Hold up just a minute. This is Chase and I'm joined once again by John Robinson. How are you John? I'm good. I'm glad to be here. Yeah, we're fresh off  , War Games. How do you think it went? Oh, it was fun.  , we couldn't get enough shit talking , or praise. Which it deserves both and, but , we got plenty in it.

It was great. Is that going to be pics  at Videodrome?  , yeah, maybe so. Yeah. Kind of highlight that thing.  You can go back and catch the episode we did on War Games. John was a great guest. We thought we'd bring him back again with, , years of expertise in the video rental realm.

So  I  wanted to bring up an interesting topic. I want to talk to you about , the life and death of the video rental store.  It's Near and dear to anyone who is a millennial, right, growing up. It holds a special place in my heart for sure, and I know it does yours as well. , , I guess tell me a little bit about the heyday of a video rental store and what it meant to the youth at the time.

Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say because it's it was so ubiquitous , At a certain point, you know, and just seemed like a thing that would be there forever but  , I guess the one thing, , people that come in Videodrome who, , , haven't been in a video store ever sometimes or haven't in years,  we'll, , instantly be like nostalgic and that's sort of the first reaction.

And then often people will be like, Oh, it's like blockbuster.  , to which we're like. Um, but, , people think of video stores as,  basically either blockbuster and one of the big chains, a blockbuster or Hollywood video. , but really Blockbuster took over. It was already like a thriving mom and pop industry, , even by the early eighties, even in the war games era. 

, and so they were all like all pretty diverse , and could be as eccentric or as boring as the owners. Ours was hometown video. Like  we had one right up the road. We had a movie gallery too. Right. Movie gallery. I forgot that one. Yeah. That's another big chain.  But at the time, , sure, cool people, cinephiles went to Blockbuster and in many cases the movie gallery or the Hollywood video or the Blockbuster was the only thing in town. 

But we sort of recoil, I sort of recoil because Blockbuster was the enemy, you know? It was like they censored movies, they had very shallow catalogs and like instead of  Indie queer movies, or they would have a section called alternative lifestyles. So it was all very , conservative culturally and, , corporate.

 So , video drone, we never thought that we would outlast a blockbusters  or any anybody else. It's just crazy. But,, I think another thing people forget besides there being it being a primarily independent business  Network or you know world and not just a corporate behemoth everywhere is that you know they're for neighborhoods like the video store was like the same as  It would only a video store can only could only survive if there was parking if there was people , if it was, , central to where they ran errands,  where they lived.

, and so they were, they served neighborhoods basically. And if there were a blockbuster, maybe you could give them to order something special. Yeah. But, , mostly it was just very, , monoculture, but the mom and pop place, you know, might have the curtain or they might have porn or they might have,  You know, , strange, straight to video horror,  SOV horror and things like that, that's so sought after now.

And, , it was just a much more, ,  I guess pluralistic, thing that it was, you know, hyperlocal, , from neighborhood to neighborhood. Right. So you  created a kind of.  A friendly neighborhood vibe where everybody kind of like that was your cheers at the time. I guess as a teenager, right? Well as a teenager,  I was not that into movies  it was like right when I turned 20 and then I went to  Discovered a really great video store , in this neighborhood actually called movies worth seeing that was at the end of linear boulevard where it meets a university.

. , and it was, ,  Just had stuff like I had never heard of before. And , that's what got me in was , some, what I think of as mentors, these guys, Sam and Chris, that work there would just be like, here, take this tape home. , and then it'd be like obscure Orson Welles movie or a  minor Kurosawa movie or, , classic Hollywood movie that I had never heard of.

. And I just trusted them, , I might not love it, but I realized that it was important, you know, the things that , they would give me. And yeah, , it wasn't like a hangout bar kind of situation, but it was like really reliable. So anyways, I worked at a restaurant then and I.

It was burned out and begged them for a job. And then I ended up working there for like six and a half years. , and it was great. And then  Matt Booth opened Videodrome and he was like a friend of a friend. So you have to think like at that time. That wasn't that big of a deal to have a competing video store opening a mile away.

, it was like, oh well They're video drone. It's like mostly like Hong Kong and cult stuff  and gory horror Yeah, that's not what we do kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah, whereas movies we're seeing was more like foreign movies and classic movies But it was a just a juggernaut. I mean the catalog was incredible  So they all sort of played off of each other  movies we're seeing closed, I think around 2011,   , but I had long since I had another job and then I ended up working at Videodrome around 2000 or so.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And   it's interesting cause like being a horror fan, like I know about like the back catalog of like a lot of horror films,  especially in the eighties when horror was  at its.  Like feverish peak,  everything went to home media because it was a way to bypass like going through theaters.

