I have it on a sign at my dealer tables: "Preserve Our Heritage; Collect Physical Media". It's not just a ploy to entice movie sales. I mean it from the heart. I like to think most serious fans at least sympathize with the sentiment. One horror writer who shall remain anonymous mocked me for it.
Many cannot resist the convenience of streaming. I maintain that we are conveniencing ourselves into extinction, and not just with movie watching. We are losing our collective ability to accomplish things from writing simple paragraphs to navigating a trip without electronic assistance.
What do we gain from these shortcuts? More time for tiktoks? More time to plunk around on our phones? Money is often saved, but at what other cost?
Best Buy has completely removed physical media from their stores. Not that I would notice if I hadn't read about it. I haven't entered a Best Buy in years. They used to be one of my go-to choices for movie purchases. A huge selection was available. Everything from titles by big studios to the independent companies. I stopped going when they cut way back on the smaller labels. This was around the time Amazon swallowed up much of the competition.
Now I buy new from Amazon, direct from the so-called boutique labels, and used from thrift shops and ebay.
Movie collecting was a fad for most people. Nearly everyone I knew had lots of VHS and DVD movies on their shelves. They weren't the fanatics some of us are. We, the real fans, like our physical media. We like the extras, the audio commentaries. We like cover art, inserts, slipcases. We like looking at our collections. We love the aesthetics of loading a disc into a player and waiting for the menu screen to come up.
Collections are extensions of our personalities. Whenever I enter someone's house for the first time, my eyes go straight to the shelves. Do they have books? Movies? You can tell a lot about a person by their physical objects. Is it a bunch of typical crap? Do they have exotic tastes? Do we like the same things?
The powers that be do not want us to own things. They crave repeat billing. A monthly stipend directly withdrawn from our bank accounts. "Music was a product, now it is a service". I'll take the product every time.
It's not like anyone but the Taylor Swifts and other top tiers of music actually make any money from Spotify or Pandora. Sadly, I don't think they make a lot from vinyl sales either, but at least when you buy a record you own that record. A personal statement from an artist. With artwork, a specifically chosen running order of songs, a direct link from the fan to the creator.
You don't even own the things you supposedly "buy" from Amazon Prime. They can take it away at any time. Or if the grid is down, you have some password snafu and your account is temporarily closed, or maybe your device shits the bed. You have your physical media. You can carry it next door to your neighbor's house. If Amazon got wiped out by a genius hacker you can read your books outside in the woods.
There's something even worse than taking a movie away. Something even more insidious.
The powers-that-be, for our protection, can alter the very content of a movie. They can, they have, and they will continue to do so. And most of us will be completely ignorant that it happened.
Take The French Connection. Do we really need to see Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle character spout racial epithets? They thing is, Doyle isn't exactly a nice guy. He breaks the rules and his behavior isn't a lot better than the criminals he is after. Director William Friedkin spent time with real police detectives in research for the movie. He recorded their conduct as honestly as he could. It wasn't pretty, nor was it supposed to be. The French Connection is an ugly portrait of an ugly time and place. Cleaning up the language is nothing but a lie.
Police had guns drawn in a scene from E.T. The Extraterrestrial. Papa Spielberg had them digitally changed to walkie talkies, a decision he later regretted. "I should have never messed with the archives of my own work, and I don't recommend anyone do that. All our movies are a kind of a signpost of where we were when we made them, what the world was like and what the world was receiving when we got those stories out there."
Now Amazon is putting ads in movies even if you are a Prime member. Of course you can pay an additional fee to eliminate them again. You can't blame Bezos, can you? He's down to his last three hundred billion dollars.
There's all of that and more, but it really comes down to Collectors and Non-Collectors. Those of us who love movies, books, music, we want the real thing in our hands. We want to have them into our old age. We like fondling the items, sometimes giving them away to deserving parties. If we can't hold them in our hands, we don't really have them.
Yes, I do stream now and then. Sometimes I know I only want to watch something one time. Mostly I like to watch them the way God intended. Especially since He took the drive-ins away from most of us.
There's also the question of what format to collect. Many have decried DVD and only buy Blu-ray and 4K. Me, I like it all, but I have no problem whatsoever with DVD. People call them blurry? Really? They still look great to me. There may be a bigger difference in digital movies, but for the old ones I love? Especially the cheapo B movies? I can barely tell the difference between DVD and Blu-ray. Sometimes, when a print is damaged and hasn't been restored, the Blu-ray looks even worse.
Much of the joy of collecting is in the hunt. I go out every weekend looking for deals. I buy up everything I can. Then I turn around and sell them at my tables.
It's not like I'm getting rich here. I barely make a dollar or two with each sale. I do it to put the movies in the hands of fellow movie lovers. I am lucky to break even, but I love it. Some people pay me and grunt like an extra in an Italian George Romero ripoff movie, but most carry on great conversations. Meeting people in the real world, fans at cons, restores the faith I lose daily when I go on social media.
I'm a collector to the very end, and I will continue to do my best to infect everyone I meet with the beautiful affliction. It brings me endless joy. I love the movies, the books, the music. I love the creators and the publishers and the distributors. I love my fellow fans.
