I got IT in the mail...a week ago? I don't know. I watched about half of it the first day. Since then I've been busy....doing what? Beats me. This & that. Shopping mainly? idk. Got a $200 credit line increase late Saturday. I knew i was going to spend it, so I tried to think of something important to spend it on. Nothing was coming to mind except this $60 Stay Puft Marshmallow Man light up statue, which I don't need. YES, BOW DOWN TO GOZER. Pass. I instead decided to buy a bunch of...gift cards (see giftcardgranny.com if you're not a longtime devout reader....{shudder}), which I've spent only a small bit of. One of them I actually sold for most of what I paid for it, and haven't yet been paid for it (10-14 business days...rrrg). I did spend most of the $50 worth of Amazon gift cards....not on anything real significant....
In the midst of all this mouse-wheeling, I realized I should treat others as I'd like myself treated, and figured if I"m going to accumulate debt that I may or may not be able to payback before I die, I might as well not leave out everyone else. So I did what some would call an abomination to the cause, and I gave Salvation Army $50. That, to me, is a lot of $. Thing is, I would have virtually wasted that $ on myself. I don't need anything. I don't have a yearning for anything that actually exists except God himself, which is a ways off. I have to commit myself to sanctification and even then I won't have 100% unfettered access to God, the Heavenly Father, until all of this has passed away from my sight and hearing.
I have a Rhapsody subscription, finally. Spotify's app no longer is functioning on Roku or my LG Blu ray player. They're supposedly going to bring it back, but I don't know when. I have a free trial to Spotify, but I have to have my computer on or drain battery the speed of light AND put up with subpar audio quality if I'm going to rely soley on Spotify for listening to CDs I don't own / can't afford.
Really wanted to listen to SONGS FOR THE NIGHT DRIVE HOME by Anchor & Braille, a one man band consisting of the former lead singer of Anberlin.
I couldn't figure out what other items to buy w/ it that would be worth it.
So I just signed up for Rhapsody. Their LG Blu ray player app is miles ahead of Spotify's Roku app. Spotify deacted their LG BD player app several months before they de'd their Roku one. Their Roku app is pathetic. Their LG BD player app was much better. Rhapsody never had a Roku app to my knowledge. It'd be cool if they did. I don't know why they don't.
I guess that about sums up life since my last post.
Sunday was awesome.
Was greatly welcomed by God while I was reading His word, started Ecclesiastes. I'd read it before, but had a skewed memory of it. It really is more than just a bunch of wiseoldman quotes. It does read rather repetitively and poetically, but there's a lot of just plain old instruction and advice in the book that really means a lot, given the background with which it was written. I was telling one of the senior church members that I probably see a lot of myself in Solomon. In hindsight, I do wish I was more like David, but I don't know if I can say I **want to be** more like David. To be is to act, and to act is to do. I don't *do* things. I don't take initiative and do what needs to be done. I don't know why. I really don't. I read God's word and I really don't think me and King David would get along one bit. But surely he is in Heaven. I'll meet him someday, weather he wants to meet me or not, unless God decides to separate us to avoid fights breaking out...."You don't belong here! You see this? This is the slingshot I slayed Goliath with! You see my spit? By the power invested in me..."
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
being an obsessive stickler for detail & shopping for the past
Subject: Re: New Order # 10- 20985
Regarding AEROSMITH'S GREATEST HITS [cover art]
If the cover art does not have the two Aero-wings divided between the front and back cover inserts, PLEASE cancel this order.
Tnx
-
Jonathan
Hello,
Please let us know if any issues when it arrives.
Unfortunately, this already shipped out.
Thank you
Sincerely,
GoPeachy.com Customer Service
The title according to the stock photo does not match the title of the stock. Also, I don't recall ever seeing that CD in any store I've shopped at, except as part of a combo pack that included Aerosmith's 1986 live album CLASSICS LIVE!, which I also haven't seen anywhere anytime in the past 5 years, which makes sense since CLASSICS LIVE! has since 2008 or so been available as a single disc reissue containing it and the 1987 sequel CLASSICS LIVE! VOL 2
However just about everywhere I shop online is nowadays offering AEROSMITH'S GREATEST HITS (1980) tagged with this odd stock photo. I typed the UPC you spec'd into the Discogs database and nothing with your stock photo comes up.
So hopefully it'll have the correct unstockphoto'd cover art.
Thanks
Sincerely,
Jonathan
 |
| The two faces of the internet....................... |
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
IT (2017)
Couldnt believe IT (2017) was available at Redbox this past Saturday. My mom rented it. She watched it. She had good things to say about it, and expressed sadness about the likelihood of me not watching it.
