what i'm watching: netflix vs. zip

With the very end of baseball fast approaching, Movie Season is about to begin. We had already joined a local video store - autumn training? - but now we've plunged into Zip.ca, the Canadian version of Netflix. We joined this morning, rebuilding our old Netflix Queue as a ZipList.

If you've been reading wmtc for a while, you know I lived and died by Netflix, and nothing else will do. Local movie-rental stores are nice, but they never have enough selection, you have to make a special trip there, and if you don't get around to watching the movie, you're paying late fees. Movies-on-demand favor the blockbusters, plus a small sample of independents, even more limited than a corner store. In Netflix I found movie nirvana: massive selection, unlimited rentals, no due dates, and I can control it all from my desk while I have my morning coffee.

I was horrified when Netflix cancelled its plans to expand into Canada. The selection at Zip seems almost as good; we'll see if their service is, too.

We watch a lot of movies. Where I used to be out most evenings, either hearing music, seeing theatre, doing activism or volunteering, or out to dinner with friends, in recent years I'm more likely to be home at night than anything else. And quite happy about it.

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