You know what? Good bye, Best Buy. I won't miss you a bit.
Written by Mark Sieber
Many cannot resist the convenience of streaming. I maintain that we are conveniencing ourselves into extinction, and not just with movie watching. We are losing our collective ability to accomplish things from writing simple paragraphs to navigating a trip without electronic assistance.
What do we gain from these shortcuts? More time for tiktoks? More time to plunk around on our phones? Money is often saved, but at what other cost?
Best Buy has completely removed physical media from their stores. Not that I would notice if I hadn't read about it. I haven't entered a Best Buy in years. They used to be one of my go-to choices for movie purchases. A huge selection was available. Everything from titles by big studios to the independent companies. I stopped going when they cut way back on the smaller labels. This was around the time Amazon swallowed up much of the competition.
Now I buy new from Amazon, direct from the so-called boutique labels, and used from thrift shops and ebay.
Movie collecting was a fad for most people. Nearly everyone I knew had lots of VHS and DVD movies on their shelves. They weren't the fanatics some of us are. We, the real fans, like our physical media. We like the extras, the audio commentaries. We like cover art, inserts, slipcases. We like looking at our collections. We love the aesthetics of loading a disc into a player and waiting for the menu screen to come up.
Collections are extensions of our personalities. Whenever I enter someone's house for the first time, my eyes go straight to the shelves. Do they have books? Movies? You can tell a lot about a person by their physical objects. Is it a bunch of typical crap? Do they have exotic tastes? Do we like the same things?
The powers that be do not want us to own things. They crave repeat billing. A monthly stipend directly withdrawn from our bank accounts. "Music was a product, now it is a service". I'll take the product every time.
It's not like anyone but the Taylor Swifts and other top tiers of music actually make any money from Spotify or Pandora. Sadly, I don't think they make a lot from vinyl sales either, but at least when you buy a record you own that record. A personal statement from an artist. With artwork, a specifically chosen running order of songs, a direct link from the fan to the creator.
You don't even own the things you supposedly "buy" from Amazon Prime. They can take it away at any time. Or if the grid is down, you have some password snafu and your account is temporarily closed, or maybe your device shits the bed. You have your physical media. You can carry it next door to your neighbor's house. If Amazon got wiped out by a genius hacker you can read your books outside in the woods.
There's something even worse than taking a movie away. Something even more insidious.
The powers-that-be, for our protection, can alter the very content of a movie. They can, they have, and they will continue to do so. And most of us will be completely ignorant that it happened.
Take The French Connection. Do we really need to see Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle character spout racial epithets? They thing is, Doyle isn't exactly a nice guy. He breaks the rules and his behavior isn't a lot better than the criminals he is after. Director William Friedkin spent time with real police detectives in research for the movie. He recorded their conduct as honestly as he could. It wasn't pretty, nor was it supposed to be. The French Connection is an ugly portrait of an ugly time and place. Cleaning up the language is nothing but a lie.
Police had guns drawn in a scene from E.T. The Extraterrestrial. Papa Spielberg had them digitally changed to walkie talkies, a decision he later regretted. "I should have never messed with the archives of my own work, and I don't recommend anyone do that. All our movies are a kind of a signpost of where we were when we made them, what the world was like and what the world was receiving when we got those stories out there."
Now Amazon is putting ads in movies even if you are a Prime member. Of course you can pay an additional fee to eliminate them again. You can't blame Bezos, can you? He's down to his last three hundred billion dollars.
There's all of that and more, but it really comes down to Collectors and Non-Collectors. Those of us who love movies, books, music, we want the real thing in our hands. We want to have them into our old age. We like fondling the items, sometimes giving them away to deserving parties. If we can't hold them in our hands, we don't really have them.
Yes, I do stream now and then. Sometimes I know I only want to watch something one time. Mostly I like to watch them the way God intended. Especially since He took the drive-ins away from most of us.
There's also the question of what format to collect. Many have decried DVD and only buy Blu-ray and 4K. Me, I like it all, but I have no problem whatsoever with DVD. People call them blurry? Really? They still look great to me. There may be a bigger difference in digital movies, but for the old ones I love? Especially the cheapo B movies? I can barely tell the difference between DVD and Blu-ray. Sometimes, when a print is damaged and hasn't been restored, the Blu-ray looks even worse.
Much of the joy of collecting is in the hunt. I go out every weekend looking for deals. I buy up everything I can. Then I turn around and sell them at my tables.
It's not like I'm getting rich here. I barely make a dollar or two with each sale. I do it to put the movies in the hands of fellow movie lovers. I am lucky to break even, but I love it. Some people pay me and grunt like an extra in an Italian George Romero ripoff movie, but most carry on great conversations. Meeting people in the real world, fans at cons, restores the faith I lose daily when I go on social media.
I'm a collector to the very end, and I will continue to do my best to infect everyone I meet with the beautiful affliction. It brings me endless joy. I love the movies, the books, the music. I love the creators and the publishers and the distributors. I love my fellow fans.
You know what? Good bye, Best Buy. I won't miss you a bit.
Written by Mark Sieber
The author does not allow comments to this entry
No comments