For a pocketful of mumbles such are promises

[austin_dern]

• 2: Number of strange musical events today. The first was a street musician singing Simon and Garfunkel's ``The Boxer''. His voice reached notes about three-quarters the distance from middle C that that they're intended, so the song came out ... not flat, but deflated. He also clenched his eyes shut as he strummed the guitar. Singaporean street musicians clench their eyes; I don't know why. I think they think it makes them look more musical. While there are songs whose performance is enhanced by clenched eyes, nothing by Simon and Garfunkel is. The other odd event was a light jazzy version of ``Let It Snow'' playing in the theater inside. The season and the latitude just don't work for it.
• 5: Number of movies I have seen in theaters this year, a personal high for any one year.
• 3: Number of trailers for other movies seen.
• 15: Number of minutes I sat waiting through commercials before I got up and asked a manager, ``Are there any plans to show a movie in theater six anytime today?''
• 3: Number of separate instances of the manager assuring me the movie starts just after this commercial.
• 18: Total number of minutes spent in commercials.
• 0: Number of answers manager had to my question, ``In what way is this at all the slightest bit acceptable?'' I get verbose when I'm furious.
• 125: Amount in U.S. dollars of the bill for my time I am sending Golden Village Cinemas.
• 3: Number of letters I intend to send to consumer affairs agencies or newspapers complaining about this. My goal here is to force somebody at Golden Village to spend at least three times as long dealing with me.

Trivia: Georges Méliès made over 500 movies; under a quarter are known to exist. Source: Living Dolls, Gaby Wood.

Currently Reading: The Rise of the Great Powers 1648-1815, Derek McKay and H.M. Scott.

Comments

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Around here they've been showing 'The Twenty' -- twenty minutes of commercials, before the fifteen minutes of previews, before the movie.

It's also 'before the scheduled start time of the movie', though, so you can skip it if you don't come early.

It's made out to be a feature that you're supposed to want to watch, though... yeeargh.

[roofae.livejournal.com]

Yep. That's Regal for you. In fact, Kevin "Tom Servo" Murphy ranted about "The Twenty" on NPR a while back. It's on their archives somewhere.

AMC is no different. I think I sat through close to half an hour of commercials and trailers before they bothered to actually run "Hero" a couple months back.

This is why I go to Cinemark, or the locally based theatres, or the art houses. (Though, technically, both AMC and Dickinson are "local", being Kansas City-based). Cinemark, et al. pretty much sticks to just trailers, and not so many freaking ads. Not to mention that Cinemark is actually a tad cheaper than AMC's suburban screens, which blows away the argument that "ads make the film cheaper".

At least I'm glad we still have drive-ins here. Nothing like watching some skanky old chop-socky triple feature on a big, big screen. :>

- Roo

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I remember Kevin Murphy's rant; he has it in his book A Year At The Movies.

Theaters (or, I guess, cinemas) in Singapore are generally pretty good; the last movie I saw just had trailers, a public service announcement about speeding or whatever (they were against it) and an explanation of the modified-this-year movie ratings system, and that was it. This, though -- they didn't even build up to 18 minutes; they just showed it.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Mostly I want whatever idiot decided everything in the world was a chance to show a commercial to pay for his crime. I'd also like him to explain how they can repeat commercials for a mobile telephone customized ring tone store. One commercial for that per month would be enough, I'd think; two in three minutes is maddening.

[tracerj.livejournal.com]

Dude. You and I get the same way when furious.... except I rarely have the follow-through that you do. Let us know how that all works out. Power to the consumer!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I certainly will. I'm hoping for satisfaction, but I suspect the best I can get is forcing someone in the company to spend more time pacifying me than they wanted me to waste on commercials. And, really, that'll do.