As I’ve mentioned before, I consider Netflix to be an excellent low-cost alternative to cable. Having Netflix gives you access not only to almost every DVD known to man (sent to you in the mail), but you also have access to their extensive streaming library. In other words, if you have high speed internet at home, you can watch a lot of movies and TV series (without commercial interruption) at no additional cost with just a button click. Not bad for $9 a month.
So, what do we use it for? In the evenings, we certainly do use it for a bit of entertainment to unwind a couple nights a week (we’re watching Doctor Who seasons right now), but my wife and I often dig deep into the documentaries in order to learn about a new topic and give us some food for thought on a particular subject.
Two big caveats. First, documentaries can definitely be as biased as anything else. I watch a documentary not because I believe it’s hard fact, but because it can often be a very compelling way of introducing an idea or making a case for another idea. A good documentary shouldn’t leave you thinking you now have all the answers, but should encourage you to follow up by finding more facts and different viewpoints.
Second, a good documentary should do just two things: it should make a particular idea or perspective clear to you and it should entertain you along the way. If it fails at either, it’s not a good documentary.
Over the past decade, I’ve watched a lot of documentaries. Some of them have been awful and failed on both the entertaining and clear perspective counts. Some of them have succeeded on one side or the other – they entertain but don’t have a point, or they have a point but are dreadfully boring.
Below are fifteen that succeed on both sides of the matter – and every one of them is available on Netflix streaming. If you have such an account (and I’m basically encouraging people to ditch their cable bill in exchange for it), then you’ll be able to just click any of the links below and either start watching immediately or add it to your instant queue to watch later.
Consider this an encouragement to cancel your expensive cable or satellite bill.
Cosmos
This is, hands down, the best documentary I’ve ever seen. It’s far and away the best science-related documentary I’ve ever seen, but for me, the take-away message was the fragile nature of human life. We are not invincible and the universe around us is very, very large, indeed. There are scenes from this that have stuck in my mind for many years. If you like Cosmos, try A Brief History of Time, by Hawking.
Maxed Out
Maxed Out covers the nature of overspending in America during the buildup to the 2008 financial crisis incredibly well, digging into the specifics of why it happened and the roles both individual choice and companies played into it. If you want more on this topic, In Debt We Trust is solid but nowhere near as good.
Food Inc.
If you’ve ever wondered what the process of moving food from the fields to your local grocery store and onto your dinner plate looks like, this is the show for you. I came out of this with two notable ideas: first, I wanted desperately to change my dietary habits, and second, my opinion of Wal-Mart went up significantly.
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
For the flip side on Wal-Mart, this makes the case that Wal-Mart’s business practices in bringing low-priced goods to many towns is often harmful in multiple dimensions. It reduces the quality of work and customer service available in the towns and also forces larger companies into some very shady practices in order to provide the goods at the very low prices that Wal-Mart demands.
Babies
This documentary compares how babies are raised in four distinctly different cultures and economic levels. What can be concluded from this is that you don’t really need to give your baby everything – all it really takes to raise a happy and healthy baby is care from the parents. No mountain of stuff will really make a difference if the parents are involved to begin with.
Hoop Dreams
My feelings on college sports changed significantly after watching this film (and, in similar ways, after reading The Blind Side). Individuals from very broken backgrounds are trying very hard to take advantage of the germ of basketball talent that they have so that they can make a new life for themselves, because their background assures them that many other opportunities in life are going to be closed to them. This is why collegiate athletics are important, in my opinion.
Super Size Me
This is a good one to pair with Food Inc. It documents the effects of eating nothing but fast food for a month on a human body, and the results are fairly ugly. Again, it’ll make you question what you eat, which is a powerful question to ask both for your health and for your finances.
