Lucubration Station

I have started my post about the weekend but there was a lot to write about so it stays unfinished.
I want to write about something happening tonight and something I consider actually very important.

So first onto the details and then my thoughts about it.

Trash Video Cabaret Benefit Gig


Venue: Ahimsa House, 26 Horan St, West End
Date: 7pm Friday 4 July
Tickets: Concession $15/ Full-time worker $25
Subscribe on the night and entry is free
More information: www.empressev.net
or the facebook event

I should have written about this earlier but I guess I just presumed people already knew about it and/or understood how goddamn important and significant this event would be.

For starters you may not know about Trash Video so here is a very quick summary.
Its a video store that for 8 years or so resided in Brisbane's fortitude valley. At the time the valley was the cities bohemia. The place for the exiles of the greater city and the haven for the odd, artistic, eccentric, broken, creative and inspirational.
As time has passed the valley is now a sad shadow of itself, not much more than an extension of the main CBD. Gentrification and government intervention cleaning up and cleaning out the very character that made the area unique and valuable.
We all lament the dying of the valley and in that process unique and exciting stores such as trash video have left. Most have closed and trash was a rarity in finding a new home and struggling onwards

Now onto what the store actually is.
Its a video shop, yes, the old style VHS tapes that movies became a mass distributable medium upon. Yes DVD has killed the video medium but like records before CD a lot of things produced in the past have never been, and probably never will be released in the new format. Trash has always specialized in rarities. The collection of video was always focused on things that weren't widely distributed.
Cult films
Arthouse
Documentaries
Local Productions
Exploitation Films
Banned Films
These are things that get lost in the sands of time and as a collector and film fan (not just someone who watches what is put in front of them) the owner of this store would travel and search to find those things most rare, valuable, obscure and unique within the film world.
A true geek, a true collector knows the lengths people go to for a collection.
and this is one hell of a collection
over 12 thousand movies
Trash video is Australia's largest video collection, private or commercial this is it, the largest collection in the entire country.

Now is these days of DVD a video store is not commercially viable. It just isnt, people dont even own video players anymore.
This seems to be the only thing people think about when the hear about the demise of this store. Its not going to make money, so it will die, the end, who cares?
YOU SHOULD
Your apathy completely astounds and appalls me. I have to blame naivety to stop myself from wanting to throttle you here and now.

This isnt a coffee shop that can easily be replaced by another coffee shop, no rival is waiting in the wings to take its place.
This is a UNIQUE collection, there isnt any other options and it cannot ever be replaced.
Once it is gone, it will be broken up and sold off to private collections and never be seen again. The resource, for you, for anyone you know, for your kids, for the creative minds of the country... it wont exist.

It will be over and you wont be able to undo your innaction.
This isnt about commercial viability, this isnt about money.
This is about art.

Movies are art, across the board.
The paintings of Renoir are just as much art as the screen prints of a Warhol Factory member.
The films of Gondry are art just as much as the exploitation film about a Turkish midget james bond.
This is an art collection of original and reproduced art, being removed from circulation forever. If warhols paintings were about to be destroyed and removed from galleries never to be viewed by again I doubt you would be so casual about it. I doubt you would go "well, it isnt making any money by hanging on that wall, so who cares if its destroyed?"

Trash has faced extinction multiple times in the last few years and each time a wave of support has kept it alive for a few more months before facing the chopping block again. Its is beyond sad, it makes me ashamed. So I am doing what I can, I signing up for their attempt to make it a subsciption service. Supporting the efforts for some goverment or more substantial official backing.

I might grumble about traffic but I really consider our culture and our arts as a more important resource to this city, this country and lets say, even the world than building tunnels and roads to make it easier to move our resource munching cars around the place. Im sure it wouldnt even take 1/60th of the money invested in that to keep this video collection as a resource for us now and for the future.

Do you believe in supporting indie music?
Do you believe in supporting indie artists?
Do you believe in supporting indie film?
Do you believe in supporting local business?

So why not a local indie video store?