On the joys of going to the movies

Saw Django Unchained yesterday at the BAM (Brooklyn Academy Of Music) and the experience was not smooth sailing. I won't write about the film right now, but this is more about the travails of going out to see a movie. I love seeing movies here, especially in the big theatre with stadium seating. I got to the theatre early to make sure I had a seat that I liked as the rows of seats are continuous with no breaks in them and getting stuck on the sides can make for bad viewing. So I found a seat to my liking. It started to fill up, really fill up and there were two empty seats on my left and right. Directly behind me and I mean directly behind were a group of 8 or so friends one with an especially bad cough and sneezing constantly. However he was not directly behind me, but I was nervous about his condition. Why isn't he home instead of in a crowded theatre I thought passing his germs around. The theatre was quickly filling up, and minutes before the film was to start a guy came into my row and asked if I would move over so three of them could have seats. Being in a shitty mood and resenting his coming in late and told him no I would not move over, this is the seat I picked and I'm not moving over. I would have been right behind a tall guy and I also did not want the guy sneezing and coughing to be right over me, and if I moved this guy would have been right over me. I held my ground not telling him why I wouldn't move. Its none of your fucking business anyway I thought to myself. I took his abuse with calm I wanted to say come early next time asshole but didn't. Of course the two seats on either side of me were quickly taken, I knew this would happen. Maybe if I was in a better mood I would have moved, but I doubt it. I'm serious about my movie going, and when I pick a seat I'm staying in it. Anyway about 45 minutes into the film a yellow haze came over half of the image, at first I thought it was Tarantino being cute and clever, but then it started to go black and the audience started to get annoyed including myself. Finally the film stopped and some manager came out to apoligise for the problem and the yellow tint. "what yellow tint" the nice young woman sitting next to me yelled out, and we all laughed. He said that if anyone wanted to leave they would get their money back and also that we should keep our ticket stubs and we use it for a free admission at a later date. That I will believe when I see it. I stayed and after 10 minutes the film started and we had missed some of the narrative.