Me: Maybe we should buy season tickets to the theater.
Historian: We'd get a great discount.
Me: . . . and maybe we could go to a weeknight showing, so we wouldn't miss the movies?
Historian: Sure.
I love the movies so much. Mostly, we go to the movies every Friday and Saturday nights. Sometimes, we see two movies in a day. Or sometimes just I do--I'll go to something with one of my kids, then the Historian and I will see another in the evening. A weekend without two movies makes me feel like something is missing. Like maybe a lung or something. I ♥ the movies, but I also need the movies.
Another instance: we go to this jazz concert series every year. We buy season tickets. The concerts are on Monday evenings, except this year, the first concert is on a Saturday. SATURDAY. I ask you. That is movie night.
Another recent conversation:
Dr. Write: You should have come to the Red Iguana on Friday night. How come you didn't come?
Me: It was movie night.
Dr. Write: (uncomprehending this explanation, wherein movie automatically trumps dinner at the Red Iguana with a bunch of collegial friends)
Me: . . . (scrambling) and, but, okay, but it was movie night!
In my own defense, it was a work-ish dinner, not quite an obligation . . . but there was Mexican food. And my friends.
Okay, I get it. It's a little sick. I would honestly rather see a movie twice--if it was a movie I liked the first time--than do most other things, when it's movie night. More than going to a play. More than going to a concert. Even if the play or concert is good, and the movie is not all that good.
Some movies I would probably go see rather than going to the theater or a concert:
The Other Guys
The Switch
That new Bruce Willis/Helen Mirren vehicle
Well, there you are. As I like to say to people who don't go to the movies, "The movies are the great popular art of our time!" Which may or may not be true. But I cannot really identify many things that give me more unadulterated pleasure than choosing a seat on the side, settling in with or without popcorn, and, when the lights dim, watching preview after preview until the storytelling in the dark begins.
Really? The Switch? Everything I've heard about that said it was appallingly bad.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly what I am talking about, sir.
ReplyDeleteHuh. Just huh. Movies emotionally drain me. Unless they're truly horrible: Waterworld, Independence Day, Twister. I have issues. Your blog (and thanks to it, what I order on Netflix) help me. And yet. Still so draining. The commitment.
ReplyDeleteI love that you see as many movies as you do. Because, as I've told you, that means I don't have to!
ReplyDeleteCan you remember when I used to love movies as much as you do? What happened?
until the storytelling in the dark begins--mmm, I like that.
ReplyDeleteI vote the movies - even lame ones - as long as there is gold paint and a chandelier and red velvet curtains. It is the Shakespeare of our day. I love them though not near so faithfully as you!
ReplyDelete