Why I’ll miss Pennywise more than Blockbuster

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/05/2011 (5514 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was, I suppose, a good week for the Internet.

But it was a bad week for local business. Although, I did manage to spend a lot of money picking up deals as both Blockbuster on First Street and Pennywise Books went out of business.

Sadly, the signs had been on the wall for both stores for a while now.

I used to rent a lot more movies than I do know. I mean, "late fees" used to be a line item on my budget.

Lately, though, it was almost a special treat to go to Blockbuster, the closest video store to my house, and it was more about the walk with my girlfriend than it really was about renting a movie.

Wtih so many channels on TV that I can’t be bothered to count them (several hundred, easy — remember when 57 sounded like a lot?) and better TV now than ever, I can watch great entertainment without ever leaving the house.

Oh, and I can PVR them to watch whenever I want.

And, having recently discovered on-demand (not a perfect service, but) I can rent high-def movies from my couch and watch them instantly. The search function is awful if you’re looking for something specific, but it’s a little like browsing the shelves — you find stuff you’re not looking for.

A lot of the time, too, I use a little gadget I bought called a Boxee Box to watch anything that’s not currently showing. It hooks up directly to my TV, but syncs with my computer wirelessly — and it plays anything, from videos my friends post to Facebook, to mp3s, to YouTube, to files I’ve downloaded from the web.

Because I’ll admit it — a lot of my entertainment is downloaded from various sources on the Internet. Full seasons of TV shows and movies are easier to find and download online than they are to find and watch offline.

If I forget to PVR an episode, I’ll download it.

If I hear about a great BBC series, I’ll download it.

If I want to watch a French movie about a gangster who came to Quebec in the ’70s, I’ll download it.

If there’s a trilogy of made-for-British-TV-films based on books that I love, I’ll download it.

You get the picture. The world of video entertainment is bigger than any video store shelves could hold. And, frankly, once it gets on my TV screen, it’s all the same to me.

So, while I will miss reading the backs of DVD cases, and perusing all the New Release wall selections, I’ll still watch movies on my TV. I just won’t rent them from Blockbuster.

(I suppose that I could still rent movies from Blockbuster on 18th Street, or Rogers, or even from Clemenson’s — but I’m an East Ender now, and those are pretty far for a nice walk with my girl.)

(UPDATE: I’m reminded that there is Winks — Gonna have to check that out!)

It occurred to me that you could make all kinds of similar arguments about the future of books and tie them in to the sad passing of one of my favourite downtown stores: Pennywise Books:

I liked it so much that I even brought that cake to the final day of business for Pennywise. That’s owner T. Keith Edmunds cutting into it (and cutting up). If you look closely, the cake says "Will Miss You." Which I guess is what you get when you ask for "We’ll Miss You" and don’t write it out.

And we wonder why bookstores are closing.

Except, of course, just like the video entertainment industry, there is plenty of life left in the textual word. We’re reading more than ever these days, according to some studies — we just happen to be reading computer screens and mobile texts instead of ink pressed on paper.

As much as I love flipping actual wood fibre pages (heck, I work at a newspaper), even I have to admit that for sheer convenience, e-readers look pretty swell.

But Pennywise was always more than a bookstore. Keith was instrumental in setting up the Words Alive literary festival (about to celebrate its fifth year, this fall) and his sheer love of books was contagious.

I can’t tell you the number of times I stopped in to Pennywise just to say hi, or to chat, and ended up leaving with a bag of books.

Many of those books came on Keith’s recommendation. He was a vertiable fount of knowledge when it came to books — especially if it was local.

And I wasn’t the only one who would stop in to chat. Pennywise functioned as a social hub downtown in a way that will be missed. I have a lot of memories down there — I slept there for a weekend, once, writing a novel in three ridiculous days and nights. And it’s where I sabred my first bottle of champagne.

You can buy your books on Amazon — you can even get good recommendations — but you won’t be able to replace the atmosphere that Keith curated.

Blockbuster had an atmosphere all its own, too, of course. But it was a corporate atmosphere. Each store, though individual, had a sameness to it. That’s not bad — the same can be familiar and comforting — but it’s not something that lends itself to being missed.

Pennywise will be missed. Keith was generous with his time, his expertise and his books.

Thanks for the last few years.

Will miss you.