Blog

Once upon a time a video rental store named Hollywood Video helped me realize that the goal is not to just watch movies, but also to have fun in doing so. It was because of them that I learned the definition of 'cult classic', discovered who Tom Servo and Crow were, and first witnessed the fascinatingly complex relationship between the city of Tokyo and Godzilla. Some of my favorite all-time Christmas memories involve nights spent with flurries against the living room window, a room lit only by the Christmas tree and a TV screen, and a big stack of Hollywood Video VHS rentals.

Continue Reading "What Films Mean to Us" →

The holiday season brings with it family gatherings, delicious food, and gifts, but it’s also filled with big movie releases.  Both Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day are big days for the box office, and the movie studios make sure there are lots of great new movies out there to draw us in!

As a book lover, when a movie is based on a book, I prefer to read the book before seeing the movie; movies almost always have to drop (sometimes crucial, in my opinion) elements of a story in order to fit it into 2-3 hours, and I prefer to experience the full story first.  I also prefer to have my own “picture” of characters in my head first; in the past when I’ve seen the movie then read the book, I inevitably have the actors from the movie in my head when I later read the story, and my imagination feels left out of the process.  

Continue Reading "Books on the Big Screen" →

'Tis the season and all that.  Some of us love it and are natural  holiday merrymakers. Some of us just kind of, well you know.... hate it.  For you bah-humbuggers the holidays can be hard, but DPPL can help. Here are four ways to put a little more 'happy' in your holiday.

Continue Reading "Holidays are hard.  DPPL’s got 4 ways to make them easier" →

Gosh, I love Halloween. And so do the rest of you, by the looks of it.  According to Forbes, 158 million of us got our Halloween on last year, spending an average of $78.03 per 'celebrating consumer' on decor, costumes, candy and fun.

We spent $2.6 billion on costumes alone (not counting the $330 million spent on pet costumes.

Can't leave our pets out of the fun.

Continue Reading "Who needs Party City? Make DPPL your Halloween costume destination" →

Many of us are not thrilled about approaching the doorstep of winter, but this time of year affords a unique perspective to our lives. I remember playing football in my backyard at the edge of a Pennsylvania forest and stopping, as the sun had almost set, to peer into the gathering shadows of the woods. I wondered if I just saw something move in the tree-filled murk. While there would obviously be nothing there (or was there?), my curiosity has always been piqued by tales of the unknown, the undiscovered, the untold or the unseen.

Continue Reading "What We Don’t Know" →