One doesn't want to wallow in Schadenfreude, but...
...some situations warrant it. Such as when Oxford’s coolest (and only) independent video store closes down because the landlord has exploited loopholes to up the rent and they’re selling everything they own to pay their debts.
So the store had a MASSIVE sale, starting on Monday night at 7pm with live music. Steve and I got there at 7:30, and there must have been 200 people in the store, plus the musicians standing on the window display above the crowd. We jammed in with everyone else, and it was the kind of situation that you literally had your nose in the guy in front of you’s hair (except YAY for being 6’3” in boots, because I could totally see everything and breathe).
So we stood still for ten minutes and looked at the bit of shelf near our shoulders, then we shuffled forward a step and looked at that bit of shelf, and this went on for two hours. Steve and I separated to cover more ground, and it was so cool and Oxonian, because people would say, “Excuse me, could you please pass me that copy of Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Bee Movie from up there?” or “I’m terribly sorry, I can’t move right now,” or “Would you mind if we swap places? Thank you!” By the time I caught up with Steve we both had armfuls of DVDs, and after rationalising (do I really need Miss Potter and six series of Inspector Morse?) the list came to this, in categories:
Category: Look how thoughtful and interested in the world we are:
Control Room
War, Inc.
Fahrenheit 9/11
Michael Clayton
Amazing Grace
Category: Look how we appreciate classic quirky comedy
Grosse Point Blank
Intolerable Cruelty
Run Fat Boy Run
Election
The Boss of it All
Rocker
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Category: Look how I choose movies Steve will hate
Oklahoma
State Fair
Easy Virtue
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Category: We should be ashamed
Flushed Away (Steve)
John Tucker Must Die (me)
Other
Terminator Salvation
Once we'd stood in line for an hour to buy them (with the long-haired reprobates who work there excoriating people for their choices by holding up the shameful ones and bellowing "Are you serious? Legally Blonde? DUDE. I sure hope you have a sister," we went to dinner at Atomic Burger in Cowley Rd. Is it bad and shallow that the thought of 19 unwatched DVDs has made me happy for two days?
So the store had a MASSIVE sale, starting on Monday night at 7pm with live music. Steve and I got there at 7:30, and there must have been 200 people in the store, plus the musicians standing on the window display above the crowd. We jammed in with everyone else, and it was the kind of situation that you literally had your nose in the guy in front of you’s hair (except YAY for being 6’3” in boots, because I could totally see everything and breathe).
So we stood still for ten minutes and looked at the bit of shelf near our shoulders, then we shuffled forward a step and looked at that bit of shelf, and this went on for two hours. Steve and I separated to cover more ground, and it was so cool and Oxonian, because people would say, “Excuse me, could you please pass me that copy of Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Bee Movie from up there?” or “I’m terribly sorry, I can’t move right now,” or “Would you mind if we swap places? Thank you!” By the time I caught up with Steve we both had armfuls of DVDs, and after rationalising (do I really need Miss Potter and six series of Inspector Morse?) the list came to this, in categories:
Category: Look how thoughtful and interested in the world we are:
Control Room
War, Inc.
Fahrenheit 9/11
Michael Clayton
Amazing Grace
Category: Look how we appreciate classic quirky comedy
Grosse Point Blank
Intolerable Cruelty
Run Fat Boy Run
Election
The Boss of it All
Rocker
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Category: Look how I choose movies Steve will hate
Oklahoma
State Fair
Easy Virtue
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Category: We should be ashamed
Flushed Away (Steve)
John Tucker Must Die (me)
Other
Terminator Salvation
Once we'd stood in line for an hour to buy them (with the long-haired reprobates who work there excoriating people for their choices by holding up the shameful ones and bellowing "Are you serious? Legally Blonde? DUDE. I sure hope you have a sister," we went to dinner at Atomic Burger in Cowley Rd. Is it bad and shallow that the thought of 19 unwatched DVDs has made me happy for two days?