@atariv8: It’s deeply fascinating to me but also a little stressful? As I age I’m finding myself less and less tolerant of clutter. Every time Jeff picks up something, considers it for a moment, and then decides to keep it I want to scream. You don’t need that thing anymore, Jeff! Throw it out!
Something that the internet has revealed is that people like mundanity. People like seeing what other people have and do and such, even if on paper it isn't that interesting.
In other words, more humans than we previously thought are fuckin' nosy. And I suppose that's A-OK if someone is publicly discussing the junk they keep in their garage.
(for the record I watched a decent bit of Jeff cleaning out his garage part 1, though I haven't seen any of part 2).
@crashman06: same! Like I get it. I wouldn't want to throw some of that stuff away either. It's more a 'tour of Jeff's garage' than Jeff actually cleaning anything. The tour includes 'the area where stuff is' and 'the area where that exact same stuff will go.'
I have not watched the 2nd tour yet. I will though because it is fascinating to watch an episode of Hoarders like...pre-intervention.
Once apron a time, I watched people spend a little over $100,000 for a card game company to dig a big, pointless hole in the ground...
Or what about that time when people paid money to watch David Jaffe shoot up an ice cream truck with a machine gun?
To the topic of the thread, I will agree that on paper, the video series seemly utterly inane. However, it's oddly hypnotic in the same way Storage Wars or any Discover Channel realty television show weaves you into its mystique.
Until it's not, I consider it kind of fun to watch and listen to. Jeff, that is the Public Jeff I have gotten to know, it seems like his life has revolved pretty much around video games and the industry in general. Obviously it is a Culture. I find it interesting the detritus he pulls out of a box, and establishes a worth to it's existence. And why.
Might help to be a little high. But I haven't been when I have watched his 2 shows (that I know of).
I couldn't hang completely through Jar times, a personal failing.
I felt a certain amount of anxiety last I watched and he opened that garage door and it just barely cleared that big pile of boxes.
This is the natural evolution of "I held XYZ in my hands not three days ago.." Now we see it happen live.
I don't watch the entire streams because there is no bigger pang of regret than midnight closing in and you realize that you didn't play any games you wanted to get to today because you first listened to people talk about games for 3 hours and then you watched a man cut up boxes.. But I do like to tune in for a bit here and there.
I have to watch. He is on the verge of a what am I doing let’s just toss all of it epiphany. And I want to be there when it happens. I was in the navy on an aircraft carrier during the PlayStation one days and keeping a gaming habit with limited storage space finally killed my hording habits I mean I had a nine inch color crt because that was what I could fit in my locker. It sometimes takes extraordinary circumstances to change learned behaviors. Needing room for a family and an home office might do the trick.
I don't know how to best phrase it, but for me it's like the perfect low-key, calming white noise. Kinda like listening to Bob Ross talking about "happy little trees" for the Nth time. Except it's CD cases, game manuals and video cables.
Plus, sometimes he digs up some really interesting stuff I've never heard of, like that Reebok filler. I mean, I've heard shoes being called "pumps" from time to time, but never realized there was a time people actually pumped air into their footwear.
It's different, but it has the same vibe of whenever Jeff would say, "I was holding a copy of such-and-such 2 days ago" or "I was actually just playing such-and-such last night". Jeff seemed to regularly do something random and was able to bring it up in the context of a conversation on a Bombcast.
This is like the equivalent of that, but with stuff. Promotional items from 10 years ago. The original blah from 15 years ago. Some piece of tech from 20 years ago. It's almost like pulling back the curtain for how Jeff has been able to say all those things over the years. Sometimes he literally just picks up some miscellaneous thing the other day.
@atariv8: It’s deeply fascinating to me but also a little stressful? As I age I’m finding myself less and less tolerant of clutter. Every time Jeff picks up something, considers it for a moment, and then decides to keep it I want to scream. You don’t need that thing anymore, Jeff! Throw it out!
I feel like I'm almost the reverse, haha - every time he decides "I don't need this" (even something relatively pointless or obscure) I'm there thinking, "But that could still be used some time! It's not even broken, surely at least someone could take that even if you don't want it!"
We watched Jan pack up the studio too, i seem to remember a Watching Paint Dry stream went viral some years ago, watching someone do something tedious is a silly idea that we're drawn to for some reason. I once watched/listened to an Indonesian Vtuber type on a keyboard.
Putting on Jeff's observations about all the random crap he has pairs perfectly with a slow game like Pokemon. And just in general, an evening after a long day and I've got maybe three, no, two brain cells left.
The older Jeff gets the more I like him. I suspect in another 20 years all the kids in the neighborhood will whisper about "Ol' Man Gerstmann's" treasure of gaming memorabilia.
These videos have a Storage Wars-like quality but without the reality show nature of Storage Wars, and that's what makes them good. It's all "Ooh what's he gonna find next" but without the presence of Dave Hester or Brandi and Jarrod.
Now if you told me that Barry would be joining Jeff's garage sorting, I'd be all for that.
As someone who does not like clutter, it makes me slightly uncomfortable to watch.
Also, after years of living in apartments, I was finally able to buy a house. The thing I like most about having a house is having a garage to park my car. No more getting up early to remove frost/snow from my car before I go to work in the winter, or getting into a car hot enough to cook bacon in the summer. Add to that, the security of having my car inside, where it is not easily accessed by would-be thieves/vandals.
As a son of a hoarder and a person with hoarding tendencies, it's a hard watch of sorts for me. One, because I genuinely get fascinated by what's found and feel bad if it's thrown away especially when it feels like the Gerstmann collection of everything gaming related has been mythical and legendary. I guess we'll still have the Jonathan Wheeler Memorial Museum left. Two, because the amount of stuff laying around just stresses me out, especially when I reflect it with my own tendency to just keep everything. So I get both of the worlds there. It's still a strangely entertaining watch.
@zoofame: It's called KonMari. (I can't be the only one who was disappointed to find out that it just literally comes from Marie Kondo's own name and nothing else, can I?)
Because Jeff's garage contains a wealth of interesting objects that allign with our interests. So naturally that has nostalgic value. On top of that, Jeff talking about his possessions gives us a clearer picture of his past and he's pretty good at telling stories about these items. Personally i fell off my chair when he revealed the Putt-Putt Frisbee.
I've always find it absolutely fascinating to see people go through their junk and find old memories of stuff. The stories alone tied to a lot of the things he finding are worth it.
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