HYPERREAL: The Price is Right, a Bullet Bra, and Me
Essay on retail trivia and hoarding.
Recently, Roku's attempt to resurrect cable TV led me to binge-watch The Price Is Right reruns from the Bob Barker era. I found myself obsessively glued to the screen, foaming at the mouth with envy for vintage furniture I could never own, let alone fit into my apartment. The Price Is Right was a masterpiece of surreal capitalist absurdity—a world where winning a snowmobile in Southern California or a patio set in Alaska could send someone into a blissed-out coma. It was a time capsule of mid-century consumerism, steeped in the collective belief that progress was measurable by goods, not deeds.
[From ON THE RAG 002, WINTER 2024]