Selling Off The Remains Of Blockbuster On Craigslist

Blockbuster video recently closed all its remaining stores in the US after a 20 year plus run in the home video business. There is a strange story on Gizmodo about how many of those outlets have been placing items from the stores on Craigslist in an effort to liquidate the chains remaining assets. There are some standard items for sale (DVD cases 200 for $20) and some less than standard items (the spinning wheel pictured below?!) but all going for a song...relatively speaking.

I have to admit that there is some schadenfreude at work here in mine and other's interest/glee in this story. Though I miss the video store experience in general (Kims' Video RIP) I was never a Blockbuster fan as their selection was generally awful: 30 copies of LOOK WHO'S TALKING 2 and 0 copies of any title of interest. And on top of it were all those late fees that made the company millions when they were the king of the home video world. With all that ill will, I'm not sure if they're going to find a lot of takers for their leftover merch and swag. But on Craigslist, anything is possible.

Video and Pics From The White House Xmas Party

So here's some video and photos that I took at the White House Christmas party last week. It's set to the music of The Partridge Family Christmas Album, of course, because what says the holidays like David Cassidy singing "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree"! It also seemed appropriate accompaniment since there were so many trees in the WH....I mean I lost count after 10. Anyway, enjoy a little peek at my big night out....and there is a cameo of my brother at the very end too. Thanks again for the VIP invite, bro! :)


White House Christmas Party from Brian Sloan on Vimeo.

Blowing It Up Back In The Day, Part Deux

Last summer, I posted some video of me and my friends blowing stuff up circa 1981.  I've put together another short clip, this time with a little parental intrusion just for laughs.  The voice in the background is my neighbor's mom, not to pleased with us destroying a train set, asking "Who is shooting?"  The response is classic.

So, from the way back video vaults, I present another early gem of my filmmaking career with a special introduction to kick things off with a bang. :)

Blowing It Up Back In The Day

In 1981, I got my start as a filmmaker working with my neighbor Jeff Davison and his dad's RCA b/w video camera that was tethered to a massive, first generation VHS player/recorder. We did all sorts of adaptations of popular TV shows, like "Superman", "Star Trek", "The Wild Wild West" and "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir". But the most memorable and hilarious films we made were of us blowing shit up. Jeff would get fireworks down in South Carolina and we'd go to town on our old toys or models. We even blew up Luke Skywalker's land speeder....I've gotta find that clip!

Anyway, I finally got one of these videos up to YouTube today. Now I know that it was totally juvenile and dangerous to be lighting firecrackers on my neighbor's wood porch. But it was damn funny too....the last line's a classic! Even though this video is nearly 30 years old and I've watched it countless times, it still cracks me up, especially the Beavis & Butthead background dialogue and uncontrollable giggling when things go boom. Feel free to forward, link, share and who knows....maybe it'll become a YouTube sensation. America likes a good explosion.