Anatomy of an Entertainment Center

Our friend Raquelle at Out of the Past issued a challenge to her fellow classic film lovers to give a tour of our entertainment centers to the bloggie world.  One common thread I’ve noticed so far is how we all watch so many films, and obviously spend quite a bit of time in front of our sets, but several of the responders (including myself) are not luxuriating in a huge, plasma flat screen set.  We’re making due with our ancient tellies and finding them completely adequate.

Well, enough of these musings – on to the tour! (btw-I’ll be referring to stuff as “ours” because none of this is actually mine – it belongs to our family.  I have a care taking relationship with all of it, though, so it’s sort of mine.)

Our tv is awfully old. Probably at least ten years.  It’s a Sony and actually it is flat screen.  I’ve tried find reasons to talk myself into getting a new one, but this one works just fine and has no intention of breaking anytime soon.  It lives in a cupboard which hides as much of its ugliness as possible.  (Have you ever noticed how ugly electronics are?   The person who makes electronics visually pleasing will make a fortune.)  Note on the left side – that’s my movie notebook.  On the right side are my Mom’s precious Julia Child DVDs.  They hold that place of honor because they are played a lot in our house. :)

Under the tv is a cupboard with doors that hides the satellite box, dvd/vcr players and part of my enormous, embarrassing collection of VHS tapes (image on the right of TV image).

Here’s a shot of the rest of my VHS collection.  I’m a notorious organizer, so my VHS collection is cataloged.  Each tape has a number, which is recorded in a notebook I keep by the tv.  I write down all the titles on this list, and have an alphabetical version on my computer.  These are my “films worth saving.”  This list has grown and grown and grown – to the point where I have 155 tapes in this library right now.  I think I’m going to adopt Raquelle and Jonas’ method of labeling the side of the box, instead of the front.  It would save tons of space!

My notebook – just a three ring binder that I covered in wallpaper so it would be worthy of what it was meant to hold.  It has my current copy of Now Playing, along with a smaller notebook where I write down each day’s movie recordings.  If I didn’t write it down, I’d never remember to set everything up.

These are my film catalog lists.  The handwritten one is arranged according to the number of the tape.  The typed one is each title arranged in alphabetical order.  Titles in green are Christmas films (a new feature I came up with this year!).  The red ones are films I have on more than one tape – duplicates.

Our DVD collection: it’s scattered around partly for lack of enough space in one area, partly for easy access.  Most of the collection is stored in the huge windowseat in our library. (Yup, we actually have a room in our house called “The Library” – we really do keep all of our books in this room, too.)  The rest of the DVDs are around the tv in smaller cupboards on the sides – organized by genre mostly.  British-made (Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Miss Marple (the ones from the 80s – not those new ones), Danger UXB, Upstairs, Downstairs and Pride & Prejudice, of course), Film Noir, General Classic (The Andy Griffith Show, The Avengers), etc.  You can see our much loved sets of Nero Wolfe DVDs on the shelf.  The show starring Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin was fabulous and so underrated!

This is such a fun idea.  Thanks for suggesting it, Raquelle!