January 2, 2010
Pasadena @ the Renaissance Academy Theater on Colorado
2:25pm
Driving through warm South Pasadena and San Marino
approaching
the hillsides of Pasadena
gardeners blowing, residual grand-sized Christmas decorations still lingering and floating in the gentle enclave wind
San Marino the Beverly Hills of the other side of LA…rushing you know
you rush to a place you don’t know because you don’t know where to park where to pay where to do anything
rushing through San Marino
Dylan
on
his earphones
gradually tuning the world out
gradually teenage-izing the world out
driving reach
Pasadena
pull in
park
with 10 minutes to spare never been here the theater looks discount as I drive by
park
his earplugs out
we walk to the theater
with 10 minutes to spare
as yes
i can
take my sweet time now walk smooth like a calm operator
I hate to rush
it breaks my FLOW
and my flow is casual I don’t rush I don’t look flustered man
but when you are rushing to catch a flick you just gotta look like a mess
inevitably
o
we walk past a doorstep with a major dose of vomit
fuck
pasadena
partyville
strollingville
people drink and they walk and they puke
hold my breath
we reach the
Academy
cool!!!!!
dig it
my kinda place
reclusive cheap
$2 per
to get into the goddamn Matineed
place before 6
so we get in
and i discover during the payment process
that i left my 25 bucks at home
but
i brought 7 ones hahahaa
just covered
but i couldn’t buy a snack
lame
i was at a theater that charges $2.00 for entrance and couldn’t buy a snack but dylan said he was full from eating too much great i win that battle
pay at a curved booth window easily circa
1963
no one here
wears uniforms
hahahaha
dude is wearing a button up student looking kinda casual shirt and a beard looks like he might be the owner’s son really friendly
and hands us our raffle tickets (that is how they look)
and tells us where to go
with a sincere smile
none of that surly ghettotude you
get at all the mammoth chain theater complexes
with their big seats and big popcorn and big seats and big sounds
nuh uh
nothing is big here
everything retires
and
shrinks
there is nothing magnificent
you pay and you watch, the crowd is not small
it is large
lots of people
looking for that two dollar cinematic fix
and the fix
is
THE ROAD
the movie
came out on my birthday
november 25
a month and a half
later
it is showing
here at the academy where junior is working the booth
and hot dogs are only a dollar
or two
but
the clock is ticking
and we can’t miss a seat!!
we rush in
and find a row
i like
we pull in
toward the middle
it’s dark
i’m blind
dark
i scoot along to the center
and
my foot
kicks
fucking kicks like a soccer player
kicks a full-sized drink and popcorn which some previous moviegoers left
kick the fucking trash and it goes flying
toward an old lady sitting alone
at the end
of the row
i
squeak
“sorry”
and she looks and expressionless cotinues to munch on her food
ok
not even a smile or a “that’s ok”
fuck you bitch funny just moments later the slide tells us to turn off our cellphones and throw away our trash
fuckers they didn’t
it’s not like i sat there and aimed
to kick that mess at her
we sit
the slides are going
the ads
and right away
you can tell this is a discount theater because
the slides
only fill the left
2/3 of the screen lol
I feel like I’m watching a slide show in my science class at my underfunded high school class with mr shaw shitty slides shitty focusing shitty sound
ah yeah
just like high school
but not
cause i’m here at the pasadena academy
watching
the road
with my son
the ultimate father
son
movie
and book
i read the book
and i really read it before the movie ever was announced
i’m not a read the book 1 day before the movie kinda guy
not my style
i read the book
earlier this year
end of 2008
loved the book mostly
except
the end
so lame
so deux ex machina
too much so
for my tragic tastes
the book did not end
as it was intending
and it sounded so
commercial
and contrived
anyways
not expecting much but i didn’t plan on watching the movie until
my son’
read the book
for english class winter assignment
and he
loved it so much that he asked me if the movie was out yet
on thursday
uh yeah i told him
it’s been out for a month
so
last minute plans hatched
here we are the academyin pasadena
watching the ultimate
father son movie
i was going to make this
a rampage
and gut hollywood for its modern inability to do BLEAK
then i thought
hollywood has never done bleak
hollywood is about big stars and big smiles and big heroes
it’s not about
death
and darkness
no
hollywood does not do
bleak
and
the road
is bleak.
very bleak
didn’t detract from the book
at all.
impressive and sad and tragic
and symbolic
and very very introspective
for those
who care to
not only a tale of father son
a tale of life
one generation
to the next
microcondensed into one gray wicked fucking apocalyptic scene from the
post
apocalpytic world
a man
a father
living out the cycle of life the cycle of weakening and demureness in the face
of
youth
man
meets his
end
hands
reigns
to his son entrusts and relinquishes
control
amidst tears and sadness
heart wrenching movie