I watch TV
I watched some TV this week and I learned some things:
- The second greatest Briton who ever lived, according to a BBC 2 vote held last November was Isambard Kingdom Brunel maker of bridges, ships and tunnels in the mid-1800's. His largest ship that saw service, the SS Great Eastern, laid the first cable to Newfoundland from Ireland, then others, in what the BBC presented as something of a shameful second phase of its life after a short stint as a failed luxury liner. It had a displacement of 32,513 tonnes. More than half a centry later, the Titanic displaced 48,478.
- The life of Thelonious Monk was one of misunderstanding and shunning of a unconventional jazz genius. In Ken Burn's American Stories last night, a replay of the episode of his series Jazz about 1945 to 1955, taught me that Monk would get up and dance in the middle of his own tunes as he was filled with music; taught me that Charlie Parker died bloated and alcoholic at 34 after the unbearable death of his 2 year old; and taught me that Miles Davis got off heroine in just seven days after locking himself in a room on his father's farm. It reminded me that I do myself a disservice every day I let go by not learning more about the music these men made.
- I also learned that Charlie Rose is as good a television interviewer as has ever existed and can make you sleepless from the implications of a news story that Jon Stewart made you cry laughing over an hour before.
