Life in 720p

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The underground DVD store around the corner turned into a bar and maybe that’s why a little part of me died today. It’s like Blockbuster, my brother said. Streaming services are more popular and no one is renting DVDs anymore. The quality is also not comparable. 720p is its best. And I get all that I do, but why do I also want to cry and yell and scream and shriek like a little kid again? Why do I wish I could’ve visited the store one more time even if there aren’t any movies I haven’t watched or movies I even want to watch and just walk around the aisles reaching and touching and reading every blurb and synopsis? Even if nothing intrigues me and the trip is a bust, I wish I could’ve breathed in the stale and slightly dusty air once more and feel the chill from the ac and look at the indifferent cashier reading his own novel wishing he were anywhere else while I wished I could shrink the whole store and fit it into my pocket and carry it with me to my childhood bedroom. Maybe put it into a box and lock it so it’s safe and quiet and there. But now it’s an underground bar and a niche little hangout spot for cool hip people to gather and chat about nothing and everything and it might seem like a great thing, but I don’t want a free shot for every five even though I just turned legal two months ago. And I should be happy that I have a new place to go to but I can’t stop thinking about all the weekends and maybe late weekdays if the mood is right when mom would take us to the store and let us choose any DVDs we want to rent but usually two is our max. One for me and one for my brother because we could never agree on anything. And we would go home and play it in our DVD player while we fought over whether the machine was actually on or not and who should microwave the popcorn. He was always better at both but he let me participate. And we would watch it and laugh or maybe just sit in concentration and we were both too small to fight over legroom so we would sit in peace and eat in peace and watch in peace and giggle together and we didn’t want to be anywhere but there. Right there in our living room with our DVD at 720p where the world was spinning and we were smiling and nothing else mattered. But the DVD store turned into a bar and it looks quite nice but I don’t think I’ll ever visit even though the deal does look quite tempting and the decor looks carefully chosen. I haven’t even seen what they did with the whole place, but I just can’t bring myself to go because I still love the world in 720p.