something to do with it, as well. Hopefully someday… before I get so old my pelvis explodes every time the wind blows.
Have you seen Selling New York? Any thoughts on it? If I’m going to watch almost no TV, is this really one of the few shows I should be following? I mean, on account of it being kinda fancy-lad and prissy…
Also, where would you live, if it could be anywhere in the world? New York and London would be near or at the top of my list. What about you? Tell us about it, won’t you?
And I’ll see you guys again tomorrow.
Have a great day!
Good Afternoon Surf Reporters!!!!
2nd1111111111111111111111111
oops i got excited its supposed to be !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Does this count for third also? i don’t think that would be fare.
I wonder whats underneath that stack of porn movies?????????
Soiled Kleenex no doubt
I’m in Camp Kay as far as not watching a whole lot of TV. I do dig on a few shows. Mad Men new season just started. I catch The Soup on E! every Friday night.
I’ve been hooked lately on “Pawn Stars” on the History Channel. Just really love the weird shit that people think is worth a ton of money when it’s worth nothing. Or vice-versa, they think it’s worth a cuppa two tree hunnert dollars and it’s actually worth tens o thousands.
Pawn Stars rule. Go Chumlee!!!
Top 10! Now to read this,
I don’t watch any TV. Period. I even gave up on the local TV weather because I just could not tolerate the local asshats passed off as news anchors. So no, I’ve never seen selling New York.
I’m really not into movies either, unless I know I’ll like it. Which makes it kinda hard to pick movies I’ll know I like when I’ve never seen them. I’m just too tired of the same old story lines. And the recycling of my favorite comic book characters into tinsel town trash is just too much for me.
Well, if I’m going to pick anyplace I’d love to live, I’m first assuming I won the lottery and don’t have to worry about being able to afford where I live.
Having said that, the honest truth is that I’d love to live way back in the hills in the heart of WV. I would love to own a small family farm but not have to worry about whether I was any good at farming.
My mother lives in NYC (NOT a fancy shmancy place, a 1 bedroom very small apartment). I would like one of the bigger pre-War buildings with a few bedrooms. Like in those old black & white movies where the rooms are gigantic and plentiful.
I would also like to own an island (I know, I know, Manhattan IS an island) but since I really can’t stand too many people, I’m talking my own little island I can escape to for a while before facing humans again!
I would live in Scranton across the street from Poppa Half-Shirt and Jeff Kay.
I don’t understand how someone would pay 1.5 million dollars to live in an area of 3000 sq ft when that same amount of money can buy 30,000 acres of land where you can put any number of eccentric ridiculous things, and where you can murder on a whim and no one would be any the smarter.
There are three places I would live if I could live anywhere.
First is the Snake River in west Idaho. In all my travels around the USA and the world, this is one of the most wonderful places I have ever been. SO much so that a 2 room cabin would be fine.
About an hour west of Nashville, TN where there are thousands of acres of remote land, but not too far away from a metropolitan area.
The Chicago Spire, if it ever gets built. It would be great to live in the worlds largest personal neck massager right in the downtown of the best largest city in the country.
If you are to watch one show, make it Big Bang Theory. Those nerds crack me the hell up, and it’s only three beers long, so you don’t waste your life in front of the image wall.
Don’t really watch much TV.
I can’t think of any place slower and more quiet that West BY GOD Virginia. If I could live in a Hugh Jass house on a 50 acre mountain top…now that would be cool. But I’d want it to be in WV.
I spend too much time watching TLC and HGTV. I like “Selling New York”, but I love “Moving Up” (both are shows on TLC). The host is so snarky and the people are always incredulous that anyone would want to change the house they moved out of even though that is the premise of the show. Good stuff.
Glen Ellen, California. My wife and I took a vacation out there and it’s great because it’s rural living without the rednecks. Beautiful wine country and not a ton of traffic. Also, it rarely gets much about 80 and doesn’t go much below freezing. And if it was good enough for Jack London, then it’s plenty good enough for me.
I’ve always wanted to attend a roof-top party in NYC. Wouldn’t mind living there, but not full time. If I have that kind of $$, then I can probably afford several places.
As far a home shows, I like (but don’t watch regularly) Flipping Out on Bravo. Jeff Lewis is so funny. He can be a mean sumbitch to work for, but I can’t help but laugh at him.
We saw Dinner for Schmucks last night and it was pretty much full o’ laughs. It was the trailer for Due Date that had me guffawing until my husband felt he had to shush me. I tried to be contained but Zach Galifinakis throws out some funny shit.
