Shot of the Day 12.111: Missin' Mom 'n Pops

Shot with iPhone & Camera+, click to enlarge.

In this strange time when in most cases you can cull up any type of media (movies, music, TV, games, etc) immediately at the push of a button or the bit of the torrent (which we do NOT condone here!), it's odd to find myself in a video store on a Friday night, just like the good ole days. I'm working on a project that needed the use of clips in it, so I'm scouring any/all video stores in town which led me to one of the last true video stores in Los Angeles, Santa Monica's VIDIOTS. I used to love coming in here and just peruse through the aisles of movie history, good, bad and otherwise...and if Im lucky I'd find a rare or obscure gem in the mix. Thankfully, I found every title I was looking for since most of them were NOT available online or streaming. Therein lies the rub. Some movies might NEVER make the switch over from DVD/VHS to digital, so many of the films in here might never be discovered. There's a lot of debate over the "death of film", especially in town lately, and never has the cloud hung lower than in this videostore, which feels like a "Soda Jerk" in historical terms, a place that will not stand the test of time and the current culture where everything is available NOW NOW NOW!

I think with the passing of the video stores, even the big conglomerates like Blockbuster and Hollywood, comes a shift in media consumption as well. In the past, one would rent a movie and the ticking clock would begin; if it was due in a week or tomorrow night, this deadline was always helpful to force you to consume the media in a prompt fashion, and many times having this pressure forced you to watch and even discover things you might not have wanted to watch before. Now with the advent of no late fee services like Netflix, streaming (netflix again) VOD on cable and iTunes, we can watch/listen/absorb whatever we want, whenever...which only means we might never get around to it because our lives are already filled with such mundanities as Facebook, Twitter, GetGlue, etc etc...and lets not start on our overpacked DVR's which have shows and movies languishing on there from 2 years ago! Having the Mom N Pop videos stores was more personable, you went in, talked to people, conversed about movies you loved or didn't, hell, maybe even waited around till that next new release came in to rent. There was something exciting and tangible about this process, one that, being in this video store which even smells like the 80's (must be the VHS tape moldering), makes me miss these Friday night traditions.

Hell, I'm just happy WRONG TURN 2 is in the horror section...we're still cool, Ma!

Joe