Did that vulture laugh like Sid James?
I like the expression ‘culture vulture’ because it pretty much describes my approach to it all.
I like to wait until something is practically dead before I attempt to lunch on it, culturally speaking… I just don’t like the hype that surrounds things – constant media exposure is more likely to make me not want to see something, whether it’s constant, repetitive interviews with the actors, or a rather naff advert for a book that seems to be on every billboard and public transport vehicle… or endless self-congratulatory award ceremonies.
I just don’t like the idea of being unsubtly bullied into doing something.
It’s a bit like that feeling you get when you realise you are drinking a can of ©oca-©ola whilst watching a ©oca-©ola advert on television.
I’ll give you an example – American Beauty was released in the UK in 2000 in the UK. I had to wait over a year and a half before I could watch it without feeling like I had been brainwashed to. Near daily reminders that I must ‘catch’ it for nearly 18 months.
The same is true with music… I’ll buy your album, when I’ve heard the songs and not before, so please, please stop advertising it at me by having a voice over talk across the 5-second snippets of song… It’s just not going to work.
The next big thing… Ha, give me the previous dead thing any day.
And if you want to get me to watch or listen to something, just leave on my desk in brown unmarked paper bag and I’ll get round to it when I think no-one is looking…
Philip J Schadenfreude on 
I feel the same way, only I must add that friends ranting about things also turns me right off. Especially if they get in my face about it ‘OMG YOU HAVE TO SEE SUPERNATURAL’ &c. Argh.
now i feel a little guilty for my desire to throw samples of the things i love at everyone
I think taking recommendations from friends is a far less risky venture…
Unless they have some financial interest in whatever they want you to see…
For three out of the last four years I’ve seen all the main Oscar nominees ages before the hype starts and the nominations come out. Irritatingly they’ve all been limited release films I had to go across town to see until they get Oscar nominated then they suddenly show up at the theatre down the street. Stupid movie industry status quo.
I hear you Joe… we don’t get a lot of non-blockbuster type movies in our town. We have one independent cinema, and frankly it’s not up to the job.
The film Perfume was considered too arthouse to be shown here…
As a kids writer, I was subject to this same phenomenon for years over Harry Potter. Wouldn’t read the books, wouldn’t read the books, wouldn’t read the books. Let alone the frigging movies.
And when I finally did decide for myself to borrow someone’s old rat-eared copy of the first three - I bloody loved them. It was worth resisting.
Likewise my parents’ movie suggestions. I don’t understand why, but every time they suggest a movie I will avoid watching it (usually because they suggest intelligent, fulfilling pictures while I always want to watch the same kind of escapist action movie).
See, my friends are always recommending serial tv shows to me, never books. I try not to recommend books more than once to a friend, though–and only if I think they’d be interested.
I do have one tv show I have become squealy over, but because of how ticked off I get at fansquealing, I don’t generally mention it to my friends. I think fanfiction is a saving grace for a lot of people, because it’s a way to channel all that squeenergy to something productive and not-annoying. X3
may i ask what you’ve written?
I still haven’t read them. I think I’m going to wait until I’m reading to my own kids, share the joy so to speak.
It was the hype that put me off, definitely, but also… I’m just not that keen on Ms Rowling.
I saw No Country For Old Men at a premier at a theater across the city. It was a sneak peak early showing kind of thing. The only reason I went to see this movie no one had ever heard of was because I had previously read the book. I hardly watch TV anymore, so i guess all my media bombardment comes from the webternet. I saw 300 opening night with a bunch of bros cause we were all thought it was gonna be SOOOOOO Epic. And it was the first and second time. Joe fell asleep the third time.
I typically snob music groups as soon as they go mainstream.
That way, when some one says to me, have you heard of *name*, I can say “yes, but they are so passé now, I stopped listening to them an album ago”.
Yes, I am an idiot.
Secretly I listen to those bands I snob in the dark after midnight.
Be proud of what makes you happy. Being eclectic is the ultimate cool.