Netflix @ MindSay 
[ Netflix Slideshow | Browse Tags ]
work
Unplugging the TV - or How I learned to live with radio & Netflix
I actually dislike most current TV programs, and with the economy putting the squeeze on our personal finances, I finally decided to get rid of our satellite dish. The programming I enjoy the most has gone away, such as Pushing Daisies. And shows that I consider intelligent, like West Wing, are usually gone by the time I finally discover them and are then available through Netflix anyway. However, the two areas on TV that I tend to enjoy, from time to time, are MSNBC with Rachel Maddow & the John Stewart show and music programming on the TV.
Our radio reception in our little valley is almost non-existent, so we haven't been able to play music on the radio, nor did we have a CD player in our living room. Yesterday, we made a big purchase (for us) and went and bought a Bose radio with built-in antennae (plus an extra antennae) & extra CD player which can hold several CDs...And we plan to use our computer for watching MSNBC when we want, and I hope the John Stewart show...this will save us over $65 per month for the satellite TV and even though the outlay was large for the Bose, it will pay for itself within 9 months. We're unplugged!!!
I actually dislike most current TV programs, and with the economy putting the squeeze on our personal finances, I finally decided to get rid of our satellite dish. The programming I enjoy the most has gone away, such as Pushing Daisies. And shows that I consider intelligent, like West Wing, are usually gone by the time I finally discover them and are then available through Netflix anyway. However, the two areas on TV that I tend to enjoy, from time to time, are MSNBC with Rachel Maddow & the John Stewart show and music programming on the TV.
Our radio reception in our little valley is almost non-existent, so we haven't been able to play music on the radio, nor did we have a CD player in our living room. Yesterday, we made a big purchase (for us) and went and bought a Bose radio with built-in antennae (plus an extra antennae) & extra CD player which can hold several CDs...And we plan to use our computer for watching MSNBC when we want, and I hope the John Stewart show...this will save us over $65 per month for the satellite TV and even though the outlay was large for the Bose, it will pay for itself within 9 months. We're unplugged!!!
I SPENT THE NIGHT WITH THE STEELE SISTERS!
So, a new ritual has surfaced in my new home..on the couch with the Steele Sisters watchin' movies..my roommate is S___y and her older sister is S____y.
I'VE NEVER LAUGHED SO HARD IN MY LIFE!
Egads..DVD player is broken..
the solution was to watch them on my Ancient Mac in the guest room..all on the bed. There was a mountain of pillows and we all settled in..
it didn't take long for the snoring to settle in. I guess I gotta get a new DVD player
I'VE NEVER LAUGHED SO HARD IN MY LIFE!
Egads..DVD player is broken..
the solution was to watch them on my Ancient Mac in the guest room..all on the bed. There was a mountain of pillows and we all settled in..
it didn't take long for the snoring to settle in. I guess I gotta get a new DVD player
."He won't look over here... I'm waving, but he's talking to that little kid."
.The first 40 Films (plus one) I've seen this summer in chronological order of viewing with ratings on a 4 star scale (green--fiction, Netflix; blue--rented; yellow--documentary; red--seen in movie theater; black--watched online because it wasn't worth it):
.Many of them I watched for personal research purposes; however, there are a few I just felt like seeing. The color-coding was mostly for me, but I included it. Obviously. I didn't rate the last film, C.R.A.Z.Y., because I just saw it today. I'll wait until about 21 movies later to rate it and its group.
.Am I mad for doing this--all this movie-watching? No, I was probably mad before. And it gives me something to do. Something about which to discipline myself. I almost feel guilty if a day goes by in which I haven't seen a film. I'll be seeing more. A lot more. Trust me on this one.
.If you want to know about any of the films in greater detail or disagree (or agree) about any of the ratings, feel free to let me know.
.He Was A Quiet Man ** 1/2
The Gift ***
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? ***
Bad Education ***
The Strangers ***
Vertigo *** 1/2
Full Metal Jacket ***
Citizen Kane *** 1/2
Blade Runner *** 1/2
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters ***
An Inconvenient Truth ***
Lust, Caution ***
La Dolce Vita ***
The Happening **
The Godfather *** 1/2
Bringing Up Baby ***
Be Kind Rewind ***
The Last Unicorn **
Sunset Boulevard ***
The Godfather Part II ****
Get Smart ***
Persona ***
Spellbound ***
Female Trouble ***
Casablanca ***
Barton Fink *** 1/2
For the Bible Tells Me So *** 1/2
The Seventh Seal ***
Kaena: The Prophecy **
Wall-E ****
The Corporation ** 1/2
The Lady Vanishes ***
Ran *** 1/2
The Holy Mountain *** 1/2
Of Human Bondage ***
Taxi Driver *** 1/2
Lost in La Mancha ***
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ***
Short Cuts ***
Super Size Me ***
C.R.A.Z.Y.
.Many of them I watched for personal research purposes; however, there are a few I just felt like seeing. The color-coding was mostly for me, but I included it. Obviously. I didn't rate the last film, C.R.A.Z.Y., because I just saw it today. I'll wait until about 21 movies later to rate it and its group.
