Unique programming I'll miss with VOOM gone

Erosman

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Mar 8, 2006
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:cool:
OK. No whining. Just some specific examples of VOOM programming I'll miss now that they aren't available to me anymore. Seeing "The Forbidden Kingdom" in the theaters this weekend reminded me of just how much I enjoyed VOOM's 24/7 HD commercial free widescreen offerings. This list is a work in progress that I eventually hope to share with the CEO who says he reads all of his e-mails.

From VOOM’s's Kung Fu channel: Many of us knew that Jackie Chan had a career prior to "Rumble in the Bronx." But, for a great many of us, those movies were either hard to find or virtually unavailable. Now that I have seen 5-10 of his Hong Kong cinema movies, it is even easier to understand how he became an international star.

Ditto re - Michele Yeoh, she made many enjoyable movies prior to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." But, how does someone from Minnesota with no direct connection to the Asian community find and see those movies? Thank you Voom and the Kung Fu channel.

The three "Chinese Ghost Story" movies were one of, and perhaps the, most enjoyable discoveries from VOOM. Three great movies that can stand on their own or as part of a wonderful trilogy.

"The Circle of Iron" movie brings to life some of the spiritual and philosophical themes present in martial arts while telling a quality action-adventure/fantasy movie. This one might be a bit more available; but I had never seen it prior to getting the Kung Fu channel.

All of this growth from someone who is no Kung Fu Phooey. I'm 56 and I lost interest in Bruce Lee after the Green Hornet got canceled.

From VOOM's Rave channel, I saw broadcast of great concerts from Montreux Jazz Festival ; something I haven't seen anywhere else. I saw old favorites I hadn't seen for years (channel scanning when a familiar looking face catches my eye - I flip back - Yes! That is Keith Emerson and the rest of Emerson, Lake and Palmer!!) and discovered new ones. Queens of the New Stone Age are fun. But, what really blew me away was discovering the group "Apocalyptica"; four classically trained cellists with the drummer from Slayer playing songs from Metallica and others. Outstanding and wonderful!! Well worth seeing, hearing, and catching whenever you can. I have since picked up their in-concert DVD and it is great!!

From VOOM's World Cinema Channel, catching the "US high definition premier" of "The Dinner Game" was some of the best use of my time ever! A great comedy that subtly teaches both the actors and the viewers some valuable life lessons. One of my highest possible recommendations! Perhaps even more so for those who feel they don't like French cinema.

The original version of "The Visitors" with Jean Reno far outshines its' American remake; even with Jean Reno playing the same role.

Again, these selections just aren't readily available anywhere else now that VOOM is gone.

As for VOOM's Monsters/Monstervision channel, many posters have already praised this channel extensively. I like it too. My personal favorites were the older sf and horror movies in as HD as possible presentation and the Hammer Studios films. While there are other channels offering material from this genre, no one did it quite as well as Monstervision. Add in uncut, as originally presented, and no commercials, and you've got a product second to none. Seeing the Halloween Party at the Playboy Mansion was a special treat. The Monsterama shorts with Bob Burns, Elvira, and others reviewing genre collectibles and related subjects is the best I've seen in that area since the Sci Fi channel dropped Sci Fi Buzz.

That's all for right now. This is still a work in progress that I hope to share with DISH. People need to know that one person's "business decision" is another person's loss of a valuable, and possibly unique, resource that can add to one's growth and quality of life.
 
On RAVE there was Jools Holland with new episodes every season and they also broadcast the Glastonbury highlights from each of the last few years. I would have much preferred them filling their schedule with complete sets from Glastonbury but the highlights were better than nothing. I found lots of new bands through these two shows.
 
Erosman wrote:
From VOOM’s's Kung Fu channel: Many of us knew that Jackie Chan had a career prior to "Rumble in the Bronx." But, for a great many of us, those movies were either hard to find or virtually unavailable. Now that I have seen 5-10 of his Hong Kong cinema movies, it is even easier to understand how he became an international star.
Ditto re - Michele Yeoh, she made many enjoyable movies prior to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." But, how does someone from Minnesota with no direct connection to the Asian community find and see those movies? Thank you Voom and the Kung Fu channel.

