Earlier days......

The next assignment is an analysis of a song. I should have used this one. I have heard it many, many times.

Why did we kill off the video store?

          Stuck between the terrible selection from the on demand service and the acres of "nothing I want to see" on Netflix I decided to take a trip to my old neighbourhood video store. I was looking for Winnie the Pooh, and while I am sure I could have stole it from the internet something about spending Saturday night with my two young boys watching a hot copy of WTP didn't appeal to me so I made the journey. 

         The video store has definitely seen better days, dilapidated, walls full of VHS, all of them for sale for a buck or two. Some DVD, Some. Winnie wasn't there yet and maybe wouldn't be, as it really is a matter of nickel and dimes. I spoke to the owner who I have had a video store owner/video renter relationship for decades and while he is a passionate movie fan the hard reality is that there is just no living left in it anymore and the getting out would be too expensive, so on reduced hours to accommodate his pay-check job, he soldiers on.

          The biggest of the big in video rental has fallen, the days of a video store on the corner of every neighbourhood are gone.  Are our movie choices really better? For me the answer is a resounding no.  I am not a well versed downloader and have better things to do then build vast movie libraries I may or may never watch. This is what a video store was for? On an order of 30.00 dollars or more I get free shipping on the movies I purchase, and thats just great. I don't want to buy movies for 30.00 dollars or more and wait 10 days to watch Winnie the Pooh with my boys on a Saturday night. That was what movie stores did. We have not killed the video store simply by watching movies elsewhere, it was a big part, but it was not all.

        Time is finite and we may spend what free time we have in any way we choose. Once we watched movies, we still do to some degree but again, there is only so much time. If you spend 108 minutes playing on Facebook and watching you tube videos, then you have just used any time you might have had to watch a movie. The internet killed off the movie store but it didn't do it by offering us more movies or an alternate way to get movies, It did it by changing what we want to watch and how we spend our time. I miss the selection from old to new in a movie store, the walls were catalogs, you did not have to refresh or try another site, just look at the walls . The genres, pictures, list of actors, description were al in one spot, right there on the back of the jacket. Will anybody ever see a jacket for "The last Starfighter", "Mambo Kings" "Walking tall", "The Swashbuckler", Superman" "The Day of the Jackal" and 1000's and 1000's of others good and bad and decide to pick it up for a Saturday night at home?

Collectivism vs. Individualism.

A lot of hay is being made of the word socialists in this years American Presidential Elections, the current president, Barack Obama is often called a socialist, communist, marxists, all as though those names were interchangeable and mean the same thing. Obviously they do not but president Obama's opponents use it as a slur and use it to mean collectivism. They accuse the president of "wanting to share the wealth". Their wealth. They refer to the individual businessperson as an island, creating all they have with no outside help? There is a middle ground, individualism is at the root of western society however without the creation of that society no one can reach their personal goals. Many countries such as Canada accept that we are a social democracy, a blending of socialism and capitalism. Many on the American right believe the US to be completely capitalistic? This is not true, there are safety nets and social welfare programs in abundance. These programs born out of collectivism allow for an orderly and just society in which to work towards your goals.
The constitution of the United States of America starts with "We the people..." Not with "I'm a gonna.." after all.

New Blog for English class 1110

I always make the joke that I am a paid professional blogger because I spend all day commenting on other peoples blogs. Paid? Yes but not to spend all day commenting on other peoples blogs. This is my first blog. I have titled it Smashers and Grape as it was the Carronades, the smashers, when packed with grape shot would be used to clear the decks of an enemy ship. So "beat to quarters" load the carronades and lets begin.