Goodbye, Circuit City

I'm really disappointed to see the end of Circuit City. It was always nice to know that there was another large electronics retailer out there, for competition and for an alternative. Sometimes they would have a good sale price on an item. We got our TV from CC, and I've purchased computer memory on sale there (Kingston Value RAM that constantly crashes our machines...).

I went to the local CC for the liquidation sale about four weeks ago. Deals were scarce but items were still on most of the shelves. They still had a ton of video games, a decent selection of DVDs and many of their CDs were left. I picked up two '80s CDs for Mrs. Kaiju. It's sad but the sale prices were still a bit steep. That might be a reason why they're going out.

I went again this past Saturday. Now that the discount prices are actually discounts, the shelves are bare. Surprisingly at 50% off, I found a nice collection of DVDs. The video games were wiped out except the strategic stockpile of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock w/ included guitar for XBox 36o.

One thing I was looking for was an HDMI cable. Many of their cables were still left and 60% off list price. Even so, it's very difficult for me to see paying $56 for a store brand HDMI cable. The only worthwhile item I found on this trip was The Dirty Dozen on Blu-ray for $12.

Target had GE branded HDMI cables on sale last week but when I got there, they were sold out. It's OK, the store was substituting a sale price on a 50-foot coax cable instead. A perfect replacement! I went over to Menards and got a six-foot cable for $15.

It's easy to find a cheap price on the internets, but there are some moments when you need an item that day, and that's getting a little more difficult.

Picture meme

The home computer is getting back to normal, so now I can participate in the meme that Edige tagged me with recently.

This photo is from a real estate site that was advertised on a news story I was reading several years ago. I believe it was for a condominium development. Chicago? Miami? I don't remember where.

I took drafting and architecture classes in high school and briefly considered it as a career, so I really enjoy looking at building plans. It really helps, too, being a gamer, as floor plans and diagrams are prevalent in adventure descriptions and sourcebooks. That's why I kept this, thinking it might be useful someday.

Here are the rules:

1. Go to your pictures folder
2. Post the sixth one
3. Tag six people

I'll tag Ms. Kaiju, Viking Moose, Terling, and Miakoda (others have already been tagged...). Who else could I tag?

Computer issues

First post in a while. I had hoped to write more but we've been having problems with our main computer. I'll be spending the weekend re-formatting, re-installing and updating. Good times!

Favorite Music Friday

Welcome to the first of what will hopefully be an ongoing regular feature here at Kaijuville. Partially to keep track of these things, partially because of feeling nostalgic recently, and inspired by VM's New Wave Saturday posts, I thought I'd offer up a few of my favorite songs along with some commentary about them and what they mean to me. It might be the song itself, or maybe an association with something else at the time. Our opening act is Pat Benatar from 1982:



Great song, but I also like the World War II "commando raid behind enemy lines" storyline. I can't resist any story about sneaking into Nazi castles (see also Where Eagles Dare or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). Bonus movie trivia: look for Judge Reinhold at 0:58.

The other thing going on here is something that I'll elaborate on further later, but for now I'll just mention the idea of seeing what people were nostalgic about at that time. I remember a general vibe of '40s and '50s nostalgia in the early '80s, probably started by American Graffiti and Happy Days in the 1970s.

a Hammer Studios DVD update

Besides an initial preview, I neglected to mention anything about the release of several Hammer films last year.

Sony released two sets of four movies that were originally released in the US by Columbia Pictures: Icons of Adventure (The Pirates of Blood River/The Devil-Ship Pirates/The Stranglers of Bombay/The Terror of the Tongs, review) in June and Icons of Horror (The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb/The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll/Scream of Fear/The Gorgon, review) in October.

Under a licensing arrangement with Legend Films, Paramount offered The Man Who Could Cheat Death (review) in October.

Warner Brothers, as part of a Sci-Fi Double Feature series, released Moon Two Zero and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth as a Best Buy exclusive in July, then widely in October. Dinosaurs is the full uncut British version despite the US running time listed on the back.

I've updated the R1 Hammer DVD list.