I don’t watch Selling New York, but I’m a huge fan of just about every show on HGTV. There’s a show on there called House Hunters International that is my absolute favorite. It’s usually just a weathly old couple, or a rich old woman with 6 dogs trying to get away from the norm and move somewhere else in the world. I love seeing the way apartments and houses are built in other countries.
One place I have always wanted to go visit is England and walk across Abbey Road and visit the John Lennon memorial, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
I would definitely want to live somewhere warm, and it has been my dream to have a rustic little condo on a beach somewhere with double glass doors in my bedroom. I just picture myself in a silk nightgown that flutters in the beach breeze when I open the doors in the morning…little monkeys and exotic birds come in my room and we eat breakfast together…Realistically, I would never wear a silk nightgown, or anything silk, and I’d be pretty scared of a bunch of exotic animals were hanging out in and probably pinching loafs all over this beautiful fantasy bedroom, but that’s what I picture nonetheless. I do love the idea of being surrounded by palm trees and water though. I can’t wait to go to Florida…7 months!
On a Yacht anchored in Monaco. So I could learn to cuss in French and sub my nose at pretentious waiters. Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d’enculé de ta mère. Whew!!! Can somone come a wipe my arse with silk now?
Admit I’m into the Pawn Stars and American Pickers and still watch Antiques Roadshow. I will look into the HGTV Selling New York though. Like to oogle at the wedding shows and Mad Men. Resuce Me just isn’t hitting me right this season; Entourage and The Wire were intriguing. I just find that most shows I start out enthusiastic about, become redundant. AND, refuse to watch during regular hours when they’re broadcast, and use the on-demand to fast forward through the commercials.
I’d like to live on a not-too-remote Carribean Island some parts of the year and actually figure where I’m at now isn’t too bad (central Maryland). Each area will have their share of problems no matter where you chose, no?
“We don’t like what we don’t understand, in fact, it scares us!” That quote is from a song in the Disney cartoon version of Beauty and the Beast (the townsfolk, wielding pitchforks and torches, are singing about the beast). Every time I hear someone make a sweeping (negative) assumptions about the unknown, that song pops into my head.
That show sounds intriguing. I’ve never seen it, but I will order my DVR to get to work promptly!
I’d own a little apt in Manhattan (perhaps in one of those new bldgs with the Hudson River view) so that I could visit the city whenever I’d like, but I would live most of the year somewhere on Puget Sound (Orcas perhaps) if money were not an object to me. I might even consider owning a second little apt in Berlin, so I would be able to see the relatives a little more often.
“We don’t like what we don’t understand, in fact, it scares us!” …I agree. Take for example…since we’ve got a TV theme thing here…Andrew Zimmerman. That fucking wingnut who’s missing a wing…scares me, I don’t understand it and I don’t like it. I get the feeling he’d be eating human body parts if he could get away with it. Fuck him!
I do like Cash Cab or any baseball game that’s on. Not much of a TVer.
I’d want apartments in Manhattan, London, and San Francisco — and alternate my time between them.
I’ve never seen “Selling New York.” Off to set the TiVo now…
I love “Selling New York”! Such a great show, and I totally agree about the pace being really good too. Speaking of the roller coaster, pixie stick shows, I assume that means you are watching “Bert the Conqueror”. Such a great show, and a good companion to “Man vs Food”. Both on The Travel Channel.
Brittney: LMAO!!!!! That would be my luck too. Open the french doors to let the breeze blow through my silk lingerie and I would slip in monkey shit and a bird would shit in my hair. Yep..better stick to my boyfriends t-shirts and my screen door.
My first choice to live anywhere would be here in PA, Washington county…a farm house with some acreage. Hopefully included is a barn I could turn into an antique shop.
Fantasy world: Key West, Pacific coastline some where in California, and Paris.
A villa in Rome or Tuscany would be my choice.
I do watch Selling New York most of the time, and I enjoy it. I also wonder about the apartments in buildings I see and I’d love to be able to get inside someof them. That show makes it possible. The costs boggle my mind.
My kid had an apartment on Broadway in NYC for 2 years and she paid $1200 per month for a 600 SF place. I really liked it there, but I couldn’t believe how much she paid for so small a place. When she moved out, the rent was raised to $1800 per month.
Oh..and TV.. I love it. I was raised on it. It was my babysitter half the time.
Love Pawn Stars. We watch American Pickers..since I am in the antique business. Family Guy is a staple. And Sons of Anarchy on FX….you had to ask?
right now I want an apartment in antarctica.
dto- Yeah, I agree, that Andrew Zimman is a freaking nutcase. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY can look that happy eating bat nipples and panda ass. And, judging from the size of him, once he’s state side you know he’s waltzing into the nearest McDonalds and putting a dent in the Golden Arches.
