Oblivio: Stories and such by Michael Barrish

So I was looking at Oblivio today with my kid who will turn three this Sunday and thought he might like to see the “Oatmeal” video because one, it has the word “oatmeal” in it and he likes oatmeal and two, because it’s a video and he likes videos. I start to download it or upload it or whatever and it’s taking forever because I have as you might expect an ancient, slow crusty bucket of bolts for a computer and he becomes very impatient, not understanding why any video would take more than a second to start, but he waits it out (about twenty minutes) and when it’s fully loaded I put him on my lap and play it. And I think, oh, that’s right, there’s Michael dancing in his bathrobe, and yes he’s right to give warning about that, but the music is very snappy and I think it’s a very good introduction to you know, the meat or the “meal” of the thing. But when the music and dancing is over and Michael starts to talk, in one very small second the kid says “do it again!” and I say, but it hasn’t really started yet, it still has to finish. But he throws a little fit and is near tears and so I start it again and Michael dances again and Gary’s music plays and when that’s done the kid says “do it again!” And I say but Michael is going to talk now and he says “I don’t want Michael to talk!” So I had to play the first, what, ten seconds over about twenty times. And so I guess if my kid could hook himself up to an Experience Machine, those ten seconds would be on it. At least twenty times.