I signed up for a 30 day free trial of Netflix's DVD service. So I have IT (2017) arriving once again(!). And I have 30 days to watch it (!!). Hopefully I'll get it watched well before then. I should be able to finish it in a couple weeks if it's any good. I'm on the $7.99 unlimited plan, but I'm thinking I'll save a few bucks and switch to the $4.99 plan. I really don't watch more than a couple movies a month anyhow.
I have 11 other movie on my Q at the moment. Most of them are not big cheeses that I gots to seeses to pleases. Just stuff that looks like it *might* be good.
I also have a 14 day free trial to this thing called FILMSTRUCK, which is available on the Roku. I have like 20 movies on my list, and many of them do appear to be pretty good movies.
I also rented this movie on Amazon today called MAD COWGIRL. It seems heavily inspired by the work of Gregg Araki, especially his 1997 movie (one of my personal favs) nOWHERE. It even shares two of the cast members, which seems odd to me since I don't recall seeing either of them in any movie outside of some of Gregg Araki's other movies. The main lead I only recall having seen in nOWHERE. James Duvall was in a handful of Gregg Araki movies other than nOWHERE.
I wonder of Ivan Reitman's keeping the progress of the upcoming(?) GHOSTBUSTERS film under wraps so a shistorm of shis from flaming fanboys doesn't tarnish people's willingness to see it. Some franchises have a more universal appeal that you don't have to spin for people to see it. Superhero movies don't need to be any certain way. They just need to be superhero movies. GHOSTBUSTERS is a hard thing to balance in this day and age where everybody seems to think stupid = fun and depressing = intellectual. Something can be both fun and intellectual and not be off putting to the overall populace. GHOSTBUSTERS: ANSWER THE CALL did not demonstrate that very well, unlike the film that Sony hired Paul Feig to reboot. There were some funny moments in GB:ATC, but very few, maybe 5 at the very most (not a good ratio for 90 minute movie, all the more for a 2 hour movie). I'm no Hollywood insider, I'm not even a nose-pressed-against-the-glass Hollywood outsider. I do my thing(s), and Hollywood does its thing(s). I don't know any of the up and coming promising talents that are among the New Releases of the multiplex or the video shelves (virtual or otherwise.....). I didn't know who Dennis Vellenue was until I saw ARRIVAL and noticed he was the same guy who did SICARIO. I looked his name up on IMDB and noticed he'd also done PRISONERS, which I got a little bored with halfway through, but my mom saw it and I sat in on the latter half of the movie, so managed to catch most of the movie all in all. It wasn't a fantastic movie, wouldn't really call it Great, but it did have a promising premise and a good execution, IMO, although it was a little uneven I guess. His movie ENEMY I was absolutely displeased with. I saw the first several minutes of it and it looked like he was trying to do some kind of ERASERHEAD type thing. I wasn't a huge fan of ERASERHEAD. That movie was not appealing in any way, and I did not find myself either mortified or comforted by it. I was simply bored with it. There were some wacky moments in the movie, but the whole thing was just so freakin' slow and depressing. And I don't mean depressing in the poetic sense, like melancholy, I mean it's depressing like a home video of a sad family eating dinner. You can touch it up and add weird music to it, but the value is still minimal at best. ERASERHEAD was like a well of inspiration for several indie filmmakers during the early-middle part of this decade. It seems to have passed through. ONLY GOD FORGIVES and some other movie, having a hard time remembering the name of it at the moment, it had Andrew Garfield in it, supposedly based on some obscure short story by the guy known for WAR AND PEACE and CRIME AND PUNISHMENT whose name I don't remember how to spell off hand. (He's dead, I don't think he's insulted). There were probably others that were less on my radar...idk.
Anyway. I did enjoy similar films by David Lynch that were less slow moving and had more substance -- BLUE VELVET and LOST HIGHWAY. MOLLHOLLAND DRIVE(2001)'s Oscar buzz and critical reception baffles me. It had very little going for it that wasn't already explored in LOST HIGHWAY (1997), which received mixed reviews from critics and audiences. And LOST HIGHWAY was a much better movie. The only thing different about M.D. was the Hollywood backdrop. In short, if you're going to copy off another movie's cinematic style, at least do it for the right reasons. The style that nOWHERE was shot in was a pleasure to experience. Sure, I wouldn't give it 5 stars. 4 stars, maybe, but that doesn't mean the movie should be swept under the rug simply because it's a "lesser" movie....and I'm not even sure it's really a "lesser" movie...It's not like the maker of MAD COWGIRL was just making a random omage of Gregg Araki's nOWHERE. The story is rather unique, although not wholly original or groundbreaking / earthshattering or whatever. It's just an interesting spin on the zombie genre, from what I remember. I haven't started (re)watching it yet...
