Video Database

We have been using imdb's My Movies database.

We have 4 accounts over there for different purposes.
The first and primary account is for our whole video collection.
Randy had been entering them all himself until today's push.
I joined in to finish it up - until we purchase new videos.

VHS movies excluding foreign: 4022
DVD movies excluding foreign: 2033
VHS tv series titles: 125
DVD tv series titles: 245

Account #2 is a list of viewed movies since getting together.
Account #3 is for videos we have tagged to watch shortly.
We try to coordinate by genre or theme when possible.
Account #4 is for those that are available for purchase.

Early Birthday Gifts

Alien Nation - Ultimate Movie Collection came in the mail.
This was the first of DVDs I ordered for Randy's birthday.
Decided to wait on watching it for a few days to a week.

Since we were enjoying the tv series "The 4400" ...
I ordered season 3 and it should be here tomorrow!
Randy thought it would be best to continue with that first.

I admit it - I have a hard time withholding gifts from Randy.
Shhhh - there is still one or more he does not know about - YET!
For the record - I also have a few non-DVD gifts up my sleeve.

Side note: We also have been watching on DVD
the tv series "Dead Like Me" (2003) - comedy fantasy.
I will it admit it is a bit bizarre but interesting at times.

Cosmotopia

Randy and I are certainly Sci Fi fans.
I just stumbled upon a very dangerous site:
Cosmotopia: A Sci Fi Destination at Amazon.

From that site: "It's Science Fiction Month at Amazon.com,
and we're offering hundreds of DVDs on sale at up to 50% off,
and great deals on a lot of other stuff. That's a lot to look at,
so we've divided the sale in two different ways: by category and by genre."

Randy is sleeping so I think I will browse it first.
The question is whether to tell him about it or not!!!!
Actually we have been looking to expand our sci fi collection.

Update: Randy did know about the site and didn't tell me!!!!
We looked at it together and found nothing new to purchase.

Midweek Update

This week is about new recipes - four of them.
I made two yesterday and there are two more coming.
Traditional Maine Apple Cake - never heard of it before.
I found it because I had a bunch of baking apples to use.
I really enjoy it - reminds me of a coffee cake texture.
For lunch/dinner I made an Impossible Chicken Pie.
We are really liking the "Impossible pies from Bisquick.
What can be easier in one pan to bake - meat and cheese.
Mix up Bisquick, milk and egg and pour over meat/cheese.
The other two recipes I plan on trying are for the weekend.
For Saturday is Cowboy Casserole - BBQ beans and beef.
And for Sunday Brunch is French Toast Casserole.

This week we have not been watching as many movies.
Instead we are watching a tv series on DVD.
We are both enjoying "The 4400" seasons 1 & 2.
We do hope to see season 3 & 4 eventually.
We are also anxiously awaiting (any day now)
Alien Nation - Ultimate Movie Collection.
We already saw the series - these movies are followup.
I've not seen as many tv series as Randy over the years.
I would like to see the pilots or first show(s) of
"Andromeda", "Earth: Final Conflict" and "Babylon 5".
And Star Trek spinoffs: "The Next Generation",
"Deep Space Nine", "Voyager" and prequel "Enterprise".

Getaway DVD set find

I found a 20 movie DVD set called Hollywood Classics for only $20 at The Reader's Digest outlet store. Titles were At War with the Army (Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis), The Little Shop of Horrors (1960 with Jack Nicholson), Private Buckaroo, The Flying Deuces (with Laurel & Hardy), And Then There Were None (with Barry Fitzgerald - disappointed me because it didn't do the correct ending as Agatha Christie wrote it), The Outlaw (Jane Russell), The Man from Utah (John Wayne), The Front Page (Adolphe Menjou), Of Human Bondage (Leslie Howard & Bette Davis), Made For Each Other (Carole Lombard & Jimmy Stewart), Indiscreet (Gloria Swanson), The Inspector General (Danny Kaye), A Star is Born (Janet Gaynor & Fredric March), Road to Bali (Bob Hope, Bing Crosby & Dorothy Lamour), The Little Princess (Shirley Temple), My Favorite Brunette (Bob Hope & Dorothy Lamour), Royal Wedding (Fred Astaire & Jane Powell), A Farewell to Arms (Helen Hayes & Gary Cooper), Father's Little Dividend (Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennet & Elizabeth Taylor) and Anna Karenina (Vivien Leigh).

