Open to Suggestions
Sep. 5th, 2007 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rowynI belong to two subscription services* that I'm underutililizing: blockbuster.com (basically the same as Netflix, but I won't use Netflix 'cause I'm still pissy at them for billing me for a month when I cancelled after the "free" two-week trial) and emusic.com (which lets subscribers download X songs per month for $Y fee.)
I'm tempted to cancel the Blockbuster subscription. Lut and I don't watch videos much, and my queue for it is empty** because -- and this is sad, I know -- I can't think of things I want to watch. They have umpteen million movies, not to mention TV shows, most of them with big-budget advertising, and I've got no patience to sort through the catalog to find something Lut and I want to see. Lut wants to keep the service, though.
EMusic.com is a similar problem with a different twist. Unlike Blockbuster.com, which seems to offer, well, everything, eMusic's business model had the RIAA to deal with. And eMusic opted to deal with the RIAA by ... not dealing with them. EMusic vends mp3s with no copy protection and no technological limitations on play or redistribution. They have a catalog of millions of songs, none of them from RIAA-labels because the RIAA won't let their people sell via such a format. I'm very fond of eMusic for not treating me like a crook, and I've gotten quite a chunk of music that I love courtesy of them, including albums by the Cruxshadows, the Proclaimers, Big Country, Lunatica, and other groups no one's ever heard of. In genreal, I'd like to support them. Nonetheless, often a month will go by in which I don't download anything because I'm too lazy too peruse their catalog and look for stuff. Which would, admitedly, be easier if they carried mainstream music.
Hence, I am turning to LJ: give me recommendations. For music: there aren't any genres I dislike (I even like some rap, and some classical). I'm not good at categorizing the genres I do like, either, making it pretty much potluck whether something will become a favorite or not. However, anything I get, even if I don't like it, is no worse than letting my downloads go unused, which is what I've been doing. So I'm not picky, but eMusic doesn't have anything from an RIAA label, which does tend to limit me to the obscure. (Alas, Jonathan Coulton isn't on eMusic, either.)![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladyperegrine, shaterri: I'm lookin' at you, here.
For films, Lut and I tend to be a bit more finicky (especially since it has to be something we're both willing to watch. In practice, neither of us watches movies alone; it took me, I dunno, three weeks to finally watch Shallow Hal by myself, which Lut wasn't interested in). We like good anime, fantasy, science fiction, action. We also like comedies in general, but not so much physical comedy and definitely not "stupid" comedy, of the "Dumb and Dumber" sort. And Lut doesn't care much for romantic comedies. And we're game to watch old films and foreign movies; I wouldn't say those are specifically "genres we like", but usually if a movie survives the passage of time or makes the jump to America, it's going to be better than the average recent Hollywood release, so that's a point in their favor. But hey, I'd be happy to hear of anything that you've enjoyed. I mean, the worst that'll happen is we mail it back to Blockbuster without finishing it. It can't be worse than Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction.
So: please help me out! Recommend stuff! *makes big puppy dog eyes at her LJ readership*
* Come to think of it, these aren't the only underutilized services I subscribe to. I don't get much use out of my City of Heroes account, or Puzzle Pirates, or my permanent Livejournal account for that matter. But these are irrelevant, since I'm not looking for help to make better use of these.
** Actually, my queue has eight items in it, but they're all obscure and marked as "Very Long Wait", which in my experience translates to "We owned one copy of this three years ago, it was never returned, and we're not replacing it".
I'm tempted to cancel the Blockbuster subscription. Lut and I don't watch videos much, and my queue for it is empty** because -- and this is sad, I know -- I can't think of things I want to watch. They have umpteen million movies, not to mention TV shows, most of them with big-budget advertising, and I've got no patience to sort through the catalog to find something Lut and I want to see. Lut wants to keep the service, though.
