http://www.dvdtalk.com/
I am all for more "burn on demand" programs; I've been very satisfied with the disks I've gotten from the Warner Archive so far.
Among notables born on this date are cartoonist Charles Addams, painter Albert Bierstadt, animal writer Gerald Durrell, French poet Charles Peguy, French composer Francis Poulenc, 30s singer Al Bowlly, harpist Nicanor Zabaleta, flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, conductor Gunter Wand, Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, broadcaster Katie Couric, actors David Caruso and Jeremy Renner, and novelists Nicholson Baker and Zora Neale Hurston. One of the regrets of my leaving my teaching position at the semester break this year -- long story! -- will be not getting to teach the Harlem Renaissance and Hurston's great novel Their Eyes Were Watching God in my American Literature class. Hurston is such an inspiration to me; reading Valerie Boyd's magnificent biography Wrapped in Rainbows left me with renewed admiration for her achievement against formidable odds. It saddens me that she ended her life in near-destitution. But you can't remain sad for long thinking about the irrepressible Zora, who once said, "Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It simply astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company!"
