I never got my good DVDs at Mike's Movies & Music, the video rental place tucked discreetly under Calder Way.
When I go to Mike's -- often late at night en route home from the Collegian -- I'm looking to escape. But I'm looking to lose myself in obscure and terrible films, not lush and well-financed Oscar winners.
That's how I stumbled upon The Hillz.
The DVD case has a paparazzi shot of Paris Hilton on the cover, wearing a dress she never sports in the film. The back describes the movie as the thematic love child of The O.C. and A Clockwork Orange. And the main character is a white urban gangsta named Steve 5. Our man Steve is a college baseball superstar, struggling to escape L.A.'s oppressive "hillz" and win the heart of dream girl Heather, played with carefully calculated indifference by Hilton and her lazy eye. The whole saga unfolds with the touch of class that only heart wipes can provide.
Simply put, this film is a gem.
I'll get to own it when I head to State College next week, and that's sort of bittersweet. Mike's is shutting its doors for good August 23, and it hasn't rented a film since July 30. It's liquidating its entire DVD stock in the coming days, and I'm sure I'll be the first and only person in line to buy The Hillz.
There's no more Mike's this year, and with that, a farewell to a treasure trove of brutally awful films. That's a real shame.
Independent businesses are the lifeblood of any real community. No one loves their hometown because of the special je ne sais quoi of their local Wal-Mart or the unique flair of their neighborhood Arby's. It's the local stuff.
When I was a freshman, Carmike Cinema 5 was just a few minutes' walk away from my Atherton Hall dorm. Now the movie theater has been sliced and diced into six retail spaces. Chipotle Mexican Grill is set to open in the fall and give the Qdoba on West College Avenue a run for its money.
Building and changing a small town economy is a study in tradeoffs. Each new big-name chain store, however blessedly predictable as a steady source of revenue for the borough, chips away a little bit of State College's identity. A dozen Starbucks can't shape this town the way Saint's does.
Jody Alessandrine and his Downtown State College Improvement District need to reconsider the strategy of "bigger equals better." The Fraser Centre -- the mammoth entertainment/condominium complex whose opening day keeps quietly creeping further into the future -- is supposed to bring State College a 10-screen cineplex and a score of luxury condominiums.
The way I see it, all the Fraser Centre has brought so far is a glimpse into the tangled relationship between borough dollars and corporate lobbying interests. The condominiums are the first in the borough to legally bar students from becoming tenants. The project is behind schedule, and it's impossible to predict the complex's eventual effect on established State College businesses like Skate Penn and Sweet Tooth Bakery.
The Fraser Centre -- rumored to include IMAX screens -- may turn State College into an entertainment Mecca, but the road there is paved with public relations headaches.
State College doesn't need to be tweaked and nudged into name-brand perfection. Less isn't always more. When you lose Mike's and begin to make decisions that brazenly devalue local businesses, less is really less.
Alex Weisler is a junior majoring in journalism and is The Daily Collegian's Monday columnist. His e-mail address is acw5084@psu.edu.
