Viewing Preferences

I have spent the last 2 years rebuilding my room from scratch, making it less of A room, and more MY room. In doing so, I've turned every speaker in the house into MY speakers, giving them a new home in my room wherever I can find room for them, and hooking them up to the reciever I spent 6 month's pay to get. My TV however has not recieved the same luxuries as most everything else I own regarding my bad movies. It's a 1980's, UHF antennae only, no remote, dial tuner TV complete with simulated wood panel siding to boot. With my movie requirements in mind, the rest of my room has fallen around it.

-Snack: Light, usually just some chewy granola bars. Yeah, I'm a wussy eater. When I have friends over, it's potato chips with French Onion dip and a dozen donuts.

-Drink: Water. Again with the wussiness. Friends require something stronger though, usually soda. We make it a point not to drink alcohol when we watch movies.

-Seating: Upright on my bed. Almost nothing more comfortable than your bed, right? Friends put me downstairs, where it's either the floor, or the sofa.

-Lighting: One light from a spider lamp across my room. Being in total darkness is somewhat of a sleep-inducer to me, no matter what the movie is. This is especially dangerous when I'm watching a movie for the first time, and I don't know if it's going to be exciting or not. Though the occurance is rare, I hate falling asleep during a movie.

-People: Usually by myself, alone, holed up in my room. I've gotten used to the solitude as opposed to any sized group, because at the rate at which I watch movies, I would be crazy to expect people to be available at a moment's notice to watch movies.

-Food: Not a common occurance. I am lazy, and I don't cook well. It would be in your best interest not to eat whatever food I make for you.

-Time: Setting a designated time to watch movie is hard to do. School work can be real sporadic at times, and the right kind of movie for my mood I sometimes don't own. Times for watching movies can range from after dinner, to right when I get home from school, to ten minutes after I wake up on the weekends, to 3:00 am on a school night.

-Philosophy: I give all movies a fair chance, meaning they all have to earn their good rating. Movies start with the same standard expectations, and through the course of its running time, that is where the movie is judged. Movies like Citizen Cane whose reputation is four times greater than its actual quality are why a movie's grading stays within the boundaries of the time it begins and the time when it ends.

I think I've got a pretty good system down for watching movies. Although I spend the majority of my time watching movies alone, I find it much more entertaining when I watch with people. My usual group of 6 or so bad movie aficionados and I have become experts in the field of 'movie feeling,' meaning we can guess if a movie is going to to turn out to be halfway decent, and know when to shut our mouths and pay attention.

-Scott*