movies

NaBloPoMo 2010 Day 20 — I miss the movie theater

I am a card-carrying member of the trailer-loving society. Not homes on wheels. Those two-minute movie previews that precede the feature presentation at the movie theater.

The problem is, I don’t get to the movies anymore unless we’re going to see the latest Pixar movie with K-Man. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy seeing movies with him, but it would be nice to see a movie without dodging strollers and puddles of who knows what. And my love of trailers is left wanting at those movies because they only show trailers for more animated and talking animal movies.

When I was in high school, we used to see just about every movie that came out. We saw some stinkers too — probably because the trailers always captured the best elements of the movie, and we weren’t that picky. (I didn’t go to high school in Greenwich Village.)

Today, I get my trailer fix online. Apple and Yahoo both have trailer sites that I visit periodically.

My love of going to the movies goes way back. I can recall being 3 or 4 and going to the Drive-In with my parents. I was supposed to be sleeping in the back seat, but I wasn’t. I probably should have been because I can still see the climactic shooting scene of Walking Tall starring Joe Don Baker in my mind.

But who can afford to go to the movies these days? It’s not just the price of tickets. With a kid, there’s the sitter to pay for. Hard to justify spending all of that money for 2-3 hours to watch a movie when I know the same ones will be available on satellite in a few months for fractions of the cost.

So I’ll stick with my online trailers and satellite movies. But I still miss the movie theater.

November 21, 2010 | Categories: K-Man, movies, NaBloPoMo | 1 Comment

Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!

There is a scene towards the end of K-Man’s currently favorite movie Polar Express where Santa is about to select one kid to receive the first gift of that Christmas. One of the kids (voiced by the same guy who played “Eugene Felnic” in Grease) obnoxiously tries to get Santa to bestow the honor on him with a Horshack-like chorus of “pick me! pick me! pick me!” Of course Santa doesn’t pick him. He picks the boy who is quietly taking it all in as he comes to terms with Santa’s existence. I much prefer to be that latter boy.

But I am in the midst of doing some networking that requires me to talk about how “great” I am, and I am suffering from some cognitive dissonance about the whole thing. The dissonance comes not from whether I really think I am that good. I do. It comes from a belief that going around telling everyone about how good you are (like a Big 12 South team trying to convince pollsters) is unappealing at best. It feels so fake. Rather than be the annoying guy asking to be picked, I’d prefer to let my work speak for itself and “get picked.”

But I’m told it’s not as passive a process as that. I need to actively sell what I can do and how I can benefit another organization. That’s just sort of how it works. So I guess I have no choice. But to be believable, I need to find some level of congruence on what I believe about myself and the manner in which I convey that to others in this networking process.

December 4, 2008 | Categories: K-Man, Me, movies, networking, personality | 2 Comments

10,000

In case you didn’t notice, I missed a few days this week. OK, every day this week since Monday. My second year of NaBloPoMo is less then a success. I can live with that. This week has been crazy at work. Getting ready to file a brief and getting all the ducks in a row. Long days. No time or energy to write. But you don’t want to listen to my excuses.

Despite my less than consistent posting, you guys keep dropping in here. In fact, this week, one of you was the 10,000th viewer of this electronic journal. I’m guessing that at least half of those views are people searching for new photos of K-Man. I don’t blame you. Keep coming back because there’ll be more of those. And thanks for dropping in.

Speaking of Kee, I think this is going to be a big year for him at Christmas. Not because he’s all into the gift-getting. For the last few months, he and Jen have watched Polar Express about once a day. We watched it 1.5 times today. Of course what started the love affair with Polar Express was the train. In fact, it is still commonly referred to around the house as “Train Movie.” But in the last few weeks, he’s noticing the Christmas things in the movie — especially the Christmas tree. We don’t usually get our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, but this might be the year we do. Just to see Kee’s eye light up as we walk through the Christmas tree forest (in the parking lot at White Water.)

November 23, 2008 | Categories: Deciduous Thoughts, family, K-Man, movies, NaBloPoMo, work | 1 Comment

Step Brothers

I know that Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly have been in about 8 movies together, but it worked for Lewis and Martin, right? (Although with these 2, it’s more like Lewis and Lewis.) On the heels of Ferrell’s round-the-clock promotion of Semi-Pro, we already have a preview of his next movie co-starring — who else? — John C. Reilly. The two have become Step Brothers.

For a 2-and-a-half-minute comedic break: Step Brothers

February 28, 2008 | Categories: movies, video, Will Ferrell | 2 Comments

Keegan’s first movie

We took K-Man to his first movie today. The new Coen Brothers flick.

I’m kidding.

We took him to see the Bee Movie. Well, most of the Bee Movie. We arrived a little late. That didn’t stop the ABC movie theatre from charging us as much as possible for the tickets. In case there are any ABC movie theatre execs reading this, let me just say that paying $7 for a child’s ticket is no bargain. In fact, it felt more like robbery.

Then we waited in line for some distractions. I mean refreshments. We bought some popcorn and a large Sprite. When we got in the theatre, not only had the movie already started, but it was packed. Of course it was. We did manage to find a pair of seats at the end of the row about half way up the rows of seats. After we sat down, Keegan wasn’t so much interested in the movie as he was the popcorn and Sprite. The distractions were working well. Maybe too well.
He watched the movie but was not overwhelmed by the animation. Or the dialogue. He just ate a lot of popcorn and drank a lot of Sprite.

This experience will go down as one of those things where the parents have greater expectations. I cannot tell you how the movie ends, because we weren’t there when the credits rolled. All in all though, it was a good experience. That is measured by the lack of a public display of uncontrollable screaming or crying. Any time you can take an almost-two-year-old to something where the expectation is that he will sit for more than an hour and that actually happens, you chalk that one up as a win in the parents column. Even if you paid way too much for the privilege to buy overpriced refreshments and missed the previews in the process.