More on my video life.

http://http://www.dundermifflininfinity.com/profiles/?u=adimike55

Jumping ahead before going back, here is where I stand.

I have great friends, many of them from the Dunder Mifflin Infinity (NBC'S THE OFFICE) fansite who have been beyond caring and supportive. I wish most of my ex-co-workers were the same, but now a peep out of most of them. So goes 9 years of 50 plus hours a week, never calling out sick, and being the only one who thought ahead instead of behind.'

Some have contacted me, and for that I am very grateful, but the ones that should, have not. That is a shame.

Back to my friends at DMI. I joined this site two years ago when it opened. I was never a social networker, I have no idea to this day how any "messenger" service works. I suck at online games.

So, I joined the site expecting a few laughs, and then I am outtahere.

However, this site is/was so different. It is structured as a series of brancnes of the DUNDER MIFFLIN PAPER COMPANY. 100 brances in small to mid sized markets. Each has a "regional manager" boss (I run the Allentown branch). Each branch has upwards of hundreds of employees who do tasks and interact,

And it is inhabited by great people.

In short, it is a great site unlike most of these sites tend to be.

I started to study it for ways that we could adapt it at my old Video Store Employer. I still see many valuable ideas there that could be adapted very successfully for my stores, but my bosses never wanted to listen.

The best is that I have made friends there from all over the country, and these are friends in every sense of the word. I've met them in real life, in events that we've developed for NBC and for each other, and I've talked with others all over the country.

And these friends, to the one, have been there to ask how I am to and cheer me up.

Friends have become so valubale to me, and over the last few years, with my work schedule, my friends have been hard to cultivate, since my free time was very sparse.

So, I've developed three sets of friends:

• My real life and work friends, who I treasure and who are there for me.
• My DMI friends, who are now my real life wonderful friends.
• My work friends who have seemed to developed amnesia.

Guess which group I do not give a damn about.

Ramblings from the weekend

This second lost weekend was not without its "charms".

I got my grocery shopping done Friday instead of Saturday. That's something, right?

The Phillies think it is 1964.

I watched a bad MGM film called THE DELINQUENTS, and want to now be a 50's delinquent,

Some guy on TV, maybe the ghost of Billy Mays, maybe John Waters, wants me to clean my colon, and is willing to help.

Penn State looked like crap.

Blue Bunny Ice Cream Bowls turn spotty blue when you add ice cream. I thought I had broken the bowl.

DMI 3.0 still hasn't opened the branches.

That's my weekend.

And on the seventh day....

Seven days out. Seven days off. Felt like seven hours in x-ray today.

Seeing the surgeon tomorrow. Then we go from there.

Getting off track from the video sage, I took my sister Julie, and my niece Julie to THE BOATHOUSE in Central Park in NYC, because she won a contest to meet DUFF and GEOFF from ACE OF CAKES. I drove her up and killed time in midtown Mahatthan.

The city was mobbed with government officials getting ready for the UN summit today, so traffic was a nightmare.

I parked on 51st Street $40 for 3 hours. Walked down to 42nd Street and back to 50th, over to 30 Rock, sat at the top for a while, then back down to 44th and sat in the new Times Square for a while.

The new Times Square is the same as the old, but with more room for bill snappers and tour hawkers to hound you, and better seats for the homeless. I do have to admit that it is still an awe-inspiring area.

Julie won free ice cream, not the grand prize of an ACE OF CAKES cake, but I had a great time with her and my niece.

Cold not find a cassette walkman to sane my life as a present for my brother Tommy.

They ate good at THE BOATHOUSE, for some reason I ate at FAMOUS DAVES , where the BBQ was drier (and maybe older) than the Sahara.

Still, a sweet day long change of pace for a crappy week.

Stay tuned...

We break now for an important message.

Please remember that much, if not most of my time in home video has been a joy.

I've had great staffs, and at times, had great times with my bosses. I've helped and been helped by thousands upon thousands of customers as they came through the stores, and I've tried to entertain them in the real sense, and not give them any reason to go to a cold vending machine.

So, remember that while my feelings are genuine, and my criticisms are heartfelt, much of them are the fault of my own inability to step up and tell someone in charge NO and YOU ARE WRONG. I am too nice, and that is not good sometimes.

