The Search for Schlock

I've been letting the pop culture stuff slide here of late, I know.  Apart from the posts about my collection of horror movie related books and stuff about old annuals, other things have been occupying my thoughts.  (Although I tried to make up for it with yesterday's 'Random Movie Trailer').  I just haven't had time lately to do much pop culture imbibing, (that said, I do have a backlog of stuff I watched months ago to write up).  The trouble is that we've had this combination of Christmas preparations and a general election campaign going on simultaneously, both of which have been taking up a lot of my attention.  While the election will be over by this time next week, Christmas is going to be rumbling on for the rest of the month.  I have, however, managed to sort out the main part of my preparations - organising presents for my two great nieces who live in the US.  Earlier this week I got everything ordered for them on Amazon and everything should now be winging its way to my niece, their mother, to sort out stuff like wrapping them and ensuring they are under the tree on Christmas Day. 

With that done, dusted and off of my mind, I can hopefully start turning my attention back to other things.  Traditionally for me, Christmas is a time when I  take advantage of the break from work to settle down and catch up with schlock.  This year, I have to say, I'm finding it difficult to obtain anything I want to watch - everything schlocky and obscure seems to be out of print on DVD.  I'm currently down to trying to locate third choices.  Having given up on online retailers, I'm now down to scouring charity shops and the second hand DVD section of my local CEX store.  For a while it seemed as if nothing was too obscure to be released on DVD and sold through Amazon, but the tide of schlock now seems to be receding.  (Although there does seem to be an increase in European schlock like giallos on Blu Ray - the problem with this being that they are often expensive and I don't have a Blu Ray player.  I know, I could play them on my laptop and cast them to the TV, but that's just too much hassle, to be frank).  Anyway, one way or another I'm determined to get my hands on some schlock this festive season and, come the New Year, be able to start writing about it.