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My Movie Collection - January 2007

[This is an update about my movie collection.]

As of January 2007, my movie collection consists of approximately 465 films. Most of these movies were recorded by me on VHS tapes from television (almost exclusively from the Turner Classic Movie channel) and then copied to DVDs. A significant percentage of them are purchased releases, some on VHS, but most on DVD. I expect my collection to eventually contain movies only on DVD, or whatever new movie medium becomes popular in the future.

I have collected movies from three points of view: movies I have seen in the past and enjoyed; movies I have not seen, but expect to enjoy; and movies I have not seen, but have some curiosity about, some of which I expect to watch only once.

The collection includes movies from most of the movie genres, except foreign films and horror movies, types I do not care to watch. Although I am a fan of science fiction books, there are few science fiction movies in my collection. In my opinion, the large majority of such movies are not worth watching, with a few notable exceptions. A few children's movies are in the collection, but were acquired primarily for the benefit of my grandchildren. Only a couple of fantasy movies are included. A small percentage of the movies are dramas and mysteries, because I prefer comedies, musicals, adventures, action, and some romance and romantic comedies. I like some westerns, and there is a fairly good number of movies of this type. There are only a couple of biographies included.

The movies in the collection were released over the past 75 years. Only one year is not represented in the collection – 2004. I have no idea why that year is not included, and perhaps a movie of that vintage will be added later. A small number of movies from the 1930’s are present, with more from the 1940’s and 1950’s, and a larger number from the 1960’s. The 1970’s are not as numerous, while the 1980’s and 1990’s form a significant part of the collection. Only a few movies in the collection were released between 2000 and 2006. It appears that most of my favorite films came out in the 1960’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s, followed by the 1940’s, 1950’s, and 1970’s.

The oldest film in the collection was released in 1931 – Trader Horn, an adventure movie starring Harry Carey, Duncan Renaldo (who later played The Cisco Kid in the television series of that name in the mid-1950’s), and Edwina Booth. The latest release was in 2006 – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, an action movie starring Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley.

At one time or another, I have seen most of the 465 movies, but a significant number remain un-viewed by me at this time. I look forward to seeing all of them. A few of the ones I recorded from TV are not of high quality for viewing, for one reason or another. Of those, I expect to gradually replace the ones I really enjoy with purchased DVD versions. I have recently replaced the entire series of James Bond movies, which I previously had purchased on VHS. The newest release of these movies on DVD includes extra DVDs of special features about the background and making of each movie, which I enjoy almost as much as the movies themselves. I also have the 12-DVD collection of the three movies in the Lord of the Rings series, with spectacular extra features. The original three movies in the Star Wars series and all of the Pink Panther series are other favorite sets in the collection. I have made good progress in collecting movies starring several of my favorite actors, including Clint Eastwood, Cary Grant, John Wayne, Doris Day, and Sean Connery. I have most of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, most of the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope “road” comedies; and most of the Abbott and Costello farces. Perhaps my favorite all-time movie is It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, which includes in the cast many of the greatest comedy actors ever.

I have recently decided to suspend copying movies from TV for a while, until I have watched more of those I have not yet seen, although I may continue to purchase movies, especially to replace some of my favorites that currently are not of good quality in the collection.

I enjoy movies for the sake of entertainment. I prefer light, sometimes frivolous films, especially with comedy included. I am not so entertained by heavy, dramatic, and depressing movies. Only a few real “classic” movies appeal to me, such as some of Humphrey Bogart’s movies and a few movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Of the movies I really like, I can enjoy watching them repeatedly, almost to the point of memorizing the dialog. Some prime examples include Hatari!; the original Ocean’s Eleven; and White Christmas. I would not be considered a movie aficionado and certainly not an expert on movies, but I get great pleasure from watching the ones that I find entertaining. I do not attempt to critique them or find deep meanings in them; I simply want to enjoy a couple of hours of light entertainment when I watch a movie.

I expect my collection will continue to change over the years. I will eliminate many that no longer appeal to me or that I do not enjoy when I see them for the first time. I will add movies that are not in the collection at this time, and I will replace some of those I have recorded with purchased releases. But, for the most part, the collection at this time is quite representative of all the movies I really enjoy watching.

{January 26, 2007}

Estes Park - September 2006

Sue and I, with her sister and brother-in-law from Oklahoma, enjoyed a nice retreat in Estes Park CO last week. We spent three nights in a neat cabin at our favorite place, Castle Mountain Lodge. We’ve been doing this at least once a year for many years, sometimes all four of us, and other times just the two of us. Fall River flows close by our cabin, low at this time of year, but still refreshing and beautiful. Willows grow along the bank, and we can walk along the river for a considerable distance, seeing only ducks in the stream and the tracks and sign of other wildlife, such as deer and elk, along the edge. We have even observed a black bear foraging around our cabin, on previous trips here.

One of our favorite things to do during these visits is to watch and listen to the elk in Rocky Mountain National Park, only a couple of miles from our cabin. The only distraction to us is the amount of traffic caused by so many other people also there for the same reasons. Cameras and binoculars abound, and the vehicle license plates announce folks from many other states, but especially Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, although some are from as far away as both east and west coasts, with an occasional one from Canada.

Sometimes, we use our binoculars to observe the elk herds, and sometimes they are within a few feet of our car. It can be a little dangerous to get too close to elk at this time of year. It is the rutting season, and we see bulls mating with cows often, when they are not too busy keeping their harems together and chasing off other bulls. When two bulls clash antlers, to determine who will control the herd, the sound can be heard from quite a distance.

The elk bugle sound is somewhat surprising, the first time you hear it. In the dark, it is a very eerie sound, especially when it echoes in the valleys, and you can’t be certain what direction it originally came from. When you can watch the bulls bugling, you expect to hear a deep, roaring sound from those massive beasts, but what you hear is a loud, high-pitched squeaking noise. Still, it is impressive.

We also search for sightings of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, but we have seldom seen them. On this trip, we did get to enjoy and photograph a dozen bighorn sheep grazing by the side of the highway through Big Thompson Canyon. That somewhat rare scene is a traffic-stopper, as all the tourists grab their cameras, and even some of the locals enjoy the sight.

Sue and I enjoy driving the old Fall River Road to the top of Milner Pass, in the park. This is a narrow, one-way dirt road that the National Park Service does not attempt to keep open in the winter. The paved two-way highway over the pass is kept open as long as possible, but is eventually closed by snow each winter. Along the Fall River Road drive, we stop at Chasm Falls, a most photogenic location, with just enough roadside parking to accommodate the folks who want to see it.

The road winds through some fabulous scenery, beautiful forests, occasional snow banks (from last winter), and finally meanders above timberline before reaching the top of the pass. At the visitor center and gift shop at the top, we always use our binoculars to observe one or more elk herds in the valley far below us. This trip, we also enjoyed watching a Golden Eagle soar below us, hunting squirrels and rodents in the valley and along the mountainside. It is always a rewarding viewpoint.

The aspen trees were changing colors while we were there, and we are always delighted by the brilliant yellow, gold, orange, light green, and even red leaves of the aspen. They stand out like flames or spotlights in the dark green of the pine and spruce forest. We never tire of observing and photographing these beautiful scenes. I took only a few digital photos this time, but Sue took up four rolls of 35mm film. She normally uses her good point-and-click camera, but has recently taken an interest in my old Minolta SLR, so she made good use of the zoom telephoto and wide-angle lenses on this trip. We are looking forward to seeing the results in a couple of days. Here are some digital photos I took:






Several years ago, while just enjoying a scenic drive in the national forest north and east of Estes Park, we found a great picnic area called Fish Creek. It is in an excellent setting and is well-maintained by the Forest Service. We have had at least three picnics there, and I especially enjoy the drive through the forest on the Forest Service dirt road to get there from Masonville CO. In fact, the drive is mostly a circle, since we arrive at the picnic area from the south and leave to the north, then drive east along the Cache la Poudre River and return south to Masonville, and from there back to Estes Park. Here we are at Fish Creek:

I really enjoy relaxing in the Adirondack chairs in front of our cabin, feeding peanuts to the squirrels, Stellar Jays, and sometimes a crow or a magpie. On previous trips, we’ve watched Clark’s Nutcrackers, but saw none of them this time. I feed the animals, read a book, and just relax in the great setting, sometimes even napping inside for a short while. These trips are definitely “retreats” for us.

Sue and I also enjoy doing some shopping in Estes Park, along with the many other tourists. We sometimes find great end-of-season sales on shirts, jackets, coats, gloves, and other clothing, and we always make a point of selecting some excellent fudge and other sweets from Laura’s Fine Candies store – “Spoiling Dinner Since 1970” is their slogan. Occasionally, I enjoy some saltwater taffy made at another store down the street. We usually have some Christmas gift ideas with us, and often find several gifts to put back for the holiday.

Sometimes, as was the case this time, I get some inspiration from the trip. On this trip, I had the urge to write down some passing thoughts one evening, and I’ve already posted them on my Word Sketches blog.

Obviously, it was another great trip for us, and we look forward to being there again next spring, and probably next fall, too.

Nineteenth Century History

I’m a bit of a history buff – not a real historian, no original research, no intense study, no surprising insights – I just like reading about history. I also enjoy military history as a specific category, but this article is about general history.

I have two favorite historical periods – the entire 19th century and the decade of the 1950’s. My interest in the 1950’s is easy to understand, since I was in my formative years (ages 6-16) during that decade. My enjoyment of the 19th century is a little more complex.

I find the 1800’s fascinating for many reasons. It was a century full of exploration, settlement, technological development, inventions, scientific discoveries, amazing leaps in transportation and communications, the initiation of our modern major team sports, progress in medicine and health issues, improvements in basic human rights, the creation of some excellent literature and music, the beginning of the availability of leisure activities and luxuries for people below the upper crust of society, and the establishment of product brands and businesses that were popular throughout the 20th century (and many still are today). It was 100 years of fantastic civilization and cultural growth.

Many years ago, I acquired the Microsoft Bookshelf CD with a PC purchase. This CD contains an amazing compendium of historical facts, from the earliest known history through 1996. As a history buff, I found this CD to be a most entertaining and informative source of historical data. I was so taken by it that I spent a great many hours cutting, pasting, and re-formatting much of it into a document I call my Timeline. In fact, I have read every entry on that CD, from beginning to end. I selected items I thought were the most interesting and characteristic of each year from 800 through 1996. I divided the material into convenient-sized documents. I started with the year 800 because my wife has some family genealogy information going back to that century (mine goes only to the 1500’s at this time). I interspersed the historical data with important family dates (births, marriages, deaths, relocations, etc.) for my family and for my wife’s family (two separate versions). This combination of information adds some flavor to our family history by placing family events into perspective. It is interesting to read about the status of civilization and the world in relation to when a far-back ancestor was born and lived. I also have a “clean copy” of the timeline, with no family dates in it.

I recently began reorganizing the clean timeline data into twenty-four categories of subject matter (e.g., Agriculture, Mining, Science, Education, World Affairs, Armed Conflicts). I then “copied-and-pasted” the historical facts from each year of the timeline into the appropriate categories. My final combined Nineteenth Century document was over 130 pages of 10 pt. font, single spaced, with narrow margins. I separated this data into twenty-four separate documents, one for each category, and within each category, the historical data appears in date order. This will allow me to study the development of one subject area at a time (such as medicine and health) throughout the century. I just finished the creation of the documents today, and I’m looking forward to beginning my own private study of the 19th century.

I plan to take the same approach and create a document showing what happened in the world during the 1950’s. This will have special meaning to me, since I can recall much of that decade from personal memory.

I may decide to add our family dates back into these documents someday, to make our family history even more interesting. In the case of the 1950’s document, I can integrate my own personal written history, year by year.

For my mother’s and my wife’s mother’s 95th birthdays, we used some of the most interesting facts from the timeline to add to documents we created for their celebrations. We may find other practical uses for this information in the future.

This entire process has taken about eight years of sporadic effort, generally in short intense bursts of work, separated by long stretches of down time. I expect to get many years of enjoyment from the results.

Top Movies in Our Collection

I’ve been recording movies from TV to VHS tapes for several decades. At the peak of our collection, we had about 800 movies total, including those we had purchased on VHS tapes and DVDs. In the past year, we’ve reduced that number to about 375 (I say “about” because a few of them are on both tapes and discs, purchased at different times). Except for some movies on tapes that were purchased before 2005, all of these movies are now on DVDs. I spent many months copying our recorded-from-TV movies from tapes to discs.

I use a neat software package called Movie Library (which I purchased several years ago) to catalog our movies. The software company continues to upgrade the package, at no additional expense to owners – an excellent service. One of the best features of the package is its capability to search online movie databases, such as the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), and download all the movie details to my database at the click of the mouse. I have spent many hours with this package, updating our collection database.

I just completed the task of adding a personal rating (scale of 1-10, or a zero for no rating) for all our movies. There are a number that I have not yet watched and a good list of those I’ve not seen in quite some time, and most of these have no rating (0) at this time. Of those I remember reasonably well, I rated them in the database, with none rated below 4. If I don’t like a movie that much, I won’t have it in the collection. I do have two movies rated at 4 and probably will dispose of them soon. But this blog article is about the top-rated movies we have.

I have rated forty-five of our movies at level 10, more than 10% of the collection. These are movies I watch repeatedly. I watch almost all of them at least once a year and many of them multiple times each year, so I believe these would be classified as my favorite movies at this time. Granted, there may be a few “10’s” that we do not own at this time, but this list is a good indicator of the movies I most enjoy. Alphabetically, here are the movies we currently own that I’ve rated a 10.

The Bridges of Madison County – 1995
Bull Durham – 1988
Charade – 1963
The Cheap Detective – 1978
Christmas Vacation – 1989
Close Encounters of the Third Kind – 1977
A Fish Called Wanda – 1988
Fun With Dick and Jane – 1977 (not the recent remake)
The Goodbye Girl – 1977
Hatari! – 1962
Hopscotch – 1980
How the West Was Won – 1962
The Hunt for Red October – 1990
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – 1989
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World – 1963 (my all-time favorite movie)
Kelly’s Heroes – 1970
The Living Daylights – 1987
The Lord of the Rings (all three) – 2001, 2002, 2003
Maverick – 1994
Murder by Death – 1976
Murphy’s Romance – 1985
The Music Man – 1962
North by Northwest – 1959
Operation Petticoat – 1959
Patton – 1970
The Pink Panther – 1963
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl – 2003
The Quiet Man – 1952
Raiders of the Lost Ark – 1981
Romancing the Stone – 1984
South Pacific – 1958
The Spy Who Loved Me – 1977
Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope – 1977
A Steven Wright Special – 1985 (a TV comedy special, not a movie)
The Sting – 1973
The Thomas Crown Affair – 1999 (the second version of this movie)
Tootsie – 1982
Two Mules for Sister Sara – 1970
Under the Rainbow – 1981
Vacation – 1983
Victor/Victoria – 1982
Where Eagles Dare – 1968
White Christmas – 1954

I have rated some great movies at 9 and many excellent ones at 8, but this is the list of movies that I constantly turn to for an entertaining afternoon or evening. I was surprised to see how many of these were fairly recent movies, because I generally believe I prefer movies made in the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s, but it appears that I have many top favorites that have been released since 1969. Collecting and watching movies is a major hobby of mine, and I am thoroughly enjoying it these days.

Home Repairs and Decorating

This has been an extremely busy summer for Sue and me. In fact, it’s been a busy year. This has been the year of major home repairs and decorating. Our house was built about 40 years ago. One person owned it for a few months, before selling to the second owner. That owner lived in it about 10 years, before we purchased it. So, we have done most of the maintenance work on it over the past 30 years. When we began planning our retirements, in the late 1990’s, we decided that we did not want to move from our home, and therefore made plans for fixing it up to live the rest of our lives here. Since making those plans, we have replaced the windows and patio and storm doors, added painted steel siding to cover all exposed wood (our home is primarily brick), replaced the wooden garage door with an insulated and painted steel door, and had the three bathrooms and the kitchen remodeled (which required some major electrical work to come up to current city building codes).

In February of this year, we had an electrician check all our electrical outlets, switches, and light fixtures. Unfortunately, our house was constructed in the mid-60’s, when there was a shortage of copper, and houses were sometimes wired with aluminum wiring to save money. Of course, the aluminum wiring is connected to copper or brass connections on switches, outlets, and lights. Because aluminum and copper or brass do not expand and contract at the same rate, with temperature changes, the connections gradually loosen. This can cause tiny gaps to occur, which leads to heating, oxidation, and sparking, and this can lead to house fires, all behind walls or electrical plates, unseen. The solution is to “pig-tail” a short copper wire between the aluminum wire and the connection point, using mineral oil-filled wire nuts (very expensive) on the aluminum/copper wire joints. These nuts prevent the oxidation and sparking, if I understand it correctly. All of our switches, outlets, and light fixtures should now be as safe as we can make them, short of totally re-wiring the house.

After the electrical work was completed (which didn’t take long, but was expensive), we began planning some major work around here. Our concrete garage floor and driveway have been in poor condition since we bought the house. Worse than that, however, is the fact that our family room, at the head of the garage, is built on a concrete slab, not on the house foundation, and the slab has been tilting in one corner (at the door from the family room to the garage) since before we bought the house. We had hoped that the movement would end on its own, but it did not. At one point, many years ago, we had to have the concrete covered with a repair mixture to level it, finding a slope of three or four inches from one corner to another in that room. Because of the movement, our door has never fit properly and moves with changing seasonal conditions (hot and dry, cool and wet), so that we have had to continually adjust the door, frame, and strike plates. Also, because of the type of soil under our neighborhood (Bentonite clay), our driveway and garage floor have buckled quite a bit over the years, and we’ve had to shim the garage door to try to make it close tightly, several times. In the past couple of years, we have begun to see some ceiling cracks in several rooms, which we attributed to the shifting slab. We really wanted to solve all these problems, so we began contacting contractors who might be able to help.

The engineering company we contracted with proposed to install four helical piers below the sinking edge of the family room slab, with brackets fastened to the slab. The piers are drilled down until the torque indicates that they are in a very solid base, with a reasonable expectation that they will never sink further. In our case, the depth was only fifteen feet. One of our neighbors had to go down about thirty-five feet, and the engineering company assumes an average in this area of twenty-five feet.

We contracted with a concrete company to tear out the garage floor and the driveway. That was accomplished in one day. The next day, the engineering company installed the piers, and the garage floor and driveway were replaced during the following two days by the concrete company. Fortunately, the contractors worked well together, and all the work was done on schedule. Of course, we had to remove almost everything from our garage for a week, as well as park our cars outside our property for almost two weeks (to allow the concrete to cure). We were lucky to have good neighbors across the street who have an over-sized driveway and who offered (insisted, actually) that we park our cars on their driveway during that time. In fact, we were the third house in a row to do that, while driveways were being replace over the past couple of years. We were very pleased with the quality of work by both the engineering and concrete companies.

When the engineering company looked at our ceiling cracks, they told us that they did not believe those cracks were connected with the shifting concrete slab, which left us with an unsolved problem. We scheduled a drywall finisher to repair all the cracks – the ones in the family room which were caused by the slab problem, as well as the others. The crack in the living room was becoming so prominent that the drywaller hesitated to repair it, until the cause could be determined and fixed. Otherwise, it most likely would recur and cause continuing problems. He brought in a general house repair fellow who studied the situation for a short while. He discovered that the living room crack, as well as the one in the dining room and the master bedroom were caused by shifting ceiling joists. The joists are made of 2x4’s, butted together in the middle of the house, exactly where the cracks were appearing. The joints of the joists had slipped over time and were causing the cracks. He repaired the joists, and the drywaller repaired the cracks and textured walls and ceilings.

Next, we had a paint crew come in and paint all the main floor rooms (except the kitchen, which still looks nice from the remodel work). After the painting was done, we purchased new carpet (all but kitchen and two bathrooms), and that got laid this week. Next week, we have a drapery person coming to measure and order custom drapes for the living room and dining room. We also have the house repair fellow coming back next week to replace a threshold, in the doorway from the family room to the garage, which has been a bit of a problem for a long time.

Our house has been in a mess of one kind or another for the past two months. Sue and I moved almost all the furniture, contents of closets, dressers, and chests, and everything hanging on the walls to the basement, which has been unbelievably crowded for those two months. We also had to clean out the attic, including taking up the nailed-down plywood flooring we had installed for storage space, so the ceiling joists could be repaired. While that was out, we installed additional insulation there, and then replaced the flooring and all the attic contents (except what we disposed of). That was a major job! It was also done during some of our hottest weather this summer, unfortunately. Now, we are in the process of moving everything back from the basement and re-constructing all the main floor rooms. Fortunately, we can do this work in a much more leisurely fashion than the way we moved it out to prepare for the workers. I’m really getting too old to do this manual labor!

The good news is that we are very pleased with all the contractors and the quality of their work. Our door from the family room to the garage actually works as it should, for the first time since we bought the house, and the garage door closes tightly, finally. We plan to live in this house for the next 30 years or so, and we hope to never again do so much work on it in such a short time span. It will be nice to be able to relax and enjoy it, after all the work we have done.

High School Class Reunion - Results

We attended our 45th high school class reunion in late May. A classmate who lives in our hometown always makes the arrangements for our reunions, every five years. He does an excellent job, and we really appreciate it and support him.

Prior to the reunion, Sue and I created a number of things we thought would add to the event. In fact, we did a lot of work and spent quite a bit of money on it. The first thing we did was to create an up-to-date directory of our classmates, which took a couple of months of work. We had the final directory printed at Kinko’s, and it looked nice. There were two people for whom we could not obtain an address, and one person who didn’t want her address included, for personal reasons. We scanned each person’s photo from the school yearbook and printed it with the address and telephone number information.

Sue created two very nice scrapbooks, one of things relating to our senior year, and one of general 1950’s and early 1960’s nostalgia. She also made a really neat shadowbox containing our class rings and several other school items we had saved. I made labels for small Kit-Kat candy bars, with images relating to our school and class, and wrapped 120 of them for the reunion. I also created seven CD’s of musical memories from the 50’s and 60’s, including some movie and TV show theme songs. I also made peel-and-stick “name tags” with each person’s senior photo on them (no names needed). Sue displayed her school letter jacket (basketball) on a hanger at the reunion, along with the other items, and I played the music on the sound system. We think those things added to the fun.

The person who arranges the reunion is an excellent photographer and had recently purchased a very nice digital SLR camera, which he uses for wedding photos and other purposes. Sue is also an excellent photographer, but prefers a simple point-and-shoot camera. They both took a number of photos, including individual ones of each classmate who attended. After the reunion, the classmate photographer suggested it would be nice to have the photos put on a disc, with a musical background, for a slide show, but he didn’t have the experience or software to do it. I volunteered to give it a try. He copied all his digital photos of the event to a CD and sent it home with us.

There were 47 class members when we graduated, and 5 have died (the latest death occurred within a couple of weeks following the reunion). Twenty-two members attended the reunion, which was a good turnout. The class directory got several people communicating in advance, especially through email, and sparked some interest in attending the event. The dinner was held at a most impressive location, at a very reasonable cost. The food was excellent, and it appeared that everyone had a great time.

One class member operates two disc jockey schools in Oklahoma and Texas, and he volunteered to copy the 7-disc music set for anyone who wants it. Another classmate volunteered to copy the slide show I had volunteered to create. When we returned home, we immediately had some major work done on our house, but I finally got busy on the slide show. Having never done one, I had a lot to learn. I decided that a five-minute show of photos, with music background and titles, was a little short. So, we added scans of pages from the scrapbooks, and I added some old TV commercials I had purchased on a CD many years ago. The final program was 995MB in size, running 31 minutes, with titles and music, on a DVD. I eventually completed it and have just mailed it to the fellow who will make copies for others. I hope it works for everyone; it should run on any DVD player. I am now sending a letter or email to everyone who attended, telling them of the availability of the DVD and the music CD’s. That wraps up our responsibilities for the reunion.

We had a great time and are looking forward to our 50th.