Despite the fact...
that Amanda says I've never posted anything about my trip to Texas, I'm adding a second installment. The first was done very long ago and was about my trip there. Will now add another tidbit. Will rely on Amanda to fill in the blanks on what movies we watched.
I have organised things into section instead of attempting to do a day-by-day account. Will post the first now and the rest later. There is not guarantee of chronology or coherence.
My last visit with Amanda involved much viewing of Alan Rickman films. Plans to go see Love Actually with a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/kelleyscorpio/">Kelley gave us a good start on more for this visit. Amanda came up with the great idea of calling it a film festival. However, the Alan Rickman Film Festival gave us the acronym of ARFF, so we settled for the 2nd International Alan Rickman Film Extravaganza (ARFE) and Amanda even designed a logo for us. Still coming up with good idea, Amanda deemed t-shirts and hats a necessity. Plans were made for taking photos of us (Kelley, Amanda, Michelle and I) beside the Love Actually standee in the lobby of a local theatre. The photos were then to be signed by all of us and mailed off, with t-shirts, to Alan Rickman and his assistant, Melanie.
We got up on photo day, dressed appropriately in our t-shirts and called Kelley to verify meeting plans and times. Two cars were driven into town, as it's just not possible to fit 4 adults and 3 children into either of the Lewanski vehicles. Now, if Jan were Arthur Weasley... but I digress. We got to the mall where the theatre was with plenty of time to spare, so Jan, Michelle and I headed into the bookstore to look for old movies on DVD. Jan and I found some goodies (Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage in my case) and Michelle found some newer stuff that appealed to her.
Just as we were ready to pay for our items, I decided a trip to the bathroom was in order. I walked into the stall, latched the door and turned around, catching my purse on the toilet paper dispenser (oddly place right beside the door latch). The cell phone pocket on the side of my purse unsnapped and the next thing I knew my phone was slowly sinking into the toilet bowl, bubbles rising slowly from beneath it's pretty blue faceplate.
I mentioned this to the clerk at the checkout, as I blame the positioning of the toilet paper dispenser for the accident. Apparently they are required by law to locate it inconveniently beside the door latch. Something to do with accessibility, which baffles me completely. In any event, the bookstore folks were a bit surprised that I still wanted to purchase my DVD. Apparently the loss of my cell phone should have made me not want to own it. They did tell me to contact the store manager if the phone needed replacing, indicating a possibility of them assisting with the cost of replacement. They seemed surprised when I actually asked them to provide me with contact information for said manager, so it seems to me that 'contact the manager' is a standard response that they don't expect anyone to follow up on.
That over, we went next door to the theatre to meet the others. We headed upstairs to take the photos. Amanda had a couple of disposable cameras for the task at hand. We gathered around the standee and Jan took the first photo, finishing of the film in the first camera. Along comes a theatre employee, telling us that taking a photo in the lobby is against the law and that she'll have to confiscate our camera. I tell that's nonsense and she goes off to get a manager. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, Jan has slipped the used camera into a safe spot and is now holding the unused one. Jan rocks!
Manager arrives, saying once more that it's illegal to take photos in the lobby, that taking pictures of the standee and posters violates copyright. Not true, I say. Posters are frequently displayed outside theatre doors and no precautions are taken to make sure photos are not taken. I also point out that theatres are often given posters to give away to theatre guests and that posters for this particular film were given away. Not so, she says. Well, they may not have been given posters to hand out at her location, but I had brought along half a dozen or so from our theatre to give Amanda and the others.
End result? We keep the camera. We go to Kelley's car, get the copy of the poster I'd given her and take photos on the sidewalk in front of the theatre. No response from theatre people. Apparently it only violates copyright if we take pictures of their poster, not our identical one.
Not sure why the manager backed down on confiscating the camera, but we weren't going to ask. Perhaps our argument was aided by my telling her I worked in a theatre. Given that I was considerably older than she was, she may well have assumed that I held some position above ticket-seller. :D
Amanda got the photos developed right away and they turned out very well. T-shirts were arranged for AR, his assistant and, iirc, her son. The chosen photo was enlarged and signed by the 4 very silly looking women holding the Love Actually poster. Everything was left in Amanda's capable hands for packaging and shipping and has been duly sent off across the ocean.
We did actually manage to watch a few movies during the visit. I'm sure Amanda will fill in the blanks if I miss any of them. We saw Love Actually in the theatre. Yes, that same theatre, but we'd seen it before the photo taking adventure. The rest were viewed at Theatre Lewanski, in the comfort of the living room. Movies watched included: Rasputin, Galaxy Quest, one of the HP movies. Amanda, help me out here. Were there more? Which ones?