Jesus Camp
This one has provoked more discussion with other people that have watched it than anything else I’ve ever seen, hands down, so it certainly fits here. That being said, it’s going to cause a reaction in you, but that reaction is going to be different depending on who you are and your beliefs. It’s a surprisingly unbiased look at a very conservative Christian youth camp – it almost feels like they turn on the cameras and just let them roll. From my eyes, there are good things and bad things about what’s shown regarding the camp, but some people are going to be much more strongly inclined to see the “good” and others are going to be strongly inclined to see the “bad.” Be prepared for some… discussions if you watch it with others.
Man on Wire
This one stands out to me not just because of a compelling story, but because it shows what can happen if you bring enough passion and repeated effort to the table. It tells the story of a man who walked a tightrope between the twin towers of the World Trade Center in the 1970s without a rope, and how lots and lots of training and planning made such a seemingly impossible stunt possible.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
In many ways, this is similar to Man on Wire in that it documents the result of sustained effort and hard work, as two men compete and train to achieve the highest score in the world at the video game Donkey Kong. I genuinely watched this for a laugh, but it turned out to be incredibly compelling and rather thought-provoking. What drives people to be the best in the world at something? Can I harness that myself?
One last note: the Seven Up! series of documentaries is one of the best things I’ve ever seen, but the series isn’t wholly available on streaming, particularly the first one. However, you can get the disc if you so choose.
Now cut your cable and save yourself some money!
Comments:
I recommend: Fast Food Nation, The Corporation, and Manufacturing Consent. That last one is by Chomsky-definitely a single point of view, but thought provoking-for the fiction version watch Wag the Dog. None of these are appropriate for kids.
I recommend Fathead as a counterpoint to Supersize Me. Very thought provoking, and good points about nutrition in general.
I recommend exploring some older docs, such as “Salesman” and just about anything by the Maysles.
Also “Night and Fog” by Resnais.
Most of the older ones are just as relevant now as they were when they were first made.
Ones that left an impression on me, although they are not new releases:
Grey Gardens
Brother’s Keeper
Harlan County USA
The Farmer’s Wife (series)
Snagfilms.com also streams quite a few documentaries for free .
If you enjoyed Food, Inc., try Earthlings. It’s free streaming at earthlings.com
Or be really frugal and just get it at the library.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
How to Save Money by Shopping at Whole Foods
First, we need to address a couple of important issues that we hope will explain our point of view and curb controversy.
• We live in Manhattan. Overall, our groceries cost more than yours do if you live in Tennessee (we're only singling out Tennessee because we're from there, which means we know). We do not have Costco. We do not have Wal-Mart. We are comparing these Whole Foods products to products from Fresh Direct, Fairway, or the local Gristedes.
• We're not talking about fresh produce or meat. Fairway, Fresh Direct, and the farmers' market all have Whole Foods beat (or at least tied) when it comes to these categories. We're mainly talking grocery items (specifically, the in-house 365 brand).
• Organic counts. Sometimes, a product isn't much cheaper or any cheaper than the same thing at Fresh Direct. But many of the 365 brand products are organic, which means you're getting better quality for the same money.
With that, here are our picks:
1. Organic Water Crackers, $1.79. The ever-popular Carr's Water Crackers are $3.69 at Fresh Direct, and we've seen them for $3.99 at other stores. That's more than twice the price of the WF brand.
2. Organic diced tomatoes, $1.19. Del Monte from Fresh Direct are $1.79, as are Muir Glen Organic diced tomatoes.
3. Olive Oil, $7.49 to $8.49 for 1 liter. Whole Foods sells Greek, Italian, Spanish, and blended olive oils under their 365 brand. All are cheaper than the cheapest at Fresh Direct: Bel Aria, which is $9.99 for a liter (Bertolli and De Cecco are both in the $12 to $14 range).
4. Organic pasta, $1.99. Whole Foods 365 dried pasta is a bit more expensive than non-organic brands (like Barilla, which is $1.59 for most shapes at Fresh Direct) but much less than other organic brands ($2.99 for De Cecco organic) and multigrain varieties ($2.39 for Barilla Plus).
