Fast Times at Ridgemont High
This weekend I was watching "Fast Times at Ridgemont High". When it got to the scene where Phoebe Cates emerges from the pool, the screen suddenly turned a bright opaque blue! I was outraged! I had been denied the most thrilling moment in cinematic history. I wanted to go back to Blockbuster and demand my money back. But then they might ask me why and I'd be embarrassed.

Initially, I thought Blockbuster had purchased an edited version for some reason. But then I reasoned, that when the wear on the tape reaches a certain point, my VCR kicks in and makes the screen completely blue so as not to damage the head. I figured 90% of the guys who watched that movie probably rewound it and watched that part again. And when I was a kid, me and my friends would have to rewind it and watch it about a dozen times. Of course it takes thousands of men over the course of decades but that one segment of tape eventually receives so much wear that it's essentially unreadable to my VCR.

For some reason this got me started thinking about the ephemeral nature of the medium. Phoebe Cates' breasts are almost like Tibetan sand art in a way. I felt sad that every time you enjoy a movie, you destroy it just a little bit. But then I started thinking how watching it also adds information. For example if you wanted to see which were the most popular segments in Fantasia, you could go through some Blockbuster tapes with a wear detector.