Candleblog

Spring Cleaning - VHS movies

Emily and I are getting serious about redoing our office and making it a more usable space and we're having to make some tough decisions about getting rid of a whole bunch of crap. First on the chopping block: a slew of VHS movies that we have both collected over the years. I typed up the list yesterday and I have to say, it's a good list of films, but they are all VHS and we don't even have a VHS machine hooked up to anything anymore so we never watch these and probably never will.

So before these hit a garage sale or Craigslist, I'm posting the list of films here and we are offering these FOR FREE on a first come, first served basis to any Candleblog readers who can actually physically come to our house and take them away. You don't have to take them all -- just take what you want -- but we won't reserve them for anyone -- you'll have to actually come and take them if you want them. So email me or call us if you have our number and set a time to come over and take some movies home.

I'm sure I'll be posting other stuff for people to come and take as this project unfolds.

The complete list of VHS tapes is below the fold. These are all features -- no docs or shorts -- and they're all commercially made tapes in their original boxes. They should all work fine, but for the record, we're giving them away "as is."
12 monkeys
the 13th warrior
2001: a Space Odyssey (widescreen)
5 Corners
The Abyss (widescreen)
The Adventures of Baron Munchhousen
An Affair to Remember
After Hours
Akira (widescreen)
Alien (widescreen)
Aliens (widescreen)
Alien 3 (widescreen)
Annie Hall
Apocalypse Now (widescreen)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Back Beat
Barton Fink
Better Off Dead
The Big Chill
Billy Elliot
Blade Runner - the director's cut (widescreen)
Blazing Saddles
Blood Simple
Brain Candy (Kids in the Hall)
The Breakfast Club
Broadway Danny Rose
Buffalo 66
A Bug's Life
Butcher Boy
Cape Fear
Casablanca
The Center of the World
Citizen X
Chameleon Street
Chasing Amy
Chicken Run
Choose Me
Crimes and Misdemeanors
The Crow
The Crying Game
Curdled
The Dark Crystal
Das Boot (2-tape set, widescreen)
Dead-Alive (AKA "Brain Dead," NZ)
Dead Again
Bound (widescreen)
Dead Poet's Society
Dead Ringers
Edward Scissor Hands
Elizabeth
Evil Dead
Fargo
Ferris Beuller's Day Off
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
The Fifth Element
The Fisher King
Floundering
Following
Full Metal Jacket
Gas, Food Lodging
Ghost in the Shell
Grosse Pointe Blank
Grumpy Old Men
Hard Boiled (widescreen)
Haunted Honeymoon
Heathers
Heavenly Creatures
High Fidelity
Highlander (widescreen)
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Human Highway
Husbands and Wives
In the Soup
Jackie Brown
Jacob's Ladder
Jaws (2-tape set, collector's edition)
Killing Zoe
King of the Hill (Soderburgh, not Judge)
Labyrinth
The Last Days of Disco
Last Night
The Last Seduction
Laws of Gravity
Legend
Life is Sweet
Lone Star
Mallrats
Man Bites Dog
Man With a Plan
The Manchurian Candidate (original)
Manhattan Murder Mystery
MASH (Altman)
Matewan
Max Headroom
Memphis Belle
Mighty Aphrodite
The Million Dollar Hotel
Monster in a Box
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
My New Gun
My Own Private Idaho
MST3K: The Movie
Mystic Pizza
The Never Ending Story
The Nightmare Before Christmas
O Brother, Where Art Thou
Office Space
Outland
The Quiet Earth
Quills
Penny Serenade
A Perfect Murder
Princess Mononoke
The Professional
The Prophecy
Pulp Fiction
Radio Days
Raising Arizona
Ran
Red Rock West
Reservoir Dogs
The Road to Wellville
Rope
Say Anything
Schindler's List (2-tape set, widescreen)
The Secret of Nimh
Se7en
Sex, Lies and Videotape
Shakespeare in Love
The Shawshank Redemption
The Shining (Kubrick)
Smoke (Wang & Auster)
Snow Falling on Cedars
Snow White
So I Married an Axe Murderer
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Spaceballs
Starship Troopers
Stealing Beauty
Steel Magnolias
Stranger Than Paradise
The Stuff
Suicide Kings
Sweet and Lowdown
Swimming With Sharks
Swing Kids
Take the Money and Run
Tank Girl
Taxi Driver
The Thin Red Line
Time Bandits
The Toxic Avenger
Toy Story 2
Traffic
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
The Underneath
The Usual Suspects (widescreen)
Vampire Hunter D
Waking Ned Devine
The Waterdance
What Planet Are You From?
What's Up Tiger Lily?
The Witches
Withnail and I
The Wonder Boys
X-Men
Young Frankenstein
Zentropa

Monday links...

It's my mom's birthday. Happy birthday, mom! Here are some links I didn't get to sharing over the weekend. Please to enjoy...