And of course you can get like the, the NC 17 stuff just on the shelves , in  video stores, like , you could get like this Tom Savini, special effects movie that just has a dinosaur in it. Like, yeah, you could find anything   what I find fascinating about the video store is like a lot of those movies that like came out on VHS has never made it down to the other forms of media.

Yeah, still, even now that it's like a golden age of restorations , and so many have, there's so many haven't as well at the same time. As time has gone on you still work for one.

Do you still feel like it's like a preservation? Absolutely of time. Yeah , well of film. Yeah, I think of it  as like a public library or a private library, obviously    I feel like the goal at least for Videodrome is to be like a cross between a library where certain things are always there,   but then we also listen to customers, get things customers want and an archive.

, something disappears from streaming happens every day. We get new customers because they're like, ah, I was watching this.  And now I went back to Netflix and it's not there. And, , so yeah, I feel like, yeah, it serves as just like entertainment, but also like a deeper library 

to give people access to the whole history of, , world cinema. Yeah. To the best of our abilities.  And it is a shame that we're losing that media , by the moment,  just a movie that I remember from my childhood that Disney tries to  bury under time is the brave little toaster.

Yeah. And I don't think you can find it. There's no blu ray release of it, but it's one of those things of. Yeah, the Disney vault. Yeah. Yeah, we're losing it and Disney won't re release it at all because they're ashamed of it.  Sure. So it's just like stuff like that from my childhood that I'll never be able to like capture again, you know, other than like illegal streaming on YouTube or something like that.

, and that's just no way to  experience those movies. , yeah, I mean  A counterpoint. Yeah, neither is like a 30 year old dvd, but that's what we can do You know what? I mean is like that's we take what we can get. Yeah, that's the best way it's available , you know might have been out of print for 20 years or something like that, , but  People are able to access it.

  I know a lot of people talk about streaming  as what killed  the rental stores , but. Do you think there's a lot that goes into that instead of just like chalking it up as , this was the death and then we're moving on and then we're just left that to history?

Absolutely. , I think , that's an oversimplification. , I remember in the nineties,  everything that came around that was new, we're like, Nope, that's it. , we're done. Like, like satellite TV. , yeah. , cable TV, obviously,  IMAX, , all of these reasons not to go to, you know, rent a video, , a pay per view there was always something that was new.

That was a way of watching movies at home that didn't involve a disc or a tape. ,  And then  for whatever reason, people would still come and you know, whether it was their routine or they liked the quality better.  What streaming did was kill the infrastructure  for video stores.

In other words, like the wholesalers that sell, ,  Like our little tags that we have a video job and the little pockets they go in and the cases, the, you know, that, , the disc goes in to go out, , for rent, like that all collapsed. , when, , blockbuster decided that it wasn't going to, it wasn't interested in streaming.

Yeah. And so along with the corporate ones falling because of Netflix and others, ,  the sort of infrastructure and the ability to get wholesale, ,  Product, you know that all that sort of collapsed and that killed a lot of mom and pop stores Yeah, a lot of independent video stores, which is it's a shame because we talked about it, too Like they I mean to your point the guys that were handing you stuff It's like that's what I love about going to Videodrome and for anybody out there That's not familiar Videodrome is one of the last standing video rental stores and we're so fortunate enough to have Videodrome in Atlanta you're able to go and hang out and You know,  catch you guys over there on the counter and you guys , curate our weekend if we need to.

, but that's the vibe that I miss too. , there was that, to the mall and pop stores, it's like there was that community. And  education too.  , yeah, we think about, , clerks recommending  movies. , but really so much of his customers like you, I'm going to. , sort of using, , what was your hometown, hometown video, video. Yeah. Like it wasn't, they probably weren't like connoisseurs of, , straight to video horror, but you could find the things in there that you want, you know, wanted.

And then they'd be like, Oh, well that's renting. Maybe we'll get this other thing. So, so much of it is, the customers, because they have access to walk around and pick things up and look at them, read about them and make decisions.  So yeah, it's all a conversation., I know there's one blockbuster left in Oregon.

I keep waiting for the death of it, but it's still there in Bend, right? , it's still standing. Do you know where Videodrome stands? , . Do you know how many? Movie rental stores are left. Well, , during the pandemic, , family video closed.

, that was a,  you know, like a B tier chain, but they were everywhere, like in, you know, smaller towns that didn't have blockbusters. , and some were, , individually owned, some were, , part of the chain. I think at that time there was like 300 600 or something.

