What my Goodwill VHS Tape Purchases say about me as a person...

So I was wandering around the Goodwill in Shoreline shortly before it closed last night, and I rediscovered one of my favorite hobbies: buying kickass old VHS tapes for a buck or less and owning them forever.

To be honest, I hate DVDs and CDs in general for their scratchability factor...I'd much prefer cassette tapes and VHS forever, as you can pretty much dropkick that technology and it still works. In general, I feel it's best to listen to music, watch movies, etc. on the format for which it was originally created. Classic rock albums just sound better on vinyl even if they're scratchy, and old 80's and 90's movies just look better on VHS with the tracking all bouncy and the sound all muddled. New DVD menus for old movies kind of bother me; they just feel so retroactive. Plus, VHS tapes have the unique time capsule element of showing awesome previews from around the same time the "feature presentation" came out, so you can be reacquainted with the whole "zeitgeist" and cultural context of the film. Even better than previews--special features like a music video after the movie, or, my personal favorite, public service messages like Magic Johnson and Arsenio Hall's "Time Out: HIV, AIDS, and You" promo on my copy of Wayne's World. It just brings me back and I get a huge kick out of it.

Needless to say, most of my old favorites are findable, as well as obscure stuff I didn't ever think I'd see again. It's always a nice adventure through movieland, and a challenge to decide what's repeatedly watchable and worth the space on my video shelf.

This particular night, I was like a drunken sailor in the video section, and within about 5 minutes of browsing, I had a stack of like 9 tapes under my arm. I did a little bit of editing and decided I probably didn't need the old 80's cartoon "Frosty the Snowman" TV Special or "How The Grinch Stole Christmas." But I did need:

1. A Charlie Brown Christmas (Classic. Totally embedded into my childhood memories in ways I probably don't even understand.)



2. The original claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Long live the Island of Misfit Toys! I've always had a soft spot for societal rejects, even make-believe clay ones.)




3. Fried Green Tomatoes (I get PMS, okay?!)
4. The Birdcage (Faghag, fruitfly, say what you will, I love drag
queens.)

5. Happy Gilmore (One of the most quotable movies ever; I adore early Adam Sandler! Thanks also to one of my ex-boyfriends for stealing my original copy of this at some point, thus forcing me to replace it with this new one.)
6. Disney's Fantasia (I wanna hate Disney, but I also wanna get baked and watch Fantasia...it's a dilemma I'm willing to struggle with. I also rationalized this because I figure the money for this VHS tape is already in Disney's pocket at this point and my money is going towards Goodwill training someone to use a cash register.)
7. The Tao of Steve.

This one I had totally forgotten about. It's a sweet little sleeper movie from the late 90's about love and dating and philosophy and wasting your potential and finding your faith in stuff. It's funny when movies come back to you at exactly the right time, when suddenly you realize you are old enough to be the target audience and can understand and identify with characters in totally different ways than you did last time you watched it. That's what happened this time I watched it.

It's well-written, pretty low budget, and cast with no one you've ever heard of before or since. My dad loved it, as I recall. I drank an entire pot of coffee, painted my nails, and enjoyed the hell outta that one. Maybe it's a cheesy chick flick, but I don't think so. A dude wrote it, but a chick directed it. Either way, it was a great way to spend a Sunday morning and 99 cents. Highly recommended!