As I mentioned, I have passed up numerous opportunities to advance with other companies because I felt I was honor bound to stand by my committments to my then-current employer, even though that was many times a one-way street, some of them fairly recently, but those doors may be closed.

So yes, as of this minute, I am disappointed in some people, especially one person, though that one should not surprise me. I am disillusioned because I lost something very important to me, something that could have been so much better if the powers-that-be would just listen or really plan once in a while.

But, I still treasure every one of the store staff, for they have to be the face of what we offer day after day, and if we don't give them the proper tools, then they have to improvise, and the staffs at the stores throughout what will hopefully be a much longer career are the best reasons for the vitatlity and the future of the real progressive video store.

And I will always remember the good times, like when my boss gave me a shout out when TLA won RETAILER OF THE YEAR at the VSDA Convention, or when I was chosen EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR Two years ago. Those will always remain, memories seperated from the feelings I now have.

So, because my sweet sister, Julie, reminded me that I need to look forward and move on, I offer this caveat. I truly love her.

I have learned a lot over this past summer. I cannot acquiesce anymore when I know that things need to be done a certain way and disinterest or ineffective information tries to dilute it. In my next position, and I WILL have a next position, I will be the best and most creative and progressive and successful video retail innovator you will ever see, but I won't be quiet or passive. I will be loyal, I won't be stupid.

I'll be right here.

27 years: Redux. The resurrection of my video career

The new West Coast Video was auspicious because it was a great idea that came along at a time that the company was in transition. The Stanleys, who owned the company were really nice guys who were not at all prepared for the transition that the industry was about to face.

Frankly, that is the same problem faced by me later on, as well.

The store, at 15th and Walnut was gorgeous. A large, well lit, amazingly stocked video joy. The stock that I loaded it with, along with the West Coast buyer, David Wharff, was the best, I repeat, the best. Originally, we were going to have a coffee bar in there, but the space was a bit too small. That is a shame, because at the time in 2000, that was a very original concept.

The stores were going to be three or four in number, modeled after (but far exceeding) the TLA concept. The Philly store was to be a flagship store, with others in Lexington KY, Princeton, NJ, and on Houston Street in NYC. Those last three never materialized, because of the pending sale to a new owner.

It would have been spectacular, though. All the best that TLA was, but with a much broader customer base: a smart video store for the masses, a store where everyone felt included, everyone found and knew something.

I spent a year commuting from Philly to Hammonton and Sicklerville NJ, to other West Coast and Choices Stores (an acquisition from a video pioneer, Robert Klein) while building this store. My favorite memory was when I travelled with David Wharff amd Steve Randolph, a great guy who was the rep for Universal Video at the time, to NYC to scout out the TLA at 8th Street in the Village (Don't look for it, it was closed sadly two years ago, another great waste).

I saw this magnificient TLA store, and knew that I could do better. I did and continuted to do until 5:15 PM Thursday 9/16/2009.

But, in the tradition of owners who I loved but just didn't get it, things just weren't planned out correctly. I hired a great and quirky staff: one was a sweetheart who would do any job assigned, and another would fight anyone who came along, one hoped to become a comedian with Second City (and could have succeeded, but I lost touch), and one got to star in a MY CHOICE MY WAWA commercial, which then resulted in his picture popping up on static cling ads for hoagies all over WAWA stores, and magically, my store.

Construction took almost a year longer, and they dropped the coffer bar: Big Mistake.

Before the store opened, we loaded almost 30,000 (yes, thousand Redbox has five HUNDRED by comparision, Redbox is bullshit) videos. Most were VHS, but some were DVD, which was in it's 3rd year, but which WCV was not positive about for its success, whcih would be a problem with later employers: not being able to see far enough ahead to see what they need to do. Blu-ray and tentativeness with same will haunt my ex-employers. You cannot do this business correctly following sheepishly).

So, we had the store loaded up, but one problem remained: the alarm system wasn't finished. The bosses had not set up the installation properly, also a bugaboo of my later years. So, I got to spend 3 nights in the store to guard the tapes.