I had seven of these already on DVD, mostly used ones that I picked up cheap. I felt the set was worth picking up for the others plus to have newer copies of the used ones. Though I must admit that trying to watch The Front Page wasn't all that good with its poor audio quality. (We didn't finish watching that one.) But the two discs I've watched so far both had interesting special features with newsreels of the era and bloopers from many different movies. That might really make it a worthwhile find!

Earthsea

We just watched this miniseries from the Sci-Fi channel.
We both really enjoy science fiction and sometimes fantasy.
Science fiction and fantasy are oftne lumped in together.
I am not so much into fantasy but can handle some of it.

This morning I found some YouTube movie clips.
Because I did enjoy it so much wanted to share these.
Also of note is Official Sci Fi Legend of Earthsea site.
And from wikipedia: Earthsea, Characters, Islands

The actors may be familiar from other sci fi endeavours.
The main character, Ged, is Shawn Ashmore aka Iceman
Best friend, Vetch, is Chris Gauthier, Eureka's Vincent.
Lady Elfarren is Amanda Tapping, Stargate's Samantha.

Scene 1 - 6:51 minutes


Scene 2a (2:27) and Scene 2b (4:23)

Scene 3 - 6:07 minutes


Scene 4 (0:51) and Scene 5 (3:30)

Considered E of HUMORE for entertainment value.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We have theme specific movies planned for today.
Finian's Rainbow (1968) - musical
Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959) - Disney
The Secret of Roan Inish (1994) - also a family film

Other Irish possibilities for the day:
Lord of the Dance (1993) - Irish dance
Riverdance: The Show (1995) - Irish dance
The Luck of the Irish (1948) - romantic comedy
The Quiet Man (1952) - romantic drama

Amazon Lists

I started two video lists at Amazon.
I still do not know what all movies Randy brought with him.
So when I see something I think would be nice to have ...
I'll place in one of my lists for Randy to review.
Seen and liked
Looks interesting

For the record I was on Amazon this morning because
I really would like to get The Fountainhead.
Then found out they had 50% off classics.

I am thinking with the federal rebate coming ...
we can set aside some money for new purchases.
I actually checked on ebay first but realized
for just a little more can get "new" at Amazon.

Neighbor visit and the nanny

Our upstairs neighbor came over for lunch.
And we visited all afternoon.
It was good getting to know her.
We heard stories about her children and family.

Do keep her in prayer ...
she is having back surgery Friday morning.
She'll be laid up about a month.
We offered her some of our videos.

In the evening Randy actually rented a couple.
We watched The Nanny Diaries (2007).
It stars Scarlett Johansson as the nanny ...
Actually an anthropology graduate trying to figure out life.

Maine Movies

We love movies and thought we would mention some Maine movies.
Randy has seen all from the top 10 list but I have not.
I'll mention some I liked or are on the "to see" list.

On the "to see" list:

Cider House Rules
filmed partly in Bernard and at Sand Beach in Acadia National Park

In the Bedroom
locations included Belfast, Camden, Rockland, Rockport, Wiscasset

Twelve Monkeys
One list says it was filmed in Maine - not sure.

Empire Falls
locations included Augusta, Waterville, Skowhegan, Kennebunkport
Like The Man Without a Face (below) dad drove their car in it.

Stuff we've seen:

The Man Without a Face - we have both seen
Rockport, Cape Rosier, Bath, Brunswick, Portland, and Rockland.
My parents were hired to drive their 1961 Plymouth Valiant.
It was an old push button model from the right time period.