And I want to say the last thing I read was it was like under 300.  , in the United States, , Canada still has a lot, places that have big land masses and not, , great, , connectivity broadband wise, Australia, Canada, ,  That's still a, you know, a popular thing.  They're still closing all the time, but , there's more than you would think, I guess.

.  I know that they did that big push with the documentary, the last blockbuster and everyone's like, Oh, there's one left. And it's like, yeah. No, I see Videodrome over here, just because it's not Blockbuster doesn't mean that it's like, yes, I hate how Blockbuster has become synonymous with the video stores in case you couldn't tell.

Yeah, and I hate, I do hate that too, because like everyone will get like, I saw the comments on that and I went back and re read it before we recorded this episode on that documentary and I was like, Oh, I miss Blockbuster, I miss like the video, I miss the video rental store experience. I was like,  We've got one, you know right here where you can go and support    you can go every now and again and yeah, it's still the it's still the retro date night You know, you go pick up takeout over there And in Min Park and then Virginia Highlands and  then you go to Videodrome and you fight over what you're gonna rent Yeah, and you go home and probably hate it.

One of you hates it and one of you loves it Sure, or you know find something. Yeah that inspires you No, I mean, , that goes kind of back to the neighborhood part, , that, you know, ,  As, well, for example, in 2017,  we, ,  changed our policy. All the rentals used to be three nights. And we thought, Oh God, so many of our regulars, , can't afford to live around here anymore and they're moving further out.

So we took the leap to a seven day rentals, , which sounds like it's boring, whatever, but it was, it was a big deal. We were, cause we were like, Oh my God, nothing's ever going to be here. People are going to be mad all the time, but everything's checked out. , but it worked out and as, , and attracted people from further away who thought that,  you know, , Well, I live in Woodstock, but I know it'll be, if I have it for a week, I know I can come down here next weekend  , and then they'll come to like a Plaza show and they kind of discover this whole sort of neat ecosystem  that's formed between, ,  the Plaza and the Tara and, , and Videodrome, which is really just.

It's something I'm so grateful for. We are so fortunate to have that,  in our community is, uh, Plaza does amazing work and the fact that it's still here and still going and still going strong too. Oh my God. Like.  Yeah, sold out  shows hard to get in there. Sometimes like yeah, it's weird What sells out to like the like, you know, I told you I recently went there for Freddy versus Jason on 35 millimeter, which is not  It's not the cinephile like hey everybody go see that but like that was huge right and packed out yeah, like it's not one not a sold out show, but  a lot of people there and enjoying it and you know, Yeah, we either reliving their youth or discovering something schlocky and new,  Yeah, and how much more fun is it to watch it with a room full of people?

It's just I mean, it's such a cliche, but it's so true. I think of it every time I see him fun movie Yeah, I'm like man that But I thought I didn't like that movie so much, but seeing it with a crowd was a completely different experience. So I always had this theory and I think me and , one of my friends came up with this and I think he, inspired me to think about it a little bit more.

, ,  how much do you stream? Like I know personally, yeah, , I, yeah, we, I, we all stream everybody that works , at Videodrome. ,   I have, , the criterion channel just because  it's so awesome and unbelievable and gets better and better, even though I have access to, you know, a lot of it, not all of it.

.   And then I change around others like Hulu for TV shows. Yeah. So if you're ever going home and you're sitting there and.  And I'm getting to a point and it's a long way around but  So you're sitting there and you're like, oh I have time to watch something, right? I don't have like a lot of time But I have something before I either go to bed or I have to go do something else And you sit there, do you scroll at all through the streaming service?

All night. And then you're like 45, 50 minutes in? Yeah. Do you ever correlate that feeling to being in the video rental store? ,  I feel like it's the opposite. Okay. Some way. , I mean, yes, as an indecisive person, I would, I'm indecisive in both ways. So  I kind of look at it as like my youth.

So like if we went to movie gallery or hometown video, wherever we were going, we would go in and my mom would be like, you have 30 minutes  or she would set a timer on it. Smart woman. Yeah. Yeah. She knew what she was doing. , but  I think in that timeframe, I would search everywhere look at every box like because like it was your weekend if you were a kid and if you pick something Wrong your weekend was screwed, especially like if you were renting a video game and it was just and it predates the internet  I couldn't just pull out my phone and go.

Oh, what's the what's the yeah, you know synopsis? Or what's the what's going on? People like this game. . And so like it's same thing with movies It's like if it was a bad movie it wrecked your weekend Yeah, so  I spent a lot of time just sifting and turning over every rock and I feel like that that's kind of eeked over into my Oh my streaming because like i'm scrolling through even though  it's you know, there's we're not at defcom one  We're like I could easily back out of it and start something else, but it's like that frame of mind of like Connecting with something and knowing that , I have to see this through. 

