Did you see this article about the Redbox video vending machines? Do we have these in Redding yet? I haven’t seen them, but I don’t get out much. Has anyone out there tried them?
Apparently, you go up to one of these Redbox kiosks and plunk in your debit card and for a buck you can pick a movie from up to 200 titles. The machine spits out the DVD. You return it to the kiosk the next day.
Dang. The video equivalent of a Coke machine. Soon be one on every corner.
Redbox is for people who don’t have the time/foresight/overall planning skills to go to a video store. They’re just driving down the street and, oh, look, a movie dispenser. Whip up the popcorn, Ma!
Blockbuster says it’s installing similar machines outside its stores, which is a little weird. Stand in line outside to do business with this here machine, or go into the air-conditioned store and deal with the pimply clerk with the studded eyebrow. Stand in line behind some gum-smacking girl who’s trying to decide among 200 titles while talking on the phone to her many, many friends.
I remain an ardent Netflix man myself. So exciting to have those little red envelopes cycling through my mailbox. Ooh, look what just arrived! So many movies (200 in my case) lined up in one’s “queue,” just waiting to come to the house.
When I see “hobbies” on a questionnaire, I answer “managing my Netflix queue.” I’m in there every day, moving around those comedies and crime dramas, trying to keep the perfect balance, so I always have one movie to keep me on the Dreadmill and another that Kelly might watch with me. And one in transit. It requires constant computer vigilance. Some days, I feel like I work for NASA.
Aren’t all these technologies going obsolete just as fast as they rise up? Already, you can get most movies right over your computer for free or for the cost of a subscription to Netflix or similar companies. Why fool around with streetside hardware?
Currently either at my house or in the mail: The French drama “Read My Lips,” a thriller called “Boarding Gate” and a documentary called “What the Bleep Do We Know?” Next up in my queue: David Mamet’s “Lakeboat.”
Life is good.
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