The Boston Globe's John Swansburg composes an elegy to the video store. Reason's Tim Cavanaugh breaks out the world's tiniest violin:
For my money, obsolete media and institutions can be pretty clearly sorted into those that had some charm (vinyl records, manual typewriters, dial phones, 35-mm cameras) and those that had no charm (video and audio cassettes, 110 cameras, non-cordless bush-button phones, any personal computer more than three years old). After giving it a full five seconds' thought, I'd have to sort video stores into the latter category. I've never met the hypothetical wise clerk who's seen everything—not even at the legendary Kim's, where the clerks have the shitty attitude without the expertise to back it up. [...] I suppose there's a question of where the next Tarantino will come from, but since even Tarantino has proven unequal to the task of being the next Tarantino, I'm not losing any sleep over that.
It does seem preposterous to me to bemoan the video store which surely belongs to the pre-internet era. As Cavanaugh points out, the internet outdoes the best video store thousandfold. I'd also argue that it offers more of a community of like-minded individuals. Swansburg tries to make the case for a video library as a sort of home for the cineaste, a place to be among likeminded individuals. This rather depends on a) living near other film buffs and b) all y'all going to the store at the same time. Neither condition applies to the web.
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