Free Republic

It's lonely at the top. That's what the Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon, discovered when the only other store in the world -- located in Australia -- announced it was closing. Although Sandi Harding, the general manager of the Oregon Blockbuster, is excited that hers is the last Blockbuster on the planet, she expressed her condolences for friends at the Australia store. "We all have a kinship with the other Blockbusters," Harding told CNN. The Oregon location has been open for more than 20 years. It offers customers the newest movie releases, but Harding says the classic older titles are the...

A man parked his motorcycle on the sidewalk Saturday morning, ruining the aesthetic of the last remaining Blockbuster in the continental United States. "You can't park there," general manager Sandi Harding told the man as he walked into the store in Bend, Oregon. "People are trying to take pictures." The man paused for a beat. There was confusion in his response. "Trying to take pictures?" Somehow he had missed the past decade, when Blockbuster the video rental behemoth became Blockbuster the fallen victim of modernity.In 2004, at the company's peak, 9,000 Blockbuster outlets studded city blocks and suburban strip malls...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska >> Alaska’s last two Blockbuster video stores are calling it quits, leaving just one store open in the United States. The stores in Anchorage and Fairbanks will close for rentals after Sunday night and reopen Tuesday for video liquidation sales through the end of August, said Kevin Daymude, general manager of Blockbuster Alaska.

The troubled renter of movies and video games said Wednesday it wouldn't hold a conference call with analysts after it released quarterly earnings, which it was supposed to do today. Now it appears Blockbuster might not even release those financial results at its scheduled time. Several calls and emails to Blockbuster press and investor relations were going unanswered, and, as of 4 p.m., there was no earnings release in sight. Blockbuster shares on Thursday rose 18% to 18 cents. The stock has been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and now trades on the pink sheets under the symbol,...

I recieved the following email yesterday afternoon and I am steaming mad. The video chain Blockbuster video has been aggressively advertising thier alternative to the growing success of Netflix. I was pressured by the folks who work at the video stored for months to join Blockbuster Unlimited. They touted the ability to rent movies online just like Netflix but with the added bonus of being able to take a movie back into any store and exchange it free for another title, along with being able to also just rent from the store. This sounded like a great deal and sold...

National Coalition Launches www.STOPMTV.org 2/13/04 1:42:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: National Desk, Religion Reporter Contact: Maryam Kubasek of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, 513-521-6227, ext. 111; web: http://www.nationalcoalition.org CINCINNATI, Feb. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families has launched a new educational initiative regarding MTV and its negative impact on teens. The organization has launched a web site, http://www.stopmtv.org , which gives parents some startling facts about the music channel and encourages them to make some tough choices regarding viewing it. MTV's latest production, the halftime show at...