Just a few days ago, a game came out that has already garnered quite a bit of attention for its improbable premise. Shout out instructions for “Run your own early 90’s video store!” retro rewind. “Relive the golden age of video rental by renting, selling, decorating, and growing your business from scratch!” Those of us old enough to have relied on such establishments for our early film education can easily remember how frustrating they were and what they were doing. Physically limited selection, tapes that are rarely rewound, and punitive late fees. Still, it’s not wrong for younger generations to imagine that it was a special place where movie buffs’ dreams came true. Just ask Quentin Tarantino.
top clip It comes from Joe Rogan and Tarantino interview with Roger Avaryworked together at the Manhattan Beach Video Archive before co-writing pulp fiction. “Working at that store, I just fell in love with that little bit of life there,” Tarantino says. But he also remembers thinking, “This is not my dream. This is not what I wanted to do while working at a video store for years. I actually wanted to make a movie. It’s not my dream and it’s what I’m doing, but it’s a dream!” He found that getting paid to watch movies all day long (not to mention become locally famous for being a total cinephile) without having to do any serious physical labor could “put my ambitions to sleep a little.”
Tarantino explains that his awakening from this retail reverie began when he witnessed the sudden exasperation of his fellow store clerks, who were now in their 30s and doing the same old “cool” jobs. This led him to experience a series of dark nights of the soul, which he called “Quentin’s Hate Festivals,” during which he unapologetically accounted for every mistake he made, either actively or passively. “I spent the whole night figuring out everything wrong with what I was doing, and then spent the last two hours thinking about how I could change it. And instead of just doing it and getting some sleep and then forgetting and going back to my usual routine, I decided to change my life.”
His obsession with work was a big part of the problem. “I have to move to Hollywood, I have to get involved there, and I have to meet other people in the business,” he realized. “Don’t make money until you make money doing what you want to do.” Shortly after moving from the South Bay to Koreatown (still quite south of Hollywood, but close enough), he began making connections in the world of low-budget horror. “If these people can do it, so can I,” he began to believe, and within a year and a half he was making a living as a screenwriter. The video rental industry has long since collapsed, but Quentin Tarantino is still going strong as a director. If he takes time off from work, this could be the last picture he gets to play with. retro rewindI’m sure everyone would like to know what kind of memories it will bring back. Maybe he and Avary can talk about it. video archive podcast.
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What life-changing realization did you wish you had known sooner?
Based in Seoul, Colin Mbemust write and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages and cultures. he is the author of the newsletter books about cities books as well Home page (I won’t summarize Korea) and korean newtro. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter. @Colinbemust.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
