Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Those were the days

We see the family change as the years go by — moving backwards

The Year to Come
The Year to Come

With 2019 only weeks away, I watched world premiere play The Year to Come open at the La Jolla Playhouse. Every scene in the play takes place at a family New Year’s Eve party, and we see the family change as the years go by — moving backwards. During intermission, it strikes me I’m more excited to attend a play these days than I am to go to the movies. I wonder why that is?

In November 2018, I was searching for my favorite reusable grocery bag when I found an old Netflix DVD return sleeve at the bottom of a drawer. The self-adhesive red envelopes used to be all over my house, with DVD rentals coming in or going out several times per week. DVD by mail once felt very modern, but now this slip of paper feels like a relic. I can’t remember the last time I viewed a DVD, or even owned a video disc player of any kind.

Sponsored
Sponsored

In 2011, I got a Blu Ray player that doubled as a streaming device for my TV, so I could connect it directly to Netflix and watch movies and TV shows online, rather than wait for them to arrive by mail. That same year, Netflix announced it would split into two companies: Netflix would stream entertainment, while a new brand, Qwikster, would deliver DVDs by mail. So many parts of this decision were terrible that Qwikster got buried faster than New Coke, and Netflix continued to both stream and rent DVDs by mail. But not really.

It’s a full ten years now, since 2008, that Netflix has been streaming video. Home internet connections didn’t all feature broadband speeds at the time, so I remember looking at it as a novelty. Of course, in 2008 I would still frequently find movie ticket stubs in my pockets while doing laundry.

Twelve years ago, in 2006, the iPhone didn’t exist yet, and Facebook first opened membership of its social platform to people outside colleges and corporations. I raised my Netflix subscription to three DVDs at a time, though I recall going to the theater to see the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Eco-friendly was a marketable term, but as a society we still could not reach a consensus whether paper or plastic grocery bags were better for the environment.

The number of movie tickets sold in North America topped 1.5 billion for the first time in 2002. That number has trended downward ever since.

It was 1998, a full 20 years ago, that Netflix first launched its web-based DVD by mail business. The same year, television networks began broadcasting in high definition, bringing near-film-quality images to American living rooms.

Back in the 1996, a passage of near-future sci-fi novel Infinite Jest predicted daily home delivery of DVDs. I clearly remember shaking my head while reading it. No way that would ever work, I thought. Despite numbering over one thousand pages, Infinite Jest outsold another book published that year, one titled Game of Thrones.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Extended family dynamics

Many of our neighbors live in the house they grew up in
The Year to Come
The Year to Come

With 2019 only weeks away, I watched world premiere play The Year to Come open at the La Jolla Playhouse. Every scene in the play takes place at a family New Year’s Eve party, and we see the family change as the years go by — moving backwards. During intermission, it strikes me I’m more excited to attend a play these days than I am to go to the movies. I wonder why that is?

In November 2018, I was searching for my favorite reusable grocery bag when I found an old Netflix DVD return sleeve at the bottom of a drawer. The self-adhesive red envelopes used to be all over my house, with DVD rentals coming in or going out several times per week. DVD by mail once felt very modern, but now this slip of paper feels like a relic. I can’t remember the last time I viewed a DVD, or even owned a video disc player of any kind.

Sponsored
Sponsored

In 2011, I got a Blu Ray player that doubled as a streaming device for my TV, so I could connect it directly to Netflix and watch movies and TV shows online, rather than wait for them to arrive by mail. That same year, Netflix announced it would split into two companies: Netflix would stream entertainment, while a new brand, Qwikster, would deliver DVDs by mail. So many parts of this decision were terrible that Qwikster got buried faster than New Coke, and Netflix continued to both stream and rent DVDs by mail. But not really.

It’s a full ten years now, since 2008, that Netflix has been streaming video. Home internet connections didn’t all feature broadband speeds at the time, so I remember looking at it as a novelty. Of course, in 2008 I would still frequently find movie ticket stubs in my pockets while doing laundry.

Twelve years ago, in 2006, the iPhone didn’t exist yet, and Facebook first opened membership of its social platform to people outside colleges and corporations. I raised my Netflix subscription to three DVDs at a time, though I recall going to the theater to see the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Eco-friendly was a marketable term, but as a society we still could not reach a consensus whether paper or plastic grocery bags were better for the environment.

The number of movie tickets sold in North America topped 1.5 billion for the first time in 2002. That number has trended downward ever since.

It was 1998, a full 20 years ago, that Netflix first launched its web-based DVD by mail business. The same year, television networks began broadcasting in high definition, bringing near-film-quality images to American living rooms.

Back in the 1996, a passage of near-future sci-fi novel Infinite Jest predicted daily home delivery of DVDs. I clearly remember shaking my head while reading it. No way that would ever work, I thought. Despite numbering over one thousand pages, Infinite Jest outsold another book published that year, one titled Game of Thrones.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Dia de los Muertos Celebration, Love Thy Neighbor(Hood): Food & Art Exploration

Events November 2-November 6, 2024
Next Article

Temperature inversions bring smoggy weather, "ankle biters" still biting

Near-new moon will lead to a dark Halloween
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader