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Plug and Play

Q: How do you attach an iPod or similar MP3 player to a stereo receiver or AVR to maximize playback quality? I’m a longtime subscriber, but I only remember seeing you give examples of the “minimalist” approach using small speakers and docks designed specifically for iPods.

--Ronald V. Tancredi | Farmingdale, NY

Not long ago, a Northern Irish filmmaker caused a sensation when he posted a video of a “time traveler”: a woman captured on film at the 1928 premiere of the Chaplin silent movie The Circus walking past the Chinese Theater apparently yammering into a cell phone. Now, on one level, this is entirely plausible, as what sane person among us wouldn’t take the opportunity to travel through time in order to get out of a contract with AT&T? But then again, is this a likely mission for a time traveler? “Hmm, I have the ability to project myself into the past and change the course of history. What should I do, take out Hitler? Poison Stalin’s borscht? Prevent the formation of sports talk radio? Or, even though it’s on DVD—I own it, in fact—should I check out that old Chaplin film while speaking into my cell phone, which will be rendered useless because of the lack of cell phone towers in 1928? Why, the choice practically makes itself—1928 Hollywood, here I come!”

Video: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 3.5/5
Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis star as accidental outlaws on a desperate flight across the Southwest after a tragic incident at a roadside bar. With a determined detective on their trail, a sweet-talking hitchhiker in their path and a string of crimes in their wake, their journey alternates between hilarious, high-speed thrill ride and empowering personal odyssey even as the law closes in.

Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 3.5/5
Extras: 2.5/5
For years, townsfolk have been terrified of the backwoods recluse known as Felix Bush. People say he's done all manner of unspeakable things - that he's killed in cold blood, that he's in league with the Devil; that he has strange powers - and they avoid him like the plague. Then, one day, Felix rides to town with a shotgun and a wad of cash, saying he wants to buy a funeral. It's not your usual funeral for the dead that Felix wants. On the contrary, he wants a living funeral, in which anyone who ever heard a story about him will come to tell it, while he takes it all in. Sensing a big payday in the offing, fast-talking funeral home owner Frank Quinn enlists his gentlemanly young apprentice, Buddy Robinson, to win over Felix's business.