It was nice to get out for a bit

Me trying to get out and do something fun this summer, at least to this point, has not been working out very well. Last week the stars decided to align though, on my birthday no less, and I was able to spend the better part of the morning/early afternoon in Knoxville; and more specifically, at McKay's.

It's been many months since I was last there, and given some of my newer interests (thanks to all of the genealogical research that I've been doing), I had a lot more than normal that I wanted to look for. 

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot for me on this particular day, but I did find a few things (which is always better than none), and since I haven't done one of these kinds of posts in a while, I'm gonna pad it out with some older purchases at the end.

Since they add continually add it to it throughout the day, I always check the free bins before I go in, and then again when I'm leaving. The store hasn't sold VHS tapes since I've been going there, but people must still bring them in from time to time (and then don't want them back after being told that videos aren't accepted), because I have seen a few in the free bins, but I had never seen a group like this in there before. And considering that the store had been open for over an hour before I got there, I'm amazed that these, and the Power Rangers video that I didn't grab, were still there.

The Adventures of Batman & Robin wasn't as good as Batman: The Animated Series, but it was similar enough to still be pretty good. I already tried the Riddler tape, it was in very sad shape, and has since been tossed. Remembering these episodes, that would've been the better of the two.

Despite their ultra modern looking covers, both of these feature a compilation of episodes from Spider-Man: The Animated Series, which I can't believe still hasn't been released on DVD or Blu-Ray. As an extra added bonus, both tapes include an episode from the original cartoon, which I haven't seen too many episodes from over the years.

Back to the 90's animated series, this one being in a period box though. I really liked this series during it's original run, but hadn't seen any full episodes since it ended. What a treat it was to watch a few again (both of these tapes worked great); now I want more! As an aside this box had an old McKay's sticker on the front, which is kind of neat, and will be left on.

On to the purchases...

One of my favorite sections is the 'Misc. World History', and both of my books this time came from it. This is a fairly chunky book, and was priced very right (for me) at $2. I started reading this the other day and am enjoying it quite a bit; though it is a bit dense.

At well over 800 pages, this one's pretty chunk too. I really like these kind of speculations, and probably would've bought this one online much sooner had I known that it existed. I don't think that I could've gotten online for $1.50 though, so I guess it's a good thing that I hadn't been aware of it. I don't know if anyone else cares about such things, but just in case, here's a bonus sample of some of the essays:

That was it for books, everything else was DVD's...

For 95¢ I was able to upgrade the video I've had of this for decades to DVD. The only one left to upgrade now is #3. How does everyone feel about the Die Hard franchise? Personally, I enjoy 1-4 quite a bit (#5 doesn't exist in my world). My favorites in order would probably shock some (and possibly break the Twitter), and even though no one asked, they'd go 4, 3, 1, 2. I always enjoyed #3 the most (this despite my not being a fan of Sam Jackson), that is until #4 came out.

I've watched V once a year for decades now, and even though my copy was recorded from the Sci-Fi channel back in the 90's, the many viewings have not degraded the tape in the least. That being said, I have wanted to upgrade it for a while now, and for $2.95 I was finally able to do so.

My final purchase of the day was a mini-splurge on my part. It's hard to tell from the photos, but this set was still sealed. It was also cheaper than the going rate on eBay. Of the great detective series', Poirot is the one that I own the least from. I'm trying to change that though.

Like I said at the beginning, I didn't get much, but it was still really nice to get out and do something that wasn't work related. It was even nicer to be able to go out and do something mildly fun on my birthday, as I can't even recall the last time that I did; I know that I at least hadn't done so in the previous seven birthdays that I've had since moving to Tennessee.

Seeing as how that was kind of a short post, and knowing that I've had some other purchases to show from an afternoon spent hitting up a bunch of places in Crossville a couple of months ago, I figured I might as well finally get to those as well. I thought that this afternoon out might've been from April or May, but the photo folder on my computer says that it was created on 2-21-23. Geez, this year is going quick!

Despite my not realizing just how long ago all of this stuff is from, I do remember the day fairly well -- or at least I remember getting the stuff fairly well. These first couple of books were from the Book Cellar. Every time I think that there can't possibly be any more Alfred Hitchcock collections out there that I don't already own, I find another! This one was really good.

I just finished reading this one a couple of weeks ago, it too was really good. It ended up going in a completely different direction than I had thought it would. And I was talking about V a bit ago, I now know what inspired that series. This was written in 1953 (if I remember correctly), and it's first two chapters are basically how V starts out. They couldn't be more different from each other after that though.

This book ended up being a terrible disappointment. I had really high hopes for it, but struggled mightily to even get past like the 40th page. The copy I bought did have this wonderful inscription though:

I hope that Brandon is dead, otherwise he's a colossal heel for getting rid of this (and the book sucking would not be a good enough reason for parting with it).

