non spon con
the first minneapolis video rental store of the 21st-century needs your love and support
I said I wasn’t going to be back this week, but I’m back. This will be quick though. Some cool people in Minneapolis are building the first brick-and-mortar video rental store in the Twin Cities since . . . I don’t know actually, I think there was one in Powderhorn that made it until 2015-ish? This isn’t just some craziness in a void - Emmet from Sloppy Discs has been renting Blurays out of a bag in the Main lobby for a couple years now, Ant Hill Video is set up at Moon Palace, and in a news development that I truly didn’t believe when I saw it, physical media powerhouse Vinegar Syndrome is opening a store in Dinkytown sometime before the end of the summer.
If all goes well, The Video Store will be a real-deal brick and mortar rental store in Minneapolis. And in order for that to go well, they needs to make some money. If you are excited about this kind of thing, this is your opportunity to support it. You’ve got a few options:
Contribute to their Kickstarter campaign that starts tomorrow, 1st August. If you have loose change, you should consider giving it to them.
Get tickets to their launch party tomorrow at the Trylon in South Minneapolis. There will be archival 16mm stuff from Cult Film Collective, a screening of the documentary At the Video Store, and most likely lots of good vibes. That’s $25 on Saturday, 1st August from 2-4pm CDT. I’ll be out of town but you should go in my stead.
If you have excess physical media, you can donate it. Or, if you have excess time, you can volunteer.
To be clear, I have no skin in the game here other than that I want this store to exist so I can go to it. I don’t even have a Bluray player, I don’t know why I care. I guess in a capitalist system, thoughtful retail experiences are among our best opportunities to bring like-minded people together and therefore become nexuses for conversation, friendship, the creation of collaborative art, political action, etc. Or maybe I just want our city to have nice things. Or maybe I just want somewhere new to hang out. Maybe these are all the same.
So consider supporting these guys. And supporting Sloppy Discs, Ant Hill Video, the Trylon, and whatever nuts are doing this in your city if you live somewhere else.
That’s all. I’ve been doing some stuff behind the curtain - if you snoop around you can probably catch a preview. More about all of that and thoughts on all sorts of movies next week.