When I embarked on the journey, that undoubtedly will be known as my time in San Francisco, my Father endowed me with 2 words of advice.
1) Rummies have no wind.
2) The way California goes, so goes the nation.
I still I have no idea what the first one means. The second one I can get behind. At least sort of.
Sometimes I forget, that San Francisco is such a walled garden. We have opportunities, here, at least technologically that aren’t found in many other places. Because we’re the tech sector of the western hemisphere. (this is going somewhere, trust me). When my dear dear friend Laura (I’m not just saying that because I know she reads this) came out to visit me the inevitable happened, it was time to scope out what DVDs I had. Now my DVD collection is quite small. At least it’s quite small to most people. To tell you the truth, I don’t even have a stand alone DVD player for my TV anymore. I very rarely will pop in a movie from some form of physical media. And I mean why should I? We’ve really reached a point where physical media is going the way of VHS. Let’s look at a couple different models, some legal, some illegal. All attainable though, and all 3 I have/still do use.
1) Netflix Streaming Service.
Netflix is amazing. I think if Netflix was a person, I’d marry it. I’ve been an on again, off again Netflix user for the last, lets say 5 years. When I set up my new Netflix account this time though I immediately skipped the whole getting a physical disc, and went straight for the streaming. And while the streaming selection is not what I hoped it would be, it’s still pretty damn amazing. I’ve managed to watch way more movies than I would have if I had to wait for the physical disc to arrive.
2) iTunes Buying & Renting Service
I also love Apple. I have to admit that. I’ve drank the Kool-Aid. Steve Jobs is a genius. He’s convinced me that I need things that previously I didn’t know that I wanted. One of the best features, at least in my mind, that iTunes offers, is the ability to buy movies, and rent them. Again, nothing physical. It’s all done with bytes or bits. I don’t know. But which ever one it is, it certainly beats having to go to Blockbuster, or even buying a DVD.
3) The Pirate Bay, and other torrenting services
So I’ll admit, in the past, and in my hasty times, I may have experimented with downloading movies. Though I wouldn’t recommend this.
Now I have to say, that there is still something appealing about owning a DVD, the fact that it’s there, and you know that’s where it’s going to be unless you damage it, or you know, lose it. And there has been a few times where I’ve considered purchasing special DVDs. I’m still struggling on the inside, as to whether I should purchase the directors edition of Watchmen when it comes out, or if I would rather shell out the money on iTunes and get it. It’s a bit of a conundrum. But I really think I’m over physical media. I’m fine just having all of these things stock piled on my external hard drive. I just wish there was a way to get director commentaries on the downloaded content.