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's interesting. It probably does correlate from person to person, you know, like the same person, , who, although I feel like scrolling,  , over the top or an app and over the top platform or an app is, , it's  more universal, but yeah, if you're the kind of person who was as a kid.

Like you, you know went through everything and you're you know, every single box then you're probably gonna do the same sort of thing  With us with streaming. That's interesting. Yeah, he brought it up to me   And it's Leif, and you know Leif, and it's like he was the one that kind of like introduced me to that method, and I was like, okay.

Like I was like, that's interesting, and then I thought more about it, and I'm like, oh my god, I think, I think, I think you're on to something, and then I'm like, now I believe it. , I believe the theory now, , and I think that's more or less with 90s kids. , cause I talk to a lot of my friends.

And they had the same circumstances you had 30 minutes you have 15 minutes  because the blockbusters were huge Yeah, and you talk about all the content and like the big category like you can get lost in those things forever Oh, yeah, absolutely. It's like going to a library and looking for a You're just like, I'm going to get, I'm going to get a book tonight. 

You had to go in with a game plan. Yeah, absolutely. And then if what you wanted is checked out, then it's like, ah, and then you had a backup plan. Yeah. Plan B. Exactly. , I say it's the opposite because I know lots of people, maybe it is a. generational thing, but, , just give up. I mean, I do that. Like, I just like, okay, that was my entertainment tonight was scrolling for an hour through everything.

I've done that a lot. And then go back to like something like YouTube and just like quit kidders until I fall asleep. And that's probably why my attention spans like a rodent or chicken or egg. I don't know, man, I'm the same way.  Yeah, , it's kind of been the, been the death of it. , , how do you feel about streaming now that you've been in, in the video rental industry?

And it's, , well, I mean, I feel like I, I knew that the promise of streaming  just at the time I thought was,  I didn't seem possible to me. They promise of everything at your fingertips, any movie you want, just because I knew that licensing things and, ,  The curation wasn't there. Licensing windows always lapse.

I didn't know it would be as bad and as atomized as it is now. , meaning that, so a lot of the customers, , first time customers will come into Videodrome and be like, ah, I was looking for X, Y, Z, and we couldn't find it, , streaming anywhere. And these are not obscure movies. You know, it might be like.

Like when Harry met Sally, or like, which I don't know if that's real or not, but there's major things that, , will disappear off of, , streaming services. , and then having to have, you know,  You can buy it outright, which you don't really own, or there's, , you have to sign up for a subscription for something in order to watch it.

Or they'll do that thing too, where. Like especially being a horror fan in October they pull everything off. So you have to rent it. Oh, that's right Yeah, so they'll pull the licensing agreements and it's like oh i'm gonna watch This shitty Friday the 13th movie because I'm in the mood to watch this in October and I'll go to it and it's like, oh, you have to rent it for five, six bucks now and it's like, yeah, convenient.

This was streaming  in September, but now sure. Now in October when I have the vibes to watch it, it's gone. So it's yes. And also when there's,, , something in the franchise coming up theatrically, Or the very point where people are like, I need to go back and rewatch all the Halloweens, you know, there's the moment that they disappear because they pulled them all.

Yeah. It's ridiculous,  but I'm smart, but yeah, but, , yeah, I don't know. I'm not like anti streaming at all. , , I use it too, but there's just, that's sort of, it's not a library, you know, it's not, there's not a, an effort to preserve film, the, it's things, movies are bought in with bulk licenses, , the exception of things like, , Mubi and Criterion and, , some more specialized services. 

, movie history doesn't exist on the big ones. , either like HBO, Matt or Max has,  this sort of pathetic Turner classic movie section where it's just like a couple, , dozen Casablanca, Casablanca , And so a video store, , hopefully we'll have like at least a good representation of any like era.

, the education process is kind of lost too. Like  I don't think on streaming I'm discovering anything new. I think I'm just scrolling and like at a video store, like I can count a lot of times where I discovered something new through the clerk or like people like you at Videodrome. That's like, Hey, you like. 

Yeah. Try this and, , show me a list of things and then like, Oh wow, I would have never thought. And then I, it's a new movie I like, you know? Yeah. , and plus I feel like , the sort of spatial aspect of it, of walking around holding something in your hand and then if it, even if it's not your mom saying 30 minutes, there's some time limit and.

I discovered, even though , I'm not paying for the rentals because I work there. But if I have two, you know, a couple of Blu rays sitting on my coffee table, I'm far more likely to watch those than remember what I bookmarked two weeks ago. The queue gets too long. Gets too long, just like the watch list, which should always be long.

