It’s State of Origin time again. The greatest rivalry in Australian sport celebrates it’s 100^th game tonight. Since 1980 the State of Origin series has been the ultimate rugby league battle between Queensland and New South Wales. The series produces some of the best footy you’ll see all year as the top players from the league take the field.

What makes Origin special is the absolute dedication of the fans. Just like the players, the fans are committed to their state of origin. It doesn’t matter where you live now, it’s where you came from. You can’t change State of Origin allegiance, if you are born in Queensland no matter where you live now, at State of Origin time you’re a Queenslander. It’s the question that always gets asked before every Game 1, ‘who do you go for’? What sounds like an innocent question about who you think will win a footy game will then spiral into a discussion about everything that is better in their state; if you happen to support the other side. At this time of year it’s as if every NSW and Queensland fan becomes a spokesperson for their state’s Tourism board. This is what makes State of Origin great, the absolute loyalty of the fans to their state and the passion they show when talking about the game.

For the last 8 years it’s normally been the Maroons fan that will start any conversation about Origin. For the past eight series Queensland has dominated the field. NSW have won a few games but after losing the series for 8 years, being a Blues fan is tough work. A Blues fan requires a strong ability to defend Blues players and tactics, blame referees and insult the Maroons, while being taunted by the Queenslander who is supremely confident that this year will be 9 in a row. There is no sympathy for the underdog in State of Origin. A Blues fan must live in the hope that 2014 will be the year where NSW will reign supreme, and after 8 years of losing the series, victory will be even sweeter.

We can only wait and see what drama will unfold this year as the Series kicks off tonight, if you want to relive some of the great clashes of the past grab a State of Origin DVD and enjoy the best the Rugby League and an NRL DVD has to offer.

With winter coming, the perfect way to spend a cold rainy Sunday afternoon is with some binge viewing. Some people like to watch a TV show on DVD an episode at a time, maybe one or two episodes a week, that way they can make a TV show last for months. Others, like myself binge view. That’s when you sit down and watch at least 3 episodes of a TV show on DVD in a row, if it’s only a half hour show then at least 6 episodes in a row. The best way to tell if you binge view is when you realise that you have watched a whole disc of your TV on DVD without getting up off the couch. A much easier task when the DVD menu has a ‘play all’ option.

TV show producers and writers are well aware that many people binge view their shows and are writing and producing shows that will keep the binge viewer engaged over multiple episodes. Back in the 1980s and 1990s we may have watched the same TV show at the same time slot every week on TV but the episode each week could be viewed as a stand-alone episode. The characters were the same but the story line for each episode was pretty much wrapped up each week. If you missed an episode you could easily catch up next time you watched. Today’s shows are very different, now if you miss an episode you have lost the whole thread of the show. By binge viewing TV shows you can watch the story as a whole and the plot twists and storylines that can carry over entire episode and even to other seasons are easier to follow and remember.

Take ‘House of Cards’ as the perfect example of this. It’s a show that, while based around a few main characters, does not have stand-alone episodes. Each episode is intricate weaving of plot lines and twists that will run through the whole season and will carry over into other seasons. There are your main characters that the show on based upon and many other characters that have their own stories that all weave into the main plot. These are the kinds of TV shows that require some concentration to watch so you can keep up with who is doing what, and why. Binge viewing allows us to feel engaged into the story and is the perfect way to ensure that we don’t miss an episode of our favourite show and then literally lose the plot.

With Mother’s Day next weekend the DVDLand team decided to run a staff poll on their favourite DVD Musical Movies of all time. Surprisingly there was only 1 new DVD release amongst them (Disney’s Frozen) with the majority of them coming from earlier decades. There are a couple of surprises and a few that you would expect on everyone’s top 10 musicals list. All the musicals are current available to grab on DVD from our website.

Tell us what you think. Did we miss your favourite musical, is there something on our list that isn’t that good. We always love to hear from our customers and blog readers.

1. Sound Of Music. Coming in at number 1 on our staff picks top 10 musical list. The Sound Of Music and it’s runner up was streets ahead of the next 8 for good reason, who doesn’t love singing along to The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music.

2. Grease. Is the word, is the word that you heard, it’s got groove it’s got meaning. With our Olivia Newton-John and our adopted John Travolta there’s no one alive that could have a bad word to say about Sandy. Tell me about it, stud.

3. Singin In The Rain starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds is probably the perfect musical. It’s got song, it’s got dance, it’s got the biggest stars from the 1950s and not a swear word to be heard. You’ll remember it for having one of the most famous scenes in movie history. So considering all that why did our staff only rate it number 3? Re-count!

4. Frozen. Disney’s Frozen comes in at number 4. Whilst this is no doubt an excellent musical for the whole familly with a very popular soundtrack I’m not sure this will retain it’s top 10 spot in 20 years time but this brand new release is great fun as you would expect from Disney.

5. Mary Poppins. Talking of Disney, Mary Poppins is still to this day one of the most popular DVDs year-on-year. It got a new lease of life through the 2013 movie Saving Mr Banks that tells the story of P.L Travers the creator of Mary Poppins along with Walt Disney played by Tom Hanks.

