Leftover Kumquats.

Netflix ate my face this summer and I enjoyed every soul sucking moment.

I love movies. I love TV (good TV).

Netflix’s birth brought joy into my life like a long awaited-wailing-newborn baby is the light of her mother and father’s eyes.

Then came Netflix’s Instant Watch.

A miracle, like I was five years old staring at the presents under Grandma’s tree. How did Santa know where I’d be?

At first the Instant Watch stocked rare documentaries and some long cast off TV series. Random flicks, foreign films, Law and Order (of course).

No worries. New movies appeared in the New on Instant Watch page every day. A deal with Starz, nickelodeon. Until we are here today, with full seasons of 30 Rock, Weeds, Leverage, and Dexter available and B movies you never had the time to check out but as long as it’s on the computer (practically for free) – hey why the dickens not?

(Practically) free movies and TV shows are great – DAMN expensive these days, up to $70 a pop for one season on DVD – but the most pleasure I get from Instant Watch is from the discoveries. Instant Watch is like walking through Blockbuster with an aimless desire to pick up a movie, only you can pick a movie and try it out for five minutes and put it back if it’s a bust. No late fees, no lines, no busted DVD players that can’t read your disc, no scratches (Huzzah!). There’s no pressure to watch the Big Hollywood Hits because you don’t want to waste money on a possibly interesting indie film.

Thank you Netflix. Thank you Instant Watch.

I’ve belly laughed off my computer chair onto the floor watching all seasons of Coupling. Caught the charming Season 1 of 30 Rock, became a huge fan of Dexter after spending a sick day at home watching the entirety of season 1, developed a lifelong obsession for Xena: Warrior Princess, worked my way through seasons 1-3 of Law and Order: Criminal Intent in order, and discovered a few fantastic indie films I’d never have heard of if it weren’t for you, Netflix.

This open love letter to Netlix is also a love letter to every movie I ever watched on Instant Watch.

Coupling.
Twelve and Holding.
Xena: Warrior Princess.
Leverage.
Dead Like Me.
Californication.
Pheobe in Wonderland.
Happy-Go-Lucky.
Nine Lives.
The Office.
Word Play.

Those are just a few.

I’ve spent this summer with a $13/month 2 DVD at a time plan (unlimited Instant Watch). I was determined to make the best of the plan. Thanks to Feedflicks: my efforts amount to $1.25 a movie. (That’s a load of films to month ratio, and no life to summer ratio).

I shall also give a shout out to Redbox which spent the summer bleeding my dry (ever so slowly) one dollar at a time.

Wondrous inventions.

Sweet life.

Leave the Starving to the Artists, Not the Art.

For his exhibit in the Bienarte 2007 in Costa Rica, “artist” Guillermo Vargas Jimenez kept a captured dog chained under a sign “Eres Lo Que Lees” (“You Are What You Read”) spelled out in kibbles. The dog, which he named Natividad, was a stray. The exhibit was a response to what the artist saw as a desensitized population to the many dead and dying dogs (and sometimes people) that line the Costa Rican streets. Said Jimenez, “An animal becomes the center of attention when I put it in a place where people go to see art, but not when it is in the street dying of hunger.”

The dog’s fate is shrouded in internet backlash and exhibit cover up. In one article Jimenez refuses to disclose whether the dog was ever fed. The same article reports that the dog died during the exhibit (whether it was due to starvation is unclear). In one source the exhibit manager reports that Natividad was fed frequently and “escaped” during the night. Navitidad’s story went viral, causing incensed YouTubists to post videos of the exhibit and animal lovers to start a petition to prevent Jimenez from displaying his art at the Bienarte 2008.

Jimenez called the outraged reaction to his art the very hypocrisy he was trying to exhibit. Was it art? You decide.

Sources:
http://www.zootoo.com/petnews/starvingartisttakesonnewmeanin
http://www.laprensa.com.ni/archivo/2007/octubre/05/noticias/revista/219438.shtml