I feel like that's okay. Yeah, yeah. But, uh. , we'll get to it before we die.  Yeah.  Or it just means I think it's a sign that you're still intellectually curious if you have like  If you're constantly adding to your watch list. That's a good point. But   Yeah, I feel that and customers say this too, you know that  they feel like okay Well, if I've rented it, I know I've got to get it back.

I'm more likely to sit with it and Sounds better than streaming and there's no commercials. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. The commercials alone. Like, I mean, war games,  I wasn't able to make it out to Videodrome, , got busy and I was like,  I'm just going to stream it just out of convenience.

Well, that convenience factor turned an hour and 40 minute movie into a. Two hour and 30 minute movie with all  the commercials and I was like I should have just made the drive I was like Well, I might have had the disc at home. Yeah, you might have been disappointed.   No, what was it on? What did you watch on? Like 2B? I think 2B, yeah, which is free. So yeah, I mean 2B is an exception. That's,, I would,  I'd almost rather pay the five bucks almost just to get my time back because like I always feel time is the most valuable thing that you have and I waste a lot of it. But , if you can save time, You want, you can regenerate money.

You can't regenerate time. So yeah, , that extra 40 minutes was, and then, and then I'm losing salting, right? Right. And I'm losing track of the movie. Yeah, of course. Like I'm distracted. I'm distracted. And then like in that movie, I don't want to watch these ads. So what am I doing? Like in 2025, I'm picking up my phone and then I'm getting caught doom scrolling through Instagram on stuff that I don't need to, I  don't care about a hundred percent.

So  I'd rather just follow all the way through. That's why. Go to a theater, watch films in a theater, turn your phone off. It is. Yeah. It is such a rewarding experience. Like, it's easy to imagine it's the same at home, and it just really isn't.  It's so much more fun and so much more memorable. If you can see something in a theater with a fun crowd.

And especially if you take it seriously in the theater. , I'm so sick of seeing people in theaters now with their phones out. It's like, just disconnect . It's not gonna kill you. Oh, yeah, like, I mean, like  Megaplex or, um, multiplexes, you mean? Yeah, or like Yeah. Yeah. It's,  it's infiltrated plaza a little bit too.

And like, it's just, I think it's just the society we're in. Yeah. , I went and saw, um, a movie recently. , and there was people in front of me just  had their phone down and just like listening to Instagram and like scrolling through. Are you fucking kidding me? No, and I've seen it a lot.

And  I would say it's like, oh, I've seen it at that one theater, but I've seen it everywhere now. It's obviously Even off the cab, like, okay. Yeah, and it's like, it's like It's not as prominent in certain theaters, but if you look around next time you're in a in one You'll catch at least somebody maybe somebody who's a friend of somebody dragged  Yes, but like you'll catch it and it's just like why are you here?

You know? Yeah, I mean I almost That's crazy. , you know the biggest problems we have at our screenings Which we really haven't recently but when we started doing the uh, six or seven years ago I started doing plaza drum  It was a, it's been a problem showing like cult movies, especially of at nine o'clock, like, , drunk people or just people who imagine they're in, you know, the star of mystery science theater.

Wasn't funny then. It's not funny now. Yeah. And to the point where we had to build in a sort of,  , jokey warning about it and do our introductions to the movies. , because it would just take a couple of people to just.  Sit there and think they can just talk to the screen the whole time and they're the most hilarious person in the world And none of them have been funny either like that happened at my last plaza showing and it was like Jason versus yeah, and it was this guy kept making these comments.

I was like, dude, you gotta shush him Yeah,  you gotta shut the fuck up like Yeah And it's like and he looked around to try to get like laughter from everybody and everyone's like, but there's always that one other person next to him too that's like, Oh, I can be funny too. And then they're like having this  joke off.

Oh, it's so infuriating. Yeah, it's just like, it's like, yeah, when  people who haven't been socialized properly Like go out in the world and they're just like and it's older people now too. Like it's just like yeah It's like this dude was in his 30s Like I yeah, and , and the guy one of the guys that I knew was like in his like 50s It's like you should know better Oh.

Well, we're getting off topic. Oh, sorry.  , we're infuriated. If you go and talk into a movie, John will personally come and hit you in the head with a tennis racket. Just letting you know, especially at Plaza. That's right. Or I'll shush  you and embarrass you.  , so yeah, I'm wondering , if I'm getting what you're trying to. 

If we're on the same page about video stores, so please feel free to yeah  and I like where we're going with all this like I feel like everything that we have and put on the table like I'm really fascinated with especially with somebody who has like a long standing history with it and me looking at it from the Eyes of a cinephile.