So anyway.....all this, and then some..........I was going to say something about not being a Hollywood knowitall, using my late blooming knowledge of the guy who directed ARRIVAL as a case in point not to ask me who I'd hire to direct the upcoming GHOSTBUSTERS movie. I would have no idea. It's **supposed** to be Hollywood's job to figure that out. I don't know how to take their crowns for myself.............just doing that job sounds like more work than I can stomach. I'm getting exhuasted just sitting here imagining doing that for a living. Ugh.
I signed up for a 30 day free trial of Netflix's DVD service. So I have IT (2017) arriving once again(!). And I have 30 days to watch it (!!). Hopefully I'll get it watched well before then. I should be able to finish it in a couple weeks if it's any good. I'm on the $7.99 unlimited plan, but I'm thinking I'll save a few bucks and switch to the $4.99 plan. I really don't watch more than a couple movies a month anyhow.
I have 11 other movie on my Q at the moment. Most of them are not big cheeses that I gots to seeses to pleases. Just stuff that looks like it *might* be good.
I also have a 14 day free trial to this thing called FILMSTRUCK, which is available on the Roku. I have like 20 movies on my list, and many of them do appear to be pretty good movies.
I also rented this movie on Amazon today called MAD COWGIRL. It seems heavily inspired by the work of Gregg Araki, especially his 1997 movie (one of my personal favs) nOWHERE. It even shares two of the cast members, which seems odd to me since I don't recall seeing either of them in any movie outside of some of Gregg Araki's other movies. The main lead I only recall having seen in nOWHERE. James Duvall was in a handful of Gregg Araki movies other than nOWHERE.
I wonder of Ivan Reitman's keeping the progress of the upcoming(?) GHOSTBUSTERS film under wraps so a shistorm of shis from flaming fanboys doesn't tarnish people's willingness to see it. Some franchises have a more universal appeal that you don't have to spin for people to see it. Superhero movies don't need to be any certain way. They just need to be superhero movies. GHOSTBUSTERS is a hard thing to balance in this day and age where everybody seems to think stupid = fun and depressing = intellectual. Something can be both fun and intellectual and not be off putting to the overall populace. GHOSTBUSTERS: ANSWER THE CALL did not demonstrate that very well, unlike the film that Sony hired Paul Feig to reboot. There were some funny moments in GB:ATC, but very few, maybe 5 at the very most (not a good ratio for 90 minute movie, all the more for a 2 hour movie). I'm no Hollywood insider, I'm not even a nose-pressed-against-the-glass Hollywood outsider. I do my thing(s), and Hollywood does its thing(s). I don't know any of the up and coming promising talents that are among the New Releases of the multiplex or the video shelves (virtual or otherwise.....). I didn't know who Dennis Vellenue was until I saw ARRIVAL and noticed he was the same guy who did SICARIO. I looked his name up on IMDB and noticed he'd also done PRISONERS, which I got a little bored with halfway through, but my mom saw it and I sat in on the latter half of the movie, so managed to catch most of the movie all in all. It wasn't a fantastic movie, wouldn't really call it Great, but it did have a promising premise and a good execution, IMO, although it was a little uneven I guess. His movie ENEMY I was absolutely displeased with. I saw the first several minutes of it and it looked like he was trying to do some kind of ERASERHEAD type thing. I wasn't a huge fan of ERASERHEAD. That movie was not appealing in any way, and I did not find myself either mortified or comforted by it. I was simply bored with it. There were some wacky moments in the movie, but the whole thing was just so freakin' slow and depressing. And I don't mean depressing in the poetic sense, like melancholy, I mean it's depressing like a home video of a sad family eating dinner. You can touch it up and add weird music to it, but the value is still minimal at best. ERASERHEAD was like a well of inspiration for several indie filmmakers during the early-middle part of this decade. It seems to have passed through. ONLY GOD FORGIVES and some other movie, having a hard time remembering the name of it at the moment, it had Andrew Garfield in it, supposedly based on some obscure short story by the guy known for WAR AND PEACE and CRIME AND PUNISHMENT whose name I don't remember how to spell off hand. (He's dead, I don't think he's insulted). There were probably others that were less on my radar...idk.
Anyway. I did enjoy similar films by David Lynch that were less slow moving and had more substance -- BLUE VELVET and LOST HIGHWAY. MOLLHOLLAND DRIVE(2001)'s Oscar buzz and critical reception baffles me. It had very little going for it that wasn't already explored in LOST HIGHWAY (1997), which received mixed reviews from critics and audiences. And LOST HIGHWAY was a much better movie. The only thing different about M.D. was the Hollywood backdrop. In short, if you're going to copy off another movie's cinematic style, at least do it for the right reasons. The style that nOWHERE was shot in was a pleasure to experience. Sure, I wouldn't give it 5 stars. 4 stars, maybe, but that doesn't mean the movie should be swept under the rug simply because it's a "lesser" movie....and I'm not even sure it's really a "lesser" movie...It's not like the maker of MAD COWGIRL was just making a random omage of Gregg Araki's nOWHERE. The story is rather unique, although not wholly original or groundbreaking / earthshattering or whatever. It's just an interesting spin on the zombie genre, from what I remember. I haven't started (re)watching it yet...