Peyton Place - celebrated 50 years in 2007
filmed in Camden and Belfast

Casper - I did not realize that it was set in Maine!!!
filmed in Camden even though story actually set in Friendship.

Steven King often sets his novels in Maine
and some are filmed here like Pet Sematary.

Links:
Top Ten Movies Filmed in Maine
Top Movies Filmed in Maine

(Considered M of HUMORE)

Blu-ray wins the war

I suspect most people had figured Blu-ray was going to win.
It is now official. Blu-ray is the VHS of today and tomorrow!

We just purchased our first HD tv this past month ...
But were waiting before deciding which new DVD player to get.

News article from Tokyo: Toshiba quits HD DVD business

"Toshiba said Tuesday it will no longer develop, make or market HD DVD players and recorders, handing a victory to rival Blu-ray disc technology in the format battle for next-generation video. The move would make Blu-ray — backed by Sony Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, and five major Hollywood movie studios — the winner in the battle over high-definition DVD formatting that began several years ago."

Contributing factors:

"Nishida said last month's decision by Warner Bros. Entertainment to release movie discs only in the Blu-ray format made the move inevitable. Warner joined Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co. and News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox in that move."

"Friday's decision by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the largest U.S. retailer, to sell only Blu-ray DVDs and hardware appeared to deal a final blow to the Toshiba format. Just five days earlier, Netflix Inc. said it will cease carrying rentals in HD DVD. Several major American retailers had already made similar decisions, including Target Corp. and Blockbuster Inc."

HD DVD supporters included Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation, Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp.

American Film Institute

In January Randy and I started watching a movie a week from the AFI top 100 movie list. AFI stands for American Film Institute. We are watching backwards from the original list put out in 1998.

Back on June 21, 2007 Roger Ebert blogged on AFI 100: Kane still #1

Randy was disappointed about some that made the new list which meant others fell off. After attempting to watch Pulp Fiction with its most foul language I have to wonder what the people making this list were thinking. And next week's is no better - Goodfellas.

The AFI also puts out other lists. The new ones coming out this year are 10 Top 10. Its the top 10 in 10 classic movie genres ... animation, romantic comedies, westerns, sports, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, gangster, courtroom drama, and epic.

Where's the top musicals you may ask (as I did) ... In 2006 they had a list of the top 25 greatest musicals. Bottom line they have bunches of lists if you are interested in what others picks. I think they are fine to look out but remember everyone has different tastes.

(Considered R of HUMORE)

Movies vs Videos

Decided to add category of Videos.
Previously had category of Movies.

Movies are movies we have watched ...
whether from Randy's collection or from tv or from renting.

Videos will be any discussion of videos ...
whether it be on VHS or DVD or whatever tomorrow holds!

Will backtrack to connect old entries to new category.

Another Road Trip

In the afternoon we very all of a sudden decided on a road trip.
We had been looking to purchase a sale item from Target.
Our local Target store did not have it so Randy got a raincheck.
I got online and learned the item was in stock in another Target.
So we dropped our other plans and decided to go check it out.

We indeed found the item and had a choice of colors - Yeah!
The Target we went to was in South Portland, near Maine Mall.
We got a little lost trying to find it, so much for Yahoo Maps!
But we took the opportunity to see what else was around.
We spotted the new Big Al's - the original store is in Wiscasset.

Our dinner plans were to try Hannaford's hot "meals to go".
Tuesday is pork loin, Wednesday is meatloaf, Thursday is ribs.
Picking up the ribs in South Portland gave them time to cool down.
On the way home we had a few more stops to make while out.
We swung by Tim Horton's for low fat blueberry muffins.

The final stop was at Movie Gallery, a video rental store.
Randy has gobs of both VHS and DVD but does not have everything.
We ran into a problem though trying to sign up with 2 pieces of id.
Randy only has his license and nothing else with name and address.
I may have a problem too because my license has not been changed.