Yeah. More or less. And  I don't even like classifying myself as a cinephile. There's people out there that are  like, I mean, Aaron. Aaron, it's not a competition. Yeah. It's not a competition. But Aaron puts me like, buries me like 18 feet under earth. Like he is, that guy is a wealth of knowledge and I can just sit and listen to him talk all day.

Yeah. , that's another plug for your podcast, Aaron, , behind the slate with Aaron Strand. . Yes.  ,  But yeah, . I love the nostalgia of it and I love finding something new and if it wasn't for video stores, which  you know It pains me to see the death of a lot of video stores, but it you know, there's  in death There's always a little bit of life, right?

Like there's always like this little bitty hope and I think Videodrome is that hope my next question to that is How have you guys evolved? Because business is expanded I mean in this day and age with everything being as expensive rent and all this and where you guys are located You know, you can't just be making it off, you know, 5 rentals occasionally, right?

Like,  what's gone into the evolution of Videodrome and what's created it to be  a staying power of a video rental store, which is impressive enough, that deserves everything. I mean,  it's such a tough question because, , , we all each of us has our own opinions. , I think it's, , just, I don't know. I think it's like , a lack of bad, not so much good luck as a lack of bad luck.

. Like there, , hasn't been a caught, you know, if there was a flood,  like we would be out of business if we weren't able to stay open for a month at the beginning of the pandemic.  in which  we left our doors open and went to like a pickup, a curb service sort of model for eight months during the pandemic,  because we're not the kind of business that can close our doors for a week or two and then like just be okay in a month, you know, , it's a very slim margin.

So yeah, when, when video drum open, there was. In Little Five Points, there was a, , tiny little video store called Blast Off Video, owned by a guy named Sam Patton, who, , was one of the people who worked at Movies Worth Seeing, who was, , considered, , a mentor, and he specialized in, like, something weird video kind of stuff, , schlock, burlesque, , educational films, ,  splatter, , Real counterculture stuff and then movies were seeing the other store was more of like an  art house and Foreign, you know in classic Hollywood movies  Then it made sense that right between them that a videodrome that had like Hong Kong action movies also splatter and cult movies   Matt Booth was not competing with Blockbuster then it was just like, you know, blockbusters just like the water that we're swimming in.

And this is a specific thing.  So when movies were seeing , the juggernaut, video rental store that I mentioned earlier, when that went out of business in like 2011  and then blockbuster went out of business, , suddenly ,  more and more people started asking for more different, you know, different kinds of things.

So it was everybody from horror freaks, uh, you know, completists of a certain genre, to academics looking for certain things, to our regular, , retired customers who've been coming in for years who want new releases. And so, I'd say for the last 15 years or so,  wait, that's more than 15 years,  20, yeah. 

Yeah, like 15 years or so.  Yeah, we've sort of had to be  not all things to all people, but as close as we can more like that's where the sort of library, , the idea of being a film library and you know, a library doesn't have every single book in the world and we don't have every single movie in the world.

But, , but yeah, we had to become much more broad. So we still get brand new releases that, you know, the day they come out new big Hollywood movies, , and keep old stuff that doesn't rent  often, but needs to be there, , and, you know, for students or anybody researching or curious.  , but financially, , the sort of lack of bad luck is that our. 

So, uh, video drum. The building was, , a convenience store originally. . And, , then it was a series of failed businesses. It was just like,  it was a karate studio, a neon art gallery, a poster, a showroom.  It was several things and they'd all kind of like a little five points business like they just open and then close and So the landlord really liked Matt and like this idea of  You know the video store and he's been he's worked with us, ,  he's like on our side  Until he isn't one day  So that's just luck that that hasn't been turned into condos , and also, , we all, like, work second jobs, have other hustles, and it's really just a few people that have just dedicated themselves to,  , keeping it alive and not making much money, living in poverty, , and We're all living in poverty now.

You might as well, you might as well just enjoy Something and live in poverty. Exactly. Precisely. Yeah. Yeah. , so I don't know if that answers. Yeah. Yeah. , and to extend to that, like  you, you do all these plaza drums Yes. And terra drums. Like, do you think that that like equates into your evolution?

Like Yeah. Because it equates into like, I guess you reaching out to new people. Yeah. Do you gather a lot of new people from these events? Yeah, it seems like it. Okay. , yeah, that was definitely a huge evolution. We, . Never thought until like  the mid 2000s that we would  show movies that weren't like, you know in our friend's backyard or whatever, but   We showed movies  at Java Vino that coffee house It's like across from me across the street from us for a while to like 20 people  Like sort of under the radar and then for years.

