13 October 2009

Creature Features:
THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US

Original broadast, 1973

The Old Dark Arthouse is portal to the totality of our obsessions; however, we also flaunt a more specific obsession at UHF Nocturne, where we posted about tonight's screening of a complete Creature Features episode at the Balboa Theater.

Nostalgia used to be something consumed in small quantities regulated by chance - an old newspaper found in the closet of one's new apartment could prompt a wispy moment of reverie about the TV shows one watched in one's youth. There would be a sense of preciousness, both of the memory and the artifact. And the moment would pass, leaving our attention once more in the here-and-now.

We miss that sort of nostalgia.

Modern nostalgia is different. Precious artifacts are archived in encyclopedic amounts for online public consumption. Wispy moments of reverie return 8,537 Google hits. The brief longing for just a bit more of the past, the mild ache to remember the details better, can be satisfied past the point of satiation.

This is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. It is just change.

A couple of years back, we resisted obtaining a NetFlix account on the grounds that "NetFlix is driving mom-and-pop video stores out of business!" We delighted in our umbrage over this outrageous modern incursion into our precious video renting habits.

Then one afternoon we strolled home from work along the length of Market Street, and became melancholic for the gutted movie theaters there. How could this have happened to our precious movie going habits? The rented DVD in our pack reminded us, those mom-and-pop video stores whose demise NetFlix was engineering were the villains who put the movie theaters out of business.

Since then, we aren't quite as reflexive in our reactions to changes of this sort. It is possible to miss the old movie theaters but still enjoy video stores, and it is possible to miss the video stores while enjoying NetFlix. And if nostalgia itself has changed, so be it.