6. Moulin Rouge. The 2001 movie by our Aussie Baz Luhrmann and starring Nicole Kidman is not your average musical, it’s a little out there but still rightfully belongs in our top 10 musicals list.

7. The Wizard Of Oz. Needs no introduction. Starring Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale and co-starring the Cowardly Lion, Tinman and everyone’s favourite The Scarecrow. I’ll get you my pretty, and your little dog too..

8. Cabaret. Nice segue into Cabaret starring Judy Garland’s daughter Liza Minnelli. Set in Nazi Berlin, this is probably the most fun musical on our list. If not a little naughty.

9. Rocky Horror Picture Show. Like Cabaret, this is a real fun musical. If you compiled this list of only people who were young adults in the 1970s I think you’ll find this number one every time.

10. Seven Brides For Seven Brothers. If you’re looking for a musical that breaks into song for no apparent reason then this is the musical for you. This 1954 movie is set in 1850s Oregon. A little unknown fact, this isn’t a true story. 7 brothers didn’t marry 7 brides in the backwoods and randomly break into song in beautiful baritone voices 😉

Mother’s Day is only a few weeks away so we’ve compiled our top 10 DVD gift ideas for Mum.

1. Downton Abbey series 4. Almost all Mums love the upstairs downstairs story of Downton Abbey and after the tragic ending of series 3 your Mum will love you for giving her series 4 on DVD or the complete DVD Box Set.

2. Doc Martin series 6. This brand new release is the best season yet of Doc Martin starring Martin Clunes. Trust me, your Mum loves Doc Martin.

3. A Country Practice series 10. If your Mum was around in the 1980s she would have fond memories of A Country Practice. Set in the fictitious town of Wanden Valley, this show was the most popular Australian TV drama of the 1980s and for the first time series 10 is now available. Oh hang it, get Mum all 10 seasons, you know she deserves it.

4. Disney’s Frozen. Your Mum may have told you that she only watched Disney DVDs because she was watching them with you as a kid. Reality check, your Mum was lying. She loves Disney DVDs, she loves the apparent random breaking-into-song and the adorable characters such as Olaf in the new Frozen DVD.

5. Inspector George Gently series 6. Martin Shaw, who you may remember as Judge John Deed is the lead as Inspector George Gently. Very 1960s, very British and this new DVD makes a very good gift.

6. Puberty Blues series 2. Set is Aussie suburbia in the 1970s this new release is set to be one of the most popular gifts for Mum this year. This really is one of the best Australian dramas of this decade.

7. Railway Man. Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth is simply outstanding in this movie. A victim of the WW2 Death Railway sets out to find those responsible for his torture.

8. Philomena. A 2014 Best Picture Oscar nominee starring Judy Dench. What Mum doesn’t love Judy Dench.

9. Murdoch Mysteries series 7. Set in the 1890s William Murdoch is ahead of his time using forensic techniques and fingerprints. This is a really great show and something you’ll find near the top of Mum’s wish list.

10. Call The Midwife series 3. This is set in the poor East London in the 1950s and is really popular with Mums, similar to the new Australian DVD Love Child which would be a number 11 if we had room.

That’s just our top 10 we’ve come up with and we didn’t have room to tell you about the new Midsomer Murders release, The Book Thief, the new Veronica Mars movie, Heartbeat or House Of Cards but I guess this wasn’t a top 15 was it 😉 To all the Mums out there have a very Happy Mother’s Day.

Sad news this week that Mickey Rooney has passed away at the age of 93.  Mickey Rooney was truly a Hollywood great.  His career on film began long before there were DVDs in 1926 when he was just 6 years old, however even before that he was already performing on the Vaudeville stage.  He proved that during his long career he was one of Hollywood’s most enduring actors.  To have a career that spanned Vaudeville, silent movies, entertaining the troops in World War II, TV shows, theatre and over 100 movies is remarkable and something that we will never see again.

Mickey had seen the Golden age of Hollywood and was friends with all the greats of the time.  He was especially close with Judy Garland, the two were close friends after appearing in the musical ‘Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry’ in 1937.  They went on to do a string of musicals and starred in nine movies together.  He also starred with Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet, the film that launched her rise to stardom.

These days actors try not to get typecast in certain roles.  For Mickey Rooney his career really took off when he was typecast into the role of Andy Hardy.  It began with a film called ‘A Family Affair’ in 1937 where he played Andy Hardy, an all-American teenager.  Rooney went on to play the character of Andy Hardy in almost 20 films.  However in doing so, made his career and made Mickey Rooney the top box office star in 1939, 1940 and 1941.  Mickey went on to play a variety of different roles throughout his career earning him Academy Awards nominations, and Tony nominations for his theatre work in Sugar Babies.

Mickey Rooney continued to work in entertainment his whole life, including recently in The Muppets in 2011, and the role of Mr Louis in the 2014 adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and reprising his role as Gus for Night At The Museum 3 which began filming earlier this year.

Mickey Rooney was a rarity in this era of being famous for the sake of being famous.  He dedicated his life to entertaining others and created a body of work that spanned nine decades.  He was the last remaining star of the silent movie era and embodied a version of Hollywood that we won’t see again.