.Am I mad for doing this--all this movie-watching? No, I was probably mad before. And it gives me something to do. Something about which to discipline myself. I almost feel guilty if a day goes by in which I haven't seen a film. I'll be seeing more. A lot more. Trust me on this one.
.If you want to know about any of the films in greater detail or disagree (or agree) about any of the ratings, feel free to let me know.
Sometimes, Cannibalism Makes Sense To Me
Oh what a weekend? Was it good? No. Great? No. Superb? No. Awful? You're getting warm.
I had somewhat high hopes but they were dashed quickly due to a combination of factors. First things first: I hate school. I need to finish fast. I am absolutely running on fumes and it is affecting my work. I find myself caring less and less about quality and more and more about just being done. I don't care. I know I won't get anything close to my "dream job" (killing people with a flamethrower?) and will instead end up working for Motorola creating lame web content for cell phones or something stupid. Who knows? Maybe I can be the next great .gif animator like What's His Name and Whozit. Yeah......I want my friggin' life back.
So, I did get out a little bit. Friday night found me trekking to the saddest place on Earth for dinner. Yep....Culver's. The worst yet, the food is seriously tantilizing to me. It's beyond depressing to eat there but I can't help myself. Saturday, after a rough go of it with my homework, I watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Ummm.......d'oh. They should just stop making movies based on video games. The first movie was OK for a modern zombie movie but none of these new movies, sans Planet Terror (which rules with an iron fist of justice), cut it when compared to the best of the zombie genre. Well, Apocalypse is more of a sci-fi/action romp with zombies as sort of an afterthought. It's fairly light on gore and violence and no scarier than any episode of Ugly Betty you probably have never seen. I did manage to see the episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia at Nicole's when I dropped off her Halloween props Saturday night. The band episode was AAAAMMMMAAZZZING!!!!! I need a copy of "Nightman"......so friggin' hilarious.
I dragged myself to the Buy for a few new musical entanglements. Actually, one was the Demetri Martin CD/DVD entitled These Are Jokes. Pretty funny in the Flight Of The Conchords way, similar to the hilarious Eugene Mirman. I also got The Sleeping Questions And Answers thanks to the bonus track on GH3. So far, I enjoy their rockin'silliness.
Sunday was brutal. Homework nearly ended my life but I managed to scrape enough of it together but I need to pick up the pace in the next 6 weeks to come out on top. I also viewed another Netflix entry - George A. Romero's Monkey Shines. Actually, it wasn't bad at all. I would lose about 15-20 minutes only because some scenes dragged a bit longer than necessary. I see that it's not one of his more popular films and it's not on par with his zombie gems but it was decent enough. Nothing I'd buy though. At least the eve ended well enough with another top notch episode of the almighty Dexter followed by the 5 remaining episodes of Californication. Yep, Showtime hath supplanted HBO as the go-to pay cable network of choice at the moment.
Did I mention that Dexter is probably the best thing on TV right now? Start watching because it's the truth.
I had somewhat high hopes but they were dashed quickly due to a combination of factors. First things first: I hate school. I need to finish fast. I am absolutely running on fumes and it is affecting my work. I find myself caring less and less about quality and more and more about just being done. I don't care. I know I won't get anything close to my "dream job" (killing people with a flamethrower?) and will instead end up working for Motorola creating lame web content for cell phones or something stupid. Who knows? Maybe I can be the next great .gif animator like What's His Name and Whozit. Yeah......I want my friggin' life back.
So, I did get out a little bit. Friday night found me trekking to the saddest place on Earth for dinner. Yep....Culver's. The worst yet, the food is seriously tantilizing to me. It's beyond depressing to eat there but I can't help myself. Saturday, after a rough go of it with my homework, I watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Ummm.......d'oh. They should just stop making movies based on video games. The first movie was OK for a modern zombie movie but none of these new movies, sans Planet Terror (which rules with an iron fist of justice), cut it when compared to the best of the zombie genre. Well, Apocalypse is more of a sci-fi/action romp with zombies as sort of an afterthought. It's fairly light on gore and violence and no scarier than any episode of Ugly Betty you probably have never seen. I did manage to see the episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia at Nicole's when I dropped off her Halloween props Saturday night. The band episode was AAAAMMMMAAZZZING!!!!! I need a copy of "Nightman"......so friggin' hilarious.
I dragged myself to the Buy for a few new musical entanglements. Actually, one was the Demetri Martin CD/DVD entitled These Are Jokes. Pretty funny in the Flight Of The Conchords way, similar to the hilarious Eugene Mirman. I also got The Sleeping Questions And Answers thanks to the bonus track on GH3. So far, I enjoy their rockin'silliness.
Sunday was brutal. Homework nearly ended my life but I managed to scrape enough of it together but I need to pick up the pace in the next 6 weeks to come out on top. I also viewed another Netflix entry - George A. Romero's Monkey Shines. Actually, it wasn't bad at all. I would lose about 15-20 minutes only because some scenes dragged a bit longer than necessary. I see that it's not one of his more popular films and it's not on par with his zombie gems but it was decent enough. Nothing I'd buy though. At least the eve ended well enough with another top notch episode of the almighty Dexter followed by the 5 remaining episodes of Californication. Yep, Showtime hath supplanted HBO as the go-to pay cable network of choice at the moment.
