"The old formats are dead! Long live the old formats!"

We have been awaiting the death of movies, film, flickers, the studios, for decades now, but looking at the boxoffice figures for 2009 we can see that it was yet another stellar year for the industry. The thing that continues to change is not the appetite of the movie going audience but how they "see" film, how they view movies not only in the theaters but at home as well. The 2009 holiday shopping season saw the rise, not only in the number of advertisments but in sheer tonnage moved out the door, of Blu-ray high definition movie players and large flatscreen tvs, showing once again that if you make quality goods affordable to the middle class, technology, and peoples tastes, will change.

I am happy, once again, for the change. I like to stay a trend or two behind the bulk of humanity. I like to catch up after the parade has passed and reap the benefits of the discard pile. Right now is a grand time to be a film collector. VHS tapes for fifty cents a throw, pawn shop DVD's going for little more than a buck, second hand hi-fi players for under ten dollars and used dvd players for less than the price of a movie ticket.


For the time being I am not too worried about the imminent demise of Hollywood Video or Blockbuster rental stores. I am not struggling with the high cost of retail films or outrageous ticket prices at the door. I have my own "movies on demand" system going on at home 24/7 and have hundreds of movie titles to choose from. Let it rain, let it pour. The Futon Cinema is always ready to screen something new or old, and baby, if I haven't watched it before, it's all new to me.

Action!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Cinema upgrade!




The proprietor of the Futon Cinema has been craving a nice new flatscreen television ever since he purchased one for his kids last Thanksgiving but such things are not always meant to be, least ways, not in the time frame that we would like them to happen in. I can still remember rolling the box that contained the set out to my car with the help the electronics department floor manager. As we were lifting the set into my car I told him that it was for my Estranged One's house, not mine. I cracked up when I looked at his scrunchy face, but more when he said to me "that's just not right, man, not right at all!"

No matter, I bought a PS3 for my kids that christmas, too, so I have a reason to buy Blu-ray disks, even though I don't get to watch them here in my house.

No whining, though. My time to enjoy that Samsung will come later on, maybe next year after taxes. For the moment I am very happy. "And why is that?", you might ask, knowing that that forty inch flatscreen that I bought and paid for resides in Boise and not in my house. Well, let's just say that I got what I needed, and that the Futon Cinema got a mighty big upgrade yesterday, and taking into account all factors, including cashflow and the dynamics of available space upstairs, it was a mighty great deal for twelve bucks and change.

To put it mildly, I lucked out. It was the perfect positioning of time and place and plastic. I was already wandering around my local Goodwill in seach of music and movies (oh, and I scored a nice quantity of both, including a copy of Wim Wender's very hard to find The American Friend (!)) So, there I was, burning up a perfectly fine, sunny afternoon when I heard the announcement that all tvs were 50% off that day. WOW! So I made my way back up to the front of the store and got serious in evaluating the sets, checking out picture quality, name brands, jacks in the back of the sets, all that. One by one they were eliminated when out from the sorting area arrived one harried looking worker bee with a couple smaller sets in hand. I asked the man, after he finished fielding a few other questions, if he had any larger sets in the back. "Sure", he said, and came back with a massive 32 inch Panasonic. I knew Panasonic, had one at home and it worked just fine.

Didn't think twice about that set. Took it as soon as I saw it light up.

Getting it home and upstairs all by my lonesome was just part of the Thrift Store Zen religious program I will forever be enrolled in. Truly a massive beast, but it looks good in the place where my old faithful 19 inch Sony used to reside. I woke up this morning and realized I had an elephant in my room, but after watching Lucky # Sleven last night I discovered it was a kind, gentle elephant, the kind that a bachelor man needed to find in his bedroom after a long year of gazing at a wee screen from across the room. For health reasons alone it was a good purchase. "Health reasons?", you may ask. Yeah, it's better on the eyes!

Action!

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