Watch out McRib, because another blast
from the past is making its way back into our hearts. It’s time to whip
out your 90’s Disney video collection because VCR’s are making a huge
comeback! That’s right. Huge clunky tapes and even huger clunky tape
machines are back in. Maybe.
This past Sunday at the Pasadena
City College Flea Market proved to be a huge event for VHS collectors
everywhere. We spoke to several enthusiasts. “People seem to forget the
meaning of rewind,” said one collector. “Rewinding a VHS tape is like
taking a journey back through time. Really blurry, snowy, time.
Sometimes, I just watch the entire movie backwards in awkward fast
motion just to remind myself of where we’ve come from… which is really
fuzzy picture with super average sound quality.”
The real VHS
lovers will spend the day at the flea market arguing about which kind of
VCR is right for them. “A VCR is an amazing vintage addition to your
home entertainment system,” said Max Jennings, president of the VHS
Society of Los Angeles, appropriately nicknamed “VC aRt.” The club
currently meets at an abandoned Blockbuster Video every other Tuesday.
“You can’t beat video cassette. DVD and Blu-Ray does, yeah, but they’re so crisp and digital-y.”
Jennings went on to say that VCR/DVD combo models are for “posers,” and
transferring old home videos to DVD is “suicide.”
When asked
about why VCRs and VHS tapes run so cheap if so collectable, the members
of VC aRt just smiled and shook their heads. “The news just hasn’t hit
the world yet. It took years for vinyl to make a comeback. But we’ll be
ready. When the people want outdated crappier quality machines, guess
where they’ll come knocking?”
Our guess was Good Will, where
dozens of VCRs are currently stacked on top of each other for ten
dollars a piece. The club responded that they hadn’t thought of that.
“People think this is another hipster trend, but the fact is, we’re just
people who want to relive the things we loved from childhood. Same goes
for vinyl. And Polaroids. And clothes from Anthropologie and Ray Bans.”
Boxes and boxes of tapes can be found at flea markets like the one at
Pasadena City College and throughout Los Angeles, leaving a vast film
history on VHS for those who still love the in no way useful technology.
Whether VHS and VCR’s are indeed making a comeback may be still up to
debate, but if you believe in nostalgia, you may want to hold onto your
old tapes just in case.
