10.05.2006

what i'm watching: rize, style wars

Both New York baseball teams are in the playoffs.

The last time that happened, the teams met in the World Series, the first "Subway Series" since before the Dodgers left Brooklyn. I was still a Yankees fan then. I went to lots of post-season games, including a now-infamous World Series game, and was in heaven all October.

Little did I know that three years later, my lifelong marriage to the Yankees would dissolve and I'd fall in love with their archrivals. Boy, am I glad I'm not in New York this October.

Movie season, the opposite of baseball season, has started early this year, although we'll take a break to watch the World Series. Woody Allen's "Match Point" is excellent. Last night we saw "Rize," David LaChapelle's documentary about an amazing dance (and life) phenomenon in the Los Angeles ghettos. I highly recommend this. If you like it, you might also want to see "Style Wars," about a related East Coast scene.

Zip still has a ways to go to really be the Canadian Netflix. When we first joined, the only real difference between the two services was that Netflix allows you to organize your movie list in priority order, while Zip sent you any movie on your list, seemingly at random.

Based on customer surveys, Zip recently started a Netflix-like queuing system, but we've seen little evidence that it works. We still seem to receive any movie from our list, in no real order. It's always a surprise. But it's still a great service. If you're really into movies, it's the best way to go. Pay-per-view or neighbourhood rental stores don't even come close.

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