It was really it was sort of an  Small embarrassment when people would be like, Oh, you guys are right down the street from that historic movie theater, the plaza theater, or do you show movies there? And we'd be like, , no, we don't know anybody there. And then when Chris Escobar bought the plaza, he reached out to us and thank God, because it's been such a cool, it's really been the synergy between all the passionate people at plaza and us.

And, , it's. Just speak on this cool little yeah, like I said ecosystem of going to the like you said like getting ice cream getting food Being able to go to see a movie and then pick one up on the way home and talk about the movie  It's gotten more people aware of the store and it's gotten more customers in there, but we also make a little bit of, you know, if the cut of the movies, that's good.

Yeah. That helps. Yeah. And that probably helps a lot of the, yes, the financial burden of anything. So that,  and merch, especially during the pandemic, people were really nice and bought , more T shirts than they needed.  You guys have a cool design too. Like this is the coolest logo in town. Um, so,  and also like, You sell vinyl, too.

, that's also, , and it's always been an interesting thing when I first went into Videodrome I was like, oh, yeah,  there's a vinyl section over here and like a lot of cool stuff in it, you know Yeah, do you want to buy it? Yeah, I need to come by buy some because I mean you always have stuff that I'm like Oh shit, like this is like marked up to high hell on Online so in like you have it at like a great price.

Hey, that's a good point listeners. , if you're into like mondo or  Just even horror movie soundtracks like I mean Yeah, if you're into horror movie soundtracks and you're looking at something that came out a year or two ago that  That is now going for astronomical prices. It's probably just gathering dust in our bin.



I appreciate you didn't go up with the prices, which I guess it sounds like you can't but oh Yeah, we could know even with the opposite route of selling them for   we stopped ordering them it sort of  Hasn't it worked out really well at first, but the interest is Mondo changed their business model.

That's the  I guess the main, , horror movie distributor. Yeah. And, , , I don't know. They just haven't been, they've just been taking up space lately and no one seems that interested. So,  but they are at normal markup. So, yeah. So anybody out there if you're looking, you know, yeah. So before we, we wrap all this up, , ,  So I do have two more kind of questions for you.

So the first thing I want to lead into is we talk about life after death, right? Like, I know it's a sound poetic here. We talk about the death of the video rental store, the little life that you guys create. Isn't it interesting? We've talked about this multiple times and I think it's important to talk about like on this show. 

Isn't it interesting that the younger generation seems to be more cinephile?  Yeah, I've like than I would ever expect and I and they're the ones embracing This video rental store and coming out to the plaza shows and seeing these  I mean even just When Aaron showed Cleo from five to seven like how many people from like college and like high schools were out at that showing Not talking either or on their phone, but I'm giving the most amazing  Questions in the Q& A and comments.

It was so that was incredible Yeah,    it's interesting every time I go to Plaza and see how many people are like Interacting with film and learning and educating themselves through film, which I didn't do at a young age Mm hmm.

I didn't discover that world until like late into college early, you know It's a hood and  I'm still trying to catch up. I'm like, I don't even know where to begin some days  But it is so fascinating to see that. Do you think do you see that hundred percent the videodrome? Oh my god  it's so uh Obvious and palpable, like,  I don't know how much Letterboxd has to do with it.

I kind of think a lot. , but  We're at the point Yeah in the last five or six years. Yeah, it's been crazy kids and I don't know how much there is to it. ,   How many of those young people?  This is the first video store and the only video store they've ever been in. And so they're just like, Holy shit, you know, like this is like, it's all brand new to them.

But the studying, like the being schooled part you're talking about is unbelievable. Like there's, you know, 20 year olds coming in asking for movies. I think I might've mentioned this earlier. , all the time, like, Hey, do you have this obscure, you know, nineties, , Japanese art movie?  And the answer is either like,  How you know about that or, or like, yeah, we do, but only because we like it and,  I couldn't bear to get rid of it or it hasn't rented in years.

And then that'll just take off and we'll have some out of print DVD of, you know, something and , so it spreads. Yeah. So absolutely. This generation of, , Cinema enthusiasts. It's unbelievable. It's like nothing. I don't think ever before. And I don't, you know, I see articles, , the Chicago Tribune just had an article about the same phenomenon in Chicago. 

And, , I feel like that's,  it's not just Atlanta. Yeah, that's good. , it's good to know because like, we have to like, we talk about preserving that, that space in history. It is history. You know, art is history. And it is part of us.  All of us, and it's all of us to share, and if we don't get an opportunity to share that, and something that seems so dead, like streaming, because You're streaming by yourself at home.

You're flipping through. Nothing's being offered to you. You feel like it is, but nothing is offered to you. When  I talk to you, , or I go to Plaza, and I get out of that movie, and someone turns to me and says, Hey, you know, you like this weird art house Japanese thing?

