I Dodged a Bullet at a Garage Sale

  I love going to garage sales. In fact there is one that I frequent just about every week. The lady who was having the garage sale had a Kirby G4 vacuum cleaner. She told me that she paid a lot of money for it back in the 90s. She initially wanted $40 for it and eventually said $5. I never pulled the trigger on the used vacuum. $5 for a used Kirby is a steal right? Well it might have been a steal but it was also a huge money pit.
  In fact the Kirby was missing a majority of it's parts. It was missing a cord screw, the brushroll and the rug plate and most importantly the belt. You can't simply use a Kirby without the belt. It's all in the belt lifter. Anyway I kept on joking to my Mom that I was going to get her a better vacuum than her Shark. I kept on at it for weeks. My mother wouldn't let me bring the vacuum into her home if I had bought it. In reality the metal head of this Kirby was really dusty. It had a nice layer of grime on top of it. It wouldn't even pass a white glove inspection.
  So I did some calculations to see how much of a money pit this vacuum was. The parts were as follows.

1. Rug Plate-$14.99
2. Brushroll-$34.95
3. Belt-$5.50
4. Cord Screw-$2.98
5. Pack of  9 Bags-$17.99
6. Light Bulb-$1.98
7. Hose-$49.50

The total cost would have been  $132.89 minus shipping costs. Anyway I did return to that garage sale to find out that someone actually bought that Kirby G4. I was relieved that somebody actually spent $5 on a money pit. Sure Kirby's are great vacuum cleaners but that one at the garage sale was a bad buy. Who knows what other parts it may have needed. What if It didn't work? Then what do I do? I would be out of $5. There is always the Kirby Factory Rebuild Program. Did you know that if you are not the original owner of the Kirby, you can still have the vacuum rebuilt? In fact if you aren't the original owner and want to get it rebuilt, you're going to pay a lot more than the original owner would pay. I checked out the rate for non original owners and it was $350! That's an insane amount of money to get a vacuum cleaner rebuilt. I would never consider spending that. My dad wouldn't even spend that kind of money on rebuilding a vacuum. He repaired appliances for a living and he didn't work on vacuums though. He would think that $350 to rebuild a 20 year old vacuum would be a waste of money.
  In the long run, I saved myself a lot of aggravation and headaches by not buying that Kirby G4. My wallet even thanked me. I like USA made vacuum cleaners, so If I were to spend the money on one that is made here in the USA I would buy a Sanitaire or a Hoover commercial vacuum.

Dialogue Tracks on Soundtracks

  If you are a huge fan of Lady Gaga, you probably already know that the soundtrack for A Star Is Born contains dialogue tracks. As a matter of fact 14 of the 34 tracks on this soundtrack consist of dialogue tracks. Dialogue tracks have no place on a soundtrack album at all.
  First off dialogue tracks ruin the listening experience of the soundtrack. They interrupt the chain and flow of the songs. First you hear a song and then wham, you start to hear talking, I like my soundtracks to contain zero dialogue tracks on them. I am a film score aficionado and I like to hear the instrumental music, I didn't pay for a CD to listen to talking, I bought it to listen to the film score. I didn't buy the Academy Award Winning score for The Hateful Eight because it contained dialogue tracks. I usually try to buy the Oscar for Best Original Score winners on CD but having dialogue tracks is a no-no for me.
 On a side note I do own two of The Simpsons soundtracks and they do contain a ton of dialogue tracks on them. Some of the song tracks have dialogue before the song starts. I'm not a fan of that at all but if I wanted to hear dialogue from The Simpsons, I would just go watch it on TV. But that's my opinion on that.
  I also have The Brave Little Toaster soundtrack by David Newman. Unfortunately however two of the score tracks contain dialogue on them. If I remember correctly Percepto Records didn't have the isolated instrumental score tracks available to them without dialogue on them. I don't understand why they couldn't have just rerecorded those two score cues so they wouldn't have the dialogue on them. Is it that hard to rerecord 2 measly score cues. It's annoying but I tend to drown out the dialogue whenever I listen to The Brave Little Toaster soundtrack.
  If I want to hear dialogue on a CD I would just go buy a spoken word album instead.

