Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Shaken and a Bit Stirred

The other day I left the house. We're talking country now, of course. It sounds crazy, but I don't often leave the country house. As much as I hate city traffic, I often find it harder to get around in the country. It involves gas and vehicles and miles. I can't hop on a bike, ride to the store, and be home in a flash. Nothing is as close as it appears.

So I load up the car with supplies for my big adventure to the big city. Water, snacks, GPS...Now I had seen this several times before but never actually read the sign. There, at the local watering hole, was a sign promoting the not-so-recent Skyfall. You've heard of it? You've seen it!? Great, let's grab a drink.

All you need to do is bring your ticket stub to this establishment and you'll get a drink at a discounted price. And I'm pretty sure it's not PBR. I wonder, though, would they really honor my ticket stub (I saw it in the actual city, or rather, not SBY. And the ticket doesn't exactly say Skyfall.

See, I know I should have blogged about this when it happened, but what with the holidays and all I guess I didn't have time. But the girl brought it up in conversation often. I guess it was a little bizarre. The girl wanted to see Skyfall (a fairly recent release at the time) one Friday (in fact BLACK Friday) whilst we were perched in the city. No prob. we've got theaters on every corner. HOWEVER, she said, I want a theater with only 18 people there. It was just an insane challenge not a crazy phobia or anything. She thought I couldn't do it. To be honest, so did I.

I mean really, where in the hell could you see a new release in the city on Black Friday??!? WHEAton of course. So I took her to the 'hood. There was no fooling her, she red.neckenized it right away. Cue Carol Anne in the vein of Poltergeist, No, No, you said NOT to go into WHEAton after dark, NO.

We enter the theater directly. The box office outside was dark. At the concession stand we were able to purchase our tickets. They made two little chicken scratch marks on a piece of scrap paper under a handwritten Skyfall heading. We were then issued two carnival style Admit One tickets in return for a twenty. Sit over there they say and motion toward an array of black pleather office chairs lined up in the lobby. It looked a bit like a small airport waiting area. OR a going out of business sale at Office Depot, which by the way, could be where they came from.

And there we sat, with a growing group of others who also collectively scratched their heads wondering if they truly understood the candy counter lady correctly. Finally, a man said, Skyfall? You can go in now. Slightly skeptical and somewhat untrusting we cautiously followed each other down a long darkened hallway as if we were about to be laughed off the screen in the latest version of Scream 8. The leaders taking two steps, turning a questioning glance sideways back at us, taking two more steps, shrugging, laughing, wondering where the hell this deserted hallway was leading us next.

To the theater of course. We eventually made it. And we should have brought the lobby chairs. No stadium seating. No drink holders. There was a bonus squeak in the chair and a spring poking up in an unpleasant place, so you had to sit still. But the film was focused and centered and the audio not too shabby. And by the way, 18 ticket holders joined us as the reel started to roll.

Now, about that $3 martini....

No comments: