I rent a ton of DVD's from Netflix, which is cooler than cool. Wide range of movie choices (not like Blockbuster, where if you don't want the latest Vin Diesel thrill-omedy, you're pretty much SOL), dropoff at your mailbox, easy as pie.
I'm on the 8-at-a-time program, which keeps me pretty media-satiated. You can have a maximum of 500 titles in your queue at any time, and of course mine is usually at maximum. I go by friends' recommendations, online reviews, links from my own ratings, and so on.
What's interesting is that most of the time there is dense puzzle of 6 Degrees-type links among the movies I have stacked on top of my DVD player. For example, the other day I was watching "Harold and Maude," a strange and charming 1971 movie about the unlikely love that grows between an creepy, morbid teenage boy and a vivacious, youthful 80 year old woman. It's one of those movies I've seen in critics' "My 10 Favorite Movies" lists since I was 15 and desperately seeking a wider cultural range than was available in Indiana, urgently reading the Village Voice and other NYC based publications. I've probably put it on a "must see" list a million times and never could find the title.
Finally found it, got it, watched it, enjoyed it. Loved the elderly actress Ruth Gordon. Was mesmerized by the weirdo, pasty, middle-aged-while-still-young Bud Cort, and wondered what else he might have been in.
Halfway through the next movie selection, "But I'm a Cheerleader!", I was looking for information on the Incorrect Movie Database and found out that Bud Cort had grown from prematurely aged teen to actual middle aged person and was, in fact, playing the father of the lead character in "Cheerleader."
Yes, I do realize that all things are connected, and that Kevin Bacon is at the center of the universe, and that threads of relevance can be found anywhere a person is willing to look, but when things like that pop up without any such intention, it's just kind of cool.
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