My latest vice
I was going to call it an addiction, but that is pushing it a bit far. No my latest vice is pleasant without being addictive. Once a month, we go to see a movie. Not just an ordinary movie, not at a proper cinema, not a video or DVD. No, once a month, we go to an elderly friend's house where he has a room set up with 20 or so seats, and we watch a reel-to-reel movie. So far, we have watched Casablanca, Singin' In The Rain, High Noon and Interrrupted Melody. Later this month we will see Shane, and next month it's a Christmas movie, the name of which I can't recall.
Our friend John is an 86 year old widower, and he has always loved movies. I think that a few decades ago, he was involved with a group which ran a local cinema when our city was just a village. He has all the equipment, and Robert has done some work with him to fix a few little glitches. John belongs to a "Volunteer Projection Group", and he hires the movies from the National Film Archives. Not all old films are available, and some of them have technical problems-often the sound is patchy. But once a month, a group of us gets together at John's place and watch a classic film. We always start with an episode of "Flash Gordon"-the acting and special effects are so incredibly bad that we always have a good laugh to start the night. And we finish off with some supper. The first night we only had a few people, but we are creeping up in numbers-now about 12-14. Some people we know don't like them, because they expect perfect sound and picture quality; they don't see that the glitches are part of the fun. And apart from Flash Gordon, the films have all been top quality.
There is something extra nice about spending a night with friends enjoying such an old fashioned and pleasant entertainment.
Our friend John is an 86 year old widower, and he has always loved movies. I think that a few decades ago, he was involved with a group which ran a local cinema when our city was just a village. He has all the equipment, and Robert has done some work with him to fix a few little glitches. John belongs to a "Volunteer Projection Group", and he hires the movies from the National Film Archives. Not all old films are available, and some of them have technical problems-often the sound is patchy. But once a month, a group of us gets together at John's place and watch a classic film. We always start with an episode of "Flash Gordon"-the acting and special effects are so incredibly bad that we always have a good laugh to start the night. And we finish off with some supper. The first night we only had a few people, but we are creeping up in numbers-now about 12-14. Some people we know don't like them, because they expect perfect sound and picture quality; they don't see that the glitches are part of the fun. And apart from Flash Gordon, the films have all been top quality.
There is something extra nice about spending a night with friends enjoying such an old fashioned and pleasant entertainment.