this is a lot of DVDs, i know. i don't regret it either. i got most of them while you could still use coupons willy-nilly and pay about $12 each, so i comfort myself with the knowledge that there are some unhappy venture capitalists out there at my expense. or vice versa.

updates:

2/21/5
added sortability by US box office, budget, and rough net profit (the difference between those first two numbers).

11/23/4
somewhere in there i added virtual entries for return of the king, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, kill bill vol. 2, the village and garden state, and converted eternal sunshine, 28 days later, lost in translation, and two towers to hard copy. movie adds are so obvious now with the database that i'm not going to bother pointing them out over here any more.

10/24/3
came up with the idea of "virtual entries" - movies that are in the official collection, but i don't actually own, either because i can't afford them or they haven't come out yet. because, really, what difference does that make? thus, added virtual entries for 28 days later, two towers, lost in translation and kill bill vol. 1.

9/22/3
purged happiness, the sweet hereafter, and wonder boys. (category of "good movies i am never, ever in the mood to watch".)

9/19/3
added resident evil. (sigh.)

6/30/3
toys modified. added the ring, star wars & empire.

6/22/3
toys installed, phase 1. that was easier than i thought. ought to be self-explanatory. terse mode is my favorite thing right now. phase 2: searches, coming sooner or later.

6/21/3
finished converting to database. i'm going to start adding database-driven toys; we'll start by re-sorting the list based on theatrical release date. still need to database the television. also added in a few new movies: spirited away, equilibrium, miller's crossing, kieslowski's three colors, jackass. try watching them all in a row. it's a trip. still on the amazon wishlist: adaptation, criterion fear & loathing, buffy season 4, south park season 2, barton fink, kurosawa's dreams (although some people hate the transfer), the ring, red dwarf 2-pack, six feet under season 1, sopranos 2 & 3, baz luhrmann's red curtain trilogy... and so on. let us pray for jobs.

9/19/2
i have decided to purge a sizable chunk of the collection in order to streamline and, simultaneously, make rent. titles being purged fall into three categories: "better edition exists, but i can't afford it right now" (rushmore, terminator); "good movie but i never actually feel like watching it more than once every five years" (badlands, barry lyndon, the birds, chinatown, hudsucker proxy, kwaidan, silence of the lambs, the talented mr. ripley, touch of evil), and "decided i don't actually like it" (blue velvet, kubrick's lolita, titanic, your friends & neighbors). i hate to lose 'the birds' just because of the comment i had for it, but you can't have everything. also added the television section (at the bottom) & jackie brown SE & converted pulp fiction to SE.

hardware notes:

device #1: panasonic A320. it's never broken or refused to play anything.

device #2: a G3 that i practically bought for the DVD-ROM and upon which i watched the movies for a while until i could afford the panasonic.

device #3: an Apex 600A that i impulse bought over the internet from DiVX world so i could play multi-region discs on it and use the secret menu to maybe do some screencaps for design purposes. i keep that at hodge's house. (they're pleased with me over there, particularly her brother, who apparently moved in for a month just to use it last june.) please note: they aren't shipping with the secret menu any more. i think something is, but i don't have the necessary motivation to find out what.

RIP Apex: destroyed by power surge, spring 2001. sigh.

device #4: sony vaio pcg-sr27k laptop w/ dvd-rom sidecar. this didn't last long. within a week of getting back to boston after the world tour, i got drunk at a softball game and tripped over the ethernet cable, ripping out the PCI-card slot and damaging the motherboard in such a way that it would cost $1K to fix. so, RIP playing dvds on the vaio.

audio rig: i bought a fairly low-budget marantz receiver (SR3000) the other day. the panasonic already has a surround decoder so i didn't bother to buy another one. the surround plan is on hold for lack of speakers; i have more important things to save money for right now. hard to believe, i know. for the time being i'll have to make do with two front speakers set up on styrofoam blocks so the downstairs neighbors won't knock on the door before fight club even gets out of the opening credit sequence.

audio update: i bought some cheap cambridge soundworks speakers and a subwoofer while i was employed last december. they aren't great, but they're progress.

software notes: first 4 discs - pulp fiction, the fifth element, the piano, fear & loathing in las vegas, june 1999.

rental list.

see also the westwood municipal dvd archive and the not quite arlington municipal dvd archive.

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