Glasses

Tatty Devine is a London purveyor of jewelry and accessories, who sells this interesting curio, a 3-D glasses necklace. Not just another pretty necklace, this is a real, functioning pair of anaglyph 3D glasses. It is made to resemble a cardboard pair, but it's really fashioned of acrylic and metal.

It's a neat idea, but they only come in red/green variety, which severely limits their usefulness. The high price (45 pounds) is another impediment. Still, I am encouraged to see 3-D glasses becoming so fashionable, even if in a postmodern ironic way.

The current issue of TV Guide -- the July 21 to August 3, 2008 issue, the one with Miley Cyrus on the cover -- comes with a free pair of Hannah Montana 3-D glasses bound into the pages of the magazine, ideally suited for watching the Best of Both Worlds Concert.

The free Hannah Montana 3-D glasses are bound between pages 38 and 39 -- between the full page Disney Hannah Montana concert advertisement and the article on Miley Cyrus. You can't miss it, really.

You have to punch the glasses out along the perforations, and assemble them. No scissors, glue, or tape is required, they just fit together like so.

TV Guide is sold at newsstands and grocery stores. The cover price is $3.99. Since this is a "Double Issue," with two weeks of listings, one hopes it will be available for at least awhile.

See Hannah Montana in 3-D!

The "Disney Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus Best of Both Worlds Concert" is being broadcast in three-dimensional anaglyph, one night only July 26 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, on the Disney Channel. And then, if you missed it (or not), the Starz channel is re-broadcasting it the next day.

You need 3-D glasses to see this concert in 3D. But you can get them free. My good friend Hannah Montana and I have teamed up to give free Hannah Montana 3-D glasses to anyone who goes to Wal-Mart and snatches them.

They are your basic red/cyan anaglyph glasses, made by American Paper Optics, except the stems are a bit shorter, to accommodate younger, smaller heads. Even if you don't plan to watch the Hannah Montana concert, you might want to pick these glasses up for the kids.

They're only free while supplies last, so get on out to a Wal-Mart as as soon as you possibly can. I got mine today, and they were not easy to find. I had to ask four employees before I found one who knew anything about them. And when I got to the register, the clerk left her post to wander around the store asking her bosses if they were really free. They were. (The wig costs extra, though.)

So, if you go to Wal-Mart, and the first few people you talk to don't know anything about any free Hannah Montana 3D glasses, don't give up!

UPDATE 1: It looks as though the supply of Hannah Montana glasses at Wal-Mart is running out. You may have to make your own 3-D glasses.

UPDATE 2: The current issue of TV Guide, the one with Miley Cyrus on the cover, comes with a free pair of Hannah Montana 3-D glasses. Find it at newsstands and grocery stores this week.

UPDATE 3: Disney is releasing the movie on DVD and Blu-ray on August 19. The discs will be excellent high-definition quality, and packed with bonus features.

Most of my advice regarding the procurement of 3-D glasses is aimed at those who only need one or two pairs. But some people need 50 pairs, or a hundred, or a thousand. Perhaps you are one of them.

I, for instance, needed a whole bunch of 3-D glasses. I wanted to give them away to my kids, to my friends, to my clients, and to my students at the college where I teach. So I shopped around for the best bulk deal on paper 3-D glasses.

I found it at Movie Vision, Inc. Their plain white 3D glasses are only 17¢ apiece. This price is substantially lower than other suppliers charge for plain white anaglyph glasses. I mean, it's less than half the price of the next best deal I could find! (Naturally, if you know of a better deal from some other company, please let me know in the comments.)

There is no minimum order; you could theoretically order just one pair, and pay 17¢ for it. But you won't, because there is a minimum shipping charge of $12.00, and $12.17 for a pair of paper glasses is not a bargain. This source only makes sense for people who need at least 50 pairs.

For example, if you buy 50 pairs at 17¢, that's $8.50, plus $12 shipping, for a total of $20.50. So your glasses will cost 41¢ apiece, including the shipping, and that's not bad. But if you buy 100 pairs at 17¢ plus $12 shipping, they're only 29¢ apiece. If you buy 1,000, they're about 18¢ apiece. So big orders save more.

And the shipping was quick. I placed my order online at 8:42 a.m., and just 24 minutes later, at 9:06, I got an email saying my order had been shipped! With a tracking number and everything. The package arrived two days later.

I should mention that I have no relationship at all with this company, I am not being paid to promote them, and I have no dealings with them other than having placed this order I'm blogging about. If anyone knows of a better deal on bulk 3D glasses from any other supplier, just let me know by commenting on this post, and I'll look into it.

UPDATE AUGUST 12, 2008: For at least the past five days, it has been impossible to place an order with MovieVision. Their website is up, but their shopping cart functions are all disabled. Nobody answers the phone, or returns my calls. Emails get no reply.

I also sent an email to their shopping-cart host, Website Forge, LLC, asking about the issue. My reply from them said, "This page has been restricted by the site administrator." That means it is not some technical glitch, but a decision by MovieVision to pull down their shopping cart.

I am not happy to see such a good source of 3-D glasses disappear, and I hope they come back soon. For now, if you need 3D glasses, I recommend buying from Rainbow Symphony, whose bulk prices are higher than MovieVision's, but a little lower than American Paper Optics.