at the movies

I went to the movies Saturday, Don't Think Twice, a pretty good movie about improv, though it's a little sappy at the end, but that's Hollywood.  I got there early but it was a hot day and I was glad to be inside with the darkness and the air conditioning.  Remember when air conditioning was part of the reason to go to the movies?

I like previews, so I settled in.  There were advertisements too, chiefly for cars, which always alienates me from my fellow Americans.  I mean what's the deal?  You drive it to the store and back, you want something that will make the trip cheaply and safely.  You don't need something that looks like  a rocket ship.  And they don't even look like rocket ships anymore, like they did in the late fifties and early sixties, they look like sunflower seeds made of cheap plastic, but the advertisers talk it up like they look like rocket ships.  And they don't advertise how cheaply and safely they will take you to the store, they advertise how much fun they will be to drive.  This is because when you drive their car you won't be waiting on a stoplight at 55th Street on your way to the Jewel, you will be driving down some winding mountain road, cackling merrily about all the other saps who aren't driving the way cool car you are driving.  Not that you will be able to see any of those saps because when you drive your brand new Way Cool the road in front of you will always be empty.  I don't think you'll ever need to stop for gas either.

But that's not what I am here to talk about.  There were also announcements, a Let's All Go To The Lobby number with tiny robots filling cups with soda and boxes with popcorn, cute.  And reminders to turn off those damn super phones and not to talk in the theater.  Well that's just good citizenship, but it never hurts to be reminded,  And then there was the one where it asked you to look out for suspicious behavior.

This message is becoming ubiquitous these days, you hear it whenever you are anywhere that has a PA system.  And what the hell does it mean?  What is suspicious activity, Should I have gone to the girl at the candy counter and said hey the guy in the row in front of my is acting suspicious.  Suspicious how?  Oh just you know, suspicious.  Has any terrorist activity ever been thwarted by civilians?

But maybe this is why so many people are scared, they hear these announcements all the time and maybe the guy in the row in front of me is setting the fuse on that pressure cooker bomb in his backpack, because why else would he have a backpack?  Except that anymore everybody seems to be wearing a Quasimodo hunchback pack.  Maybe they are all carrying pressure cooker bombs.  Maybe I should vote for the guy who says he will make the desert glow for a million years.  That sounds like the safe smart thing to do.

The pundits are always saying the people are scared.  I'm not.  Maybe it's because I don't go to the movies often enough.



Although of course one never knows about the guy, but I don't see the Cheeto Chap dropping out anytime soon.  As long as he is getting his name all over the news and attracting those crazy crowds why would he give it up?  Right at the end though, maybe a week before the election he might do that thing where you knock over the chessboard when you are two moves from being mated.




I too am surprised how suck made it into general parlance.  And pissed.  I think maybe it has a double meaning like in pissed off, and some other use in England, like when they are drunk they say they are pissed.  And they use cunt like we do asshole, like that guy is a real cunt.  And why is asshole not allowed in?  I mean, everybody has one.