They opened a Goodwill in Crossville last September or October, despite there already being four other thrift stores within a mile radius of it. I've been there a few times since, and haven't really been all that impressed thus far. I'm pretty sure that most of the inventory is being brought in from elsewhere (people in that area are very loyal to the pre-existing non-corporate thrift stores), and it's gotta be one of the smallest Goodwill's out there (it's in an old Rite-Aid). I haven't bought much from it yet, but on this day back in February I did find two DVD's (and a puzzle that'll be shown when it gets finished). In all of my years of looking through video's and DVD's at places, I had never once come across High Noon in any format. I had seen it a bunch of times on TCM back when I had cable/satellite, but it was cool to finally be able to get a physical copy of it.

There are a lot of John Wayne collections out there on DVD, but this was one of the nicer ones that I had come across. All of the pictures were cleaned up, and the sound has been brought up as well.

Up until the corona got going, the Dollar Tree that's closest to me had been a good source for cheap books, but has now kind of been the shits for the last few years. The store in Crossville is fairly large as far as DT's go, but for reasons that I can't put my finger on, I really don't like it, and therefor almost never go in. The only reason I went in on this particular day was because my mom had asked me to look for something (which I don't recall finding). I don't know about you, but when I think of Dollar Tree, I don't think of "Hamlet", and yet, they had a big 'ol pile of Hamlet's that day. In fact, this was the only thing I bought there. It felt kind of weird going through the checkout out Dollar Tree with just a copy of "Hamlet" in hand. I had never read the book before, but ended up enjoying it quite a bit more than I thought I would. I really like the way this edition was laid out too.

I don't think that they've officially come out and said it or anything, but judging by the ever dwindling selection, I'm pretty sure that the Hilltoppers thrift store is trying to cut out VHS from their inventory; which is one of the reasons why I rarely ever go in there anymore. To my surprise though, I actually found two pretty solid tapes while there that day.

I never watched Sesame Street when I was a kid, but did like all things Muppets. I've also heard/seen a bunch of Jim Henson interviews over the years, and am generally a fan of him as a person too. This video was a good overview of his career, but like most things of this nature, it could've been longer.

I hadn't seen this picture since probably '95 or '96, so I was a tad bit excited to find a copy of it; which by the way is yet another one that I don't think that I've come across, on any format, in the wild before. I'd be lying if I said that it was one of my favorite films, but it has held up better than I had expected.

Well, I guess I'm now all caught up on my physical media purchases since February(!). I don't know when I'll get back to McKay's again, but it's looking like I'll have a morning to spend in Crossville later this week, and am planning on hitting up at least a few of the places mentioned in this post. I suppose if I hit the motherlode, they'll be another recap in the very near future. If only a couple of items are found though, I'll probably just photograph them and save 'em for another time when I find myself needing some filler again.

Holly Jolly Finds

It was exactly two weeks ago that I covered my October trip to McKay's (a paradise for lovers of all things physical media), and now I'm here today covering my trip from earlier this month.

There's not much for me to build up this time. After striking out in the music department the last couple of times, I was really hoping to get some new (to me) music this time, but despite that being my primary goal (spoiler alert), I struck out again. I did alright in other areas though, so I guess it worked out okay in the end. I don't know why, but I seem to be having zero luck finding music (on any format) lately, no matter where I go. The same goes for toys as well, although that's more of a matter of me not willing to pay the current stupid-high prices for everything. With the music, I'm just not finding anything of interest, even amongst the overpriced stuff. But you didn't come here to hear about the stuff I didn't (or couldn't) find, so...

Nothing says Christmas quite like Dracula, eh? This was an impulse by from the middle grade bargain section. I had never heard of it, and it's got plenty of wear, but for 10¢, I couldn't leave it behind.

I just recently started seeing these Omnibus' for the Aliens and Predator series', and am kind of surprised that it took them so long to do these. This is only one that I'll be able to get, because I already have too many of the other books to justify anymore. I hadn't come across any decent copies of these three books, which is the only reason I didn't already own any of them. This will save time, and money, as just two of the individual books usually cost more than this did.

Going back to my last McKay's post, Cocoon is another title that I enjoyed more in book form than I did on film. It was able to breathe a lot more as a novel. And after reading the first one a couple of years ago, I was hoping that I'd come across the sequel at some point. This copy is a little rough, but it was cheap, and I didn't want to risk waiting a few more years before finding another.

I have owned Daniel Cohen's "Encyclopedia of Monsters" since I was about ten years old. It was a very important book to young me, an as such, is one of my more cherished possessions. The appearance of this book is exactly the same as "Monsters", save for the different title and subject matter, and it's kind of trippy to see the "same" book, but different, after all these years

More Daniel Cohen! I've read way too much about Atlantis, Stonehenge, and Easter Island, over the years, and subsequently don't really have a lot of interest in them anymore, but there are some other less trod topics in here as well, and those were enough for me to add it to my basket.