So anyway.....all this, and then some..........I was going to say something about not being a Hollywood knowitall, using my late blooming knowledge of the guy who directed ARRIVAL as a case in point not to ask me who I'd hire to direct the upcoming GHOSTBUSTERS movie. I would have no idea. It's **supposed** to be Hollywood's job to figure that out. I don't know how to take their crowns for myself.............just doing that job sounds like more work than I can stomach. I'm getting exhuasted just sitting here imagining doing that for a living. Ugh.
Wolfe ate granny? Who Knowles....
http://www.swagbucks.com/?f=55&t=w&p=1&q=gift+card+granny
some guy named LUKE KNOWLES founded Gift Card Granny dot com in 2009 and someone named JASON WOLFE is the CEO. Granny, where did you go? (Maybe she was never there.....)
some guy named LUKE KNOWLES founded Gift Card Granny dot com in 2009 and someone named JASON WOLFE is the CEO. Granny, where did you go? (Maybe she was never there.....)
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
whooshhh!
Listening to The Cure - DISINTEGRATION (1989, 2010 remastered edition) on Spotify. "Plainsong" (Track 1) is such a great opener. It's a good CD if you find yourself really in tune to the dirge of that song. If not, it gets slightly more intriguing toward the end of the CD around track 8 or so....with a few songs in between that I'm mostly sick of, but can enjoy at times...I used to hate that song "Fascination Street", but it's grown on me.
I thought of it b/c I had added a few items to my cart @ Blowitoutahere.com, and figured I was nowhere near able to afford them, so I logged in to save the selections for checkout at a later (much later?) date, and noticed that CD still in my cart -- probably from about a couple weeks ago during one of my "what kind of dining room set defines me as a person" window shopping sprees, when I was price comparing, I had that in my Amazon.com shopping cart and didn't delete it from my Blowitoutahere.com shopping cart..
Prior to that piquing my interest, I was remembering this re-issue that I'd seen at the now defunct Hastings Entertainment of Fall Out Boy's 2013 CD SAVE ROCK N ROLL. It hadn't even been out for a year before they released that thing, weird...that was one of their better CDs. I liked FROM THE UNDER THE CORK TREE, but I'm thoroughly sick of it, I can enjoy it on Spotify once in a very great blue moon, or hear songs from it on Pandora or regular radio if/when, but to buy it again would be totally stupid. Buying SAVE ROCK N' ROLL would probably be the same. I had it on MP3 for $1.99 @ Amazon (!!), but deleted it for some real stupid stupid reason (!!!!!!!!!!!....ok, I don't need that many !'s, but......ugh)
Anyway.
Then when my mind got distracted from the bouncy pop rock crunch toward the indie shimmer of that acrosstith the pond, I remembered a mini-goal I had yesterday to pick up SINGLES by The Smiths (1995). As the title suggests, it collects the bulk of The Smiths' high charting singles. I have R.E.M.'s I.R.S. era hits CD -- it is not self titled, but rather it is titled EPONYMOUS, which normally is a description of a self titled album, but literally the album is not self titled because the title is EPONYMOUS. Damn, that's even worse than "What's the name of the breakthrough Nirvana CD?" "NEVERMIND" "Ok, sorry I asked." "No, it's called NEVERMIND. "Dude, if you're not gonna finish your sentence, just drop the subject ok?" "No, you're not hearing me"....
Anyway.......
R.E.M.'s music was much better represented in album form. I really like MURMUR, RECKONING, FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION, and AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE, but I don't really listen to them that often b/c their music just has this murky quality to it that doesn't gel with my sense of optimism, which shines less bright some times, and more bright at others.
EPONYMOUS is a rather bland CD. It really became apparent when I heard "Driver 8" come on. I don't remember off hand what the 2 or 3 songs preceeding it were. "Don't Go Back To Rockville", "So. Central Rain" and "Talk About The Passion" are also on that CD, but "Driver 8" beats 'em all hands down, IMO. The CD could have easily been 10x better if they'd removed some of the songs and replaced them with "Stand", Losing My Religion" and "Shiny Happy People", but half the reason the CD was released was because R.E.M. had just switched from I.R.S records to Warner Bros. records, who would go on to release those gems.
I thought of it b/c I had added a few items to my cart @ Blowitoutahere.com, and figured I was nowhere near able to afford them, so I logged in to save the selections for checkout at a later (much later?) date, and noticed that CD still in my cart -- probably from about a couple weeks ago during one of my "what kind of dining room set defines me as a person" window shopping sprees, when I was price comparing, I had that in my Amazon.com shopping cart and didn't delete it from my Blowitoutahere.com shopping cart..
Prior to that piquing my interest, I was remembering this re-issue that I'd seen at the now defunct Hastings Entertainment of Fall Out Boy's 2013 CD SAVE ROCK N ROLL. It hadn't even been out for a year before they released that thing, weird...that was one of their better CDs. I liked FROM THE UNDER THE CORK TREE, but I'm thoroughly sick of it, I can enjoy it on Spotify once in a very great blue moon, or hear songs from it on Pandora or regular radio if/when, but to buy it again would be totally stupid. Buying SAVE ROCK N' ROLL would probably be the same. I had it on MP3 for $1.99 @ Amazon (!!), but deleted it for some real stupid stupid reason (!!!!!!!!!!!....ok, I don't need that many !'s, but......ugh)
Anyway.
Then when my mind got distracted from the bouncy pop rock crunch toward the indie shimmer of that acrosstith the pond, I remembered a mini-goal I had yesterday to pick up SINGLES by The Smiths (1995). As the title suggests, it collects the bulk of The Smiths' high charting singles. I have R.E.M.'s I.R.S. era hits CD -- it is not self titled, but rather it is titled EPONYMOUS, which normally is a description of a self titled album, but literally the album is not self titled because the title is EPONYMOUS. Damn, that's even worse than "What's the name of the breakthrough Nirvana CD?" "NEVERMIND" "Ok, sorry I asked." "No, it's called NEVERMIND. "Dude, if you're not gonna finish your sentence, just drop the subject ok?" "No, you're not hearing me"....
Anyway.......
R.E.M.'s music was much better represented in album form. I really like MURMUR, RECKONING, FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION, and AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE, but I don't really listen to them that often b/c their music just has this murky quality to it that doesn't gel with my sense of optimism, which shines less bright some times, and more bright at others.
EPONYMOUS is a rather bland CD. It really became apparent when I heard "Driver 8" come on. I don't remember off hand what the 2 or 3 songs preceeding it were. "Don't Go Back To Rockville", "So. Central Rain" and "Talk About The Passion" are also on that CD, but "Driver 8" beats 'em all hands down, IMO. The CD could have easily been 10x better if they'd removed some of the songs and replaced them with "Stand", Losing My Religion" and "Shiny Happy People", but half the reason the CD was released was because R.E.M. had just switched from I.R.S records to Warner Bros. records, who would go on to release those gems.
Oh the horror
I can't believe how much people are cringing in fear because there's a growing awareness on the vulgar effects of the TV shows and movies that Hollywood has been - and still is - churning out. This article by the Daily Telegraph in the UK -- which I don't have enough money to pay for just to read that kind of bile, so I have not read the entire thing, but it seems to be a stupid fear mongering rant -- is saying that in 10 or 20 years, the stuff Hollywood is churning out will be illegal. Why? Because there's discussion on the internet about how FRIENDS (1994-2004) is a morally corrupt show. HOW DARE anyone disagree with the status quo! And it **IS** a status quo. Why would something that gets high ratings on TV and elsewhere become outlawed unless the law in question is being made up by a dictator of some kind? And since when has there been a "puritanical" dictator?
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
SAVE THE WHALES!!!
Ditch selling your CDs on Amazon.
Use Discogs!
Their fees are 75% less than Amazon's
Upload your inventory there and buyers will catch on
...I think....
Of course, if all you start hogging Discogs' bandwidth, they may have to raise the cost of selling there...bandwidth ain't free, ya know............maybe you don't know that, but if you don't, now you do.....so there...
x
thumbs about
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimark_Pictures
I remember these guys disappearing right around the time the Lions Gate started popping up. I was confusing Lions Gate with Artisan. I do remember seeing an Artisan pic that had a copyright of 1998 according to the video tape of it I rented and watched some of or part of (it was called ABERRATION, don't remember the movie at all, at least not enough to say anything intelligible about it...I think it took place in a swamp town, but I could be mistaken). But then it seems within 2 or 3 years Artisan pix started making movies that people wanted to see. CANDYMAN III was a lame film, but if you didn't know that, you'd automatically want to see it just b/c of the title...unless of course you hated the 1st CANDYMAN movie for whatever reason....and STIR OF ECHOES was a damn fine movie, even though the concept of the movie is a dumb one, as most horror movies are, especially ones that deal with ghosts. There was another movie I saw that I liked called PREMONITION, which I don't remember very well, but I remember being impressed with it. And then of course there were others, not counting TERMINATOR and TERMINATOR 2, which they had no part in making, but had their logo on...the very first DVD releases of T1&2 didn't have their name on them, because it was almost immediately after the first DVD editions were released that Artisan acquired the video rights. That probably explains the fact that the very first TERMINATOR 2 DVD release was in a snapcase and why an almost identical release was made shortly thereafter in a keepcase. I'm pretty sure the keepcase edition from the late 90's had the Artisan logo. As for 1, TERMINATOR, I'm drawing a blank...I remember the original DVD release with the strobe light colors in the back ground, but I'm not sure what the DVD release that immediately succeeded that looked like. It'll probably come to me later....
