"Keep circulating the tapes"
I've pretty much run through the gamut of collecting, selling, hoarding, purging and the like for decades now. But it's this past year in particular which has lent an acute activist/archivist tone over the endeavor. More than ever there is now a keen degree of purpose behind the acquiring of physical media, beyond just enjoying the wonderful world of movies for its own sake. In a corporate age hell-bent on erasing the past or meting it out in questionable rent-seeking allotments in a manner more befitting that of the PURE GREED and DISDAIN FOR ART persuasions... well, I've felt a more desperate scramble to find and hang on to what physical items I can.
Although the age of the pawn shop and garage sale seem to be truly, finally waning where VHS, DVD, and other home media is concerned, this past year I've still scoured them all, haunting the library bookshops, local colleges, record shops with the occasional back room of junk items, etc,. and toting off bundles of anything that might remotely be on my watchlist or a future re-watchlist... or with an eye to simply be able to gift/donate it along the way.
For 2024 we managed to add:
- 21 Blu-Rays
- 274 DVDs
- 161 VHS tapes
- 430 rips and/or other dl
I can't afford Criterions and Arrows and the like, so this is all in the "whatever we scrounge for $0.25" level of subsistence. But the hunt has been gratifying, especially because none of this is for resale. It's a growing pile among millions of other little piles, shoring up local circulation and the capacity for sharing should the Internet Archives of the world finally succumb to the worst aspirations of militant capitalists.
Special Note: If you find it in your power to add to your own pile, I encourage you to rip special features, subtitle, and commentary tracks along with the main feature. Behind the scenes, interviews, and especially those commentary tracks are being increasingly ignored across the board right now, especially with the major streaming platforms.
And get a library card! Even if you seldom use it (which you definitely should, they offer SO MUCH to society and individuals at every level) it adds to the population of who they serve and is a +1 in support of their continued existence on those all-important annual budgets.