The three "Chinese Ghost Story" movies were one of, and perhaps the, most enjoyable discoveries from VOOM. Three great movies that can stand on their own or as part of a wonderful trilogy.

"The Circle of Iron" movie brings to life some of the spiritual and philosophical themes present in martial arts while telling a quality action-adventure/fantasy movie. This one might be a bit more available; but I had never seen it prior to getting the Kung Fu channel.

All of this growth from someone who is no Kung Fu Phooey. I'm 56 and I lost interest in Bruce Lee after the Green Hornet got canceled.

As an avid Martial Arts fan from back in the 70's growing up, I was a big Bruce Lee fan. From watching his appearance in Green Hornet and Longstreet to Big Boss through Enter the Dragon, he was a hero to me being a asian male with no role models, except my parents. I began to learn martial arts because I wanted to be like Bruce Lee. This led me to watch even more martial arts movies. I used to go to the San Francisco Chinatown movie theaters and watch Shaw Bros movies when they arrived in town. I couldn't understand most of the language, even though I'm chinese, since I"m an american born chinese but this didn't stop me from going just to watch the martial arts action. My favorite part was always watching the training parts of the movie to see how they trained to become so good.
It is unfortunate that many americans don't get to see and learn about other cultures and be able to be exposed to this type of entertainment. Asian movies is a big part of the entertainment industry. Look at how much american movies are influenced by martial arts in movies such as Matrix and other recent movies. Major directors from Hong Kong are now in Hollywood making movies and bringing their unique style to american audiences. It's ashame that we can't see how many of these directors and actors got their start in Asian cinema. I think many americans think that the asian movies are second rate B movies since the dubbing is so awful. This is why having the original soundtrack with subtitles is always the best. Erosman, I"m glad you found this entertainment interesting since it is something many people don't get. I think it is much easier to get Asian movies now since there are many online place where you can rent/purchase these movies. There are many very, very good movies that have been made in recent years. I just saw Chow Yun-Fat in "Curse of the Golden Flower" which I thought was very sad movie but very well done on Encore Action West the other night. I also am hoping that other stations such as ImaginAsian get picked up since they are an Asian-American TV station that is slowly entering the market in bringing asian programming to the US. It is a slow process but I'm hoping that with satallite technology, it will bring not only Asian entertainment to the US, but "World" entertainment to the US with english subtitle translations so everyone can view the unique programming that is offered around the world.
 
Too many to list. My DVR used to always have more than 40 programs to record. Today, besides Stanley Cup Games, my DVR has only 6 programs to record. 6 programs are not worth $75 a month. Like many others, I have buyers remorse.
 
E* already killed VOOM for me by no longer offer an HD version of these channels...just that eye-gouging misrepresentation called DishHD-Lite. To be honest, the VOOM HD channels not have been offered by Dish Network for more than 2 years.
 
E* already killed VOOM for me by no longer offer an HD version of these channels...just that eye-gouging misrepresentation called DishHD-Lite. To be honest, the VOOM HD channels not have been offered by Dish Network for more than 2 years.
Jim, don't you ever get tired of spamming the Dish threads?
 
Gallery HD - "Dead Art"; "What the Window Washer Saw"; "Art of the Heist"

What was "Dead Art" about?

I also liked the "Behind the Masterpiece" or whatever it was called. They'd really go in-depth into a painting and give you the history of it etc. That is what makes art museums more interesting, when you know the details of a painting etc.
 
Great post jeffmwknight! I agree about the ability of film to spread learning and cultural awareness. The Kung Fu channel did that very much for me; with the World Cinema channel to to a slightly lesser extent.

One of the special things about satellite TV was supposed to be its' ability to bring us diverse programming from around the world. Losing VOOM and getting channels that mirror their SD counterparts promotes blandness; not diversity.
 
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