So Many DVDs, so Little Space

My first DVD was an obscure relatively old school anime titled "Geobreeders." It was on sale and my old VHS player had somehow grown sentient-or at least hungry-and decided to start eating my VHS collection. "Robot Carnival" will always be missed.

The problem with DVDs is similar to the problem with chips: You can rarely stop with just one. So after finishing all 90 minutes of "Geobreeders," I starting checking out other anime titles on DVD. Since the movie rental store hardly had any anime in stock, I ended up having to buy each anime DVD just to check it out. Or I bought anime DVDs to replace the VHS tapes that my VCR ate. I never did find "Robot Carnival" on DVD. Back in those days, distributors sold anime through DVDs in volumes with a few episodes each. So I had to wait weeks for the next volume to complete a 26 episode series. The result was a widening DVD collection.

Then I started picking up movies that I recently enjoyed in theaters or nostalgically enjoyed elsewhere. "The Godfather" trilogy, some "Harry Potter" films, and "The Killer" have been particular favorites. Some DVD films that I picked up only because they were on sale or I knew I would like them even though I never got around to actually watching them yet. My collection increased even further when they started selling entire seasons of television shows on DVD. Those felt like such a deal. So I added "House," "Heroes," and my favorite cop show "Sledge Hammer!" Eventually anime distributors caught up with that idea and improved on the concept with thin-packs. Now I can cram two DVDs that make up a 13-episode season in the same space as a regular DVD.

The pop culture and comic book conventions introduced me to independent productions. I began receiving sample DVDs of their projects. I wound up purchasing a few DVDs from a "Cinema Insomnia," a Sacramento based late night horror hosted B-movie program, after meeting the host Mr. Lobo.

I thought I could shelve my anime DVD collection due to budget and growing out of the hobby. But then my gig writing anime reviews for "The Escapist" resulted in acquiring even more anime DVDs. Some DVDs were ones I actually had interest in while others made for better Frisbees than programming.

I enjoy my DVD collection for the most part. My current problems with my DVD collection include finding space to show them off and finding "Robot Carnival" on DVD.