TMT: Sharply Touching My Emotions
This is the next entry in a Theatre… a Movie… and a Time series that was begun here. Chasing the continuing Versus AFI: 10 Top 10 arc I have going this year, currently centered on the Fantasy genre, it was only fitting I’d chronicle another film in this theatre-memory series. I can feel my nostalgia Spidey Sense kicking in…
Kim: “Hold me.”
Edward: “I can’t.”
Theatre
Movie
Time
December 1990: as I’ve noted in this series, the area of Westwood Village (the small college town/district to the south of the large U.C.L.A. campus) was a regular haunt for me in my younger days. With a dense amount of unique film theaters and various eateries clustered together for students, visitors, and tourists alike, it was the movie date hotspot for a certain time during the 70s and 80s. And while our newlywed status lasted, my bride would accompany moi for all such excursions there.
This probably led she-who-must-be-obeyed to attend motion pictures she may not have taken in first-run, or at all. Still, having her with me on those occasions I wouldn’t trade for a month of Sundays. She is special, this one. So, sitting next to my bride watching Edward Scissorhands only added to the moment and the memory, her not quite the Tim Burton fan and all.
Bringing my wife to the Bruin Theatre was just icing on the cake. Studios from time-to-time still have movie premieres there to this day. But since this beautiful hall is in the shadow of her landmark sister theater right across the street, this one is outshined too often, unfortunately. It’s too bad. Patrons who once graced her auditorium, years ago, would note the murals there that kept them company in the dark as they glowed. They’re sadly painted over, now. At least, her doors remain open and you can still catch a movie there.
The entire series can be found here. If you’re interested how it’s put together, click here.
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TMT: Two of Us on the Eve
This is the next entry in a Theatre… a Movie… and a Time series that was begun here. Since I am continuing my Versus AFI: 10 Top 10 arc, this time looking at the Fantasy genre, it was only fitting I’d chronicle another of them in this series. Sometimes, triangulating, or even estimating, a date when such a movie experience occurred is the hardest aspect to achieve in these posts. This, however, was one of the easiest.
“That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.”
Theatre
Images c/o Cinema Treasures site
Movie
Time
December 31, 2002: honestly, my wife did not know what a single movie started the year before. The only one between the two of us to have read J.R.R. Tolkien‘s three volumes of his Lord of the Rings saga (along with The Hobbit), she alone had an idea what would be translated on to the big screen. I did not. Even she got caught up with the epic fantasy tale all over again in December of 2001 when we saw The Fellowship of the Ring on one of our now infrequent movie dates. She hadn’t realized a pattern had been set in motion. Silly rabbit.
Back then, with a seven and three year-old at home, making arrangements for a parents movie-night out was an exercise in coordination, even under normal circumstances. Tying it to a weeknight (it was a Tuesday) and the New Year’s Eve holiday (did I mention we saw the first LOTR on the last day of the year? No?) made it that much more of a challenge. But, I was not to be deterred, even if my lovely spouse told me we did not have to see the second installment exactly on the identical day, or at the very same theater complex, once more.
Men and women sure think differently. I am nothing if not a stickler for tradition (indeed, not if I’m making it up as I go along). Returning to The Bridge Cinema de Lux (today now owned and run by the RAVE theater chain) was a given in my estimation. With the sitter arranged and booked (by me), off we went for the early evening screening of The Two Towers. Still, there was no way she-who-must-be-obeyed would not have us back to the house later than 10 PM, especially with ‘Eve’ revelers all about. You see, there is a limit she will tolerate from the film fanatic she married. Naturally, I made sure we’d be back to this same spot one year later.
The entire series can be found here. If you’re interested how it’s put together, click here.
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TMT: “Your suggested arrival time is 1 hour before the movie.”
This is the next entry in a Theatre… a Movie… and a Time series that was begun here. Last year, I did one of these for a TMT entry within days of a certain film screening. A recent gathering of die-hard fans for a specific film seemed to call for another of this ‘fresh’ variety. BTW, the odd title for this specific memory post comes from a line on the guide sheet I was given for my latest bit of cinematic-husband-craziness. May I have a drumroll for my wife’s lovely eye roll, please?
Thor: “He’s my brother…”
Natasha Romanoff: “He killed 80 people in 2 days.”
Thor: “… He’s adopted.”
Theatre
The El Capitan Theatre:
Images c/o Cinema Treasures site
Movie
Time
May 4, 2012: a couple of weeks ago, my sister-in-law (visiting at the time) mentioned that the law enforcement agency she works for was offering tickets to employees and their friends/family to see the inaugural blockbuster of the summer movie season, The Avengers, on opening day. “Are you going?”, we asked. “Please,”, she responded, “who is crazy enough to get up at o’dark-thirty to catch a movie? The special screening is at 4 AM!” Let the record show that my wife just pointed. Then, they both looked over my way.
What could I say? “Yeah, I’d go.“, came my reply. I mean, given that this highly anticipated movie was going to happen at the El Capitan Theatre, right across the street from the ‘Chapter 11′ Kodak Theater and its famed neighbor venue, why wouldn’t I? Needless to say, I bought two tickets. Disney’s premium movie hall on Hollywood Blvd. is well-known in these parts:
“In 1991, the former Paramount Theater was reopened by Disney and Pacific Theaters following a glorious restoration of this Hollywood gem situated across the street from Mann’s Chinese. As the flagship theater of the Disney Studio empire, it is part of the Pacific Theaters circuit of which Disney owns a large stake.
