Buffy overload

Not me, but Aaron Swartz: in an attempt to get caught up with the cult hit TV shows created by Joss Whedon — Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly — Aaron watched all the episodes, managing to do so between February and last week.

Simply put, he’s probably watched about as much television in three months as I’ve watched in three years.

(Aaron can be forgiven: being one of the people behind Creative Commons, a good programmer, a well-linked-to blogger and someone who gets invited to stuff by Lawrence Lessig, he’s probably the most influential teenage guy who is not in a boy band. Yet.)

That’s one of the side-effects of the accordion, blogging and coding — life’s gotten so kooky that my need for TV and movies dropped dramatically. I’ve got to get around to seeing 24 and Alias on TV, I go to Blockbuster more for late-night Diet Coke than for movies and the last time I made any kind of effort to watch MuchMusic was to catch the segment of Much On Demand on which I appeared and played accordion. This was especially so in the first couple of years of the accordion — I managed to miss Titanic and I may be the only person I personally know who’s never seen There’s Something About Mary.

After all, why watch other people live when you can do it yourself?