More to come, eventually. :)
I have organised things into section instead of attempting to do a day-by-day account. Will post the first now and the rest later. There is not guarantee of chronology or coherence.
My last visit with Amanda involved much viewing of Alan Rickman films. Plans to go see Love Actually with a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/kelleyscorpio/">Kelley gave us a good start on more for this visit. Amanda came up with the great idea of calling it a film festival. However, the Alan Rickman Film Festival gave us the acronym of ARFF, so we settled for the 2nd International Alan Rickman Film Extravaganza (ARFE) and Amanda even designed a logo for us. Still coming up with good idea, Amanda deemed t-shirts and hats a necessity. Plans were made for taking photos of us (Kelley, Amanda, Michelle and I) beside the Love Actually standee in the lobby of a local theatre. The photos were then to be signed by all of us and mailed off, with t-shirts, to Alan Rickman and his assistant, Melanie.
We got up on photo day, dressed appropriately in our t-shirts and called Kelley to verify meeting plans and times. Two cars were driven into town, as it's just not possible to fit 4 adults and 3 children into either of the Lewanski vehicles. Now, if Jan were Arthur Weasley... but I digress. We got to the mall where the theatre was with plenty of time to spare, so Jan, Michelle and I headed into the bookstore to look for old movies on DVD. Jan and I found some goodies (Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage in my case) and Michelle found some newer stuff that appealed to her.
Just as we were ready to pay for our items, I decided a trip to the bathroom was in order. I walked into the stall, latched the door and turned around, catching my purse on the toilet paper dispenser (oddly place right beside the door latch). The cell phone pocket on the side of my purse unsnapped and the next thing I knew my phone was slowly sinking into the toilet bowl, bubbles rising slowly from beneath it's pretty blue faceplate.
I mentioned this to the clerk at the checkout, as I blame the positioning of the toilet paper dispenser for the accident. Apparently they are required by law to locate it inconveniently beside the door latch. Something to do with accessibility, which baffles me completely. In any event, the bookstore folks were a bit surprised that I still wanted to purchase my DVD. Apparently the loss of my cell phone should have made me not want to own it. They did tell me to contact the store manager if the phone needed replacing, indicating a possibility of them assisting with the cost of replacement. They seemed surprised when I actually asked them to provide me with contact information for said manager, so it seems to me that 'contact the manager' is a standard response that they don't expect anyone to follow up on.
That over, we went next door to the theatre to meet the others. We headed upstairs to take the photos. Amanda had a couple of disposable cameras for the task at hand. We gathered around the standee and Jan took the first photo, finishing of the film in the first camera. Along comes a theatre employee, telling us that taking a photo in the lobby is against the law and that she'll have to confiscate our camera. I tell that's nonsense and she goes off to get a manager. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, Jan has slipped the used camera into a safe spot and is now holding the unused one. Jan rocks!
Manager arrives, saying once more that it's illegal to take photos in the lobby, that taking pictures of the standee and posters violates copyright. Not true, I say. Posters are frequently displayed outside theatre doors and no precautions are taken to make sure photos are not taken. I also point out that theatres are often given posters to give away to theatre guests and that posters for this particular film were given away. Not so, she says. Well, they may not have been given posters to hand out at her location, but I had brought along half a dozen or so from our theatre to give Amanda and the others.
End result? We keep the camera. We go to Kelley's car, get the copy of the poster I'd given her and take photos on the sidewalk in front of the theatre. No response from theatre people. Apparently it only violates copyright if we take pictures of their poster, not our identical one.
Not sure why the manager backed down on confiscating the camera, but we weren't going to ask. Perhaps our argument was aided by my telling her I worked in a theatre. Given that I was considerably older than she was, she may well have assumed that I held some position above ticket-seller. :D
Amanda got the photos developed right away and they turned out very well. T-shirts were arranged for AR, his assistant and, iirc, her son. The chosen photo was enlarged and signed by the 4 very silly looking women holding the Love Actually poster. Everything was left in Amanda's capable hands for packaging and shipping and has been duly sent off across the ocean.
We did actually manage to watch a few movies during the visit. I'm sure Amanda will fill in the blanks if I miss any of them. We saw Love Actually in the theatre. Yes, that same theatre, but we'd seen it before the photo taking adventure. The rest were viewed at Theatre Lewanski, in the comfort of the living room. Movies watched included: Rasputin, Galaxy Quest, one of the HP movies. Amanda, help me out here. Were there more? Which ones?
More to come, eventually. :)