Spent the full day in the office staring at the computer. There’s this to work on, that to read, the other to write and so on.

I did make this and uploaded it to Tumblr at some point in a small break this afternoon. Spencer Hall ran across it and offered up the warmest bit of pop analysis that a blog can offer on a 40-year-old freelance postcard design.

The problem was that things have changed since 1969. So I made the additions in that family portrait gimmick. Now all of those stares seem to make a lot more sense. Interlopers.

I’m steaming ahead through Robin Hood, the BBC version, as it plays along in the background while I do other things. This series is perfect for that. You watch the first six minutes, get the gist and tune it out until the resolution. There’s the problem, the fighting, something is stolen from the rich and the capture of someone. Then comes a moralistic dilemma, the rescue, the “curses, you evildoers!” moment and then the laugh at the end. Add in a little more fighting when necessary, move a few of the elements around to keep it fresh and have a nice day.

You know it is serious when he’s aiming his bow at someone. The guards here are more predictable than red shirts. They get almost as much dialog and they seem to fight just enough to allow the good guys to get away or are far enough away to take the occasional arrow.

I’ll finish the series up this weekend. It ran for three seasons, which is not unusual in the UK, where television programs are built shorter. Many of your favorite shows here would have benefited from that decision, too.

I’m watching this on Netflix, which is another of man’s greatest recent inventions. No longer does one need to get emotionally invested in a television show. Just wait until it comes out and watch it all in a rush. Chew it up as pastiche, especially in Netflix’s streaming format, and move on. The biggest thing is the HBO problem. They’ll license their programming for discs, but not for streaming.

HBO Co-President Eric Kessler went on the record as saying “there is a value in exclusivity,” and that people would “pay a premium” for it.

Co-president? Is that why they’re seeking to make their customers pay for their programming twice? HBO has their own service, still trying to gain market penetration. It seems they’re having the same fight they had in the 70s and 80s.

I grew up with HBO. I mean HBO and I grew up together. When we first picked up the channel on our cable system the churn rate was still high and they were celebrating becoming a 24-hour channel. The movies were still awfully repetitive, though, but hey, it wasn’t the Big Three. There were no commercials. It was novel. They had the coolest pre-roll maybe ever.

That still makes me want to watch a movie right now.

At the end of my days in undergraduate, though, money got tight and I just dropped my cable altogether. When I could afford television again I just went the basic route. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve missed HBO. And, happily, those have been supplemented by the inevitable DVD releases of their (usually quite good) original programming.

Netflix, meanwhile, has 20 million subscribers, as of today. It is an experimental way to watch movies. For the small monthly fee we can see everything, which really removes the risk. I’ve watched some dreadful things on Netflix, at least the first few minutes of dreadful things. I’ve also watched guilty pleasures as background sound. The Philadelphia Experiment did not age well, friends.

So now I’m watching Robin Hood on a computer. I can also watch it on my television. Next week I’m going to sit on a spin bike and watch a movie on my phone. We live in the future.