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Nostalgia is a funny thing.
Sometimes, when we glance backward through our rose-colored glasses, images can blur.
Once I told them what I was working on, they offered great suggestions like The Silent Partner.
I felt like I’d stumbled upon buried treasure!
For real: went to college in Abilene TX.
Local store was Videoville.
I plowed through old and random racks.
Found 1998s Sunshine w/ Ralph Fiennes.
Blew me away, became personal fave.
This 100% shaped my tastes in film.
But too often, our nostalgia for video stores is translated into nostalgia for the Blockbuster Video chain.
And we should accept no substitutions for the truth in this matter: Blockbuster Video was absolute garbage.
I can attest to this as a part-time employee of BV in the late 90s and early 2000s.
The fact is, Blockbuster was never in the business of selling movies.
What Blockbuster was selling was Product.
And what they stocked was right there in the name: Anything that wasnt new was through.
I was in line at Blockbuster and this lady was annoying the worker guy with a million questions.
Never forgot it…or him.
I worked at Tower Video in the East Village and rented a porno to Eric Stoltz once.
Dude was not amused.
The till would be under the receipt paper-trail, leaving space for outside funds come deposit.
And then there was the cost.
I eventually located a banged up vhs in a West Coast Video.
Asked them to sell it to me.
Oh, I dont really watch movies, she replied.
And shortly thereafter, she did leave the store, because corporatepromotedher to district manager.
Coming from a notorious suburbia, we only had Blockbusters and the rare Hollywood Video.
When the final local Blockbuster closed, I swung by to scavenge the remaining DVDs.
Anyway, RIP,actualvideo stores and godspeed to the few that remain.
