This just looks like something out of a Wallace and Gromit movie. I mean, seriously. “Cheese Information Center?” “The Ultimate Cheese Guide?”
(Found at an Albertson’s grocery store.)
Category: Life
Going to the Movies—Not!
Apparently the movie industry is trying to come up with an ad campaign to get people back into theaters. The LA Times doesn’t seem to take the idea terribly seriously, as they’ve suggested the slogan, “Movies: Just like DVDs, but Larger.” Meanwhile, theaters and studios are blaming each other for the decline in attendance:
Theater owners blamed Hollywood for making inferior (and overly long) movies, studios worried that theaters were turning the multiplex (with its barrage of pre-show commercials) into as much of an ordeal as an escape.
How do you figure out who’s right? Oh, wait, that’s easy: Both of them.
Make better movies, and more people will brave the long lines, high prices, 20 minutes of annoying big-screen commercials, 15 minutes of previews for movies that aren’t terribly interesting, people yakking on cell phones, people narrating the entire @%!# movie for their friends 30 seconds ahead of the action, etc.
Clean up the theater experience, and people will be willing to go for movies that look kinda interesting instead of really interesting.
It’s not just the big screen and immersive sound. Watching Serenity at home lacked the intensity of watching it in a theater full of fans (even the second time, when we knew what to expect). Neither canned laughter nor a studio audience can compare to dozens or hundreds of people laughing together in the same room. And it’s hard to match the collective “Oh, $#!7” that swept the theater in each showing of Return of the King when Shelob showed up again after Frodo thought he had escaped. The communal experience strikes a chord that you just can’t reach with a couple of people and a TV set.
People who talk through the entire movie aren’t just distracting you from the movie, they’re interfering with that communal experience. There’s only so much theater staff can do, short of kicking people out, but at least we know in the future they’ll get to inhabit a special level of Hell. 😈
Snowblogging
We don’t get snow here in the middle of Orange County (heck, this is the first time I’ve seen hail here in at least a decade), but we do get to see it from a distance. Mostly off in the San Gabriel Mountains to the north and northeast. While stopped at an intersection this morning, I caught a glimpse of the snow-covered range rising out of the clouds in the distance. Unfortunately this is the best shot I could manage on short notice:
You know you need coffee when…
- You pour yourself orange juice, then very carefully put the carton back…in the cupboard.
- You walk into the lunch room for coffee, but forget to bring your mug.
- You momentarily forget how to make coffee.
- You set up the coffee maker, but leave out a critical step like positioning the coffee pot.
- You get the coffee, then forget to drink it.
- You pour yourself a bowl of Wheat Thins.
- You try to slice fruit into your cereal, but you do it over the sink instead of your bowl.
- You pour yourself coffee, then immediately wash your mug and head for work.
Feel free to add to the list in the comments!
Red Wolf Riding Hood?
We went to see Scott Shaw’s show, Oddball Comics last night. Maybe a block away from the Acme Comedy Theatre, we saw this billboard:
It’s hard to see in the photo, but they’re touching their index fingers together. There’s nothing else in the center of the billboard, just empty space.
As near as I can tell, they’re combining Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf, a mirror universe, and a pair of Vegas showgirls. All of which adds up to a resounding: “Huh?!?”
Halo 360
As I was about to get into the car after lunch, I spotted a full-circle halo around the sun.
I’m fairly certain it’s a 22º halo based on the size. Continue reading
More Holiday Creep
Spotted the following in a grocery store on Saturday, three days before Valentine’s Day.
I think the holiday decoration/candy/card industry has started selling two holidays ahead. Christmas stuff was out in October, with both Halloween and Thanksgiving ahead. Here’s Easter stuff on sale with both Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day in the future.
Decoration-wise, there’s not much between Easter and Independence Day. Sure, people get the day off for Memorial Day, but the closest you get to a themed aisle in the grocery store is that you can buy American flags in more places. After the big Fourth of July patriotic blow-out (which of course is on sale by June), the holiday-industrial complex doesn’t really get going again until October—though back-to-school sales seem to be getting earlier all the time. I wonder when they’ll start going straight into back-to-school from graduation sales?