This is the letter regarding my choice to drop DirecTV/cable. The only thing that is worth subscribing to on cable for me is HBO. But I am no longer willing to pay for the initial cable/satellite package needed to add on HBO. As an a la carte service though, I feel it is great value for money.

Dear HBO,

I just wanted to alert you that I have been a long-time customer (over 10 years) of HBO. I have always enjoyed the movie selections, but more importantly and prominently the original programming like series, movies, and events that HBO produces.

After all this time, it saddens me that I will be cancelling my HBO. It’s not the product. It’s the delivery. I am ditching DirecTV. I will now be acquiring all of my TV via the internet through sites like Hulu or purchasing through iTunes.I would love for HBO to make its programming available via broadband or through iTunes the day after it originally airs, but while I am willing to pay for HBO, I am not willing to pay for cable or satellite anymore.

I hope that the executives at HBO realize that HBO’s strength is in its role as a content provider and not as a network limited by cable. Perhaps you can strike a deal with cable internet providers to offer the channel as a broadband add-on without cable programming.

It’s been a great ride, but goodbye.

Kristen Leep

I have been attacking my closet with a slow and steady pace. Sunday night I started going through my closet. I needed something cheesy and mindless to watch and our DirecTV box is out in the bedroom, so I grabbed our Apple TV from the living room and brought it in the bedroom. I tested out the movie rental feature by renting 27 Dresses. It was exactly the kind of light-hearted, predictable rom-com that I was in the mood to watch. If you can believe I had 22 black dresses in my closet ranging form casual to dressy and my goal by the end of the movie was to halve the number of LBD’s in my closet. I am proud to say I achieved my goal.

Yesterday I got rid of more dresses in various colors.  While undertaking that feat, I streamed episodes of AMC’s Mad Men on the Apple TV.  I love the show and am so excited for the new season on July 27.  Plus, the costuming is so wonderful and I imagine myself to be as hot as Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway (the redheaded office manager), so it made it easier to let go of clothes that didn’t make me feel great.

Anyway, tonight was skirt and pant purge night.  So first I started with YouTube ABBA videos, but I was getting tired of finding a new one after one ended.  Rob suggested hitting up our DVD closet.  There was no ABBA, but there were tons of other musical goodies.  I tried to watch Later…with Jools Holland on DVD, but it kept screwing up.  So, I moved on to Kylie Minogue’s Body Language DVD.  There were some skippable moments, but overall it’s a joy to watch.  She has such great style and  she’s just so cute (well, when she doesn’t look like Joan Rivers).  

Anyway, when that was done, there was more work to be done in the form of folding clean laundry, so I popped in this Michel Gondry video anthology I have.  Side A is pretty good, and I’m not familiar enough with his earlier work or the artists he worked with to be interested in Side B yet- maybe another night.

I have been watching the videos going chronologically backward starting in 2003 with the White Stripes “Hardest Button to Button”.  I like how Gondry riffs on repetition in this collection.  Visually, he uses two different views or combines takes and has lots of dreamy repetitive people walking around.  Anyway, Michel Gondry is one of the things on the list over at Stuff White People Like.  I do recommend at least heading over to YouTube and watching some videos.  They are such nice eye candy and he definitely has a unique point of view and even when using the same “gimmick” of repetition in a few videos, he manages to keep it fresh.

Here are a couple of my favorite videos:

“Come Into My World” – Kylie Minogue – Kylies EVERYWHERE!

“Let Forever Be” – The Chemical Brothers – Hard to tell on YouTube, but uses video and film in a nice contrast.

“The Hardest Button to Button” – The White Stripes – Just a great pairing of simple visuals that really work with the music…

I’m not a true Hulkamaniac or anything, although I did see the Hulk fight Rowdy Roddy Piper at the JACC in South Bend in like 1984 or something, but I do manage to catch Hogan Knows Best on VH1 (which isn’t hard to do with both MTV and VH1 rerunning things to death) form time to time.

This episode where Hulk’s son gets a girlfriend and the Hulk’s feelings get hurt because his son wants to hang with this girl instead of going shooting with Hulk is my favorite episode I’ve seen. Hulk is so sensitive. And his son is so whipped. Hulk then tries to sabotage the realtionship by having this other girl his son likes take him for a ride. You almost feel a little sorry for Hulk. He kind of reminds me of a girl. His behavior when he feels like his son is ditching him is so girly.