Something about the last moments of analog television transmissions strikes me as very melancholy. One minute, regularly scheduled programming. The next, either a short sign-off detailing the end of OTA broadcasting, or nothing at all, before vanishing with an abrupt flash and sudden darkness, giving way to the characteristic static of just another unoccupied radio frequency. But what prompted me to write was one such sign-off for WWNYTV channel 7, which featured a simple transparent black box of text over an idyllic and lively painting of some scene, perhaps the building of the station itself. Dominated by green hues, punctuated by a small tree in the foreground, sunny and bright with thin clouds strewn about. It's the sort of picture one sees in educational textbooks, something almost sterile, forced to the point of being unwelcoming, inhospitable. Would anyone really want to live in a painting like that? That this image was shown in order to soften the blow of no longer receiving service on one's device seems ironic, as though promising earthly riches to those on their death beds, who have no need of them anymore. An idealization, sickeningly saturated, of what's to come. Or worse, an outright lie. A weak, indifferent attempt at consolation. An attempt so pathetic, in fact, that there was no effort made to hide how little effort it took.

>>47
Smoking is relaxing but deceptively addictive. I really need to cut down on this pack-a-day habit.