I Miss Going to to Movies......Why?

I love going to the movies; it's the one thing I miss doing since my daughter was born.  My wife and I used to literally go to the movies every week.  Sometimes twice a week.  Sometimes twice in one day (my favorite 'double feature' was The Simpsons Movie followed by Rescue Dawn.  They're fairly different genres).  We kept count one year of how many movies we saw in the theater.  That number came out to 48.  Then we estimated the amount of money we probably spent going to the theater forty eight times.  I forgot that number.  I'm kind of glad I did.

But since out daughter was born last year we've only gone a handful of times.  Twice we went to the drive-in, but I didn't really like that. It wasn't the same.  But we had planned for not going out and we took action.  We already had a decent sized flat screen, a blu-ray player and a Netflix subscription (with streaming!).  Our seating was lacking, so we bought a new couch.  I shopped around and got a mid-level Sony surround system on sale.  So I was ready.  And it's worked out well enough, but I still miss going to the theater.

I'm not sure why though.  Logically, going to the theater holds no real advantage over staying at home.  I guess you don't see the movies right away (well, I'm sure if I was a more nefarious person who believed in stealing things I could), but with the quick turn around to blu-ray I only have to wait a handful of months (quick side note: I remember when I was younger it took about a year for movies to come to video.  Kids today have it super easy....End quick note).  So besides seeing the movie sooner, you can't point to anything and say "This is why you should go to the theater!"

First off, staying home is so much cheaper than going to the theater that it's almost laughable.  Tickets, popcorn, a drink and babysitter payment equals close to (if not over) $60 for a first run movie.  Monthly Netflix subscription, microwaved popcorn, a bottle of Coke (or maybe a more adult beverage if I have a bottle handy), and no babysitter is much less expensive.  So financially it makes little sense to go out.

Secondly, the people at theaters are awful.  Not just the kids who work there, but the actual 'adult' audience.  If it's not the conversation, it's the playing on the cell phone.  Or it's the constantly getting up.  Or the Mystery Science Theater-style comments.  Or any number of annoying things.  At home there are only two people and one dog that can distract me.  And if that happens I can pause, rewind and re-watch.  I doubt the sixteen year old running the projector is going to play back that last part for me because the guy behind me is asking his BFF what they're doing later.  So enjoyment wise it makes little sense to got out.

And thirdly, it's not like the theaters around Indianapolis are amazing.  Unless you're in one of the 'Digital Theaters' (of which one theater has one and the other has two) the sound isn't super great and the picture isn't either.  I've re-watched some movies on my set up at home (which isn't high end) and both picture and sound are superior.  Even the IMAX screen at the theater down the street is just a big screen with the word 'IMAX' slapped on the door.  Oh, but they'll charge me as if that screen is curved. So quality wise it makes more sense to stay at home.

And yet, I love going to the movie theater.  There is absolutely no reason for me to, but I do.  Other people, who are much smarter than I am, like to point out that humans are social by nature, and sitting in the theater sharing an 'experience' with other people is what we enjoy.  I have to disagree with that.  For starters, I'm not that 'social' of a person.  Secondly, I'm only sharing a basic 'experience' with these people, and that experience is that we're in the same theater.  Film, like all art, is subjective.  So we all experience it differently.  Take the movie Starship Troopers: when I'm watching it I see a satire; a comedy.  The guy next to me might see it as the most INSANE action movie ever!  Can it be both?  Sure, but we're not having a shared experience.  We're having separate experiences while siting in the same place.

My wife told me she enjoys going to the theater because for her, there are no distractions.  She can turn her phone off (well, at least she did before the baby was born and we left her with a sitter because you never know when the sitter could call) and just sit back and watch a movie.  I guess I can see that.  As long as the guy in front of me takes his stupid hat off.

Book Review: Ready Player One

It's impossible to not use the phrase 'high concept novel' when discussing "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline. Everything I've read about the book before actually reading it praises its 'high concept'.  And they should have praised it.  I'm going to praise it.  The execution, though, maybe could have been a tad bit better, but we'll get to all of these things in a few minutes.

