Return to VHS

IN BETWEEN revisiting 2006 and writing about it (a priority assignment), I passed much of the weekend viewing VHS tapes being lent for free at the Raul S. Roco Library, a new service made possible under the leadership of acting librarian Rico Vinluan.

With the demise of the VHS format, the collection of Jean-Mac video house was donated to the library, which it lends out in turn to its clients. It gave me the idea to airbrush and clean up the innards of my 10-year old Sony VHS player, which had not been in use since the VCD and the DVD killed the VHS format early in the early 2000s. My player is still working very well, and still does justice to the seven tapes I borrowed thus far.

My kids thoroughly enjoyed the An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster, which came with a decent closed captioning, and Soccer Dog. I contented myself with another viewing of the visually luscious Chocolat that starred Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench and the ever versatile Alfred Molina; and saw for the first time the enchanting Captain Corelli's Mandolin (also close-captioned, featuring a young Penelope Cruz, Christian Bale and Nicolas Cage) and the intriguing The Proposition (Kenneth Branagh, the beauteous Madeleine Stowe and the stoic William Hurt).

Definitely not bad for a weekend spent mostly at home. So if you're a cost-conscious movie buff living in Naga or its suburbs, who still have a working VHS player at home, and can spare some transpo to and from the Roco Library, why don't you give it a try? Multi-awarded Kristian Cordero said the library's collection is always worth his while.