Happy Hunting

Hunting has grown far too easy. There is no fun in it anymore. What used to take a decent fifteen minutes can now be done in less than five. I’m not talking about hunting deer or something of the like. Who knows how long that takes? What I’m talking about is something decidedly less manly yet equally pointless. The prey I’m loaded for is information, in all of its various forms.

I have been an obsessive for as long as I can remember. As a child I’d hear some interesting tidbit about comics or animals or whatever and I’d instantly become a guided missile. My obsessive nature would suddenly activate some long dormant primordial hunting urges and I would seek out whatever I could find on the subject. Seeing as this was the late 80s/early 90s my resources were limited. My resources were peers, parents, teachers and the library. Sometimes it would take a month plus to satisfy an itch but eventually it would get scratched.

As I grew older things got much easier thanks to the holy trinity of internet, car and job. I could now seek anything out, get to it and purchase it. It didn’t matter that the British series "Spaced" was not given a Reigon 1 release until this summer. A quick Internet search, followed by a short drive to Amoeba and it was mine. My iPod overfloweth and my DVD collection sits at over 900.

Pretty much anything can be tracked down if you know where to go, and often it doesn’t cost anything. Everything finds its way out. Nude photos of a young Joan Crawford? Got ‘em. Video of director David O. Russell going berserk on the set of I ♥ Huckabees? Got that. Photos AND video of torture at Abu Ghraib prison? I know a guy who knows a guy...

Nothing is unattainable. Like it or not, the instant something exists in a reproducible form it becomes the property of the world. Human beings have an insatiable thirst for culture both high and low. If a film student wants to see "Battle Royale", they will find a way. The same goes for some horny guy wanting to see Vanessa Hudgens’ bush, he too will find a way. Probably the only thing the world at large will never see is Jerry Lewis' "The Day the Clown Cried".

Within five minutes of reading about UK label Fabric rejecting an album-length-mix by the hot French DJ duo Justice I had it (download time included). The same goes for photos of Jayne Mansfield with the dark lord himself Anton Lavey. A quick google search can find most anything. If that doesn’t work there are countless specialty sites you can cruise. Music blogs, gossip blogs, movie news sites, youtube, etc. all hold the potential of satisfying your fix.

Hell I even named my whole blog after an obscure live Velvet Underground song I was able to track down. You can find it here: http://sendmedeadflowers.com/music/youngman.mp3

It’s almost too easy. But will that stop me? Hell no. I love the hunt too much.