Did I mention that Dexter is probably the best thing on TV right now? Start watching because it's the truth.
Not So Much A Review But More A Reel View
Since I've been slacking on the ever-entertaining movie review type dealio's of late, I am now going to move forth with some triple-barreled action courtesy of Netflix.
Jack Of All Trades
OK, Jack Of All Trades was a TV show produced and created by none other than the tandem of Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi and featuring Bruce Campbell. Sounds like a winner? Well, maybe. Basically, from the 2 episodes I actually watched, this show is just good, but not great. Perhaps if I had watched it when it was on actual TV, it would have resonated more. Instead, you get fairly low production values on a sort-of sitcom about Campbell's Jack running around creating havoc for Napoleon Bonaparté. Bruce Campbell and his one-liners are very present and very funny in that Art Carney sort of way but the rest of the show around him is nothing to get too excited about. Bruce Campbell, as I said, is the king of bad jokes and goofy puns but they don't mesh well with the material. The man needs a proper show to call his own.
Half Nelson
Ryan Gosling was up for an Oscar for this portrayal of an 8th grade teacher in the inner city who is battling some inner demons and drug addiction. Filmed in faux documentary style, Half Nelson could have and should have fell on my good side. Instead, it bored me to tears. I knew where the movie was headed and sort of appreciated it but it failed to keep me from dozing off every few minutes. After giving it about 50 minutes or so to pick up steam, I gave in to my urges to play Xbox and tossed this DVD back into the sleeve. I don't know what exactly bored me but I failed to care about anything going on.
The Panic In Needle Park
Another faux documentary-style entry, only this time it is the film that launched a certain actor that goes by the name Al Pacino into the consciousness of critics everywhere. Here, Pacino plays Bobby, a heroin addict who hangs out in Needle Park with other drug addicts and prostitutes. He meets a girl and they fall in love, despite growing turbulence involving his series of stints behind bars, her growing addiction to heroin upon him getting her hooked and her selling herself to keep their addictions intact. The first 1/2 hour is slow and takes a while to get off the ground but through the sluggish beginning and the seemingly random jumps from scene to scene, The Panic In Needle Park manages to keep itself together just enough to provide an interesting viewing. It's a fairly provocative movie that came out during a time when cinema was definitely changing to a more street level form. Once again, Al Pacino is brilliant, as per usual. Nothing to shocking from the person I consider to be the greatest actor ever to walk the Earth. While not Pacino's greatest film ever, it's definitely worth seeing.
Jack Of All Trades
OK, Jack Of All Trades was a TV show produced and created by none other than the tandem of Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi and featuring Bruce Campbell. Sounds like a winner? Well, maybe. Basically, from the 2 episodes I actually watched, this show is just good, but not great. Perhaps if I had watched it when it was on actual TV, it would have resonated more. Instead, you get fairly low production values on a sort-of sitcom about Campbell's Jack running around creating havoc for Napoleon Bonaparté. Bruce Campbell and his one-liners are very present and very funny in that Art Carney sort of way but the rest of the show around him is nothing to get too excited about. Bruce Campbell, as I said, is the king of bad jokes and goofy puns but they don't mesh well with the material. The man needs a proper show to call his own.
Half Nelson
Ryan Gosling was up for an Oscar for this portrayal of an 8th grade teacher in the inner city who is battling some inner demons and drug addiction. Filmed in faux documentary style, Half Nelson could have and should have fell on my good side. Instead, it bored me to tears. I knew where the movie was headed and sort of appreciated it but it failed to keep me from dozing off every few minutes. After giving it about 50 minutes or so to pick up steam, I gave in to my urges to play Xbox and tossed this DVD back into the sleeve. I don't know what exactly bored me but I failed to care about anything going on.
The Panic In Needle Park
Another faux documentary-style entry, only this time it is the film that launched a certain actor that goes by the name Al Pacino into the consciousness of critics everywhere. Here, Pacino plays Bobby, a heroin addict who hangs out in Needle Park with other drug addicts and prostitutes. He meets a girl and they fall in love, despite growing turbulence involving his series of stints behind bars, her growing addiction to heroin upon him getting her hooked and her selling herself to keep their addictions intact. The first 1/2 hour is slow and takes a while to get off the ground but through the sluggish beginning and the seemingly random jumps from scene to scene, The Panic In Needle Park manages to keep itself together just enough to provide an interesting viewing. It's a fairly provocative movie that came out during a time when cinema was definitely changing to a more street level form. Once again, Al Pacino is brilliant, as per usual. Nothing to shocking from the person I consider to be the greatest actor ever to walk the Earth. While not Pacino's greatest film ever, it's definitely worth seeing.
Showing 1 - 5. [ Next ]
Quick Links
Latest Comment
Re: Blog 212 - I love John Mayer...if I were to meet him I doubt I'd be able to say a word because I'd be so...
| Terms of Service
| Privacy Policy
