hamradio

They already did a nice movie version of "Alice in Wonderland" (1999) starring Tina Majorino who made a very nice Alice charactor. Plus the Sci fi channel had a weird twisted retelling of the movie (that one should have been lost in Wonderland) called "Alice" (2009) I sort of think *that one* would have been up Tim Burton's alley.

Thanks for pointing out my typo but I think this time I'll leave it. Ever noticed some of it is more yuck than junk? (mostly the junk emails). How do one submit a new internet jargon?

CelluloidKid wrote: << Veteran film-maker Zhang Yimou presented "A Woman, A Gun and Noodle Shop" in time for the Lunar New Year, saying he had aimed to "enchant the audience" with a Chinese retelling of a neo-film-noir classic. >>. But it is better than the Taliban's remake of the same move "A Veiled Woman, A Gun and Romancing the Camel"

But in the movie, having a Fax machine built into the toilet paper dispenser is a bit much. But thats what I like to do to my juck mail.

What you need is the "Marty McFly setup". Remember that scene in "Back to the Future Part II" when the 'future self' of Marty McFly came home from work and by voice command asked his large, internet connected Hi Def TV to show him several channels at the same time. Ha, did sci fi writers ever got that one right! Today we have PIP and Directv's "mix". I don't know how can anyone watch more then 1 event or movie at a time. Personally I can only enjoy it best, one at a time. *Marty, welcome to the future!* The only thing left is having one's boss to interrupt your viewing and say *YOU'RE FIRED!*

kimpunkrock wrote: << I know many of you dont believe in past lives but I do and know many of mine. I even know my karma with my TCM piece. anyway back to Gladiator. I was told by a past life regressionist that I was a famous Roman General in one lifetime and I was told that my name in that lifetime is mentioned in this movie, The lady told that the filmmakers got the name from a history book. She didnt say what name though and I havent watched it since I learned this. >>. LOL, that leaves me to wonder if Shirley MacLaine was one in her "past lives"? I know that Janet Reno can be one in *this one.*

I found a couple of older gladiator movies. Are they any good? I never heard of them before. *Fury of Achilles* *Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators*

The one thing that always grab my attention is at the beginning of the movie when the Romans were using their version of *Napalm.* http://www.fanaticus.org/DBA/battles/maximusvindobona.html

The people have spoken.

I bought this CD back in the late 1990's http://www.emusic.com/album/Ian-Whitcomb-Titanic-Music-As-Heard-On-The-Fateful-Voyage-MP3-Download/10913194.html It has a nice instrumental score of "Alexander's Ragtime Band". Oh yes, just close your eyes while listening to the selections and it is like being on the Titanic.

markbeckuaf wrote: << It's the 3rd in a series of films starring Roland Young in the role of "Cosmo Topper"! What a name eh?? LOL >> Ever heard of "Topper Tiger". The *very name* Topper brings the most happiest memory of my childhood.

Do you mean this little tiny thing? I like mine more, I get better reception. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/technology/27moon.html

Did you understood my previous post? It *already happened!* Our system did not require no type of converter boxes from the early 1950's to present. The older TV's did require a frequency upconverter for the newer channels after 1981 but those type of boxes were available from TV outlets and Radio Shack. These boxes simply gives you extra channels above 13. First generation TV's only covered channels 2 to 13 and what was known as "not cable ready". The guy who installed the system had nothing to do with politics and he treated us very well. I mean during the 1960's only $8.00 a month! Hard to beleive but back then a cable serviceman would be at your door in a couple hours after calling the card shop. Try to get that type of service today!!! A lot of people confuse upconverters which had no monthly charges with the type needed for preminum channels like HBO which are known as descramblers - a totally different animal. Some people hear the word *converter* and say uh oh, monthly charges, not so. I still have to use a Radio Shack 181 channel converter box for my old Sears VCR. All these type of boxes do is make the older generation TV / VCR's cable ready. An interesting sidenote is that one could get HBO on channel 99 by using a VHF signal eliminator (a very simple passive filter) with a slight degraded picture and no stereo. Some of you old timers might remembered back in the 1980's, one could tune in The Movie Channel on the UHF channel on those old knob type tuner TV sets. That era used the first generation scrambling which could be tuned in with those ancient TV sets. NOT illegal as long as no type of illegal descrambler is used. Those types of transmissions has long since ceased. No more freebies!

