A little over the top

We clearly have issues when we're out about buying things to entertain us. Specifically, DVDs. That was the case during the trip to Ottawa. I recall before heading down thinking that we likely wouldn't buy that many because there weren't many new releases I wanted to own. Plus, surely God, we were getting near the end of our "Classic movies we want to own but don't" list.

Still, we took a travel case that could hold 48 discs. I figured we might fill half of that if we went all out.

We came back with 46 of the 48 spaces filled. Ooops.

Most of the damaged was caused when we walked into Wal-Mart and there, in a bin, was a bunch of DVDs for $5 each. Now normally you see a bin with $5 movies you're expecting Kirk Cameron's greatest religious apocalypse works mixed in with some Pamela Anderson reject movies. But this bin had good stuff tossed in there. Am I supposed to pass up a disc with The Road Warrior and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome on it? How about Heat, with DeNiro and Pacino?

For $5? I think not.

Cathy's DVD find of the trip was the first two seasons of Big Love for $29 each. I was happy to pick up Highlander for $12 (and I can't believe I didn't already own it). In fact, we only bought two new movies during the trip...the latest Bond - Quantum of Solace - and the Swedish vampire flick Let The Right One In. Just because I had read so many good reviews and I'm in desperate need of something well written/produced that features vampires so I can be reminded of a time when they were actually kind of creepy/scary.

(As a side note, Peter David put a link up to this hilarious "Twilight" recap site. I'm never going to be able to take the books seriously after reading this.)

What was curious were the DVDs we picked up and then put back on the shelf. A lot of them were old TV shows. I've learned from experience that just because I liked the show as a kid, doesn't mean it's aged particularly well or that it's fit for viewing as an adult. You will find no better example than Battlestar Galactica. Loved it when I was nine, but it's unwatchable now.

(Another side note - the complete DVD collection of the new BSG is coming out in July. And in Blu-Ray as well. That's going to be pricy...)

Which is why, for example, it was pretty each to pass up on the box set containing the complete Knight Rider. And it was only $90. I know Megan will be horrified.

Cathy had a moments pang when I showed her the first season of Blossom, a show she loved as a kid (it has to do with the hats). She looked at it, held it in her hands and then slowly put it back on the shelf. I did something similar with a box set containing the first two seasons of Moonlighting. Loved the show when I was 15 or so. Thought it was the funniest, cleverest thing I'd ever seen on TV. I was bitterly disappointed when all the behind-the-scenes drama basically drove the show into the ground. It was only $20, but I just had a sense that it wasn't going to live up to my memories of how funny it was at the time. That it was going to seem awfully stale and flat. So why ruin the memories by buying it?

Having said that, then I went and bought the first season of Remington Steele (featuring a young Pierce Brosnan) on a lark. It was $15, which is the only defence I have. I suspect it's going to be somewhere beyond cheesy, but we'll see. Regardless, I think we're covered in the home entertainment front for a bit.

Last Five
1. Girl on the wing - The Shins
2. Can't stop feeling - Franz Ferdinand*
3. Thrice All American - Neko Case
4. Nothin' - Robert Plant and Allison Krauss
5. All fired up - Interpol