Italian Spider-man! (thanks Flameape!)
How good are you at detecting fake smiles vs. real ones? (thanks AlexW!)
Roger Ebert (who is blogging now, BTW) on how SF fanzines beget blogs
There *was* a dog trapped inside my guitar.

Chronotron - awesome flash game

Via Gerry Canavan (who is obsessed with good flash games), this is Chronotron, a "flash game involving multiple interactions between a single time-traveling robot and itself." Yeah, it's teh awesome. My brain hurts.

Projects brewing...

Okay, now we're cooking with gas. Here is a rundown of some of the projects I've got brewing (on this metaphorical gas-fueled stove)...

I'm taking a week off from work this month to focus on the Pants documentary. No, I'm not a liar, and no, my pants are not on fire.
I met with Mike Townsend from the Burlington Free Press yesterday about going into their newsroom and talking to them about blogging sometime next week.
It looks like I might run the filmmaking club at Burlington High School in the fall.
Next semester's CCV filmmaking class is all set -- Thursday nights, 6-9.
I've been invited to participate in the Snelling Center for Government's symposium on "Building Community in a Connected Age," which is taking place at Champlain College on the 29th. They want me to "live-blog" the event. I'll limber up my typing fingers. Perhaps I'll live-video blog it too.

Things I learned from Twitter today...

The following is a list of things I would not have known today were it not for Twitter...

Mike Gravel and Obama Girl made a hilarious YouTube video together.
It's difficult to find good pictures of great auks.
George McGovern says "Obama is the one." Best Keanu voice: Whoa.
Robot Kasten has teh awesome flickr stream.

Hit by a Mink Car

Emily shot some video of the Adams Bros. TMBG show on Saturday. Here's Arthur doing Mink Car. Enjoy.

Good morning, internet

My crazy weekend is over and I'm back at work taking care of some loose ends. Here are some links for your Monday perusing...

Behold! The glorious Space Boomerang!
The top 100 comic runs, as chosen by Comics Should be Good readers.
Okay, now I'm taking tis global warming thing seriously.
Lists of sexually suggestive lines from the original Star Wars trilogy. (thanks Eve!)

Two great tastes...

Ricky Gervais and John Hodgman are working together on a new film and Gervais asked Hodgman a few questions via email for the film's blog...

RG.   Write something funny for the film blog. I'm running out of things to say. Please complete this questionaire

1. Although you've never said it publicly, you consider Ricky Gervais to be not only a handsome man, but also a genius. Why? Why have you not said it publicly?
JH.   I consider Gervais a handsome man because he gives people rides in horse-drawn carriages. I consider him a genius because he does it FOR MONEY. Also, he has a brilliant comic mind. His eyepatch is hilarious, and not just for the usual reasons (lack of eye).

RG.  2. Like all intellectuals you both need and despise your fans. What do you hate about them most?
JH.  On the contrary, I love my "fans", and that is why I keep an ongoing conversation with them via my blog, areasofmyexpertise.blogspot.com and my twitter account, www.twitter.com/hodgman. The only thing I really despise is advertising.

RG.  3. Would you rather have giant frog feet or lobster claw hands? Why?
JH.  Frog feet, obviously. My carny days are over, and I like typing. I also hate it when people try to eat my hands with butter.

RG.  4. Who would you have play you in a biopic; Phillip Seymore Hoffman, or Gary Coleman? (Be careful. This is a trap to see if you are racist or not)
JH.  Philip Seymour Hoffman as "young hodgman--the carny years." Gary Coleman as "old hodgman." and Gary Oldman as "immortal hodgman in his castle, 1000 years from now."

RG.  5. Why are you a racist?
JH.  I am not a racist. I just think that the people with lobster claw hands now enjoy an institutional advantage over other Americans that isn't fair in a supposed society of equals.

I hope this helps you fill up your blog. See you soon. Thank you, and

That is all

Weekend nerd checklist

Candleblog offers the following nerd checklist as a public service. Do everything on the list for bonus points.

Play GTA4.
See Iron Man.
Get your free comic on Free Comic Book Day.
Go see The Adams Bros. do an all-TMBG set at the Radio Bean Saturday night.
Listen to (or be on) Poli-Sci-Fi Radio on Sunday afternoon.
Go see Nerdcore Rising at Palace 9 on Sunday evening.

S-PGUON.

Middle School Confidential

I spent the morning at Edmunds Middle School in Burlington today helping an 8th grader do his "Capstone Project," which is a short film he wrote about bullying. It's a Twilight Zone-inspired story. I'll link to it here when it's done, assuming it goes online. I'm on the front page of the Edmunds site today too. I'm not sure how long it will stay like that, so don't be confused if you click there and don't see me.

EMS students work with a VCAM professional to create a short documentary highlighting the impact of bullying on middle school students. The project is a "Capstone Project" being done by an EMS student.