January 2010

I’m in the mood to do some groovy line dancing. Care to join me?

Here’s “Second Time Around” by Shalamar.

So yesterday we headed to the big city, in these parts it’s called ‘Syracuse’, and went to the movies for the afternoon. The movie of choice was “Up In The Air” with George Clooney and a bunch of other people.

The movie was showing at the theatre in the someday-will-be-the biggest mall in the U.S., so naturally the auditorium held only 59 people. Why 59 and not 60 I’ll never know, but a woman in a wheelchair came in to enjoy the movie and she chose to get out of her wheelchair and sit in a regular seat, which threw off the ticket counts apparently because two people stared at the filled auditorium, poised with popcorn and pop in the hands and mouths agape, well into the previews before they realised that no one would levitate from their seat. They apparently left and found something else to watch. Perhaps the theatre company was celebrating that this movie had a lot of airlines in it and oversold the auditorium.

Before we get to the main feature, I have to say that this growing trend of showing 10 minutes of commercials before the 15 minutes of previews, but after the 20 minutes of pre-show excitement called “First Look” or “The 20”, is getting tedious. Yes, I know I’m drinking a cup full of something that rhymes with Hoca-Hola. It’s printed on the cup, it’s printed on my popcorn and it’s displayed on the LED flat panel televisions that now serve their lives as menu display boards. Said logo even dances for me now. There is no reason to show lots of commercials about this said product beforehand. I get it.

One last thing before I get to the actual movie: to the woman that sat to the front and right of me, do not start checking your e-mail on your ruby studded non-iPhone device when the very persistent, annoying announcement proclaims that cell phones should be turned off and stowed away. And yes, it was noted that your accent was not a Central New York one, though I suspect you still have “NY” in your address. Thank you.

I enjoyed this movie very much. First all I felt like I was watching something real in that my brain wasn’t in overdrive looking for evidence of a green-screen or CGI. I recognised airports, I recognised hotels and Earl and I are able to proclaim that we have been in every city that was emblazoned across the screen, well, except Miami. I found the story to be very engaging, real and subtle enough in tone to make me feel like I wasn’t being banged over the head with some sort of message.

To keep it short and sweet, George Clooney plays a guy that fires people for a living and lives around 320 days a year on the road, er, rather in the air. We meet his family, he finds a relationship, he mentors a young one and he deals with his company’s cost cutting methods of using technology to essentially ground him. I won’t spoil the movie by giving further details than that, but I will say that George plays the part well, as does the rest of the cast. The movie went by quickly for me and I didn’t feel like I had wasted a good chunk of change. I will say that I fully know that his character prefers American Airlines, Hertz and Hilton, as this was dwelled on. A lot. But I like those companies too so I didn’t really mind, contrary to the constant product advertisements before the movie.

Directly in front of me sat a woman who came in alone and was wearing some clothes that could be described as “eccentric”. She had big black glasses and a “flashdance” sweatband on her head. I think she had Christmas tree ornaments for earrings and she had a bedazzled sweater on. Halfway through the movie she started talking back to the movie screen, usually when George Clooney’s character was terminating someone. “Fuck you!” “Go to hell!” “Right on, sistah!” She wasn’t overly loud, but in an auditorium of 59 people you definitely knew she was there. By the end of the movie she was worked up in such a state that she was poised in her chair like she was going to leap up and wring someone’s neck. When the credits rolled she leapt over the woman’s empty wheelchair and headed for the exit. She was singing some weird song when she did it.

On the way out of the theatre I mentioned to Earl that I REALLY liked the travel that the main character did in that movie and I really wished I could do more travel like that. Not only does it appeal to my loner tendencies but the idea of seeing the country in that manner is very enticing to me. I really wish my work took me places. Now I’m not saying that I don’t want to be home or I want to be away from Earl and my family or anything like that or that I don’t like the people I work with; what I’m saying is that I have always found the thought of not knowing what city I’m in when I wake up, flying from one three-lettered destination to another and exploring the world from that vantage point is something that I have always wanted to do. Always. It’s sexy to me. That type of travel is very freeing for me; working at the same desk day in and day out is very confining. At my age I should probably want (and be grateful that I have) stability, but I still want to soar. Earl says I’d last a year at most but I disagree.