In the summer of 2004, Jean-Baptiste Regnard wanted to splurge on some clothes, but he didn't want anything as formal as what he wore as a real-estate agent. He was just 24, after all, and he wanted something comfortable and casual for hanging out with his friends. He stumbled upon the emblematic fashion of young Americans since the 1950s: the T-shirt.

Even though Brandon Hardesty is hysterically funny, the success he has garnered from his homemade videos is no joke.

The 21-year-old Parkville resident, known for his uncanny movie reenactments that he uploads onto the video sharing website YouTube, is now meeting with big-time agents and getting scripts sent his way.

"It's all very surreal because it happened so fast," Hardesty says. "People spend years trying to get where I am, so I feel like I took a shortcut or something."

Video Americain. Even the name sounds like a relic from a previous generation, like having a store called Polaroids R Us or the Atari Superstore. Of course, Video Americain rents DVDs now, too-have done so for almost 10 years. But while the whole world has gone digital, they still stock plenty of titles on good old-fashioned VHS (no, not Betamax).

"A lot of really good films aren't available yet on DVD," explains Scott Wallace Brown, 44, who manages the small chain's Cold Spring Lane location.

Twenty years ago, Michael Salcman's 7-year-old daughter Dara was walking through the family's house in Homeland when she glanced up at him and asked, "Daddy, why do we live in a museum?"

It was an easy mistake to make. As Dara looked around, she saw paintings and prints on almost every wall, sculptures on nearly every shelf and table. She couldn't know it, but several of the artists—Grace Hartigan, Sam Gilliam, and Robert Motherwell—were in museums all over the world.