When I get a new place and a bigger space and a budget, I want a new TV. No. Not High Definition. Not a Plasma TV either which has all the personality of an empty mirror frame. I want a TV like my parents had when I was 5. You know that mid-70s wooden crate of a thing. It had a personality. It took up space, for one. It had three dimensions. It had lovely fuzzy speakers. It had dials that made delightful popping noises when you turned them.

Technology has effaced the TV, erased the TV. Technology wants to make the TV transparent. Before long, the television will be as thin as cardboard; or thinner. Altogether invisible when it’s off. I miss the tangibility of the appliance. A TV has no presence anymore, no dimension, and no soul.

I want a big, honking TV that takes up space. And I don’t want a remote control. I can’t remember the last time I actually touched my television.

But I’d still have to get cable. So I want a soul that gets good reception.

SS