Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1065
An analysis of the $20 rental fee for Eras, the majestic Irish Timber Croc.
Good morning. Hello. How are you? Happy Friday. Christmas is almost upon us. Jane’s at school for a half day. Not sure of the point, they basically do recess and lunch and leave, but whatever. Pretty sure there’s only one child mom in an expensive brown coat with a G-Wagon. She followed me home, at least 80% of the way there. Jane had trouble with the door this morning because the truck was on a slight angle. I held up the line. No regrets. “Prayer to God” came on in the car on the drive there and that was somewhat unfortunate, as I would have loved to listen to it and I am still slightly gobsmacked that Shellac is on Apple Music. But the chorus is, shall we say, not child appropriate. Maybe I should curate my 7,000+ song “all the good” playlist for child appropriateness. Might take some time. Like… the length of her childhood.
Okay let’s talk about the $20 price tag for Taylor’s Eras. The new rationale, of course, is that this is cheaper than the theater experience, so it is a deal. I dispute this rationale vigorously. The two experiences are nothing alike — no crowd, no giant screen, no huge sound system, no screaming fans and like-minded comraderie. Of course, these distinctions have their pros and cons for every consumer, but that’s because they are, in fact, completely different products. What the home rental of Eras is most similar to is, in fact, the home rental market.
So let’s take a time trip to Box Office Video, Fairbanks, Alaska, in video’s heyday, let’s say 1988. I’m 90% sure (Fairbanksans feel free to correct me) that rental at Box Office was $2.50. Let’s call it $3. You had to have a membership but that was free. So. Three dollars in 1988 dollars today is around eight bucks. For that you got: a week (I think. It might have been a month) of rental, with incremental costs for extended rentals, very convenient, nothing to do, just keep it. You got the absolute highest resolution money could buy — most of us chose VHS, even though higher resolutions were available, just like most people today will choose 1080p. Box Office also rented Laser Discs, Betamax, even a few Super VHS (that mighta been later, I went back after college for a bit, I get confused). Today most people will choose 1080p even though 4k is the same price. You had to pay for “delivery,” in the sense that you had to drive to Box office — one was conveniently located at each end of town — just like today you have to pay for delivery in the sense that you have to own an internet connection. (I recently learned, by the by, that in South Korea, content providers have to pay their video streaming costs and this is why Twitch gave up in South Korea, not that they got beaten by some locals nope nope nope).
So how, in any way, is today’s rental the same or better deal? It is a garbage deal. Also I just looked in the Apple Movie Store (remember that thing?) and rental prices are all over the map. Oppenheimer is not available for rent. Barbie (same day release who could forget) is available for six bucks.
Twenty dollar rentals are a circumstance of the pandemic. I did a few then. Because theaters weren’t open, and it was the way you saw a movie the first day you could. Then the corporations just decided to try and keep charging $20 “after” (lol) the pandemic, even though it was no longer $20 to see a movie on the first day you could, but rather weeks or months later. I applaud Taylor for releasing Eras so soon after the cinema release but a) she did not invent the short windowing, this has been an ongoing trend since before the pandemic and b) she chose the date based on her own personal numerology not any pro-consumer short-windowing strategy.
The whole $20 rental is just capitalism finding another way to make us pay more for shit we already got with a better deal. They will kill off libraries, mark my words. They are coming for libraries.
Anyway I might buy Eras for $20, on a physical media, but not a rental it is not cooooooool maaaaaaaan.
I got a new thing. It is an Irish-made, shipped-from-Ireland, heavy duty steel logging sawhorse and I love the thing and I am gonna go chop wood with my electric chainsaw today and then split it with my electric log splitter so I have more rotting logs for hugekluktur I swear I am really close to getting the raised beds into the greenhouse, I just need that electrician to come by, dadgummit. Anyway, this thing rules. TIMBER CROC. I know you all wish you had one.
Also it’s green, cuz Irish. Hell yeah.
(that’s not a photo of mine, btw. Though the foliage looks shockingly Carolinian.)
Lots I want to accomplish this weekend. I need to paint two more pallets and paint all the trim, and assemble the compost bins. Need to make some record crates. Gonna — gasp, wait for it — do an episode of my podcast. Probably the last, but never say never, I suppose. I need to get my sister and nephew’s presents in the mail. I need to chop some wood. But first recycling and Walmart, hell yes, one day Eras will be sitting on the Walmart shelf in 4k UHD Blu Ray and I will buy it then. Probably.
And I really need to start on my year-end tasks. Get my journals organized and bound, get my photos sorted, get my music and playlists moved over to Apple music, etc. I only have a week before we head to boston!
All right, well, that’s all I got today. If the TIMBER CROC doesn’t excite you, I don’t know what will. I didn’t have Jane last night so I can’t regale you with Daddy Dance Party tales I just played my City Sim all night it was great I built an airport and dealt with traffic and dreamt of city zoning. A+ no complaints.
Ho ho ho.
Justa mix today, old and new. Been on a giant Simon and Garfunkel trip lately. Really just a fantastic act. I grew up with them, take em for granted, stupidly never went to any of the reunion shows, deeply regret it. New Idles new Modern English, lotta new bands, some oldies that really hit the spot. I am trying, I really am.
timber croc = 🔥
Timber Croc tempting, but heavy steel shipped from Ireland? What’s that cost? Love the tag line, ”One-Person Operation, Work smarter, not harder” -- well yeah, gig worker utopian fantasy!