Anyway.....
Speaking of CANDYMAN III --- I remember that movie came to DVD and subsequently came to VHS like a month or two later....that was one of the reasons my mom and I decided to get a DVD player...we went to a rent to own store to get one. That seems crazy to me now, but that's only because blu ray was expected to eclipse DVD and eventually replace it, which still hasn't happened, thank God! There are movies that were made not long before Blu ray technology was announced that look worse on Blu ray than they do on DVD. I don't personally care about *detail*. I care about consistency. A movie is not a compilation of loosely connected footage. A movie is one thing. Yes, there are multiple scenes that are not filmed in one take, or even in one day but those various scenes are meant to glide smoothly from one to the next. If a movie stops midway through a scene, even if it's a scene that you personally would rather be sleeping through, it's a jarring experience. Sometimes movies will deliberately do that, but the effect is not quite the same, unless your senses have limited range.
So it really bugs me when I see movies like MYSTERIOUS SKIN (2005) and REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2001) getting blu ray releases that have the kinds of flaws noted on sites like Blu-ray.com
But I really underestimated Blu ray when it started making its way in shops. Then it got to where I overestimated it, and now I'm just kind of trying to find a level attitude about it. I like shopping, but when I buy movies, I usually have to choose -- DVD? Or Blu ray? Or do I just choose not to buy the movie? Choosing not to buy something that I enjoy(ed) is a depressing thought. It's one thing when I literally can't afford it (which is almost always the case), but...idk...I sometiems find movies that are old for like $5 or $6 and then I'm like "Ooh, it's on sale!", but then I realize that the movie is on sale b/c they've already made all the money they expect to ever make of the movie and if there weren't so many people involved in manufacturing, distributing and selling any given DVD(s), that $5 would go down to less than $1. The filmmakers probably aren't getting *any* of that money and the CEO of any given motion picture studio is probably getting very little, with even less to pay his employees with. Those DVDs may as well be free, unless you buy 10 of them, which is a joke -- how many $6 DVDs are actually worth buying? Heck, how many $20 new releases are worth buying? Of course, the same principle applies there, except it's a lot easier to think of it in terms of "we can do this if we all work together!"...And if my opinion of most movies were worth anything at all, then people who buy movies that really are not all that good, if they woke up and realized their wrong and acted on it, would be saving themselves money and eventually the studios would be saving some dough by not having to finance mediocrity at such a high cost. Movies that are f--ing brilliant cost a good sum of money -- sometimes -- but movies that are far inferior cost the same amount. And only some of those movies that are made for the sole *hope* that they make money are actually going to make any money at all. BTW -- I really wanted to see BLADE RUNNER 2049, but by the time I knew it was in theaters, it was already scheduled for release on video within a month or so. I might still be able to catch it, but I can't say I like the first one well enough to enjoy the sequel thoroughly enough to not let the financial failure of it temper my good spirits. And the sequel, like the 1st, seems more like one of those movies where you're supposed to be playing philosophical pingpong while you're watching the movie. I like the *feel* my movies. The only feeling I got from watching the little bit of the 1st one I saw was this sense that it might be raining soon...idk...can't explain it. Probably has something to do with the film-noir style that the movie was made in.
Anyway...
I'm not sure why I'm still typing....Ok, whatever THE END
I remember these guys disappearing right around the time the Lions Gate started popping up. I was confusing Lions Gate with Artisan. I do remember seeing an Artisan pic that had a copyright of 1998 according to the video tape of it I rented and watched some of or part of (it was called ABERRATION, don't remember the movie at all, at least not enough to say anything intelligible about it...I think it took place in a swamp town, but I could be mistaken). But then it seems within 2 or 3 years Artisan pix started making movies that people wanted to see. CANDYMAN III was a lame film, but if you didn't know that, you'd automatically want to see it just b/c of the title...unless of course you hated the 1st CANDYMAN movie for whatever reason....and STIR OF ECHOES was a damn fine movie, even though the concept of the movie is a dumb one, as most horror movies are, especially ones that deal with ghosts. There was another movie I saw that I liked called PREMONITION, which I don't remember very well, but I remember being impressed with it. And then of course there were others, not counting TERMINATOR and TERMINATOR 2, which they had no part in making, but had their logo on...the very first DVD releases of T1&2 didn't have their name on them, because it was almost immediately after the first DVD editions were released that Artisan acquired the video rights. That probably explains the fact that the very first TERMINATOR 2 DVD release was in a snapcase and why an almost identical release was made shortly thereafter in a keepcase. I'm pretty sure the keepcase edition from the late 90's had the Artisan logo. As for 1, TERMINATOR, I'm drawing a blank...I remember the original DVD release with the strobe light colors in the back ground, but I'm not sure what the DVD release that immediately succeeded that looked like. It'll probably come to me later....
