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Hold on to your VCRs, Tapeheads, because this nugget of news just might make your heads spin at a revolutionary rate. Approximately 2,700 VHS tapes are currently being accounted for, cataloged and prepared for posterity at the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University. The work of Kaplanoff Librarian for American History David Gary and analog inspirator Aaron Pratt GRD ’16 has propelled Yale to become the first institution in the nation to consciously collect and preserve VHS tapes. This unprecedented official collection of unadulterated analog madness is set to reside in Yale’s realm of academic reference. With this implementation the...

VHS-obsessed events do much more than bring together analog-inclined minds in search of brain-bending magnetic magic. They foster the tangibility and expansion of a culture. Tape-talking online forums such as Horror VHS Collectors Unite! and those java-jivin’ VHS revivin’ VHS Misfits help collect the central interests, opinions and overall conscience of the VHS collector via the internet, but it’s events such as Severed, Tape Eaters, VHSwap and now Jimmy Buttons’ upcoming Tape Ape VHS Swap Meet that make the VHS collector culture explode into an arena of reality. These events bring fellow Tapeheads face to face in an atmosphere of...

The constantly expanding world of fresh VHS is consistently spewing forth a wild and wondrous spill of cult cinema to help keep our VCRS churning and turning without cessation. In this radical wave of rewind re-animation, we’re seeing everything from obscure gems getting more recognition to indie films gaining a new platform for exposure, and sometimes, we see absolute cult classics celebrated via home video in order to champion the format and put the film back in front of people in a renewed rewind-inclined way. Cue Tampa, Florida’s Cult Movie Mania. The same company that brought Tapeheads the outrageous analog...

The visible rise of VHS collector culture and the resulting resurging interest in rare, amazing and obscure video cassettes over the past few years has helped to inspire some seriously radical events engineered to assemble the most voracious of Videovores. Earl Kess’ Severed Short Film Night and Horror VHS Collectors Unite! Convention does a killer job at gathering a horde of tape-hungry Videovores on the East Coast, and Nate Higley’s Tape Eaters Convention magnetizes the analog-inclined crowd for the mid-west… but what about the West Coast, mang? Cue Lo-Fi Video owner and operator Daniel Del Pozzo. Inspired by the suggestive...

The vast majority of movies on VHS are best enjoyed with a lap full of snacks and a groovy group of fringe film-loving friends. Here in Lunchmeat Land, we hold this to be indisputable fact. Analog aficionados Justin Decloux and Peter Kuplowsky's Laser Blast Film Society crew subscribe to that same VHSchool of thought, and to help celebrate their analog-inclined affection, they’ve concocted a monthly event aptly entitled Laser Blast Video Nights held in order to vindicate and appreciate analog obscurities in a gregarious group setting. The kicker? They’re slapping these slabs of home video ecstasy up on the big...