Classic Amazon.com Purchases

Happy Monday to everyone. Once again, I bring you a purchase I made from Amazon.com many years ago when I lived in Boston and my priorities were focused on amassing a huge collection of DVD's and CD's rather than today's priorities which focus on paying a mortgage and saving for the future. Today we go back to November 6, 2000. Election Day was right around the corner and I decided to celebrate it with an eclectic mix of movies, music, and the most random video game ever....read on.

1.) Transformers - Original Series - VHS 3 Pack (1984)

Oh baby, was this big news for me at the time. I was/still am a HUGE fan of the original Transformers cartoon series so when they started releasing episodes on VHS, I was all over it. I think these were one of the last VHS purchases I ever made. Anyway, it came with three tapes, showcasing six episodes in all. The highlights of this batch of episodes included the two-parter when the Autobots are framed by Megatron and sentenced to die by being flown into the sun. Needless to say, the Autobots persevere in the end. The other highlight was the famous "Starscream's Ghost" episode that featured the return of my favorite Transformer, Starscream, as well as Unicron's head (which had a spooky voice). Finally, it also has the classic episode when Scourge takes over control of the Matrix and becomes this mutated crazed (and pretty scary looking) Transformer. Another iconic episode for me. If you've never seen the original cartoon and just the recent Michael Bay movie, then I sound like a raving lunatic, but if you have any inkling of what I'm talking about, then this was MUST SEE stuff from your childhood.

2.) Radiohead - Kid A (2000)



Hmmmm...this CD took a little while to get used to. Radiohead's album prior to this one, OK Computer, is still a top 20 of all time CD in my eyes, but this record was a definite departure. Some of the songs are more "moody" than "melodic" but I learned to love this album and its nice to say that. It features one of my favorite songs of all time, "Idioteque", as well as some of Radiohead's best songs like "Optimistic" and "How To Disappear Completely". Again, listening to this for the first time was a classic "WTF?!?" moment for me but I still have most of the CD on my IPOD. In today's "hit single" crazed music world, you won't see a coherent album meant to be listened to from start to finish anytime soon.

3.) The Fly/The Fly 2 (1986/1989) - DVD


One of my favorite horror movies of all time paired with one of the most random sequels of all time. The Fly is Jeff Goldblum's greatest moment. Watching his personality and eventually appearance turn into a fly is pretty cool. Nonetheless, this is NOT a movie to watch on a date. In fact, it has some of the goriest special effects (the fly vomit dissolving a guys arm and leg, a baboon getting vaporized, and the sad fly/telepod creature at the end) and features the absolute most depressing ending ever (though the Mist ranks up there too).

The Fly 2 was an okay movie and featured a young Eric Stoltz and Daphne Zuniga (the brunette from Melrose Place). It has one of my favorite lines (when the Fly creature says "I'm not getting worse....I'm getting BETTER") and the coolest final scene when the fly/man creature licks milk out of a bowl at the end. Again, they hardly make movies like this anymore. See below for further proof...



4.) Seaman - Dreamcast Videogame (2000)

Not only did I get sucked into buying Dreamcast (the Turbographix 16 of the 2000 decade) but I shelled out $60 to buy this game called "Seaman". I'll never be able to explain this properly but it was basically a game involving a virtual pet. You turn the game on and all you see is a fish tank with an egg in it. Eventually the egg hatches and this half fish, half man thing appears and it talks to gibberish to you. The game came with a headset and you had to teach it english and also feed it...EVERY SINGLE DAY...or it would die. Eventually the "Seaman" would start talking to you and ask you questions like where you worked and where you lived. He was a pretty nasty son of a bitch too. You also got to name it too.

It was the most random game ever. The farthest I got on it was raising it for two weeks and then going home to Long Island for a long weekend. When I returned, I turned on the game only to find my Seaman lying dead at the bottom of the virtual tank...heartbreaking. Here's a clip...lots of drugs were taken during the development of this game.