The audience came out of the theater. Some were pale, some had reddened eyes, some were crying openly, some hugged and held hands, some just stood looking dazed.
Fred and Daniel Tiger
Currently, the Mr. Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor is sitting at a solid 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. There you will find oodles of actual film reviews discussing the technical merits and competencies of the documentary, as well as emotional assessments of its efficacy. I don’t feel the need to belabor the point. See it. Or don’t!
The documentary opened months ago in April at the Florida Film Festival, and I didn’t go. All the showings were sold out, but had I tried I could have gotten tickets.
My friend and co-blogger Tanya and I went to see Lady Bird, a movie directed by Greta Gerwig, this past weekend at the Enzian. Afterwards, we had thoughts. Some of them (including spoilers) follow.
But what is Lady Bird? In short, it’s the story of a young woman’s relationship with her mother during a year of transition between high school and college. The story is set in Sacramento and deeply embedded within the politics of the city, especially economic and racial ones. It was also great, awkward, fun.
Basically my office of about 120 people did a giant potluck. We brought sausages, beer, potato salad, sausages, beer, chips, sausages, beer, salad, sausages, beer, condiments, sausages, and beer. At 3:30, we all knocked off to go hang out. Some people set up grills outside, we all chatted and drank, and it was pretty awesome. Most of my coworkers are people I hang out with outside of work, so it’s nice to be able to do that.
However, for about a week, I have been battling an entirely different kind of sausage party.
Allow me to explain. Some of you will read the first half of the next sentence and go ‘Ah-HA’ because you have experienced this yourself. It was sort of my first time.
I decided to try joining a dating website last week…
… it wasn’t awesome.
I went on a geek-oriented one and created a profile. I was feeling pretty okay for the first 23 hours and 58 minutes, and thought ‘Ah, no hits. Well that’s all right maybe it just takes a while.” At 24 hours, I got a notification that my profile was live.
Which was when the messages started.
This.
I spend most of my time alone, not talking to people, and suddenly people were approaching me most aggressively. I can handle catcalling, and have even faced off with inappropriate touchers at the gym, but this was too much. I had a panic attack and closed the account.
The next day I was telling a friend about my experience, and he basically laughed at me and dared me to try again. So I thought – I can handle this! I have run through fire! I have survived suicidal depression! I’ve walked away from five car accidents, and many other defiances of death. I have faced down angry drunks and fallen out of trees. I can totally do this!
I found a different site (not disclosing names just because other people might try them and actually have luck!) and tried again.
NOPE.
Go little legs, go!
My inbox became infested with dudes. Dudes demanding attention, demanding emotional validation, demanding responses. Being a polite kind of person, I tried to respond to as many as I could, even to say ‘We have nothing in common, but thank you!’ which was apparently seen as an invitation to ramble at length about how I should give someone a chance.
I lasted about 5 days before executing a scorched Earth policy and deleting my account. Waking up today to not find dozens of messages in my inbox was bliss. Especially not dozens of messages from people whose usernames included the suffix ‘-backdoorman’. I am relieved to say that I received no dick pics, had a few interesting conversations, and made a very few new friends, but otherwise am done. Several friends I have reported the same findings, of either no attention or way, waaaay too much. Nay, the dumpster fire of the great Social Media Dating Experiment of 2016 is done. I consider it a valuable learning experience!
Also this.
So now that that distraction is over, I intend to be more disciplined about writing and posting. Also, with Horror Movie Month coming up, I have to start thinking about what I’m going to watch! Plenty of stuff is on Instant Watch, and the Enzian’s got some great selections this year that I’m really looking forward to.
Thanks for sticking around! I really appreciate my readers – without you, I’m just a madwoman chattering to herself in the corner, after all!
EDIT: My friend linked to a very interesting story about a dude who created a female profile on OKCupid, just to see what it was like. His experience basically mirrored mine. Please only read if your faith in humanity is reasonably strong.
Have you ever tried an online dating website? How did it go?
They are playing The Man Who Fell to Earth and Labyrinth. I’ve never seen Man who Fell to Earth so I might see that. I am DEFINITELY seeing Labyrinth though.
*sighhhhhhhh*
I’ve written about my love of the Enzian before, so I will try to do a writeup after I see it. God, I saw the original 30 YEARS AGO. Whew!
I owe this blog a write-up of Hateful Eight and the Revenant, which I am working on for…. probably Friday.
I got a notice in my inbox that the Enzian would be playing UHF for free, and since I was broke as shit, it fit my budget perfectly! I invited a friend and we met up for the movie.
[The Enzian did not pay me to write this entry, I just love going there and have for years, and wanted to spread the word!]
Not much of a review today, mostly a ramble due to heightened mental/physical activity this week.
Wednesday happened, as it always did. The usual ‘hump day’ jokes were going to be made, the Administrative Assistant was going to send out a humorous email reminding people to get their FedEx packages organized, and the week would begin its coast toward weekend.
Not Pictured: Joie de Vivre
So when I got a notice in my inbox that the Enzian would be playing UHF for free, and since I was broke as shit, it fit my budget perfectly! I invited a friend and we met up for the movie.
In my previous entry about the Enzian, I mentioned that it does outdoor, free events from time to time. Of course you’re encouraged to buy drinks and snacks, but due to my aforementioned ‘pre-payday’ state, I was quite broke. My friend ordered shrimp and grits. She, being a connoisseur of such things, pronounced them her favorite.
A Central Florida evening, complete with mosquitoes, thunder, and bats!
UHF is the story of George Newman, a class-A shiftless dreamer type who’s lost every job he’s had. He lucks into ownership of a tv station with a grand total of about 6 viewers, and despairs before he hits on the magic formula of putting the janitor in charge of a failing children’s show. There are some ups and downs, rags to riches, and though a lot of those cliches are present they at least feel fresher than not. The random, crazyass skits and wacky characters in the film keep it interesting, and its celebration of strange people and inclusivity is very much in the vein of Revenge of the Nerds.
Upon viewing it again with a friend who’d never seen it, I recognize that much of the appeal is based on nostalgia. That said, new fans might like the film because of its bizarre humor and also as a novelty since it contains a pre-breakdown Michael Richards, in one of his most insanely hilarious roles.
It holds a special place in my heart because UHF is one of the first movies I saw in the theater without parents. A friend and I were visiting my family in South Georgia and my aunt dropped us off at the theater to see it. THAT IS HOW OLD I AM. Granted, nowadays 10 is a little young to be unattended at a theater, but it was a theater in a small town where everyone knew everyone– and we were the only people in the theater. We ran up and down the aisles yelling and generally Being Loud. I don’t know, I still love it and it’ll always be one of my faves.