Anyway.....
Speaking of CANDYMAN III --- I remember that movie came to DVD and subsequently came to VHS like a month or two later....that was one of the reasons my mom and I decided to get a DVD player...we went to a rent to own store to get one. That seems crazy to me now, but that's only because blu ray was expected to eclipse DVD and eventually replace it, which still hasn't happened, thank God! There are movies that were made not long before Blu ray technology was announced that look worse on Blu ray than they do on DVD. I don't personally care about *detail*. I care about consistency. A movie is not a compilation of loosely connected footage. A movie is one thing. Yes, there are multiple scenes that are not filmed in one take, or even in one day but those various scenes are meant to glide smoothly from one to the next. If a movie stops midway through a scene, even if it's a scene that you personally would rather be sleeping through, it's a jarring experience. Sometimes movies will deliberately do that, but the effect is not quite the same, unless your senses have limited range.
So it really bugs me when I see movies like MYSTERIOUS SKIN (2005) and REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2001) getting blu ray releases that have the kinds of flaws noted on sites like Blu-ray.com
But I really underestimated Blu ray when it started making its way in shops. Then it got to where I overestimated it, and now I'm just kind of trying to find a level attitude about it. I like shopping, but when I buy movies, I usually have to choose -- DVD? Or Blu ray? Or do I just choose not to buy the movie? Choosing not to buy something that I enjoy(ed) is a depressing thought. It's one thing when I literally can't afford it (which is almost always the case), but...idk...I sometiems find movies that are old for like $5 or $6 and then I'm like "Ooh, it's on sale!", but then I realize that the movie is on sale b/c they've already made all the money they expect to ever make of the movie and if there weren't so many people involved in manufacturing, distributing and selling any given DVD(s), that $5 would go down to less than $1. The filmmakers probably aren't getting *any* of that money and the CEO of any given motion picture studio is probably getting very little, with even less to pay his employees with. Those DVDs may as well be free, unless you buy 10 of them, which is a joke -- how many $6 DVDs are actually worth buying? Heck, how many $20 new releases are worth buying? Of course, the same principle applies there, except it's a lot easier to think of it in terms of "we can do this if we all work together!"...And if my opinion of most movies were worth anything at all, then people who buy movies that really are not all that good, if they woke up and realized their wrong and acted on it, would be saving themselves money and eventually the studios would be saving some dough by not having to finance mediocrity at such a high cost. Movies that are f--ing brilliant cost a good sum of money -- sometimes -- but movies that are far inferior cost the same amount. And only some of those movies that are made for the sole *hope* that they make money are actually going to make any money at all. BTW -- I really wanted to see BLADE RUNNER 2049, but by the time I knew it was in theaters, it was already scheduled for release on video within a month or so. I might still be able to catch it, but I can't say I like the first one well enough to enjoy the sequel thoroughly enough to not let the financial failure of it temper my good spirits. And the sequel, like the 1st, seems more like one of those movies where you're supposed to be playing philosophical pingpong while you're watching the movie. I like the *feel* my movies. The only feeling I got from watching the little bit of the 1st one I saw was this sense that it might be raining soon...idk...can't explain it. Probably has something to do with the film-noir style that the movie was made in.
Anyway...
I'm not sure why I'm still typing....Ok, whatever THE END
Monday, January 8, 2018
i'm back...
Went to Missouri to visit my gramma over the Christmas time.
Was there for 3.5 days apprx.
Managed to survive the trip with my Mom to Missouri ***AND*** the trip back with my sis & my broNlaw.
Surprisingly the trip back seemed infinitely longer....the way to wasn't so bad. The way back.....seriously have no idea why it seemed so long......I guess 'cause my big fat mouth wasn't engaged as much. Me and mama just talked most of the way there.
My uncle John has wifi! He was forced to either get wifi or not have internet at all...or something...he explained it and that's how I interpreted it, but I don't remember exactly what he said. It doesn't make sense to me either.....something regarding the ports on his computer being incompatible with a direct/wired connection.....idk.....
I got back on the 26th in the late afternoon.