Is this an entertaining novel?  Very much so. It's never boring, there is alway something going on and world(s) created within are vivid and engaging.  But it just never lives up to the concept, which isn't really a 'knock' on the book.  It's actually praise for said concept.

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"Ready Player One" takes place in the not so distant future of the year 2044.  The environment wrecked, as is the economy.  The only form of escape or entertainment for the depressed populace of the world is the OASIS: a virtual world (that started as a massive multiplayer role playing game years before) where a user can be (and look like) whatever they want and every song, movie, video game and any other work of art you could think of is easily available. Our narrator, Wade Watts is one of these users.  Under the the name Parzival he navigates the OASIS as an 'egg hunter' or 'gunter', trying to solve a puzzle left by the now deceased creator of the program.

This creator, James Halliday, was obsessed with 80's pop culture. The clues he left are all references to video games, films, role playing games a music of the 1980's. Because of this, just about everyone in the world (OASIS and real) is obsessed with the 80's. Deciphering these clues and winning the hunt awards the winner control not only the company that owns and maintains the OASIS (which is the most profitable company in the world), but also the multi-billion dollar personal fortune left by Halliday. So, yeah, winning is a big deal.


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This book is loaded with references to the 80's. Literally every page has at least one reference, some more obscure than others. Which, like other aspects of the novel, are both good and bad.  For a reader like me, it was great because I understood the vast majority of the references.  I have working knowledge of old-school video games, so I knew what was going on when Parzival was playing the Atari game 'Tempest'.  But if you're not familiar (even in passing) with what the game looks like, you're at a bit of a loss.

But sometimes the references don't go far enough.  At one point Parzival is cruising around the Oasis in a custom Delorean (from "Back to the Future") with a Kit LCD grill (from "Knight Rider") and Ghostbuster decals (from....."Ghostbusters") on the doors. Oh, it can also fly through solid matter. So, we know exactly what the car looks like and what it can do. We're told it's become Parzival's 'trademark' car and everyone in the OASIS knows it's his car.  But it's only mentioned the one time.  It really serves no purpose to the story; it's just a reference for the sake of reference. And in this part of the story, Parzival could have used it to fly through solid matter, but he doesn't.  I guess he could have forgotten about it. Or maybe we as the reader were supposed to.

At 372 pages the story moves quickly with some parts developing almost too fast.  Toward the end, Wade devises and executes a pretty involved plan to steal information from the villainous corporate bad guys. And everything goes exactly as he planned with no hick ups.  Everything just goes by too quickly and is just too easy.  There is no real sense of danger because there isn't enough time for one to develop.

Now, as stated before, the book is entertaining.  The concept of the vast majority of the world living the majority of their lives in a world where they can be a totally different person is intriguing; you can never be sure the person you're interacting with is actually who (or what) they say they are.  This obviously happens on the internet today and nothing in the OASIS fixes this. So even though Parzival has 'friends' in the OASIS, he can never really be sure they are who they present themselves to be, which adds an overall sense uneasiness to their interactions.

The character of Wade/Parzival is fleshed out and he actually evolves in an organic way while living in an inorganic world.  He feels 'real' in an 'unreal' world.  Which is really what drives the story, especially if you don't 'get' the references.  If Cline didn't write Wade as a character you're actually pulling for, the book wouldn't be generating any kind of interest outside of certain 'nerd' circles.

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So, In the end we're left with an amazing concept, but an above average execution.  Cline could have (in my opinion) pushed certain things further than he did.  The idea of playing with identity is touched on throughout the book, but in the end that's all we ever get.  There are some great, obscure references, but sometimes that's all they are and they don't add anything to the story.

Would I recommend "Ready Player One"?  Yes, I would.  It will keep you entertained and you'll be sucked into the environments it creates. If you're not current on your 80's pop culture, though, you might want to brush up before hand (or keep Wikipedia up on the computer for research).

Monkey at a Typewriter

So, I started this blog.  At this point, I think that it will be about 'pop culture', but who knows where it will  go.  Defining my idea of 'pop culture' is probably necessary here: I view pop culture as just about anything, really.  Film, music, television, sports, literature, internet and the rest. I hope to put up some reviews, an essay or two, just general 'blog stuff'.