A good scare is a great thing for Jan Valentine of Technique Records in Miami, who is helping Technique to open Viral Video, a section of the record store carved out for strange movies you don’t stream off of a server — artifacts of arthouse, foreign, Giallo, grindhouse, B-movie and everything in between. Especially horror. Viral Video’s launch happens just ahead of Halloween.
“We will be celebrating by spinning a movie soundtrack-based vinyl set, playing weirdo horror flicks, movie-related raffles and other horror-themed goodies,” Valentine tells PureHoney. “There will also be a costume contest so we ask that everyone dresses up as their favorite horror-movie character and the winner will walk away with a killer prize.”
Better-known as the bassist for Shroud Eater and head honcho at Terribly Girly Photography, Valentine is a manager at Technique and a devotee of the horror genre — not a scream queen, necessarily, but a champion. She’s also partial to the playback formats that are synonymous with older films.
“Keeping obsolete/tactile media makes for a much more involved experience, especially for movie and music collectors,” she says. “It’s fun for me when people get excited about movies on VHS, especially ‘tape heads’ who collect, trade, and live/breathe movies on tapes.”
This niche was last seen in these parts in brick-and-mortar form ages ago at Oh the Horror on Bird Road in Miami and up in Stuart at Groovy Movies.
With “obsolete” media such as cassettes and Polaroids joining vinyl in a revival, a movie nook inside a record shop makes sense. Beyond her connoisseurship of genre and medium, Valentine the artist also sees the particular beauty of analog cinema and the need to maintain its tangible connection to the masses — especially in the context of the DIY, low budget know-how that she has adopted.
“My vision is to continue to grow within Technique and I’d like to have monthly events,” she says. “Ultimately, it would be a dream to have a small video store set-up, hidden behind red velvet curtains, and nestled among tons of movies, posters and memorabilia.”
Viral Video opens with a launch party on October 27 at Technique Records in Miami. techniquerecords.com ~ Abel Folgar
