Brearei : Lotnton Insufficient (Funds: Paperback pornography Visual satisfaction for literature enthusiasts Charlie’s Music kde Where cheap movies live By Jacey Gibb here’s no denying that watching movies at home has changed dramatically over the past few years. Downloading is more common than ever and while companies like Netflix have exploded in popularity, rental chains like Blockbuster are shutting down all over the country. So while it may seem like a waste to write an article orientated around a movie/music store, you’ve obviously never been to Charlie’s. Neglected and deprived of room to breathe on Granville Street, between Male Essentials grooming and Burger King, lies Charlie’s Music City. One of the first stories I ever encountered on Granville, and still my favourite, Charlie’s specializes ‘in used movies, music and video games for suspiciously low prices. You wouldn’t know the items had previous owners though, since every disc has received personal makeovers, relieving them of any history of scratches. You can easily spend an hour browsing the impressive library of accumulated films from over the years. The titles range from more recent releases like Inception to older ones like Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to stop working and love the bomb. Almost every time I’ve set out on a mission to acquire a certain title from Charlie’s, it’s been in stock. Though buying movies may seem pretty 2002; Charlie’s makes it less of a financial dropkick. Almost an entire row of tacks is dedicated to clearance movies for only five dollars. Fortunately, Charlie’s has more than just the usual stockpile of Norbit DVDs lurking in this discount section (my most recent pickup was Aliens). The rest of their inventory tends to hover around the six or seven dollar range but the odd title will go for ten or more. Charlie’s also has a decent selection of television box sets, with the usual suspects like Seinfeld, all the way to more obscure finds like vintage Melerose Place. Most of the collections are a decent price too, but this section isn’t as comprehensive as the movies. With all the movies nullifying the senses, it’s easy to forget that Charlie’s is a music store. An even half of the space is lined with older music waiting to be discovered. Unfortunately, much like the television show department, the music portion of Charlie’s is not anything to brag about. I’ve stumbled upon a few good albums that I hadn’t seen in years but whenever I quested for anything specific, I usually only found disappointment. There are also a couple of shelves dedicated to video games, but due to my personal apathy towards gaming, I can’t comment on it. What little growth my DVD library has experienced over the last few dollar- strained months is a direct result of Charlie’s. Now, anytime I get a jonesing to revisit an old classic, instead of paying five bucks to go rent it for a couple days, I head straight to Granville to own it for a few dollars more. Aside from Toy Story 3,1 can’t even remember the last time I bought a movie for full price. This is probably a fair representation of home movie viewing in the year 2011, but I’m certainly not ready to roll the credits on the feeling I get when holding a hardcopy of a recently purchased DVD. Damage: Depends on the movie you’re getting. I haven’t seen a used title for more than $11.00 By Jacey Gibb hough my time spent reading for Tissee has been severely reduced since I started college, I would like to first point out that I love to read. There’s something uniquely fulfilling about aimlessly entering a bookstore and then taking the time to peruse dozens of titles before settling on a book that just might be the one you’ve been waiting for. Then there’s the feeling you get when you crack the spine for the first time and you can’t help but bask in the glory of un-dogeared, stain-free pages. All of these things make reading something I thoroughly enjoy; however, - “boner-inducing” is not a term I would use to describe it, nor anything related to the activity. ; Bookshelf Porn is something that recently came to my attention via, of course, the internet. Though the name sums up the premise rather nicely, what Bookshelf Porn is is “a photo blog collection of all the best bookshelf photos from around the world for people who *heart* bookshelves”. The website boasts a large image catalogue of intricate library systems, close ups of textured covers and witty book displays, all of which targeted towards everyone’s inner literature-coholic. I'll admit that while researching the website, I caught myself too admiring ‘the impressive displays before me (I laughed pretty hard when I saw a picture of a t-rex stalking the stacks of a library) but my problem with Bookshelf Porn doesn’t lie within its contents, but more so its title. The internet isn’t necessarily suffering from a recent global pornography shortage, so why file it under the same category? The term Food Porn has also been around since the early nineties and was the basis behind the launch of a self-titled website with a similar allure of virtual satisfaction for the viewer; which makes me ask the question of what exactly does the word porn mean these days? When I decided to google the term pornography (foolishly forgetting to place a def: with it the first time around), I was offered roughly the same definition everywhere I looked. Several prominent key words that kept recurring in the descriptions were “arousing”, “obscene” and “sexual”. I don’t know about you, but those aren’t adjectives I’d typically use to describe photographs of books arranged in an artistic manner. To me, projects like Bookshelf Porn and Food Porn represent something much bigger than merely websites looking to get people jacked (excuse the pun) about everyday objects. It seems to me that it’s a showcase of how the topic of pornography is no longer considered taboo, while the word itself might soon ' become reclaimed from the stigma of always being associated with fornicating captured on film. Perhaps we’re not far - away from living in a society where poems cease to be called so and become known as verbal porn? That’s a world I don’t feel the need to be exposed to. I’ll stick to my usual t and a please How to make your day better By Matthew Visser s I sit here at my desk and write A‘ article, I think to myself: how uch time out of my day do I waste in front of the computer or some other screen? The inevitable truth I realized was that people of every walk of life spend more time sitting on our asses, watching life go by, than actually living. If you think about how we spend more than a third of our lives sleeping, then why is it that people choose to no longer go out into nature and see what the world that lies beyond city limits has to offer us? It appears we would rather simply watch it happen instead. 14 The pursuit of screen-free happiness Now, I am no poster child to set a good example by, as I too watch far more movies than I should (even on those dry, beautiful days which are so few when living in the Lower Mainland). But whenever I jump onto Facebook, I think that while it’s true it has helped connect the world, it has also helped connect people to their seats. This also applies for all the other social networking websites and online gaming outlets that are more exciting than whatever else is going on outside of the house. People have allowed this to happen and in doing so have given the upper hand to life indoors in the battle against life outdoors. We're not getting any younger and along with our age comes more responsibility. But with it also comes opportunities as we begin doing what we set out to do when we stepped foot into the real world, leaving behind the safety of high school. Are human beings not meant to be creatures which live and grow and help shape the world in which we live in? Perhaps that’s how it was hundreds of years ago, but now we have shaped the world to work around us instead. By doing so, we are largely to blame for how the world and we look, global warming and obesity being two examples. It’s clear now that peoples’ lives are becoming more based around being within the confines of buildings and not experiencing the outdoors. The loss of freedom is evident when not embracing the life which can take people, physically and emotionally; to places they have never been before; not the life and world in front of a screen, watching the world pass by and seeing nothing new. Today, I can say that I at least wrote this, helping make my life more fulfilling. So what did you do today? Go outside and make your day better; or you can stay inside and watch the world, and your day, pass on by.