Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Tag and I'm it, eh?

Okay, Austanspace tagged me (she'd been tagged by Lawless). From what I gather, I now have to answer the following 11 questions, then come up with 11 of my own and tag 11 people in turn.

So first, Austan's questions:

1. What was the last movie you watched? - The Artist. I loved it. It made me want to go to movies again.

2. Did you go to a theatre or watch a dvd? - saw it in a movie theatre.

3. What's the new movie you want to see? - Dark Shadows, the new Batman coming out this summer, and The Hobbit next December.

4. Always buy munchies at the theatre or smuggle them in? - usually neither. I generally only get refreshments when I'm with other people who want them.

5. Pay full price, hit the matinee, rent or buy? - I rarely go to the movies anymore, they're just too expensive for my pay scale. I pay whatever I have to for the movie I want to see. In the old days, I loved matinees. Even when I also could get passed in to most anything in town. I've only bought a few DVDs since I stopped running the video store. I usually only buy movies that I know and will want to see again. I never really got in the habit of renting.
6. What movie actor/actress do you make a point to always catch? - I try to see Johnny Depp's movies, he picks interesting projects to do. Ditto Tilda Swinton, to some extent. Otherwise, everyone else on my list is gone - Chaplin, Keaton. If the mood is right Judy Garland or Bette Davis. 

7. What's your favorite movie of all time? - Casablanca

8. Do you have a special movie memory (a first date, e.g.)? Several - one I like to mention: I used to collect movies in 16mm and show them in my apartment. My cat, Jezebel, never took any interest in the 16mm movies, nor in anything on the tv. Until I showed a 16mm print of "2001 : A Space Odyssey". At the moment when the apes first touch the obelisk and learn to 'talk', she zoomed across the apartment, jumped up on my bed (which was underneath the screen) and watched the movie, looking from side to side (Cinemascope). I was very amused. The next time I showed the print, she did the same thing at the same moment. After that, she ignored the movies for the rest of her life.

9. What's the worst movie you ever saw? Sooo many. When I was in the film business I used to bring home several 16mm prints every week. And my assistant, who didn't have his own projector, would get a few and see them at my place, too. When I worked for Columbia and TriStar I had to go to all the trade screenings and report what the exhibitor reaction was like. I've seen movies that make "Wild Women of Wongo" look like art. I rarely remember their names. There is one Mickey Rourke picture, whose only relief from the tedium was an old carousel, which hides in some deep dark spot of memory that makes me shudder when I stumble upon it. 

10. Do you watch the credits? - Almost always. 

11. What movie have you seen the most times and how many times have you watched it? - Casablanca. I've no idea how many times I've seen it - I used to keep a record of such things with the 16mm prints (it helped keep track of bulb life as well as what I had seen). Friends always wanted to see it, which added showings. I just happen to know where the list is and just dug it out - and I never wrote down showings of Casablanca. Maybe 75 showings of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", at least 50 for "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and about the same for "Cobra Woman".

Okay, my 11 questions about the pop culture in your life:

1. What's your first movie memory?
2. What's your first movie memory with music (does not have to be a musical - just have music which was important to you)?
3. What was the first piece of music you remember getting or purchasing?
4. What medium was it in? (Sheet music, 78rpm, 45rpm, 33 1/3 lp, CD, VHS, mp3, etc.)
5. What the was first tv show you just -had- to watch?
6. When you watch tv or a movie on video now, do you listen to it in stereo?
7. What part of movie culture past would you liked to have experienced (eras of 3D, silents, black and white, movie palaces, newsreels, cartoons, etc.)
8. What was your first big name star/act who you saw live in a show or concert?
9. Favorite tv show or episode - ever.
10. Best music act you've ever seen in concert on tv.
11. Favorite mass media moment of all time?

I'm not sure I know 11 bloggers for the challenge. But most definitely
Austanspace at  http://austanspace.blogspot.com/
Twisted Scottish Bastard at http://twistedscottishbastard.blogspot.com
A few web friends who don't have blogs that I know of.... you know who you are if you stop by - leave a response.