photo from homotron.net
In Saturday’s post about the 1993 classic, The Program, I made a small statement at the tail end regarding former movie rental giant Blockbuster. It was sort of a throw-away line, but today comes news (via AP/msn.com) that the once mighty franchise is closing up to 960 stores, and going the way of RedBox by opening kiosks in a last ditch effort before they finally go the way of the dodo.
While I haven’t been inside of a Blockbuster for many moons, this is sort of the end of an era in a way. Blockbuster was a way of life for any movie renter during the better part of the 90′s, as it was the only option after forcing mom and pop movie stores across America out of business.
Blockbuster employees were a rare breed as well– a perfect mixture of teenage angst, acne, film knowledge, douchebaggery, and World of Warcraft XP. They would help you if they could, but they were always on the phone with their buddy explaining how they unfortunately had to skip going to the big party and getting dome that Friday night because they had to come in and work.
But Blockbuster will always have a place in my heart. This isn’t an obituary, but a celebration. A tribute, of sorts… to 6NBlog’s favorite video store employee of all time. Jeff Anderson’s Randal from Clerks:
