The Ghost Rider Movie Experience February 28, 2007

   Russell Smith has some pretty good points in his article on the movie going experience, although I would say his manner of addressing the subject is decidedly melodramatic. He takes the small annoyances of the movie going experience and blows them up to super-sized madness. I went to the film Ghost Rider to prove that the movie theater experience is enjoyable, that the adventure sufficiently masks the minor irritations that come along for the ride.  

   I started out on the right foot by avoiding the line to get tickets. I went to automated kiosks that for some reason never have anyone at them. I had my ticket in hand in 2 minutes and 20 seconds by paying with my debit card. There are a few too many menus trying to get one to buy into the feeding frenzy, but it sure beat queuing behind the 30 other suckers who apparently find technology intimidating.  

   Apparently it has been a while since I’ve been to a movie, since they reinstituted cheap ticket prices on Tuesdays and I knew nothing about it. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I had saved some money. I even considered buying some confectionary items. And then I saw the line. And then I was re-familiarized with the pricing structure. And then I said nuts to that and started towards the little room with the sticky floors.  

   I did have to wait in line for the teenager to rip my ticket in half before robotically gesturing in the general direction I should scurry. I waited for a family who had one person who beat me to the punch, which by default means they all did. Adding to the aggravation, even though they were all headed to the same show, each of the five were handed individual tickets by the father, and the ticket taker methodically tore and gestured in the same direction for each one. Of course, I was 20 min early so I don’t know what I was getting so excited about.   

  I enjoyed the movie trivia and commercials while I watched what Smith refers to as the swine in the pig barn. I have to admit, I am not nearly as repulsed as he is by peopling digging into traditional movie treats. I am dismayed that 5 cents of popcorn and 10 cents of pop cost $6.50. However, the smell of popcorn actually added a nice nostalgic element to the Ghost Rider experience. I remembered fondly back to the far removed era when my financial situation allowed for a little artery clogging indulgence.    I had never really noticed before how quickly people inhale their popcorn. I thought one guy was going for the world record there for a moment.   The floors were quite sticky which I admit bothers me. But once I effectively glued my feet into a comfortable position, I forgot all about it.

   Smith effectively describes the inane conversations people have before the movie starts. This particular experience had very little of that. Three sentences were uttered in the entire 20 minutes I was sitting there. A few comments on cell-phone functionality were all. There were a surprising amount of vegetables there early for the sweet seats, all mesmerized by the commercials and movie trivia illuminating the canvass in front of us. I love the lady who referred to the Oscar party she was hosting as (superlative) THE most prestigious event of the year. I had to scratch my head and wonder why movie stars getting together to drink booze is more celebrated than literary or scientific recognition ceremonies–or even the Oscars themselves.

   I was grateful when the show actually started as I could relax a bit from trying to identify socially unacceptable behavior in a maddening assemblage of normalcy. To illustrate this, a teen behind me actually commented on the directive to turn off his cell phone by saying he was glad they reminded him as he dug in his pocket to turn his off.

   I usually verbally comment every show on how annoyed I am by the three to five minutes of commercials I am forced to endure. This annoys my wife considerably I am sure. What ever happened to showing a cartoon before the feature? I can bear the blaring advertisements as they stand, as I am usually late and miss them anyway. The day they start putting commercials in the middle of the film, however, is the day I start waiting for DVD releases.

   The trailers on the other hand I really do enjoy. I think I like the anticipation of a good movie more than the movie itself. Spiderman2 and 300 got me revved up. So I got through the crappy opening of the main film without hardly noticing how disappointed I was.

   Ghost rider generally proceeded along the exact same lines as I had imagined it would. Not a whole lot of originality went into the plot which would probably put it into Smith’s category of a schmaltz factory film.

   I did enjoy the show mainly for its special effects and the comic book subject matter which sends me into a nostalgic reverie akin to viewing life through rose colored glasses. I sold my soul to Marvel a lot like Johnny Blaze sold his to the Devil.

   I am quite selective of the movies that I go to the theater to see. The blaring sound and the humongous screen enhance even most terrible movies into the realms of tolerable. As for the sociality of the experience, there is something to be said about banding together with several hundred other Star Wars freaks to hear Yoda redefine acceptable sentence structure.

   I would label this trip to the cinema as average on the small annoyances scale. The worst of it all was just four seconds of a guy stumbling past me with his cell-phone glowing like a light saber half way through the film. The flaming skull on the screen was temporarily extinguished at the time so I didn’t miss anything but lame dialogue anyway. I enjoyed the overall experience, and if I had not been specifically looking for something to enrage my sensibilities, I would not recalled any of those events.

   All in all, I think Smith is seeking to entertain his readers by over dramatizing every negative detail of movie going. The problem with this is that every experience does not contain every annoyance he details and certainly not to the degree of grotesquery that he describes. This level of pessimism, while initially entertaining, simply does not hold water as one plunges into a typical theater experience.

All the News Unfit to Print February 14, 2007

   I particularily enjoyed the Russ Kick article in this week’s readings.  The quote that really stuck me was near the end and reads, “Lesson: If you want to get accurate news in the United States, you might want to learn a language other than English. “ 

   Here is an extrapolation on that thought.  My personal experiences with the media have left me feeling uneasy about the reliability of news coverage.  During the few interviews I have had for localy interesting newspaper articles, it had initally appeared that the reporter and I were both speaking English.  Communication seemed to be happening two ways, and appropriate notes on what I felt were key points taken.  Enevitably when the stories come out, I realize that I either don’t communicate very effictively and/or about 30% of the words I use don’t mean what I think they mean.

   I wish I had some concrete personal examples, but I have been so disappointed to date with these articles that I have not kept a single one.  What I mostly remember from each experience was being consistently misquoted and important details omitted or misunderstood.  Most readers would not notice the difference.  Those close to the situation being reported however are often dishartened by the incongruities.

   My Dad has a nice example of this.  He was being interviewed as a Rancher during the terrible drought a few years ago.  The article per his knowledge was to deal with how certain ranchers in the Cardston area were being stiffed on crop insurance claims based on data collected in another region 45 miles away.  This was an injustice.  Individual cases should be based on the rainfall and conditions of the land in question.  My Father thought he eloquently explained the situation and its news worthiness.  What was actually reported inculded very little of the interview and none of the specific details.  All the public got was pictures of a ranch undergoing drought.  The weather was the subject.  The sad thing was that anyone could have just looked out the window and come to the same conclusion as what was reported.  Extreme weather events sell.  The plight of the little guy most offten does not unless it is extreme or bizzare.

   Whether it is shoddy journalism such as I have experienced, or a more sinister political agenda like those exposed in the readings,  it is important to realize that one should not always blindly accept what is reported.  (Except for this blog as every fact here has been scrupulous cross-checked against my version of reality.) The Huntly quote at the start of chapter gave me a good chuckle.  “… news is what I decide is news.”  Taking that completely out of context, I am reminded of a lovely Homer Simpson quote, “Facts are meaningless.  You could use facts to prove anything that’s even remotely true. Facts schmacts.”  

   It seems more and more that major media sources are reporting the same world events every day, and effectively do so in about 30 seconds at the start of the broadcast.  This is increasing giving a new meaning, at least as far as I am concerned, to the media hole.  (This is evident given recent reporting by major sources on the psudo holiday of Festivus.  Man I love Seinfeld.)

  

  

February 8, 2007

   G.I. Joe, Transformers, Wrestling (WWF and Stampede), Thundercats, He-Man, and a Smurf or two.  Throw all these into an industrial blender and get a sticky mess.  Do it in a metaphorical sense and you get a goo that when splattered artfully on the wall portrays my childhood.  

   My Great Grandmother worshipped Stampede wrestling.  She loved the Harts and the Dynamite Kid, and loved to hate Muccan Singh.  I was more into WWF with favorites including Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and Ricky the Dragon Steamboat, but could still share her enthousiasm for the more local talent.  Every day after cartoon and wrestling prime-time, my brothers and I would shun the program warnings by reenacting the dangerous stunts on our trampoline.   Ahh, those were the days.

   You will notice in that list perhaps a surprising lack of Canadian content.  Kids CBC with its annoying agenda of trying to teach kids things rather than properly promoting violence on a global scale did not exist then.  I do enjoy Hockey Night in Canada and comedy in all its various forms (please note that this does not include the Air Farce or 22 Minutes since Rick Mercer left).   I also like CBC News with it’s Canadian perspective better than other news programming.  

   George Comstock was quoted as saying that T.V. has become an unavoidable and unremitting factor in shaping what we are and what we will become.  Taking this down to a personal level, I will conceed that T.V. has had a large influence on on who I am now.  But just as Television instituted the decline of other media like newspapers and radio, I think its influence in its present form is wanning.   I base this on my personal experience which I assume can be extrapolated onto the general populace. 

   I am watching far less TV now than I ever have, maybe two to three times less.  It is not as though I don’t want to watch it, I just don’t.  I appreciate media that doesn’t take up so much of my time with junk.  A 1 hr show is really only 35 mintes if you cut out the commercials.  A 2 hour t.v. move in its cut up form is really just over an hour of entertainment.  The internet can pare down the fluff to give me exactly the entertainment or information I request.  The traditional media and advertisers in my opinion will need to find new ways to make money working on this model.

The greatest match ever.