Days Of Being — Wild Internet Archive

One folder was named cass/ . He opened it. Inside were thirty-seven videos, unviewed for over two decades. The last one was dated August 14, 2001. A thumbnail showed Cass, mid-laugh, his face half-lit by a bonfire.

“Leo, you idiot, stop filming the fire and film me,” Cass’s voice said, tinny and alive. days of being wild internet archive

Leo clicked play. The video was shaky, vertical (before vertical was a sin). Cass was holding the camera at arm's length, walking backwards. One folder was named cass/

He wasn’t looking for the Wong Kar-wai film. He had the Criterion Blu-ray. He was looking for his days of being wild. The ones he’d uploaded, carelessly, to a GeoCities angelfire page in 1999. Back when "being wild" meant filming himself and his friends jumping off the roof of the abandoned textile mill into a pile of leaves, the footage grainy and stuttering, scored to a CD-ROM rip of "Song 2" by Blur. The last one was dated August 14, 2001