Friday, August 27, 2010

I ♥ the movies.

Recent conversation:

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.


6 comments:

  1. Really? The Switch? Everything I've heard about that said it was appallingly bad.

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  2. This is exactly what I am talking about, sir.

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  3. Huh. 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.

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  4. I love that you see as many movies as you do. Because, as I've told you, that means I don't have to!

    Can you remember when I used to love movies as much as you do? What happened?

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  5. until the storytelling in the dark begins--mmm, I like that.

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  6. I 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!

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