Try, , Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes.  And then I go home and watch it. It's like one of my favorite films of all time.  And I feel like we can't lose that yeah,  it's amazing that it's come back to this sort of person to person  Yeah, mouth to mouth, you know  And it's hope, right? It's like how we share our stories.

It's the same thing as the tale as old as time. Stories are meant to be shared from generation to generation. It's what connects us to everybody. It connects us to not only our family, our friends, but everyone across the world at one time.  We have to preserve that so everybody go to Videodrome, you know, buy their merch buy their old vinyls Even if you don't have a vinyl player,  that's what you need to do and go to Plaza go to Tara Yeah, support these local theaters, , it's important to keep all that and it's so much fun And I know people that form friendships from going to these things like meaningful friendships  And the amount of dialogue that it's, , created just among, , enthusiasts and friends has been incredible.

That's why you're on this show. Like we, I mean, we met through all this. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Leif, if you're out there.  We love you, Leif.  So, um, and then last question I have, this is more of a fun question. What's the weirdest thing you've ever rented from a video store? The weirdest movie or whatever that maybe got recommended or maybe you just  ended up watching.

, man, I'm going to just think of ones that, , stuck with me.  , I remember  Sam Patton who on blast off video telling me I had to watch a movie called,  blood freak,  which is  an indescribable.  , it might be Christian, , but it's about , a biker, a 70s, , movie about a, , a good looking hunky biker, , who has a little problem with drugs, and, but he works on a turkey farm, and there's some conspiracy involving giving the turkeys heroin so that instead of shooting up, junkies are eating turkey instead, but it has a Christian moral at the end.

There's And it's, yeah, total insanity. That's back in the 70s too, where they had all their back from Vietnam movies too, right? Right, right, yeah. Oh man, that's, I'm gonna have to put that on my list. , yeah, it has a, , talking head, keeps awkwardly cutting too. It's one of those movies that anytime it gets any momentum, it just cuts back to this, like, guy behind a desk. 

Like, it's just self sabotaging. Amazing. . We're gonna have to add Blood Freak , to our queue. Yeah. Everybody back home. It's, it's incredible.

Awesome. Well, John, before we get out of here, ,  tell us a little bit more what Videodrome is going to do in the future. Yeah. , coming up in the next, , few months we'll continue showing movies on the.

Third Thursdays of the month at the Plaza and the first Tuesdays of the month at Terra Our next TerraDrome series , we'll be the director, , Nobuhiko Obayashi, the director of House, three of his, , movies from around that same time that have not been available in the U. S. until now.

Thank you. And, , we're going to have another VHS market, I think, in March or April. I don't know if you've been to those, but we basically just turned the, , Plaza Theatres  Lobby into a, , flea market of different VHS sellers , and related. And then we show like , a movie after all that.

It's, it's like an afternoon into the evening thing.  The VHS market will be on March 30th and , I think we'll be showing, ,  the,  J horror movie. That's a really popular one with customers, , called Neuroy. Yeah. I love Neuroy.  , that would be fun to catch on the big screen too. Yeah. And it's been restored. Yeah. I just watched the restoration of it and it was well done. Like I really enjoyed the restoration of it. Oh, right on.  And then, uh, yeah, so we'll have the Obayashi movies, , coming up and then we're doing some things with our friend, , and ex employee Millie DeCirico.

, she's gonna,, bring some, hopefully some Hollywood directors. , and then, , I don't know, we've been also, I'm trying to collaborate more and more with, , boutique labels like, , fun city additions and, you know, some of these, , vinegar syndrome under the OCN label. And these are just people we've reached out to who we're just fellow fans with.

And , so yeah, regular screenings, , and here now the best way to follow us or the best way to figure out what we're doing is to look at our Instagram account. It's just video drum underscore ATL. Yeah, . Perfect place to keep up with everything that's going on. John, thank you so much for sharing your expertise and giving us some hope and continuing the life after death, right?

That's right. That is important. John is an amazing personality. Catch him at Videodrome. He will lead you in the right direction if you don't know what to watch or if you're just looking to get into a certain genre of Film if I'm not busy. If he's not busy.  , . We're also understaffed. So , yeah.  If he's running around like a chicken with his head cut off, just wait. 

, but , him and his crew over there do a phenomenal job. The movies, the video drum shows at Plaza Drum incredible. Come out, catch those, talk to them.  Support local theaters support the local arts. It's very important, especially in a time like this. It keeps us all together John, thank you so much.

Thank you. Jason. It's been great. Appreciate it Absolutely, and  you  can catch him on instagram and we'll we'll see you next time