I think I should explain our early system. http://www.directaerials.tv/commercial-tv/matv/ (site is for definition only) Now take that and instead of providing TV just for an apartment complex or a block of houses, install such a system for half the COUNTY!! The guy who did this was ahead of his time. I can't imagine the investment he put into the overall system. The original MATV setup was before the days of what one would think is "cable" but did not involve no type of satellite. Just to think my town had "cable" in the early 1950's before most people knew what cable was. Our MATV system also carried several FM stations and *Muzack*. We didn't got *true cable* until around 1981 - 1982 when TBS and CNN first fired up. That was the first major overhaul of the entire system, the 2nd was in 2002. The guy who started this past on in the early 1980's and the system ownership went through several cable providers. The system is now owned and run by Suddenlink.

The Basic / Extended Basic SD service use no boxes. Their HD service does. The beauty of SD is that I can add as many receivers as I please, using amplified splitters. I redone my entire cable / amplifier system around 2002 at the time Suddenlink overhauled their system. They installed the HD and upgrade the SD cable system. My home still has 3 standard SD televison sets, 2 spare color TV's stored and 1, 12" B&W portable. The 2 spares were given to me by my brother and a friend who upgraded to HD, virtually new sets. Can't conceive tossing them out into a landfill. The 12 inch is for nostalgia only, to show people in the future what us old timers use to have, lol. Edited by: hamradio on Feb 9, 2010 2:39 AM

The cost is for SD programming only. http://www.suddenlink.com/ As an after thought, my parents told me they bought their first TV in 1953 which also had the MATV provider run the cable from telephone pole to house. My present home had the original hole drilled (still there) and cable ran around 1955. Edited by: hamradio on Feb 9, 2010 1:46 AM

Today where I live, Suddenlink is $64.00 without the premium channels

Am I ever getting old. My earliest memory recalls that our MATV (the forerunner of cable) bill was around $8.00 a month. This was the 1960's and we had only 5 channels. ABC, CBS, 2 NBC stations and a primitive "weather channel" that showed dial type guages going back and forth. We made payments using a booklet that had 12 tear out payment slips. The remaining stub had our payment receipt. The guy who ran the system also ran a card shop where we made the payments.

I have a question about a movie set at Columbia. What has became of "The Annie Street" which was a set built for the movie "Annie" (1982)? Has it ever been used for another movie or was it razed? Ray Stark who was at the time the producer said the set cost over a million dollars to build. A snapshot of "The Annie Street" under construction.

Wasn't those bells destroyed in another movie involving a natural disaster (I think it was an earthquake)? About movie sets, Hollywood sometimes use newreel stock footage in scenes to save money. Sometimes several times over. One such scene they used was a clip of a tall brick building collapsing into the street. It is shown in "War of the Worlds" (1953). That was actually a newreel footage of when Mount Vesuvius erupted during WWII in 1944. I've must have seen that scene used many times. I beleive this is the same building before the wall on the left collasped which was caught on camera. Another one involved 2 airplanes. In "Attack of the Flying Saucers" you see one of them shooting down 2 prop driven fighters at the same time. That footage was of a mid air collision between 2 WWII era fighters.

If you like to see something really dark and dim, the Titanic screensaver IS! (Windows 98SE) "Titanic" was shot at the Baja California, Mexico set. A far cry from the cold Alantic

The bad color in "Titanic" might have to do with where and how it was shot. http://www.titanicmovie.com/present/bts_index.html

For some of the tropical islands, coral reefs and shallow depths in some parts of the ocean, the color is turquoise. It may be your TV as I've noticed myself, I can't get the sharp bold colors like I use to. My family bought our first color TV back in 1969 which was a hybrid (tube/transistor) 25 inch Zenith. The brightness and color was something to behold. I remembered when Hawaii Five-O first premeired, it had the most beautiful color and we used that show to adjust the TV set for proper balance. BLUE skies, green palm trees, and a turquoise / blue ocean front. The skin tones were perfect. My TV today doesn't come close (still pretty good though) to the boldness back then even with Directv. OMG does Hi Def SUPPOSE to give us that??

HollywoodGolightly wrote: << Titanic isn't really about pirates, though, is it? >> That was in reply to your comment about what seemed to you to be the long "Pirates of the Caribbean". The people of 1912 did had Bruce Ismay way down on the ladder from looting pirates. Ha, as I'm typing the 1997 "Titanic" is playing on TBS - the flat screen format, edited, riddled with commercials version

Considering the older classic pirate movies were under 2 hours i.e. "Captain Blood" (1935) starring Errol Flynn., 119 min., "Captain Kidd", 83 min.and "Blackbeard" 99 min. Blow me down TCM how about a tribute to those.