About DVD World

Side projects hold a very special place in my heart. When I picture something fun, and work my way through it piece by piece, I feel that way I felt when I was a child playing with legos. We kept an enormous, entirely unsorted, bucket of legos that was a collection of leftover pieces from many different sets. The fun of it was not knowing what you'd build, and the joy was the improvisation of building it. My weekends were reserved for building quirky, creative, delightful things. Our creations were disassembled and thrown back in the box, to become available parts for the following weekend. My adult weekends, often spent tinkering on something new, are highly nostalgic and joyful.

Me in 1997

KJ in 1995

SJ in 1992

Last month I was thinking a lot of my peak-lego years. For some reason I couldn't stop thinking about my childhood Blockbuster. In the late nineties and early 2000's our weekend Blockbuster trip was a sacred family ritual. We roughly abided by the following rules:

1. The family is allotted two movies for the evening - older brothers can get a protected PG-13 pick
2. When (not if) you bump into someone from school, feel free to roam with them instead of the family
3. If you're lost, talk to Kacie at the front desk - she knows more than you ever will
4. You may not buy anything edible - the Blockbuster was next to Lowes Foods and sold popcorn in bulk

I think a lot of people, like me, miss that experience. The experience was always a little social, you never knew what you were going to find, and there were only so many movies available. Trying to find a streaming movie 25 years later is almost the opposite. I have infinite choices, but instead of pick one I scroll through my options for an hour before I give up and watch something I've already seen.

DVD World is an homage to an old, joyful ritual and a response to a current frustration. You can roam the store, walk up to a shelf, and check out different genres. If you see a movie you like, you can click on it and see links to the actual streaming services they live on. If you need a suggestion, you can go up to the counter to ask Kacie. If you get lost, you can refer to the store map. If you need anything else, the store Manager is in her office in the back - you can talk to her directly. You can toggle between movies from the 1980s, 1990s, and new movies that came out in the past year. If you don't vibe with the default character, you can pick another one.

Have a look around, enjoy yourself, and hopefully find something fun to watch this weekend.

- Cam