A few days ago a friend of mine told me she just saw a well-known Romanian artist (Ana Lesko) at her office. I told her that I don't know who's that; I am aware that a person with this name exists, but I have no idea how she looks like or what she does. I was told that she's a minor TV celebrity so I should really remember her. I don't.

I don't watch TV. I quit watching TV more than two years ago. I miss HBO and Discovery Channel, I miss a good new movie every now and then, I miss TCM and VH1, but all in all I stick to my opinion that most of the TV airtime is toxic. Maybe I was strongly biased by an issue of IDN Magazine I read in Singapore –– there was a series of interviews with major and emerging designers in Asia (mainly Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan) and I was stroked to find that a significant number of them didn't watch or didn't even own a TV set. I remember that even a guy who was into idents (designing motion graphics for TV) did not watch TV.

It didn't happen all at once. First I quit the sound. I was far more interested into the graphic aspect of television so I used to cut the sound. I got used to watch movies and all sort of shows without sound, concentrating on the quality of cinematography involved. Amazing how many glitches become obvious in a – say – music video once the sound doesn't engage and distract you. Or the bad actors. Or the boring unimaginative shots.

Then I've gone through a time with so much work I could only sleep two to four hours a night; and it went on like this for a few weeks in a row. In such times, you become oversensitive –– to put it mildly –– and many things that you can easily take during "normal" life reveal their toxic nature. For me one of the things that made me physically ill was the television. So I cut it off entirely. And remembered the designers interviewed in IDN.

On the other hand, I really miss blaming the TV.

[Stencils from Calea Victoriei, Bucharest –– if you happen to know the artist please feel free to shoot me an email.]