I'll do more specifically on my two years here, including my street fights with shoplifters and anarchists later, but for now, I'll skip to the end, to set up my next chapter. Think of it as any bad Hollywood film that thinks it is too clever to jump the timeline all over the place.

The WCV chain was sold to Video City. Shit, a mistake. Details to follow.

In January 2000, I was approached by TLA to come over. I turned them down. I am nothing if not blindly loyal, and had committed to helping make sure the WCV/Video City conversion went well.

In the summer of 2000, I was approached again. I decided to move, opening up the greatest joy followed by the biggest disappoitment in my career, and yes, much of it follows aligning myself with owner/partners who could be the greatest at times, but turned out to be disappointments.

Watch this space....

27 years

Long time.

80's music was still around. Bad haircuts were ahead. Life was moving along.

I started in home video in 1983 at a store called VIDEO WONDERLAND in Ardmore PA. Great little store, run by two guys who hated each other.

I caught my first bootlegger there, I saw my bosses wife fail at trying to do Michael Jacksons Moonwalk, I saw an x-rated video game for Atari, which involved a guy on top of a builiding whacking off while ladies of the night ran back and forth trying to catch it with open mouths.

I wrote for Video industry publications (Video Insider anyone) and am proud of the work that I did with VSDA, an industry trade association. I met Fred Rogers, Frank Zappa, Shari Lewis, Raffi, and Itzhak Perlman during this period for interviews.

I loved the place but not the drama of the two partners. Partners will become a touchstone of my life as you will see, for better or worse . They finally sold to the first version of West Coast Video, a debacle because both sides where not honest. They shortcutted every chance they could get.

I move to Movie World, for what is now my second longest tenure . At one point, we had five stores; we didn't need five stores, but my boss needed five hiding places for his daliances.

Despite that, I built those stores into a very respected video retailing powerhouse. At their peak, there were no other stores on the East Coat that could rival them, especially not my future employers.

However, after 8 years, libido beat common sense and the boss lost the place. I'll tell a seperate story late about Lana, the doberman pinscher who got caught up in all this. I hope my ex-boaa is selling real estate in hell right about now, if only for what happened to the dog.

So all this time, and still at square one, because of loyalty and stupidity, I had opportunities to move on, but felt that I had made a promise, and whiel I may not do much right, living up to my word is my shining moment.

So, five stores became one in Conshohocken, sold to a guy who should never have owned a store, He was not prepared. Ultimate Video in Conshohocken. 2 and a half years later, they were gone.

I worked Borders CD department in Bryn Mawr for 6 months over the 1997 Christmas holidays.
Then I got an offer to open a new style store from WEST COAST VIDEO (no longer so evil) and 15th and Walnut, and go into direct competition with my future heartbreak TLA Video.

This was a great time, becuase people listened and I built an amazing, forward looking store that had a great selection of titles, staff that knew their shit, and a great attitude, we out TLA'd TLA.

I built this store from scratch, and it is still my crowning glory because when it started, the people believed in me. Tresure that feeling, because it is rare anymore,

Well, let's call this Part One, because Part Two comes next, and that is with TLA Video, my greatest joy and saddest disappointment, mostly because the TLA that I signed on for may have been a case of mistaken identity.

The absence of the VSDA/EMA/IDEA Convention this year

This would be the time of year for the VSDA (EMA/IDEA) Convention.

For those who are unfamiliar, these were the annual meetings in Vegas, and occassionally LA for the video retailing industry.

I personally am missing the networking opportunities, and the chance to find ONE idea or concept that will help my business and the industry.

I am not missing the last few years as much as the late 90's to mid '00's, when I think some amazing concepts shook up what had become a lazy industry.

We can remininsce and enjoy the "what was" but franky, the "what will be" is all that matters.

This year, we have seen splits to two seperate efforts: a closed, invitation only get-together under EMA control, as well as two IndieFEST Expos, with the help of VPD and the IndieEXPO AT SEA, all of which had valuable ideas.

However, I cannot help but think that each faction still didn't get the complete picture, and therefore, something is missing.

Whatever our size, we are an industry, and we need to view ourselves as that, or we simply become wheels tunring in wildly divergent and dangerous directions.

What do we do next?