Mail Mondays (11/14/05)

Ah Monday. A day when people return to work after a relaxing weekend. Why are Mondays usually so bad? Because after relaxing for a day or two, you have to amp it back up to get through the week.
As the temperature drops and the daylight fades to almost nothing, it gets harder to bounce back. At least for me. Oh well.
So, let's get to the mail.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hey Leab,
How can you not love watching movies at home?
You don't have to deal with annoying people, high prices, or ads.
Come on, Leab. Home theaters are SO much better.
Mini-Ebert

Dear Mini-Ebert,
I don't begrudge anyone who wants to watch their movies at home. I mean I get why. You don't have to deal with annoying patrons (right, Worm?) who talk or answer their cell phones or whatever. It is cheaper. The average matinee here in Minnesota is $6.50. You can get a film for 24 hours on cable's "On Demand" for $4.00. You can rent it at Blockbuster for the same amount. Or, if you know where to look, you can watch it for free online. It all depends on where you look.
Watching at home has other advantages:
-Sometimes you can have better food. You want vegetables or beer? Hey, it's at your house.
-No waiting. No need to get in line, get a seat, and wait through ads and previews. Pop the movie in and go.
-You need to go to the bathroom? Pause the film. You can't do that at a movie theater.
There are a lot of other reasons, and home theaters are getting much better.
So after all these great reasons, why would I still go to the theater?
Well, first of all, the setups in movie theaters are still better than what us laymen can afford. But the ultimate reason is pathos. Seriously. When the people stop talking and watch the movie it can be the most amazing shared experience. I can remember going to see Die Hard in a New York movie theater with my father. If you've never been to a movie in NY, I can honestly say that they are usually the best audiences. During the film the audience laughed together, gasped together, and even cheered together. For those two hours, those couple hundred people were all together in one place and in one mind set.
A more recent example came when I went to Crash. At one point in the film (going to throw a spoiler out here), a little girl is shot at by an older man. In that moment, the entire theater was together feeling what the girl's father was feeling. No one spoke, no one looked away (except me, because I am a freak and want to check out psychological situations), and no one spoke. We all were in the moment.
That's why I love movie theaters. You're away from your home, but in a different world. When done right, you can forget that anything exists outside that black box. AND, the people in that box are now joined by this common experience.
I can't really explain it better than that. Maybe it's because I grew up in a family with cinephiles, but I love being in the theater.
One more for tonight:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This one' s a comment.

There was zero need for that.
None. I am fuming right now.
GEEZ I AM SO PISSED OFF AT YOU!
Emma

You might be asking yourself, dear reader, "Leab, what have you done?"
Well, back in this post, I talked about Emma. Why? Because someone asked me about her. I think she's just pissed at me, because of what I wrote. The problem is: It's all true.
Then again, I wasn't the one who wrote a really bad signature of myself on a body part. So maybe I should be just as angry? I don't know. At this point, I just need to wait for the storm to actually show up. Ho-hum.
As always, have a good night.