Professional Sweetheart: 12/1/23
There's No Place Like Drome
Hey there! Welcome to another free post — thanks for being a subscriber. If you feel like telling a friend about the newsletter, I would appreciate it!
Hope everyone had a great holiday last week! I came back from break with what seemed like a million little things — doctor’s appointment, wrapping up the film class I’ve been teaching, seeing friends in from out of town, etc. But my biggest and most favorite obligation of the week? Celebrating the 25th anniversary of a hometown staple (and my video store alma mater), the mighty Videodrome in Atlanta, GA.
The last remaining video store in my city, and one of the few left in the country, Videodrome has been a special place for so many ATL cinephiles since it opened in the late 90’s. At current state it feels like the beating heart of the Atlanta film scene, and much to my delight, stays relevant in spite of every new person who moves to town and every new thing cropping up around it. To have witnessed the entire history of it at this point feels insane. When I moved to downtown Atlanta from Marietta, GA in 1997, Videodrome hadn’t opened yet, but I had memberships at the two big-city places cool people I knew rented at (both of which are long gone by this point): the amazing and formative-for-me Blast Off Video in Little Five Points (beware of the glitchy quality of that video, by the way — it’s still such an amazing relic though) and the legendary Movies Worth Seeing in Virginia Highlands. Blast Off, in all honesty, was my true home. It was a tiny little hole in the wall store in an alleyway that specialized in cult and exploitation movies and pretty much nothing else. It definitely made me the maniac that I am today. Movies Worth Seeing, on the other hand, was at least twice the size of Blast Off and was more of Atlanta’s general purpose movie nerd treasure. Basically, the Criterion Channel in video store form. They stocked all the classic, international, and indies titles you needed to rent for your film classes; much broader than Blast Off but definitely expertly curated for cinephiles. I pretty much alternated between these two spots the entire first year of my undergrad film program at GSU, and when Videodrome also got added to the mix I was thrilled to have yet another place to get movies. And even better, it seemed to be the perfect middle ground between Blast Off and Movies Worth Seeing: all the twisted, psychotronic titles of BO mixed in perfectly with the classic Hollywood, foreign, and indie titles of MWS. It was like the woman Arnold Schwarzenegger programs for himself in Total Recall: “sleazy AND demure”. A true one-stop paradise for yours truly.
Me in Videodrome, obviously!
I think what’s made Videodrome special over the years is that it remains a physical meeting place for Atlanta’s film scene. From my experience of living here so long, I’ve seen the film culture of Atlanta wax and wane over the years. It went from being a great time in the 1990’s when I was in high school and college with the Lefont Theaters and the IMAGE Film Festival to kind of a lull after both those things went away in the 2000’s, and it stayed that way for a long time. But ever since I moved back from LA a few years ago, I feel a vibrancy that hasn’t existed in a long time, and I think Videodrome has a lot to do with that. They’ve been able to pivot from being just a rental business to so much more, from events, merch, and programming, all the while still being a place for people to congregate. The location of the store still feels like a place I can and want to hang out at. In my pre-digital youth, sitting in stores talking to people was essential, and frankly, there really is no replacement for it no matter how old I get or how much information and access the internet has given me. Videodrome lovingly feels trapped in time in that way: people still want to sit around and hang. And even though Atlanta has managed to spread out A LOT over the years, I still love the famous Buddy’s gas station / Manuel’s Tavern intersection of North Ave. and N. Highland Ave. where Videodrome still sits. Back in the 1990’s and 2000’s it felt like the absolute center of everything in the city, and I’d argue it’s still a busy, meaningful corner — very walkable and geographically in the middle of a bunch of cool neighborhoods (it’s actually right in between the old Blast Off and MWS locations). Even to this day, it seems like the perfect place to see and be seen. You can always know if your friend is in the store by their car being parked in their front-facing parking lot. I’ve actually left things up at the store for people to pick up, knowing how famous of a location it is. The idea that a video store can serve as a trading post makes my heart swell with happiness.
For some reason, when I think of a trading post, my mind wanders to the store Paul Newman manages in The Long, Hot Summer (1958). Imagine if Videodrome sold shoes?! I’d never leave.
Another contributing factor? Videodrome always seemed slightly friendlier than either of the places I’d rented from in the past, and that’s taking into consideration that both MWS and Blast Off were always on the nice end of the “Snobby Video Store Employee” spectrum. (In fact, a lot of Videodrome employees used to work at MWS and Jerry at least used to work at Blast Off.) I’m not saying it’s Trader Joe’s friendly or anything. Or that you walk in and people are screaming, “WELCOME TO VIDEODROME!!” like you’re about to order a burrito at Moe’s or some shit. I’m just saying: for a video store? It’s not bad at all. I’ve often tried to figure out Videodrome’s secret sauce of why it seems more open and conversational: maybe it’s the layout? The register is the first thing you see so you’re greeted almost immediately when you walk in. Maybe it’s the old, comfy Frasier’s Dad’s chair they have next to it that’s hard to get out of so you feel like you can just stay forever? Maybe it’s the fact that you can just put your elbows on the counter while you’re talking and nobody says anything about it? Ultimately, I think it boils down to the owners and employees of Videodrome, all long-time Atlanta residents, and because of that are very community minded. In all my experience with living in other towns, I have to say that Atlanta has always been a very collaborative city. Most cool people in Atlanta are totally open to working with other cool people with very little ego involved — a very refreshing notion after trying to do fun, cool things in other cities, I’ll tell you. I really think the “let’s put on a show” attitude of this city is why Atlanta’s film culture has re-energized recently. Places like Videodrome and the Plaza Theater now filled with young film people who want to do fun things, and everything seems fun and promising again. Not only this, people are doing things for sheer love of the game, making little to no money, which only happens when you really love a thing. A few years ago I actually started working some shifts at Videodrome, while I had a full time job at TCM, not because I needed the money but because I just wanted to hang!! (Also, at the time, there wasn’t a woman in the employee mix and to this day it’s the rare time I’ve been more than happy to be a diversity hire.) At the event the other night, you had so many people who had offered up services and partnerships and just a generous helping hand. The night was packed with so many old and new faces, tons of things to see and hear, and it was truly that “putting on a show” vibe in action. It had been a while since I had played records in public (I decided on a very special DJ name as well: Wax Von Sydow) but getting to DJ with Atlanta legends like Jennifer Von Schlichten, Gnosis, and Alex McCleskey, all people who I’ve been friends with and seen DJ in town for decades, was just a fucking blast. All love, all night long. Driving home after, I felt so proud of this community Videodrome helped build. I felt happy I was a part of it. It made Atlanta truly feel like my home again. Happy 25th, Videodrome! I love ya!
The obligatory, end-of-evening employee photo. We look good for 25!
Have a great weekend!
Millie
Wax Von Sydow. Legendary.
Our fair city!