The End of an Era

How did it come to this?

At what point did people become upset with the established order and decide that quick wasn’t quick enough?

Technology happened.

With the advent of digital media and the internet becoming even more of a behemoth than it was, I guess it was only a matter of time before it started to crumble. No, I’m not talking about newspapers, I’m talking about home video.

I’m the kind of guy who likes to peruse the video store and see what there is to see. I go in there with maybe one or two movies in mind and then I wander. I’ve been known to take upwards to an hour to find a movie. That’s how picky I am.

I used to visit the local Blockbuster pretty much every week when I was in high school. I would rent multiple movies and that would most likely be my Friday and/or Saturday nights. I exposed myself to ‘The Killing Fields’, ‘Tootsie’, ‘West Side Story’, ‘The Apartment’, ‘Malena’, ‘Taxi Driver’, Yojimbo’ and many many more all because I walked around the store and came across those films. I had heard of them before but I just never got around to watching them. The way people find movies is all changing now.

At first it was at home DVD delivery, now it’s streaming that has become the norm among the cinephiles. The video store cannot/is not able to survive. I had seen Blockbuster’s and Hollywood Video’s closing all over town but I still had one near me and that was all that mattered. I had nothing to worry about.

Then they came for me.

I was all ready to pull into the parking lot of Blockbuster when I saw a giant dumpster parked behind their building filled with debris and trash. The storefront was bare. Gone was the iconic blue background and yellow ticket stub. In it’s place, a pale concrete slab that hadn’t seen the sun since the store was built. I am at a loss.

Sure, it’s a video store, there’s another one a few miles the other direction that I can go to but it’s that store that gave me the love of film. My cinematic mind was expanded because of that store – it has a meaning in my life. The video store in general has been a huge part of my life.

Where do I turn to now? Do I go the online route and have DVD’s mailed to me? Or do I go to that other store and continue about my business? I do not consider my self a part of the ‘Generation Now’ mainly because I have had the same phone for six, yes six, years and it still works great. I do not need my DVD’s to arrive the next business day. I’d like to be able to walk out of a store with it knowing that I have something I want to watch that day or night. I cannot do that online.

It’s a funny thing when something you’ve known your whole life just suddenly vanishes. Like a teardrop in the rain. You know it’s there, you felt it, and now that it’s gone it's impossible to get back. I tend to wax nostalgic when it comes to things from my adolescence and this is no different, but it’s happening all over the place. These stores are disappearing from neighbourhoods all over the country and it signals a change. Whether that change is good is something we will only know in the future.

State License Plates Part 6: Massachusetts

What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you hear Massachusetts? I think America. Red. White. Blue. Revolution. Patriot. The Shot heard ‘round the world. Bam, that’s the beginning of how our nation came to be.

The two times that I have been to Massachusetts, I have enjoyed it. Having said that, it was the Summer/late Spring and the weather was kind enough to oblige to my sight seeing. I don’t do Winter with feet of snow and hail the size of kumquats. Nor do I do Summer with 80% humidity.

Massachusetts was accepted as a state on February 6, 1788, although some might not consider Massachusetts a state being that it’s the “Commonwealth of Massachusetts” but I bet those are the same people who think Greedo shot first.

Simple design here using the red, white, and blue effectively but the blue is lighter with a hint of gray. The red, too, isn’t too brazen and is a more subdued/softened red. I think it works. Then there’s the slogan “The Spirit of America” – which according to some research is from a 1980’s tourism jingle. Now, I have it on good authority from an inside source that if your license plate holder covers up “The Spirit of America” during a vehicle inspection then your vehicle will not pass inspection. “Spirit of America” huh? Sounds more CCCP than USA.

Not much else to report here, it’s simple but dull at the same time with no image to liven things up. I’m not an advocate for images on plates but something a little something can improve a plate. Here, I think it could work, maybe the original 13 Colonies American Flag somewhere to tie in that colonial America/Revolutionary War era that was crucial to Massachusetts and our nation. I give it a B.