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Caught in a Netflix
There is one thing that is certain in American life - that your mail will be delivered expeditiously. So, when Netflix teamed with the USPS, not exactly a partnership per se, but a business model that uses the postal service, it was more brilliant than anything a content and an internet company could have done together. I am currently a three DVD at home subscriber and with a Netflix depot stationed in San Francisco, I return and receive my DVD's in three days maximum. At $14.99 a month, it saves me the trouble of buying DVD's for a comparable price and letting dust bunnies climb the dresser and cover tightly wound cellophane wrapping that protects you from the inevitable struggle to remove the metallic security tape, sometimes stuck on three of four of the sides of the plastic box. Aside from these struggles with cleanliness and inadequacy with opening secure packages, my reason for joining Netflix was simple, without a TV, but a computer at my fingertips, I can at least keep up with, albeit several months later, the popular culture of movies. With harvest work hours tearing up all my free time, stacks of books I purchased to read sit on my coffee table waiting for me to pull back the cover and bend the spine. My reading hours, or minutes, are typically at the end of the evening, when I recline for bed and begin to read. It usually takes two or four pages before the top of the razor sharp sheets skin my nose as I drift off to sleep. So, a simple book of fiction called Motherless Brooklyn that has 300 pages and change, still stares at me with the bookmark nearly past the midway point. I must confess, movies are no better. I start a film just before midnight and two, maybe three nights later, I finish it. But the satisfaction of completing a film these days ranks with completing a Final Exam in school. I have watched nine and a two-thirds movies in four weeks. I haven't finished one book in six weeks. Winner, Netflix. Recent viewing, The Constant Gardner. Walk the Line. Sin City. Inside Man. Hustle & Flow. I'll Sleep When I am Dead. Wedding Crashers. Coffee and Cigarettes. And sadly, the remake of The Longest Yard. Maybe I should queue North Dallas Forty to regain my confidence in great Football movies. In my queue at this time is a similar selection of diverse and entertaining movie selections - And Now ... Ladies and Gentleman. Where the Buffalo Roam (Bill Murray as the late, great Dr. Gonzo). Four Brothers. The Philadelphia Story. Man on Fire. Thank You for Smoking. His Girl Friday. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. And another remake I am certain to regret, Bad News Bears. Although Netflix offers many suggestions and top lists from critics and award shows, I always seem at a loss for seeing something new and different and something I missed although I really wanted to see it in the theater. The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, so not to forget, is one movie I already scribbled in my Moleskin. To spur my faithless memory and desire of being able to strike up a conversation on the checkout line at Trader Joe's, I turned to another list of recommendations - Netflix offers a zip code analysis of what your neighbors are watching. So, I put in the Santa Rosa five digits - 95403. Here is the local top 25. 1. Brief Encounter
What are these movies? And more importantly, who are these people? I'll give them Airplane! and The Birds. Maybe The Sopranos. But Priscilla, Emmanuel, Wild Parrots and Ballets Russes? Remind me not to talk movies with farm-fed folk at the supermarket. And please drop me a line if you have seen anything worth seeing in the previous weeks or months either at the box office or in front of your television or pocket DVD player on the train or plane. As for me, I am shutting down to finish "part - 3" of Syriana. Good Night, and
Post - October'06 Back to home...
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