I'm back!

I'm going to start writing again. Since my last entry I bought a 42" widescreen Panasonic Viera HDTV and installed AT&T's U-verse. Two years ago my previous cable outfit, Cox removed Turner Classic Movies/TCM from its basic package lineup. I was so angry as well as other viewers I told Cox and my local newspaper I would change to U-verse when it arrived in my neighborhood. It took me a while but I made the move one week after we got the new TV in December. Now I'm enjoying TCM again, a must for film fans and I also have The Sundance Channel that also offers uncut films with no commercials. Sundance shows recent foreign films we've seen in Portsmouth NH or I bought the Criterion DVD. Now I can see them as part of my basic package. We'll still make trips to Portsmouth and I'll wait until Barnes & Noble has their half-price Criterion sales. I don't care if I'm paying a bit more for cable as I have more channels I wanted like BBC America, VH1Classics, and others I never heard of until now. And these are included my basic package of 200 channels. There's a 300 and a 400 package but who's got time to watch all that? I have more than enough now for my tastes and Pay-Per-View when needed. I saved money by bundling cable, phone, and high speed internet. Thank you U-verse!

I highly recommend my Panasonic HDTV TC-L42E3, an LCD/LED combo with a nice picture. My LG DVD Player DN898 upscales to 1080 making DVDs look almost like Blu-Ray. Eventually I'll buy a Blu-Ray player but for now the LG works fine and better than before.

I have so many choices now to DVR that I don't need to go to the theater so often. We did see 'The Artist,' a love letter to the Silent Era which I predict will win several Oscars. I'll be writing about new & old films again. Meanwhile I'm still buying German films made during the Third Reich and books about that era as I mentioned in the previous entry. I've lent some films to German co-workers who've never seen them as some of the propaganda ones are forbidden showing to this day in Germany. As I mentioned not all films were propaganda as my friends are enjoying the musicals, comedies, and historical epics.

I was still writing online while away from here, mostly adding comments on Amazon. I got into a war of words with a customer reviewer over the DVD release of 'House of The Spirits.' Go to: http://www.amazon.com/House-Spirits-Jeremy-Irons/product-reviews/B005CFBZ3O/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1