@RickiTarr In the absence of Blockbuster, I continue the video watching tradition by going to a streaming service, looking at title after title and saying Nope after each one then eventually watching a movie I've seen a dozen times before.
@RickiTarr It was our natural habitat. Passed down through the millennia as genetic memory, it's what the human soul yearns for. When we have this ideal then all is right in the world; when we don't, all is wrong.
@RickiTarr I have this longing, too. For me, I think it's about intent: when you go to Blockbuster and pick out a movie, you're committing to a chill and fun evening. No guilt that you "should be doing something else," because otherwise you wouldn't have gone to BB in the first place (probably).
Renting a movie also used to be a good excuse to have friends over. Nowadays I feel like we just pester people to watch things on their own so we can talk about them, rather than watching together. Boo.
@Itty53@RickiTarr Oh yeah, when Metal Gear Solid came out we rented it and played it: one person on the controller, four others transfixed by the game. It was basically like watching a movie in some parts!
@RickiTarr Also, the experience of browsing Blockbuster with a friend is way better than scrolling. "Have you seen this? Oh, this was terrible! The cover looks so good but it's really boring." Sometimes my best friend and I would leave without renting anything, but still had a great time just talking about movies. It helped that we could walk to Blockbuster at the local shopping center without asking for a ride from parents. 😁
@RickiTarr@tailsy see now I’m reminded of when my grandparents got their first vcr and we all went to pick a movie each for us all to watch... my mum told everyone that the movie I picked was rubbish, so no one would watch it with me.
@RickiTarr 'cause those were the good times? Or maybe just 'cause it could all be done without having to even look at a computer, let alone the internet
@RickiTarr oh wow, not at all? We hardly went until I was a tween (read: until my folks bought their house), but after that, we went a few times a year.
Though now that I think about it... yeah, most of the time, it was the video store or bupkis, wasn't it?
Ha, this exchange reminded me that the summer after I graduated high school, I had all my friends over for a night and we rented like 5 movies and just put them on one after another while we did stuff. Good times.
@RickiTarr@doctorLURK Video store was a treat; it was not a fun time having to rely on made for television movies nine times out of ten. Any real movie was an event.
Now watching a movie is so easy to do that we are always choosing not to. Rarity of the event elevated crappy movies into good enough. Good enough doesn't cut it anymore.
@si_irini I think when we scroll through a streaming service trying to find something to watch, it's akin to trying to pick something you can all agree on at the video rental
@RickiTarr somehow I don't think kids from this era will say: "why do I long for ordering doordash and fighting to log into 6 different streaming services to find that movie I think I might want to watch?" Oh, and all of it costs 3x as much.
@RickiTarr I only mention those because they stopped making them.
You can still get Vienetta here quite easily.
I often didn't eat ice cream because phosphates. Boring renal diet stuff.
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