Someone had obviously picked this book up, walked around for a bit, then changed their mind about it. And as people are prone to doing, they couldn't be bothered to go put it back where they found it, instead sticking it on the nearest shelf at hand. Lazy people annoy the shit out of me, but this is one instance where I'm glad that at least one was wandering around the store, for I've been meaning to read this for the longest time, but always forget to look for it. I've seen all of the pre-2000 film adaptions, so I'm looking forward to finally reading the original source material.

Here's another book that I've been trying to find for a while now. It was printed in multiple editions, which altogether had to total at least a million copies, and yet for some reason, I have not been able to find a copy in the wild. There were actually there this time, one from before the film, and one from after the film. I wanted the pre-film copy, but it was in worse shape than the post-film copy, for the same price, so I ended up going with the one in better shape. I've been avoiding the film for years because everyone always talks about how different it is from the book, and how much better the book was; so I wanted to make sure that I read the book before seeing the film. I'm about 3/4 of the way through it right now. And I gotta be honest, it's a little disappointing. It was really good until about the halfway point, and now it's just dragging. I actually got to where I'm at about a week ago, and decided to take a break before I make the final push to get through the rest of it -- which I'll do after I finish the book that I've since started.

Only one Bobby Stine this time, and one that I wasn't familiar with to boot!

My heart really wasn't in looking through the bazillion bargain ($1.95 or less) DVD/Blu-Ray's this time, but after finding two things of interest during a cursory search of just one section, I figured that that was a sign that I needed to power through the whole enchilada; so I did.

I went through a "mob phase" during my early teens. Don't ask me why though, as I have no idea, it was just a thing that I was really into for a year or two. Even after all of these years, I still have some minor interest in the subject, just not enough to override any of the other things that I have more interest in; meaning that there just isn't enough hours in the day for me to squeeze in the mafia. Sorry boys, I just don't have enough time for you! That being said, 10 hours of entertainment for only $1.95 seemed like too god of a deal to pass up.

I've had Stargate on video for many, many years. I hadn't really ever thought about upgrading it, but decided to do so after finding this fancy-pants edition for 95¢. Now I can get a rid of the video, and have a smidgeon of extra space.

I still had cable back in '05, and distinctly remember all of the television spots leading up to the premiere of this miniseries, but for whatever reason, never saw it. I can't figure for the life of me why I didn't, it was my kind of subject matter, and it had a solid cast. It's almost like I temporarily disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle, and have zero recollection of my time there (kind of like Uncle Fester 😄).

Despite the many offerings in the bargain section, there usually isn't a lot of old stuff to be found, so I was pretty surprised to come across this one. I mentioned on my 'Penny Sleeve' blog a long time ago that I'm a big fan of old musicals, and will pick up just about any that I don't own, or haven't seen. I don't keep them all though, as there were plenty of stinkers, but I do own my fair share of them, including Gold Diggers of 1933 and 1935. 

This is the first time that I've found a 70's martial arts flick in the bargain stuff, and there's no way that I wasn't gonna take it home with me. Just like with the old musicals, I'll give pretty much any 70's or 80's picture from this genre a chance.

Like I said at the beginning, no new music, but I feel like I did pretty good otherwise. 

And as is often the case, I hit a few spots in Crossville on the way home, only one of which yielded any goodies, that being the Book Cellar...

Few things remind me of childhood more than giant Reader's Digest and Time Life books. Someday I really need to sit down and figure out how many more are out there that I don't have, because I would've bet at least a dollar that I had all of the woo-woo books from Reader's Digest, and yet, here's one that I didn't have. It's always nice when you can find them with their dust jackets too, as they are often missing.

Strangely enough, after finding this book, an old memory came back of me reading at this school way back when. I can't remember when that was exactly, but I do know that book didn't come from the school library itself, it was one of those books that was on a shelf in the classroom. I don't know if that's still a thing that is done, but I can recall books in the classroom at least until sixth grade. In fact, the last book that I can recall reading from a class shelf, was in sixth grade, and has been one of my most sought after books for many years now. Unfortunately, it's been out of print for decades, and is stupid expensive on the secondary market (I've never seen it for less than a $100).

I'm not sure if I remember this film coming out or not. It's not the most original of plots, so I may've seen the trailer and forgot about it, or I never saw the trailer and therefor never knew of it's existence. Either way, I'm more interested now in this novelization than I am in the actual film.

It wasn't from this particular day, but since I'm talking books and stuff, I'm gonna shoehorn one more thing here at the end...

My mom was volunteering at sale recently, and one of the benefits of doing so, aside from helping people out with a sale whose earnings went to a very good cause, was that she had access to, and the ability to purchase, stuff before the general public. There was a smattering of just about everything there, kind of like a giant estate sale. As is often the case, when she's around a bunch of stuff like this, I got sent a bunch of photos to see if I was interested in anything. Despite all of the stuff, aside from this book, which I think is gonna be really good, there wasn't much for me. Lots of neat things, but most of it I can easily live without.

Okay, I'm done now. And I promise, no more of these posts for at least a month, I'm serious!