new dvd player

Life I visited John Moores University Library this morning to have a look at the facilities. I'll be doing a lot of reading over the summer and I might not always want to go all the way into Manchester so this seems like a good compromise. The book collection, film wise, actually contains some volumes which aren't at 'my' university -- in fact, it's almost as though the two collections have been co-ordinated. As you'd imagine, it's a very strange experience looking around a different university library, especially this late into the academic year -- definitely an interloper, not really understanding the geography (history, biology or algebra for that matter). There seemed to be lots of computers but not that many places just to sit and read -- I eventually ended up in a compact storage room, which is closed off from the rest of the library and away from what I've discovered is a universal constant in these places -- the talkers.

This afternoon, with the rationalisation that it will help with my dissertation, I bought a new dvd player today to replace the tacky old one that I bought at WH Smith about three years ago (which finally gave up the ghost a few weeks ago). It's a Panasonic DVD-S29 and as I flick through the accompanying booklet it appears to be the work of a magician. It actually has the facility to zoom into a non-anamorphic picture so that it fills my widescreen -- so although the image quality isn't amazing, it's still miles better than the facility that's built into the tv. Also it's multi-region but plays the disks in the full mode of the originating country, which means that NTSC disks only have a very slight reduction in quality. I'm in geek heaven.

Meanwhile, Louise has emailed to remind me that I have actually seen Singing In The Rain -- we went together about five years ago to view it in Manchester at the Cornerhouse in a lovely technicolour print. I actually remember that night pretty vividly -- I was excited because it was the first time I'd simply gone to another city to see a film. We got the train there from Liverpool after I'd finished a shift at the art gallery and just managed to make the screening. Afterwards we walked around Manchester in a route which made the city seem even bigger than it is, and I now know, having spent more time there, was around in a circle. I remember us strolling around the back of the library and feeling dwarfed by the size of it. I think it was just before Christmas because the tree was up in Albert Square looking gorgeous with its many twinkly spiral fairy lights. We went to Starbucks whilst we waited to catch the train home and I had one of their Gingerbread Lattes for the first time. Good memory.