At the Movies

Going through all this "stuff" I saved (knowingly or otherwise) included the internal question: why did I save this?  I had to have figured I wanted to prove to someone that I attended the Minnesota / Bethune Cookman game, right?  Going through the desk, I found a scattershot pile: movie tickets.  I laughed as I dug them out, and while it clearly wasn't everything I saw, I almost wondered if they were saved for another reason: an alibi, really enjoying it, or...some other reason lost to time.  I wouldn't have put it past my father to not believe I went to the movies, that I was out doing who knows what, dare I go to my girlfriend's house, etc.

I didn't think I saved movie tickets out here, but I looked around...and to my surprise, in a folder with odds and ends, I found a few.  Again, why they were saved (come on, they aren't A-Team trading cards like I received in a birthday card) I have no idea.

I likely saved this one because I knew I'd seen some shit here, that's for sure.  I remember seeing Pulp Fiction twice the 1st week it was out: there was nothing like it.  One time I went I had to show I.D.  So many imitations came out in the following years, too.  Seeing that I got in for free, it would seem Mike made the deal for this screening.

I remember starting to turn down some of the "blockbusters" others wanted to see (they were seeing it because there was a giveaway cup at Taco Bell or something) and being more intrigued with Indie films of the 90s - truly a golden age.  Me and a gal pal went to see Welcome to the Dollhouse, an excellent black comedy, and not the kind of movie you can easily explain or expect a lot of people (there, then) to have heard of or want to see, so...

 

If you're gonna do The People vs. Larry Flynt and First Strike back-to-back, you should get the serious stuff out of the way first.  That way, you'll be woken up by Jackie Chan fight scenes the rest of the night.  We were just going for it on this day.  By the way, notice the price: not just an artifact from decades ago, if you bought the tickets during the matinee period, you paid matinee prices...even for night showings!  I don't know if this was a promotion, a screw-up, or what...

Remember when you'd see a movie twice (or more) in the theaters if you really liked it?  I remember thinking that there were likely jokes I'd missed, or jokes I wanted to memorize, so absolutely, I'll see Austin Powers again.

During one of the trippier scenes of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (I don't remember which one exactly), a screening that I viewed "enhanced", the power in the theater went out.  It went out long enough that everyone got their money back.  

 

The Indie & Studio-distributed Indie summer of '98 plowed through - that's The Opposite of Sex, Clockwatchers, Buffalo '66, and Slums of Beverly Hills.  

"You can't fire me - you don't know my NAME!"

"We're a couple, and we span time together.  We're a couple spanning time."

Dillon and I actually came up with a bit for Night by Night after the Slums of Beverly Hills screening, but we never ended up doing another episode.  I don't know how we would've done it but here's the crux: a guy going to different stores, could be food, music, anything.  He grabs a ton of stuff, then goes to the register.  Whatever the total is, the guy goes "Yeah, so...I want all these things, but I only have $12, so...I can see we're gonna have to work something out."  The cashier keeps pressing that the total is the total, if you can't afford it all buy less stuff, but the guy is oblivious: "I mean, $12 is a lot of money."  Manager comes over, the guy gets defensive "Hey, I'm not in a fight, I'm not making a scene.  I HAVE money, and I'm ready to give it to you.  All of it!  For this stuff!"

I don't know...WE thought it was funny.

With student prices readily accessible in Boston, seeing movies was often an experience when drinking needed a break.  In what I found here, there were a few things that I hadn't thought of since, well, since I saw it...then saw the ticket stub, and it all came back:

- I apparently saw Muppets From Space in the theater which I didn't remember until seeing the stub, then recalled I had met a girl at a party and somewhere in the night (whether it was the alcohol, us vibing, or a combo of the 2) we decided that the following day we'd see that movie.  At best, the film is OK...and honestly, the quality of the movie ended whatever was going to happen between the 2 of us.  We were sober when we went in the theater, and both like "well, so much for that.  Thanks!" when we left.  So it goes.

- It's a long story, but I saw Mystery, Alaska in a theater in Biddeford, Maine.

- There were some blank tickets from a small theater where I didn't write down what I saw.  I remember one in Harvard Square had that set up.  Again, student prices, a good way to kill a rainy day.  Why save a blank ticket?  Hell, maybe it was from a comedy show...who knows?  

A folder with initial odds and ends from out here had a few saved as well.  Sometimes it was just seeing something because I knew a theater would be torn down, just to check it out.  Or things like this:

It took a long time for me to figure this one out: The Strange Case of Senor Computer.  I freely admit this was judging a movie by its title.  Back then, even low budget stuff would play in a theater for a week...Senor Computer might have just had a couple of days at the Egyptian.

Finally, once finding this one, I was surprised to see I saved it until I saw the date:

I didn't know much going into Wet Hot American Summer beyond that it was people from The State that were in it, along with David Hyde Pierce, which seemed strange to me.  I just remember laughing non-stop, my girlfriend not getting it at all, and me thinking "if she didn't think ANYTHING in this movie was funny, we gotta break up."  Ten days later, the world had changed, and my thoughts were on other matters.

So many things saved, though as I said at the top, I never stopped to ask myself why...maybe because I didn't have much to begin with?  At some point after this, I came to the conclusion tickets did not need to be saved after each film, but I'd already saved these, so...might as well save them for decades?!

While in MN, The Big Scoop happened upon a massive goblet filled with matchbooks.  "What is this?" she asked.  Another something I'd forgotten: "Oh yeah...this is back when restaurants had a smoking section.  Anytime my parents would go out to eat, anywhere they'd be, they'd get a matchbook and put it in there."  "Huh." was the reply.  "Yeah." was mine.  I really hope my Ma hasn't bought matches for any reason over the past 30 years but...does she know it's there?  Maybe this is all hereditary?  Eh...gotta take out the trash again.