Lak Sivrak and VHS

We've been cleaning out the basement a bit, which has been very therapeutic. We're probably going to be getting rid of some stuff in a massive garage sale, but it all has to be categorized and organized and so forth. One large series of boxes Daddy encountered had nothing but VHS tapes in it. What do you do with these? Seriously? We have quite a few!

While some movies have not made the leap from VHS to DVD yet, most of the stuff we have won't ever get played because we'd actually have to plug in a VCR to watch it. There are a few old VHS tapes we want to keep though: our wedding is on a VHS tape. As is a recording of Mommy getting to float across the water with a dolphin at Discovery Cove. And several of Daddy's old tapes of journeys he made across the country in search of buried treasure. Someday, we'll make copies of these on DVD - probably just in time for those copies themselves to be outdated.

Another VHS tape set that I want to keep: the original Star Wars trilogy, just after it was first remastered and brightened up. I think it was '94 or '95. Anyway, that is the best version for Daddy - before so many changes started being made to those movies. I'll still watch and enjoy the newest updated versions - but the remastered version from '95 might be my favorite. I think that's one of the last versions to contain the legendary Star Wars character, Lak Sivrak.* Purists like myself were stunned when he was edited out of later editions of the Star Wars movies. The poor guy had such a big future in Hollywood, and suddenly he's booted. Was it something he said? The movie making business can be tough, especially when you look like a werewolf from outer space.

ANYWAY, we have a lot of Christmas movies on VHS that Mommy recorded off of television from years ago - it's neat watching the old commercials in between! Watching these takes you back to a time - for the moment, the concept of commercials with Madison is sort of odd: we don't have anything beyond DVDs and Netflix at our house (the latter keeps has potential to keep her really busy a long time), so therefore there isn't a need for satellite or cable television so much. Therefore, commercials are an unknown to Madison.

In time, Madison will only have faint memories of the VHS. While we still have a VCR and can still play some tapes for another television (they are useful, believe it or not), we mostly lean on the Blu Ray/DVD player. Eventually, the VCR will be lost to time, like playing audio tapes or even records.

Daddy remembers the first VCR we got as a family so long ago. The first movie we played: "The Empire Strikes Back." Do you see a theme here? That movie was essentially the reason we bought a VCR. Could you imagine getting to watch a Star Wars movie in your house whenever you wanted to? Oh my stars!

And then the boom came with rental places and so forth. We all went to VHS rental places to get our tapes, because back then they cost as much as $100. Yes, Madison. You read that right. It was to discourage us from owning movies, and instead going to rental places. And for the most part, it worked. For a time.

Daddy was working for a video rental place during his time in college - I remember one joke I played hiding in the return box outside, making all kinds of noises whenever anyone would drop a video tape in for return. Having free access to any movie, I managed to catch up on a lot of the movies that I was supposed to like. Some were good, others not so much.

All the VHS tapes in our house are slowly being replaced by DVD, either from Daddy buying a new version or actually recording it to DVD. It's taking a while, but soon the VCR will be a thing of the past in our household as well. I imagine we'll keep one around for the novelty of it, but I suppose it will be even less useful than a record player, which we still would use from time to time. Why bother with a VCR when you can get it all easier, quicker and better quality? With the record player, at least you have a vintage sound and a unique process. The VCR was always a sloppy thing and just didn't look that great. At least now it doesn't look great!

The point of all of this is that this is just one bit of technology that we grew up with - and Madison is only experiencing the tail end of. Fortunately, she'll see tapes from time to time for the next few years.

But in time, these VCRs will be long gone, just like those floppy disks and Lak Sivrak.

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* As of this posting, sources indicate Lak may be still in the cantina scene, although certainly less visible. Daddy will have to rewatch the newest movies soon to verify this!