I bought a whole bunch of DVDs the day before yesterday...well, technically I bought them last week, from Amazon, but they only arrived on Tuesday -- and after taking a brief peek at some of them, I'm so looking forward to this weekend when I'll hopefully have time to spend in front of the TV. With luck it'll be raining, and I won't feel like I have to spend the entire day outside. Don't get me wrong: I love summer, but since the season's so short here in Norway, I always feel guilty if it's warm & sunny outside and I'm cooped up inside.

Anyway, back to the DVDs. The one I'm looking forward to the most is the Black Adder box-set, featuring every single episode from all four series of the show, plus all the specials and the odd bit of bonus material to round out the package. If you're a fan, get it. Now. If you're not a fan, I'm guessing you haven't watched the show. Do so. Now. It's ****ing brilliant. Honest. It's the funniest thing ever in the history of funny things. It's funnier than an amusingly shaped turnip. The show (which ran from 1983, I believe, until 1989, in four six-episode series) is about as British as you can possibly get, and vicious sarcasm is most certainly the order of the day. I've been a fan since I saw the very first episode back in 1983, and I already have all the episodes on tape, but I just had to have this collection, and I can't wait to rewatch the whole thing from beginning until end. If I ever find the time to do that, of course.

Some of the other films I picked up were Unbreakable (M. Night Shyamalan's underappreciated follow-up to The Sixth Sense, very moving and very powerful -- especially if, like me, you're a comic-book fan), the new Close Encounters of the Third Kind special edition (one of my favourite films ever. Like so many of my generation, I decided I wanted to be a film-maker and storyteller because of Mr. Spielberg, and this movie is one of his absolute best), Snatch (great fun), State and Main (David Mamet is, in my opinion, one of the very best screenwriters working today), Small Time Crooks (I missed this when it was in theatres, and, again: Woody Allen, personal favourite, brilliant filmmaker), and, uh, a few more. Which should give you some clue as to my taste in movies.  ¶ 12:45