Disney Movies That Need Proper Blu-Ray Releases

  Disney is one of those companies that I have a love/hate relationship with. I love some of their movies but, they don't see them the same way that I do. I have several favorite Disney movies that are in dire need of a proper Blu-Ray release. It seems like Disney likes to neglect these films by treating them like a bastard stepchild.
  One of my favorite movies that Disney has distributed is The Brave Little Toaster (1987). It is a common misconception that The Brave Little Toaster is a Disney movie. Technically speaking, it wasn't made by Disney. It was made by Hyperion Animation with The Kushner-Locke Company. Disney only bought the distribution rights to the film. However due to Disney purchasing the distribution rights, they scrapped the theatrical release of The Brave Little Toaster. Instead of releasing it in theaters, it debuted on The Disney Channel and then went straight to video.
  The Brave Little Toaster was made in widescreen with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. However this film hasn't been seen in widescreen since it was screened at Sundance Film Festival. Every DVD of this film is in fullscreen. The region 1 DVD has a very bad transfer that shakes. This movie has a cult following. It's timeless and needs a proper anamorphic widescreen HD transfer. In 2017 The Brave Little Toaster turned 30 years old. Disney didn't acknowledge this film turning 30 and never honored it with a proper DVD or Blu-Ray release in it's original aspect ratio. People would buy that in a heartbeat. Even the director, Jerry Rees expressed interest in a proper DVD release. He had no say in the DVD release that Disney put out. I really want to see this movie get a proper anamorphic widescreen release. It deserves it. I guess Disney hates money.
  Another one of my favorite Disney movies from the 90s is A Goofy Movie (1995). I remember going to see this one when it came out in theaters. If it wasn't for this movie I wouldn't be interested in AMC Pacers. Goofy's car in this movie is an AMC Pacer wagon. All car things aside here, A Goofy Movie also has a cult following among fans. Just like The Brave Little Toaster, A Goofy Movie has never received a proper anamorphic widescreen release or a Blu-Ray. In fact it's only been released in fullscreen format. In 2015, the 20th anniversary of it's release Disney neglected to give A Goofy Movie a proper release on Blu-Ray. I do believe this movie was planned on having a Blu-Ray release as a double feature with it's direct to video sequel An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000) but somehow it got put on the back burner by Disney. Again Disney apparently hates money.
  The third movie that needs a proper Blu-Ray release is Disney's Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey.(1993). This film is a remake of The Incredible Journey that came out in 1963. The remake is more well known than the original version. In fact this movie has never gotten a widescreen release in physical form. I think a widescreen version was released to the digital streaming market and, I heard that there was a widescreen DVD that was released in Mexico? I could be wrong about Mexico getting a widescreen DVD release but I did read that somewhere online. I can't remember the site offhand. Ironically the film's sequel Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Fransisco was given a proper Widescreen DVD release whereas the original only has a fullscreen release. Again with this film having a cult following, it's time for it to see a proper HD Blu-Ray Release.
  Since Disney owns Star Wars, they need to do one thing to please the fans, release the original unaltered Trilogy on Blu-Ray. Many years ago the unaltered theatrical versions got released on DVD but there was one major problem, they were in non-anamorphic widescreen and on top of that the transfers were pretty bad. Disney would be really stupid to not release the original unaltered Star Wars Trilogy on Blu-Ray. They are practically sitting on a goldmine here. Star Wars fans would kill to have a proper Blu-Ray release of the unaltered trilogy. I don't know why Disney hasn't done this yet. I know there is a bootleg called the Despecialized trilogy out there but we need a proper release from Disney.
  C'mon Disney step up your game and just Shut Up and Take My Money already!