Managed to have one last visit with my old church before Pastor Jeremy leaves to be closer with his parents and his wife's parents who are both direly ill. It'll be interesting to visit and see how the church is getting along without him. I couldn't believe it --- Keith, one of the guys I bonded with a little over the small group study of THE STORY --- is not going there anymore, for reasons I don't really understand. My gramma was explaining it roughly, but I think I missed part of what she said, so the little she said was that much more vague, so...anyway.....
One of the people at that church used to assist in my special ed class back in junior high. She seemed hopeful that I'd be spending 2 or 3 weeks in Missouri...I told her I'd be there a few days. She's cool. She posts a lot of political stuff on Facebook, some of it is interesting, some of it is just b.s., but I'm sure she has her reasons for posting it. One post was asking Republicans to back Trump for re-election in 2020 no matter what......or something like that........I can so easily list a number of possible reasons that may arise that would cause me to not re-elect Trump on top of the reasons that already are known to exist for not electing him in the first place.....which of course were ignored by (slightly) over half the nation......which makes sense in an election where the stakes are so high, I suppose.......you either have Clinton winning or....Clinton NOT winning. My mom goes a little overboard in her reactions to people, but she has been an anti-Hilary advocate long before she had any qualms with Bill Clinton. The only real qualm she seems to have with Bill is that he's married to Hilary and that he's a Democrat (pro-choice). I've never heard her say anything concrete about Bill that would come across as a revelation. And I myself know nothing about him other than what he looks like. I was a tween when he was in office, I guess I was just turning legal age when he left and i'm now 34 years old and I still don't keep up with the news as much as I should. I know more about Donald Trump than I ever did/do about Bill Clinton tho. As a kid, throughout the vast majority of it, I relished my freedom to BE a kid and it seriously confuses me when people call babies selfish for waking people up in the middle of the night crying. Is it really selfish to keep yourself from dying of starvation? Or to let people know you need comfort and/or emotional support? It seems to me the selfishness would be exemplified in wishing a baby could shut up and go to sleep & let you do likewise. It's not a baby's role to bear its cross and lead humanity to Christ's promise of eternal life.
Not to suggest in such rhetoric that I'm intending a defense for my emotional immaturity, in case it may seem that way....
(ugh)
So.............................
Yep.
Missed church yesterday. God called it off for the day. I had been praying this prayer that the congregation was called by the pastor to pray daily at 3:58, I succeeded Monday - Thurs. Fri Sat I was asleep at least one of those days at 3:58 P.M. I don't know if I was napping both days at that time or not...I think I was, but I'm not sure. I had been feeling so pathetic and dour, having not read The Bible and wasting my days away doing practically nothing.
I did find out midmorning today that the Oak Hills Church channel Is functional on my Roku Express+. I had tried a couple times over the past month or so to use it, and to no avail. I watched about 2/3 of a sermon. A guest preacher was on the one I watched. He had some good points to make about the book of Joshua, focusing on Chapter 10, verse 6. He stated something about people's disbelief in that section of God's word I had caught myself almost thinking. He said something to the effect of
Some people read that and think "Uh....I don't know about that....Surely it's just a metaphor or something..." It is a pretty bold statement of faith on the part of Joshua and the will of God to honor prayer. A lot of prayers are given to God in a narrow perspective. My Aunt Marie was a devout and faithful follower of Christ most of, if not all of, her life and she died a slow creeping death. My mom was upset by it at the time, but she knew at the time that Aunt Marie was acting as a witness of the truth through that entire time she spent in the hospital -- not just a relayer of fact, but an effective conduit of The Holy Spirit of God. My mom should be respected for her ability to see that and be glad for it. I myself had no close relationship with Aunt Marie, and people dying just doesn't effect me for some reason. I guess if my mom died, it'd be a big wound. I know I was really sad when I had to say goodbye to my cat Napoleon. I was a little less sad when his companion Harrison died, but not as much because I knew he was having health issues and I think in my gut I knew he was not happy being without Napoleon. He did in fact die a few months after Napoleon did. That was just a sad time for me in general with all that happening. But if Napoleon is burning in Hell it's entirely my fault for living a life of unrepentant sin and raising him in that environment. I can only hope that he's just gone, not in Heaven or Hell, because honestly, it just doesn't make sense that pets would be entering Heaven. That's not to say I would call God a liar if I did meet him in Heaven, but if I don't see him, I'd be willing to accept that as well...I know from reading God's word that God does not exempt animals from the consequences of sin. Snakes -- not just THE serpent but the SNAKE SPECIES -- slithers on the ground eating dust all its days because of the actions that one snake made long long ago. Granted, humanity bore a much greater punishment for its sin. But God didn't say "oh, well, you can't help yourself..........." to the serpent.
Seems like I should have a ton more to write.
Maybe soon.
I hope (sigh)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)