Purchase Diary 2016 – August – December

Waiting… (2005)


Aug 3rd – €1.38 @ Amazon.de

Running Time: 1h 30m

Price per Hour: €0.92

Howard the Duck (1986)


Aug 11th – €8.99 @ Drogerie Müller

Running Time: 1h 50m

Price per Hour: €4.90

Inside Out (2015)


Aug 12th – €9.90 @ Amazon.de

Running Time: 1h 35m

Price per Hour: €6.25

Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014)


Aug 12th – €12.97 @ Amazon.de

Running Time: 1h 12m

Price per Hour: €10.81

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (2012)


Aug 12th – €12.97 @ Amazon.de

Running Time: 2h 28m

Price per Hour: €5.26

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Amazon (again)

In recent months Amazon has become quite a controversial topic in Germany.

It all started with an “undercover” documentation for one of our TV stations. I watched the docu online after everyone and their dog wrote about it and the first “Boycott!” outcries were made.

I don’t know if what the docu claimed was actually true because I found it to be severely lacking in the objective journalism department. If you understand German, you can read my commentary here: ARD vs. Amazon.

The general gist of the controversy is that Amazon hires seasonal workers for the Christmas time and then fires the workers around New Year’s. And they also pay according to the union labour contracts for the logistics trade and not the retail trade where the workers would get higher salaries. They can do that because the retailer Amazon EU is based in Luxembourg (mainly for tax avoidance reasons) and what is called Amazon Deutschland is just the fulfiller that operates the deployment centers.

Anyway, two recent events have once again proven to me that Amazon is a great business partner:

#1)
A few months ago I wanted to order the first season of The Newsroom at Amazon.com. Usually the shipping costs for a season are $6.48. For some reason the system charged me $29.52 for a season that only cost $17.99.

It happens, even computers have hiccups from time to time. I contacted the support, they gave me a refund, end of story.

Now it happened again, this time with the sixth season of Burn Notice ($17.11 shipping for a $11.98 product). I contacted the support again and got this reply:

Quote:


Hello,
I sorry[sic!] to hear that you’ve been charged an incorrect shipping charge.
To make this right for you, I’ve waived the total shipping cost of $17.11 for your order.


What can I say except “Thanks”?

#2)
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Purchase Diary 2013 – November / December

Banana Joe (1982)


Nov 9th – €7.99 @ Drogerie Müller

Collection no. 1072

Trinity: Good Guys and Bad Guys (1985)
(I Poliziotti dell’ Strada)


Nov 9th – €7.99 @ Drogerie Müller

Collection no. 1073

They Call Me Trinity (1970)
(Lo chiamavano Trinità)


Nov 9th – €7.99 @ Drogerie Müller

Collection no. 1074

Trinity is Still My Name! was released twice in German theatres. Back in 1971 in the original release year and then in 1982, this time with a new (more funnier) dubbing and slightly cut (1:58 instead of 2:05). Both versions have their merrit and give the same movie a completely different tone.

Trinity is Still My Name! (1971)
(…continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità)


Nov 9th – €7.99 @ Drogerie Müller

Collection no. 1075

Trinity is Still My Name! (1971)
(…continuavano a chiamarlo Trinità)


Nov 9th – €7.99 @ Drogerie Müller

Collection no. 1076

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TV Junkie: A History

I watched a lot of TV shows over the years. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. And I watched accross the board.

Keep in mind that I’m only 35 years old.

I watched The Guiding Light for two years straight (it’s a soap opera whose German title was the Springfield Story). I watched medical shows like Trapper John M.D. and lawyer shows like L.A. Law. I watched the 80s action shows from MacGuyver to Riptide. I even watched Love Boat every weekday on one of the first private channels in Germany: Sat.1. I got up at 6am on every Saturday morning to watch Rawhide (Tausend Meilen Staub, lit. “A Thousand Miles of Dust”) with a very young and pre-Fistful Clint Eastwood. I knew who Daniel Boone was around the same time I met the Cartwrights as well as the men from the Shiloh Ranch.

And last weekend I binge-watched the first Netflix show House of Cards (Big recommendation! Kevin Spacey is a brilliant Magnificent Bastard!) and I got curious as to how many shows I watched intently over the past two and a half decades.

With the help of the list on the German site Wunschliste.de I created a list of “my” shows.

I only counted live-action fiction shows, no animated shows may they be Saturday morning cartoons like Yogi Bear or Scooby-Doo or evening shows like The Simpsons or South Park. No scripted reality (which I’m avoiding to 99% anyway with the exception of Comic Book Men). In this list are only shows which I followed for more than a year unless the show itself didn’t last that long.

And the answer was: 244 246 247. Two hundred and fourty four six seven different shows I watched with active interest since I’ve started watching television. And the worst thing is: Of most of these shows I watched 90% or more episodes at least once.

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