@Shiny – Silk isn’t very absorbant, probably not the ideal ass wiper. Maybe a hankie or a sock or something if looking for various fabrics to wipe your ass with 😀
I’m pretty happy living in San Fran, but New York would be at the top of my list.
Joe
Got hooked on Breaking Bad…terrific show. Can’t stand to watch too much regular TV though. Jeff’s updates and the comments here are a lot more fun than any sitcom. I do admit to watching a lot of cooking shows.
I do watch New Yankee Workshop. Apparently if you have a workshop the size of a hangar and $50k worth of tools you can build an entire room of furniture in under 25 minutes.
I would love to have a place along the Redneck Riviera so I could watch the scantily-clad shapely adorables frolic in the surf.
When I moved up here seven years ago I knew I was all in. I might change a house but this place will be it for me. Hell…they have synpathy cards at the little drug store here for when somebody’s horse dies. Honest.
Shows I like: Dual Survival, Man vs. Wild, Pawn Stars, Hell’s Kitchen, Intervention, First 48, Supernatural, Man vs. Food, Tosh.0, Family Guy, and pretty much anything on HGTV or Travel. I’d be lying if I said I’m not a TV person. Not into the reality dramas shows tho (ahem, MTV…MTV you are pure shit…where’s the music?)
B,
MTV officially signed off of music a few months ago.
I watch too much tv. Law and Order (Just saw they are doing an LA version), scrubs, anything on adult swim, most shows on comedy central. not a fan of HGTV but did see an international house hunter where they were moving to believe (which is where I’d move in a heartbeat, despite the heat).
Breaking bad is good but I need to watch it from the start, psyche, burn notice, in plain sight, rescue me.
And of course It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
I’m glad I don’t own a DVR.
In November AMC is coming out with the Walking Dead series. I can’t wait.
Sounds like somebody besides me is into Dan Jenkins. I believe you’re away.
jtb
Storm…
So what does the M stand for now? Oh, I just figured it out…
jtb
M? Masturbate?
Dan Jenkins is America’s funniest writer. At this time. 😉
Oh…by the way…where’s my goddamn t-shirt??.. Who the hell is running the distribution center there anyway? Fucking Canadians I’d bet. Tabernac bastards.
MTV quit music sometime in the 1990s. For Shiny’s sake, I submit that the M stands for merde.
I mostly like the cartoons: Family Guy and Simpsons, but also Boondocks and American Dad. Top Gear is cool if it’s not a rerun, but it usually is a rerun.
I grew up in Brooklyn, so I’m not sure I need to live in NYC at this late date. Besides, I want to have a car, which in NYC would be a stupid thing to own. Maybe someplace convenient but not too close, like the lower Hudson Valley – Dutchess County for instance.
.
dto you tink we Canadiens, we know fuck NuhTING? Tabernac, we know fuck ALL!!!
I get the most enjoyment out of the TV when I set the channel selector to 5 and look for patterns in the static. I also like to freak out the family if they’re out by sitting cross-legged naked in front of the set (with the static at full volume) with my good buddies (Mr Beam and Mr Daniels) and laughing my ass off hysterically pretending I can’t see/hear them when they come in. You guys do this too, right? Can I get an Amen?
Yeah hot fuzz…marry a Newfie and move to Red Deer…Piss off eh.
My love/hate relationship with WV would ultimately inspire me to move elsewhere if my circumstances were a little different. The older I get the more I just want to get away from the teeming masses, so I’d probably move back to New Mexico somewhere in the middle of the farking desert. If I won the lottery tomorrow no one would ever see me again. Life is funny – I spent the first half of my life trying to get people to notice me; now I’m spending the second half of my life trying to be as invisible as possible.
I don’t watch tv very much at all, except for news programs and political commentary, but I watch an average of 4 or 5 movies a week, when I can time compress. However, my current obsession is Cake Boss, which makes me feel so much like a fag that I’m seriously considering taking cake decorating classes (it was actually ETW’s idea…)
I’ve been to NY but not NY, NY. It’s not really my thing. I’m more of a quiet afternoon and BBQ kind of guy. I love the idea of Tuscany but have never been. I’ve been to Great Britain but only for work – I don’t think it’s what I’m after. I think I’d really like to travel more before I commit.
I think where the witness protection program has me right now (somewhere north of the border) suits me fine but shit the humidity right now is killer. I’m sweating in my knees, my elbows and under my moobs. Geez.
@ET, you should have a look at http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ – bad cakes in the style of “there I fixed it”.
King of the Hill, of course. How could I forget?