vhs: a collector's item?

this morning, my friend's radio show had a guest on talking about an article he had writtten for the phoenix called: "vhs is the new vinyl."  making snap judgements, as i sometimes do, i thought oh hell no.  hearing the crackly goodness of a record is far different than rewinding, fast forwarding, and watching a fuzzy tape flicker and blip.  i wanna see ryan gosling kiss rachel mcadams in HD, duh.

but i listened because i was intrigued.  and then i read the article because i was more intrigued.  ok so apparently 30 years ago when mom/pop, independent video stores started popping up, the easiest tapes to get were cheesy horror movies and sleazy t&a type movies... (something about liscensing.) because these movies were never hits, or even that great, they've never been formatted to dvd and probably never will be.   there is a whole culture of people buying and selling these VHS tapes on ebay for upwards of $75.  there's people camped out at horror conventions and comic con with bins of tapes to sell and plenty of people ready to dig through.

i get it because i am nostalgic and love things from my past.  just last night i was talking about henry warnimont.  the author said it very best "It's like the hominess of a grilled-cheese sandwich that your mom made in 1985, and you've kept in the freezer this whole time. Along with your mom's head."

anyways, i loved the article and want to properly credit the author: michael neel.  you can read it here.

(also: henry warnimont.)