Gives Me Pause

I have a compulsion. That's an amateur's opinion, because I'm no doctor and have no familiarity with or understanding of the American Medical Association's Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders, but let's not get bogged down in all of that. The point is that there's something I'm doing that I can't seem to control, and which I have little interest in controlling. For the time being I don't think it's doing any harm.

It's buying VHS tapes. Some time ago, I bought a VCR after not having one for some years. I had moved on to DVDs like everyone, but got to missing certain qualities that one can only get from the old tapes. I may have written about this in the past. Their faults are charming. I get nostalgic for the way they fail and fall short. They have poor resolution, tracking issues, no bonus features or ability to easily skip around the movie you're watching. I love it.

So I had not really bought any tapes for a while, and then I got a couple. Then the dam just burst. I buy them now any time I get the chance, provided the titles in question really catch my fancy. All too many do. They have to meet a certain criteria of apparent hilarity and awesomeness. Ideally, I get the impression that they are not available in any more modern media format. It's always cool when they are some manner of "screener" tape meant only for the eyes of some award voter or video store owner.

Of course this all leaves me with quite a backlog of tapes to watch. I have all these ones that I am buying (at a dollar or two apiece) in addition to the ones I grab from my old stockpile back home most times that I am there. I like to have friends over to watch the more promising ones, but many I will watch all by my lonesome while neglecting shows and movies of a more modern and popular vintage. Doesn't it figure that would be my way?