I Traded Streaming Platforms For A DVD Player

Lived Experiment #1

Welcome to the latest franchise from Long Live, Lived Experiment. First-person recountings via essay of trying something (anything!) for thirty days.

There are 47,000 things to watch on Netflix and I can’t decide on any of them.

Streaming platforms are caverns of hidden gems, wheels churning out prestige content in every imaginable iteration while we sleep. It’s platforms, plural, by the way, my nightly viewing a dance between apps on my TV in no particular order. A luddite, I am not. In fact, I aspire to make movies on these platforms someday soon, but in the meantime, I needed a break: from choice and newness and bottomless curation.

So I asked my extremely supportive brother for a DVD player for my birthday. He set it up and we watched Moonstruck while Bea napped on my chest the second day of my 30th year. At first, I’d add a DVD hold or two to my list, dipping a toe in the clunky mechanic before I was ready to commit completely.

$33 to freedom

Entering Blockbuster, collecting my most compelling pile of DVD options before approaching my siblings for an (I’ll admit it) rigged election of what to watch that evening—the memory is as easy to conjure as the salty underbelly of the microwave popcorn bag.

Then I’d scoot to Kum & Go with my school permit and rent a DVD from Redbox with my debit card before hoping the guy I liked might cuddle next to me in the frigid air of the suburban basement. Cuddle, he did not, but no matter! I fell in love with something much more steadfast: movies, particularly, the romances that weaved their way through narratives of all strokes.

Well, I was entertained! I borrowed from my husband’s family’s beach house in a moment of DVD desperation.

At college, I kept three DVDs in my dorm next to my external DVD player: Les Miserables, Funny Face, and Life Aquatic. These fixed my homesickness when calling home only made it harder.

Ten years passed. A dozen, two dozen streaming memberships started and stopped, and I wondered what would happen if I pressed a giant metaphorical pause? That’s what I did for the last 30 days.

Crossing Delancey (1988)

Canceling my streaming services for a month saved me something like $56 dollars, which wasn’t reason enough for my endeavor. In very specific contexts, a little friction can be a good thing. This is what I was looking for: a step back into the driver’s seat of my movie consumption and away from the unintentional overwhelm of the algorithm.

!!!

Utilizing my local library was essential. I offloaded a list of movies I wanted to watch or rewatch into my holds and was surprised to find them all available in under a week. Browsing movies alphabetically felt a bit anticlimactic. Walking home with a tote bag bursting with titles? Much more cinematic.

Every Saturday night is movie night for us, which was once a loosely held ideal and is now extremely set in stone. Selecting the evening’s viewing has always been my responsibility, and under the DVD world order, the task went from hundreds of thousands of options to the three DVDs I had on loan from the library.

Starting Girls for the first time, I worried I’d have to pause until the challenge was over, but instead, I found Season 1 on DVD at my library. Christian and I would split movies in half on week nights instead of spending fifteen minutes trying to decide what to watch. And my attention span slowly reacclimated to feature length.

Girls Season 1 Episode 1 (2012)

The whole premise of an experiment depends on an end point. I’ll sign back up for Apple TV. My library holds list will readjust to being primarily eBooks. And who knows? I could go dancing on a Saturday night instead of settling into my sofa for a movie with my husband. Whatever happens next, DVDs will remain: totems of intentionality, scratchy, finicky reminders that more options doesn’t always mean a better outcome.

The Last Days of Disco (1998)

Images from movies I watched and loved! Recommend films you adore below. Next week’s letter is also cinematic in nature ☀️

Honorable Mentions

We need to talk about Mavie. As someone who is VERY hesitant to download apps, this one has slotted seamlessly into my tight rotation. It’s physician-designed support for the realities of modern motherhood. It makes taking care of yourself, even in fifteen minutes, feel simple. I love that I’m building out practices that ground me in my new role as mom. You can use my code ERIKA for one free month on the platform.

I’m scared to post about this t-shirt I love on Tiktok because I can’t risk it selling out. It’s my platonic ideal.

My new friend Katherine has a vintage home goods store in Cobble Hill called Harris Home. See you there?

Thank you for reading Long Live. It means so much to me. You can order my romance novel, Exit Lane, on Amazon and Bookshop. Follow along on Instagram + Tiktok. Shop all my favs here. Get matched at EV Salon. If you’re interested in partnering, email evan@erikaveurink.com x