Every major animated release from Walt Disney Pictures Animation premieres here complete with a live stage show and more. The theater was the first in the United States to announce an online movie ticketing and printing system.”
This boisterous and brimming screening followed the equally packed 12:01 AM showing, believe it or not. I saw those patrons heading back to their cars as I arrived, and I got there just before 3 AM (having dragged myself out of bed at 2 AM to get myself ready). I was in line (yes, there were plenty of folk already there) by 3:05 AM. The father of my daughter’s schoolmate, another one unafraid of wifely ridicule, joined me, in fact. We were greeted and entertained as only Disney can in a place like this. How was the movie, you ask? I think my blogging colleagues over at Radiator Heaven and The Focus Filmographer nailed both of our giddy opinions and reactions with their reviews, found here and here. Needless to say, I got to work fairly early that day.
The entire series can be found here.
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TMT: What is the Matrix? (or How to Break a Streak)
This is the next entry in a Theatre… a Movie… and a Time series that was begun here. insert text here. Since I am continuing my Versus AFI: 10 Top 10 arc, this time looking at the Sci-Fi genre, it was only fitting I’d chronicle another of them in this series. As mentioned in my previous post, this genre has been a big favorite since childhood. Plus, the timeliness of this film in particular, in my work and personal life, made it one that I had to covered in one form or another.
“A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.”
Theatre
The Beverly Connection 6:
Movie
Time
April 2, 1999: All bets were off for this distinct year. So were planned vacations or time off as those in IT found out as we got closer to the end of the year. Why, you ask? It distilled down, as they usually do for those in tech (or the military), to a simple acronym: Y2K. As I mentioned last November,
“Many feared widespread, doomsday disruption to critical services as the year 1999 ticked over to 2000.”
What had begun the previous year for remedying the legacy code issue in systems at the job, only picked up steam in this one. Yet, as much as I vividly recall those events of Millennium Bug remediation at work, I’ve found it paled to what was happening on the personal front.
The same month the Wachowski Brothers blew the doors off of the science-fiction (and action) genre with the late-March release of The Matrix, she-who-must-be-obeyed and I conceived a daughter (we’d only confirm this come April). A female child? Big deal, right? People give birth to these everyday, yes? Not on my side. I came from a line that had a Y-chromosome winning streak going. Note the stretch of so-called luck: paternal grandfather – two sons (one my dad); father – two marriages, two sons for each of them (three, in fact, with my mother in that second union, but the first was stillborn); brother – two sons (one before I even married and purposely attempted to have children). My first-born? A son, natch.
Like this seminal sci-fi film, my daughter was the proverbial lightning in a bottle (only we didn’t know it, in more ways than one, as yet). And gestating my fierce one was while her future father went on this particular Friday to the nearby Beverly Connection 6 to take it all in. After-work, mind you. Come Monday next, I’d be attempting to explain the film’s intricacies of plot to my cohort (my long-time friend and golf partner) over lunch. Only years later did I, and my wife, realize our second child was Trinity herself.
The entire TMT series can be found here.
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TMT: A Planet of Our Own
This is the next entry in a Theatre… a Movie… and a Time series that was begun here. Since I am continuing my Versus AFI: 10 Top 10 arc, this time looking at the Sci-Fi genre, it was only fitting I’d chronicle another of them in this series. However, for this category it seems I’ve already done my fair share in TMTs: Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, E.T., Alien, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day and others. No matter. I’ll do this anyway.
“The question is not so much where we are as when we are.”
Theatre
The California Theatre:
Images c/o Cinema Treasures site
Movie
Time
April 1968: Ah, eighth grade. The middle year for those attending the junior high level in the L.A. Unified School District way back then. A now forgotten secondary school format in the wake of the move to “middle school” by those in the southland. I took my seventh, eighth, and ninth school grades in that older, traditional grouping. Always straddling between the newbie seventh graders, who knew far too little, and those in ninth grade who thought they knew it all. High school would fix that, permanently.
Still, one in seventh knew a Hell of lot more than a kid in the sixth grade, believe me. To me, the middle school bracketing of grades 6-7-8 seemed only to offer more of a chasm to cross than the old configuration when it came time to jump up to the trial-by-fire of senior high. Eighth wasn’t the top:
“The force is with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet.”
We didn’t know it all, and were conscious of that fact. Perhaps, it was why I thought (and still do) the realm of science-fiction offered avenues to us newly-minted teens that other traditional stories (or learning) didn’t. You knew watching such a movie, or reading a book, provided something we all lacked, along with a way of absorbing it that didn’t seem threatening or intimidating (yes, I’m referring to high school, again).
Maybe that’s why taking in the Planet of the Apes on the big screen captured so many my age when it was released during that Spring semester. We related to the astronaut Taylor, he thrust upon a world that appeared familiar while oh so peculiarly alien. We, the pimply, stuck out like him, awkward. Yet, he was the hero of the sci-fi tale. No wonder we thought he was us.
Not surprisingly, my usual stomping grounds of the time, Huntington Park and its main drag of Pacific Avenue and set of movie theaters was where this primer was staged. The second largest and prestigious being the California Theatre, served this plate of imagination and conjecture to us, the eager youth of the time.
Lucius: “I still say you’re making a mistake.”
Taylor: “That’s it. Keep ‘em flying.”
Lucius: “What?”
Taylor: “The flags of discontent. Remember, never trust anybody over 30.”
The entire series can be found here.