EMusic.com is a similar problem with a different twist. Unlike Blockbuster.com, which seems to offer, well, everything, eMusic's business model had the RIAA to deal with. And eMusic opted to deal with the RIAA by ... not dealing with them. EMusic vends mp3s with no copy protection and no technological limitations on play or redistribution. They have a catalog of millions of songs, none of them from RIAA-labels because the RIAA won't let their people sell via such a format. I'm very fond of eMusic for not treating me like a crook, and I've gotten quite a chunk of music that I love courtesy of them, including albums by the Cruxshadows, the Proclaimers, Big Country, Lunatica, and other groups no one's ever heard of. In genreal, I'd like to support them. Nonetheless, often a month will go by in which I don't download anything because I'm too lazy too peruse their catalog and look for stuff. Which would, admitedly, be easier if they carried mainstream music.
Hence, I am turning to LJ: give me recommendations. For music: there aren't any genres I dislike (I even like some rap, and some classical). I'm not good at categorizing the genres I do like, either, making it pretty much potluck whether something will become a favorite or not. However, anything I get, even if I don't like it, is no worse than letting my downloads go unused, which is what I've been doing. So I'm not picky, but eMusic doesn't have anything from an RIAA label, which does tend to limit me to the obscure. (Alas, Jonathan Coulton isn't on eMusic, either.)
ladyperegrine, shaterri: I'm lookin' at you, here.For films, Lut and I tend to be a bit more finicky (especially since it has to be something we're both willing to watch. In practice, neither of us watches movies alone; it took me, I dunno, three weeks to finally watch Shallow Hal by myself, which Lut wasn't interested in). We like good anime, fantasy, science fiction, action. We also like comedies in general, but not so much physical comedy and definitely not "stupid" comedy, of the "Dumb and Dumber" sort. And Lut doesn't care much for romantic comedies. And we're game to watch old films and foreign movies; I wouldn't say those are specifically "genres we like", but usually if a movie survives the passage of time or makes the jump to America, it's going to be better than the average recent Hollywood release, so that's a point in their favor. But hey, I'd be happy to hear of anything that you've enjoyed. I mean, the worst that'll happen is we mail it back to Blockbuster without finishing it. It can't be worse than Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction.
So: please help me out! Recommend stuff! *makes big puppy dog eyes at her LJ readership*
* Come to think of it, these aren't the only underutilized services I subscribe to. I don't get much use out of my City of Heroes account, or Puzzle Pirates, or my permanent Livejournal account for that matter. But these are irrelevant, since I'm not looking for help to make better use of these.
** Actually, my queue has eight items in it, but they're all obscure and marked as "Very Long Wait", which in my experience translates to "We owned one copy of this three years ago, it was never returned, and we're not replacing it".
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-06 01:07 am (UTC)As for music, Do you like the blues? If so, I'd suggest checking into artists like... Albert King, Koko Taylor, Memphis Slim, Mem Shannon, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Etta James, Sippie Wallace, John Lee Hooker.
Or some of Eric Clapton's more recent work with B B King or with Marcus Miller.
Or for something jazzy... Dave Koz, Richard Elliott, Praful, Eric Darius, Jeff Golub, Euge Groove, Joyce Cooling, Boney James, Marc Antoine.
I get carried away.
Have the best
no subject
Date: 2007-09-06 01:30 am (UTC)Movies. Um... I really liked The 300, which was just over-the-top absurd. That's probably not out on DVD yet. Dark City, Demolition Man, er... the one about the clones was funny. Seventh Day? Delicatessen. Pom Poko. Anything Ghost in the Shell related. MAZE, Slayers (the one with Lina Inverse), Zoids: Chaos Century or whatever or the season right after that whose name I don't remember was also good but NOT the season two after that with the Fusion crap, um... wait, I'm drifting off of movies already.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-06 03:49 am (UTC)On Netflix I watch mostly series right now, with the dominant ones being Rome, The Wire, CSI (Vegas, not fond of the other two) and Eureka. Although I suspect I'll downgrade my Netflix to a cheaper plan once I'm done with the bulk of my series watching, or when I go back to work in future years.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-06 01:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-06 01:51 pm (UTC)Rotersand
Captain Jack
Amesthysium
Movies, will have to think, though if you haven't seen Ginger Snaps, it's worth watching. Oh, Jacob's Ladder.
Blood and Donuts (very odd Vampire film)
I like the "owned a copy and lost it".
... and of course, will play CoH/PP with you anytime you like.
imposing my tastes on others? Oh boy!
Date: 2007-09-06 02:27 pm (UTC)If you like drifty, atmospheric tunes, I highly recommend Boards of Canada (though one of their most popular albums, Geogaddi, I find really hard to listen to). If you like synthpop, Gary Numan and Freezepop are great, in very different ways. If you end up liking STereolab, you might also like Black Moth Super Rainbow.
I could go on forever here. What do you look for in music?
no subject
Date: 2007-09-06 05:27 pm (UTC)Soundtrack to "Mushishi," a Japanese anime series. There are actually two soundtrack albums out since, unlike most anime series, there are actually a lot of original compositions for the series, rather than recycling the same songs over and over. Very moody, slightly creepy but not unpleasant ... except for the folksy theme song. (Gwendel has the albums on order; I intend to rip the mp3s, and then make an "album" that leaves the opening theme song off. The theme song isn't all that bad - if a bit "Engrishy" - but it doesn't fit with the rest of the music.)
Soundtrack to "Riven" - the sequel to "Myst." Another instrumental album, very atmospheric - and it has aged well, at least for me. (I also have the "Myst" soundtrack, but it unfortunately feels very much like a "game soundtrack" for having far too many very short pieces punctuated by "time-for-the-next-song" gaps.)
Remixed Soundtrack to "Doom" - an interesting curiosity if you ever played "Doom" and have any sentimentality at all for it. I do mainly because when I first moved out on my own to North Carolina, and had only the barest of furnishings, I had a PC and a few games - including a (legal!) copy of Doom that someone gave to me. Er ... anyway, the soundtrack is actually free. Some of the songs are cool, and some are grating. The cool thing is that since they're mp3s, I can choose which ones I want to put on my "Doom" playlist. (I combine my favorites with the "Doom 3" opening theme, for instance.)
And lately, I've been listening to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks, the Vangelis soundtrack for "1492," and ... hmm ... well, maybe those choices are motivated more because I wanted some background music for my naval-themed games, really, rather than the merits of the music itself. ;)
no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 09:03 pm (UTC)As for movies, I can't think of anything I saw recently that I would recommend. I'll give it some thought, and get back to you.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-08 10:56 pm (UTC)Although, actually, eMusic does have a ton more Stereolab available so if I do like them I can download a bunch more of that.
Still, in any event, I get way more downloads than I know what to do with each month. And I won't feel obligated to listen to it all and tell you what I think, I promise. ;)
no subject
Date: 2007-09-19 05:48 pm (UTC)Anyway, I don't know what groups they have available through eMusic. I like odd stuff, though. (Well, perhaps not as odd as some, but... anyway...) I know They Might Be Giants has a new album out (haven't heard it yet), and I just recently discovered Eddie From Ohio. Beyond that, I'm not much help musically.
As for movies? I tend to see all of them via library DVD's, many of which are older. I'm trying to remember what I've seen recently that didn't suck...
See, part of the problem is I sometimes watch movies knowing full well that they are probably going to suck. Sometimes it's so I can write a review of them, or a parody of them. Or so I can better enjoy Mr. Cranky's treatment of them. (Actually, I just read that Mr. Cranky now accepts contributed reviews. So that may be something I should get into.)
ANYway, have you seen the movie Primer? It's an independent sci-fi-ish movie about two guys that accidentally* build a time machine in their garage. It's one of the few time travel movies that I respect, though I must admit it's a bit confusing the first time around. (I enjoyed it a lot more after a second viewing.)
(* - Not because they're bumbling, but because they explored an anomaly in an unrelated experiment.)
Other than that, movies have, in my opinion, kinda stunk lately. (Though I haven't seen "Transformers", so...)