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{"id":34642,"date":"2008-05-01T11:27:57","date_gmt":"2008-05-01T18:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookingcloser.wordpress.com\/?p=3378"},"modified":"2013-03-20T13:01:08","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T19:01:08","slug":"are-you-ready-to-lose-your-neighborhood-video-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2008\/05\/are-you-ready-to-lose-your-neighborhood-video-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Ready to Lose Your Neighborhood Video Store?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

What\u2019s your own favorite \u201cneighborhood video store\u201d experience?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Have you ever discovered a movie while browsing the aisles, something you woudn\u2019t have discovered otherwise?<\/p>\n

Have you ever struck up a conversation about movies with a neighbor, or with a store employee stocking shelves, while looking for a Friday night rental?<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s announcement<\/a> was inevitable, of course. But, like Jeffrey Wells<\/a>, it saddens me. It deepens the sadness I\u2019ve been feeling as several of my favorite local music stores close their doors and disappear.<\/p>\n

I love the experience of strolling through the neighborhood to a video store for an hour or two of browsing. Especially if that video store is Seattle\u2019s Scarecrow Video<\/a>, which is as big as the British Museum, featuring movies that haven\u2019t even been made yet, and movies that were made before the invention of photography.<\/p>\n

The most enjoyable job I ever worked was in a video store. I loved setting up big displays like \u201cThe Films of Robert Downey Jr.\u201d I loved rearranging my \u201cStaff Picks\u201d shelf, which actually became the only shelf that many of my customers bothered to check. Folks would come in and say, \u201cWhat am I watching tonight, Jeff?\u201d and I\u2019d hand them One False Move<\/em>, or The Crying Game<\/em>, or Legend<\/em>, or Close to Eden<\/em>, or The Double Life of Veronique<\/em>, or Midnight Run<\/em>. Or, for fun, I\u2019d point out the rare package for Disney\u2019s The Little Mermaid<\/em>\u2026 the one in which a disgruntled animator had won his revenge against Disney by sneaking something inappropriate into the cover art. It was a great place for getting to know people through lively discussions of the films they loved and hated.<\/p>\n

It was in that context that I had the time to get to know customers and co-workers who knew a lot more about movies than I did. I might not be reading Doug Cummings<\/a>\u2018 commentaries on world cinema, or watching the Dardennes Brothers, or checking out the latest Criterion Collection<\/a> restorations, or investigating what\u2019s happening in the Romanian New Wave like 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days<\/em>, if it weren\u2019t for the buried treasure I discovered at Rain City Video, and the recommendations offered in reverent, secretive whispers by those who explored those neglected shelves in the sections marked Foreign, Cult Classics, and Documentary.<\/p>\n

Somehow, opening up iTunes and downloading Iron Man<\/em> just won\u2019t be nearly so much fun.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you\u2019re reading this thinking, \u201cSheesh, Overstreet\u2019s really losing it. Turning into a crotchety old geezer. It\u2019s not the end of the world. It\u2019s just a download service.\u201d And you may be right. But right now, as Hillarobamarama continues to throw fuel on the fires of rage and prejudice and division \u2014 all in the name of \u201chope\u201d and \u201cchange\u201d \u2014 I think neighborhoods need places where we can casually chat about stories, and pictures, and experiences, instead of react in shock at What Outrageous Thing Reverend Wright Said Today, or How Hillary\u2019s Laughing Off the Fact That She Was Caught in Another Big Fat Lie. The more we turn to the internet for everything, the more we\u2019ll stay in our homes, download our distractions in isolation, argue about them online with people who we only know by their screen names, and never find occasion to chat with our neighbors. The neighborhood video store is just one of those places where people connect over mutual enthusiasms, and if we lose it, what will replace it?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"