Subscription streaming services can largely eat my ass but I still love going to the movies at the theaters and will continue to do so as long as society stands. I guess I reconcile the piracy I participate in with the fact that I still do that, and I still buy books, and records, and DVDs, and concert tickets (and band shirts! Love me a merch table), etc. I suppose not everyone needs or wants the physical copies of art they love, but I like to know it’s there when I want to watch/listen/read it again and I can’t be bothered to rely on whatever service happens to hold the license at the time. Some movies I love have never been available streaming anywhere, but heyo I bought the VHS tape from a thrift store that was going out of business for ten cents. That shop is a tae kwon-do studio now, I think?
I think I like detaching my interests from the internet whenever possible because it’s really difficult for me to create memories from the absolute EASE of one-click online shopping or the autoplay next episode feature or the spotify DJ making playlists FOR you. Where am I in any of that? Not to tie my identity to the art I love but – yeah, I’m gonna tie my identity to the art I spent my life seeking and finding and compiling and consuming. Someone else picking things out for me is easy, but it doesn’t sate my hunger? Even if I like the thing, it’s not as special? And maybe that’s just me being a brat but PLOT TWIST I am a brat.
If I acquired the thing in person, I get to have that memory timestamped and available to me. Not just with art stuff either, things like furniture too. When I sit at my vanity in my bedroom I remember the white farmhouse I bought it from, out in the fruit ridge area. I can remember that the field out back had ten million sunflowers, huge and in full bloom. I remember that Jon and were just out dilly-dallying and found this estate sale by chance, and I got the vanity for fifty dollars along with some green glass candlesticks and a lampshade. That was a really nice summer day, and I get to remember all of that, instead of remembering clicking “Buy Now” on Wayfair.com or whatever. Do I shop online? Of course I do, but it sure is great when I don’t have to.
There’s a larger discussion to be had about overconsumption here too, but perhaps another time.
There’s a larger and darker discussion we could have about the current accelerated descent into fascism where it’s entirely possible the art you love really WON’T be out there for you anymore, but I’m not ready to type that out yet.
Thanks for reading <3
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