Expiring Experiences

Many cultural touchstones exist, seemingly defining society, until they fade into distant memories. The materials I am recommending showcase expiring experiences from pop culture. How many old things will you recognize, or how many will you start to get to know?

Blockbuster Video

In Built To Fail Alan Payne rewinds time to give the true story of how Blockbuster Video, once America’s top video rental chain, failed. Alan pauses to reflect on Blockbuster Video’s failed business spinoffs, including BlockbusterLand, a planned theme park that would compete with Disney World, and Blockbuster Music, a music rental chain. Payne’s book is also a record of his successful thirty-one years in the video store business, including twenty-five years as a Blockbuster franchisee. Alan also writes about how Blockbuster executives never took stock of the successful ideas he implemented in his Blockbuster stores, such as having an expanded catalog of older movies. Rent this book from the library to find out all about the rental chain’s demise!

AOL

You’ve Got Mail is a movie from the year 1998. This romantic comedy is about two strangers (played by Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks) who communicate over AOL’s email service. Their connection is anonymous, as they only know each other’s screen names: Shopgirl and NY152. Yet their relationship develops quicker than AOL’s slow dial-up internet. Shopgirl and NY152 bond over simple conversations such as a butterfly’s trip to Bloomingdales and how Starbucks variety of drink customizations gives its customers a defining sense of self.

However, their internet friendship conflicts with their real lives. Shopgirl 152 is Kathleen Kelly, who runs the independent children’s bookstore The Shop Around The Corner. While NY152 is Joe Fox, who opens up a Fox Books (a chain of discount bookstores) store in the same neighborhood. Will Shopgirl and NY152 go AWOL from their AOL connection when their true identities are revealed? Place You’ve Got Mail on hold and you’ll get an email when your movie about email is ready for pickup!

Phone Booth

This 2002 thriller film is set in a phone booth in Manhattan. The film’s main character is a cutthroat publicist named Stu (played by Colin Farrell). Stu is a married man who uses the phone booth daily to call his mistress Pam. One day Stu receives a call inside the phone booth from a vengeful unseen caller played by Kiefer Sutherland. The caller has been watching Stu. Stu’s phone booth dilemma requires him to change—or else the unseen caller will make him pay.

The caller makes the phone booth a high-tech confessional and demands that Stu admit his infidelity to his mistress Pam and his wife Kelly. The caller also threatens to kill Stu if he hangs up. Will Stu get up over the hang-up of admitting to his infidelity? Will Stu find a lifeline out of the life-or-death situation? Call your library to put Phone Booth on hold!

One-Hour Photo

Do you remember going to the store to get your photos developed? You brought in your camera roll; one hour later your photos were magically ready. This one-hour photo concept is the premise of the 2002 thriller One Hour Photo, which concentrates on a photo technician named Sy Parrish who develops an unhealthy obsession with one of his customers. Sy Parrish is played by Robin Williams.

Sy’s customers are mostly boring or weird. But Sy loves when a woman named Nina Yorkin and her son Jake come to get their family photos developed. Sy is a lonely man who idealizes the Yorkin family consisting of Nina, her husband Will, and their son Jake. Sy always develops a copy of their family photos for his own personal collection and even fantasizes about being a part of the family. However, Sy’s picture-perfect image of the Yorkin family is altered when another customer comes into SavMart to get their photos developed. What information has come to light about the Yorkin family? How will Sy roll with this new reality? Check out One Hour Photo to see the full picture!

Shopping Malls

Dawn of the Dead brings to life George Romero’s scathing critique of capitalism. The 1978 horror flick is Romero’s second film in his series of zombie films. Dawn of the Dead is about a group of people who take shelter inside an indoor shopping mall to avoid zombies. What surprises are in store for the group? Will they shop til they physically drop? Will the zombies put them on the mall’s food court menu? Walk to the library and grab a copy of Dawn of the Dead to find out.