23 years ago today...

[ER]

Titanic (1997) was released in movie theaters across the country. Where were you and what were you doing in life when this disaster happened?

I was here in Alaska, living in my first apartment, making my living as a food server in a fine dining restaurant. I used my tip money to watch this movie in the theater, and the rest of my tips from that day to get arse-faced drunk right after.  

Let's see, according to my diary I was home from college for break, and I woke up and laid around and asked someone with synesthesia what purple sounded like to him (answer: a guitar), then when he had to go talk to people at his grad school I eventually had a nice dinner with my aunt and grandpa, and apparently stayed up late to hang out with a friend from the neighborhood I'd known in high school (and still know).

I don't remember hearing much about Titanic until early the next year, and since it was a mega-hit and i was a cynical late teeenager, I hated it on principal.

So, gee, now you know.... (I would say "now, 'ya'll' know," but Alex here once told me ya'll is about his least favorite word. So, Alex, then never be reborn in Kentucky or the west of Ireland.  )

Are we done playing or you want to know about more dates? (Believe me, I'm good if you do....)

[Zapranoth]

Titanic (1997) was released in movie theaters across the country. Where were you and what were you doing in life when this disaster happened?

I was here in Alaska, living in my first apartment, making my living as a food server in a fine dining restaurant. I used my tip money to watch this movie in the theater, and the rest of my tips from that day to get arse-faced drunk right after.  

Did you see it at the Fireweed?

Yes I did. I saw it at the loud theater #3; the big one. I watched my fellow Natives tear it down in 2010. I'm not a CIRI shareholder, thank goodness; they are dead to me because of what they did to the Fireweed.  

Coincidentally, the last movie that I saw there before the Natives tore it down was a reshowing of Avatar (2009); yet another James Cameron silly movie. To me, James Cameron is like a bigger budgeted Roger Corman, who I guess used to be Cameron's boss, so maybe a little bit of Corman rubbed off on him.

Did they tear the Fireweed down?

I did not know that and that's sad.   :/     (I lived in Anchorage for a few years.)    That was a real shoes-sticking-to-the-floor type of theater.

So... are you all saying that....     

...wait for it...

Your hearts will go on?

[pacman000]

Pics of the Fireweed Theater being torn down: https://aroundanchorage.blogspot.com/2010/08/goodbye-fireweed-theater.html  

Not a movie palace; a 70's multiplex. Reminds me of the theater we went to when I was a kid/teen, which is now a church.

More pics of the Fireweed, before it was demolished: https://cinematour.com/tour/us/192.html

[kornula]

I went there with two friends to see SPICE WORLD.. Our plan was to get really drunk and yell at the screen. We got drunk 30 minutes before the movie started.  They passed out about 10 minutes in.  I kept drinking and yelling at the screen while they passed out. 

Good thing we were the only three in the theater.

[Zapranoth]

I went there with two friends to see SPICE WORLD.. Our plan was to get really drunk and yell at the screen. We got drunk 30 minutes before the movie started.  They passed out about 10 minutes in.  I kept drinking and yelling at the screen while they passed out. 

Good thing we were the only three in the theater.

Sounds like you totally watched that movie the way would best be watched.    I haven't seen SPICE WORLD, but I'd believe anyone who says it sucked.

[kornula]

I went there with two friends to see SPICE WORLD.. Our plan was to get really drunk and yell at the screen. We got drunk 30 minutes before the movie started.  They passed out about 10 minutes in.  I kept drinking and yelling at the screen while they passed out. 

Good thing we were the only three in the theater.

Sounds like you totally watched that movie the way would best be watched.    I haven't seen SPICE WORLD, but I'd believe anyone who says it sucked.

it does suck. It's a super cheap ripoff of A HARD DAYS NIGHT.  Made even cheaper with the Spice Girls... and a cameo by Elvis Costello.

[zelmo73]

I went there with two friends to see SPICE WORLD.. Our plan was to get really drunk and yell at the screen. We got drunk 30 minutes before the movie started.  They passed out about 10 minutes in.  I kept drinking and yelling at the screen while they passed out. 

Good thing we were the only three in the theater.

I got free tickets from Fox Kids' Kitty Fox (she was so hot back in the day) to watch Jurassic Park (1993) on opening weekend at the Fireweed Theater. So naturally, I bought a bottle of Everclear and spent the whole day getting drunk and movie-hopping. I got there at 9AM that morning and didn't stagger out of the movie theater until after 10PM at night. I watched almost every movie showing and watched Jurassic Park twice. I think it was the sticky floors that caused it, but that was a hell of a fun movie theater to get drunk in. I watched every major popular film of the late '70s/early '80s in that theater: Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), Superman (1978), Alien (1979), Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T.: The Extraterrestrial (1982), Tron (1982), Conan The Barbarian (1982), Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi (1983), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), etc. Later on it was movies like Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Gladiator (2000), so I had a lot of fond memories in the good ol' Fireweed Theater.