5. Organic milk, $3.39 a half-gallon. Horizon Organic is $4.39 and Organic Valley is $4.19 at Fresh Direct.
6. Organic chicken broth, $2.19. Imagine Organic is $2.89 at Fresh Direct. We occasionally see 2 for $5 deals at Fairway, but WF is still cheaper.
7. Nuts. We bought a pound of whole cashews for $6.69. At Fresh Direct, a 14-ounce bag costs $8.49. We can't remember our last nut purchase at Fairway, but we still think WF beats it.
8. Cereal! We don't eat a lot of cereal, but when we do buy a box, we're always blown away by how expensive it is. If you're willing to go with 365 Corn Flakes instead of Kellogg's, though, you can really save money. Most cereals at Whole Foods were $2.49 as opposed to $4 to $5 for brand names at the grocery store.
OK, those are a few of our staples. But there are plenty more... Do you bargain shop at Whole Foods? What are your favorite products?
Related: Survey: Shopping for Bargains at Whole Foods (our past coverage of this issue)
(Images: Elizabeth Passarella)
• We live in Manhattan. Overall, our groceries cost more than yours do if you live in Tennessee (we're only singling out Tennessee because we're from there, which means we know). We do not have Costco. We do not have Wal-Mart. We are comparing these Whole Foods products to products from Fresh Direct, Fairway, or the local Gristedes.
• We're not talking about fresh produce or meat. Fairway, Fresh Direct, and the farmers' market all have Whole Foods beat (or at least tied) when it comes to these categories. We're mainly talking grocery items (specifically, the in-house 365 brand).
• Organic counts. Sometimes, a product isn't much cheaper or any cheaper than the same thing at Fresh Direct. But many of the 365 brand products are organic, which means you're getting better quality for the same money.
With that, here are our picks:
1. Organic Water Crackers, $1.79. The ever-popular Carr's Water Crackers are $3.69 at Fresh Direct, and we've seen them for $3.99 at other stores. That's more than twice the price of the WF brand.
2. Organic diced tomatoes, $1.19. Del Monte from Fresh Direct are $1.79, as are Muir Glen Organic diced tomatoes.
3. Olive Oil, $7.49 to $8.49 for 1 liter. Whole Foods sells Greek, Italian, Spanish, and blended olive oils under their 365 brand. All are cheaper than the cheapest at Fresh Direct: Bel Aria, which is $9.99 for a liter (Bertolli and De Cecco are both in the $12 to $14 range).
4. Organic pasta, $1.99. Whole Foods 365 dried pasta is a bit more expensive than non-organic brands (like Barilla, which is $1.59 for most shapes at Fresh Direct) but much less than other organic brands ($2.99 for De Cecco organic) and multigrain varieties ($2.39 for Barilla Plus).
5. Organic milk, $3.39 a half-gallon. Horizon Organic is $4.39 and Organic Valley is $4.19 at Fresh Direct.
6. Organic chicken broth, $2.19. Imagine Organic is $2.89 at Fresh Direct. We occasionally see 2 for $5 deals at Fairway, but WF is still cheaper.
7. Nuts. We bought a pound of whole cashews for $6.69. At Fresh Direct, a 14-ounce bag costs $8.49. We can't remember our last nut purchase at Fairway, but we still think WF beats it.
8. Cereal! We don't eat a lot of cereal, but when we do buy a box, we're always blown away by how expensive it is. If you're willing to go with 365 Corn Flakes instead of Kellogg's, though, you can really save money. Most cereals at Whole Foods were $2.49 as opposed to $4 to $5 for brand names at the grocery store.
OK, those are a few of our staples. But there are plenty more... Do you bargain shop at Whole Foods? What are your favorite products?
Related: Survey: Shopping for Bargains at Whole Foods (our past coverage of this issue)
(Images: Elizabeth Passarella)
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