Disenchanted Movie Buff

This is a re-post from a few years ago as this first appeared on a different blog.  After reading it over though I feel the same way now as I did then.

The Fox Theatre in Madawaska is being put up for sale this fall and will be closed if they cannot raise the funds for a digital projector.  The only theatre left north of Caribou in Aroostook County.

I’ve always thought of myself as a movie buff.  There was a time when I fully believed that movies were far superior to television and that the only place to really appreciate a movie was at the theatre.  I’ve noticed that as of late, that there is some terrific television shows on these days that I have been going to the theatre less and less. 

I remember going to the theatre and the moment just before the previews started you could hear the projector cranking up and to me that sound was magical.  With digital projection taking over and hard drives being used over 35mm prints, that sound is obsolete. 

Not only that, but with the digital projection conversion many independent theatres and drive in’s all over the United States are being forced out of business for the cost of a digital projector is upwards of $80,000!  If they want to continue to show the main stream Hollywood movies they will need one. 

Maybe I’m a purist, but I like the scratchy film and cigarette burns that have always accompanied a movie when going to the theatre.

The digital conversion isn’t the deterrent that has kept me away from the theatre, there are a number of reasons.   The price of going is getting out of control.  In my area Regal Cinemas in Augusta is the closet theatre their prices started to climb when 3D became all the rage and they added a $3.50 per ticket up charge.  Then they pushed back what qualifies as a matinee screening from anything before 6pm to anything before 4pm. 

Currently ticket prices are:

Matinee – Adult $9.90 children/seniors $8.90

Night – Adult $13.50 children/seniors $10.00

Don’t forget to add $3.50 for a 3D screening and 50 cents for an adult ticket if it’s a Friday or Saturday. 

Flagship in Waterville is cheaper as is Railroad Square, but you have to drive to Waterville.  When Avatar came out I saw it and it was spectacular!  Then every studio started pushing out movies in 3D, either filmed that way or in post production conversion.  These movies didn’t look anywhere near as good as Avatar did, but movie industry liked that extra $3.50 per ticket boosting their sales.  I believe 3D was the catalyst that started my decline in going to the theatre. 

Another factor is there just isn’t much coming out of Hollywood that I want to watch.  In years past there was at least one movie monthly that I wanted to go and see, or at least wouldn’t mind checking out.  However, with prices they way they are it’s a lot easier to wait until home video.

Speaking of home video, there’s a medium that has gone to the wayside, with Netflix and Red Box and other streaming services, there simply are no video rental stores anymore.  I miss them, I worked at Movie Gallery for over a year and it remains my favorite job.   This has caused another problem in being a movie fan.

There are a lot of movies being made, with HD camera’s costing next to nothing compared to what they used to be, anyone can film a movie making it harder to find the gem among the trash when it comes to non-main stream flicks.  With video stores it required a distribution company to by the rights and spend the money on the cover boxes, duplicating the films and sending them to video stores. 

Now you can just basically post it online with minimal effort.  It gets tiring starting a movie that sounds good, but has no glitter cover box warning you to stay away, just to shut it off after 10 – 20 minutes when you discover, this is garbage!

Lately I’ve found myself watching foreign movies from Japan, Hong Kong, or Australia where green screen hasn’t completely taken over.  I think green screen is amazing and has revolutionized special effects in movies, but it’s starting to be used too much.  Action flicks and horror movies for example and not just for dangerous stunts but for the simplest effects.  Not to mention I’ve seen where entire city streets are faked instead of filming on an actual street.

I still love movies, just not as much as I used to, and that’s kind of frustrating.  I would have loved to own a small two screen theatre with a stage in one room for live productions or concerts.  I would show cults films at midnight screenings and show those screen classic’s during the holiday seasons.    If only.

 Later Readers   

I Want My Antenna TV

This was originally published on an old blog back in 2014, I've decided to re-post it here.

I’d like to preface that this isn’t a things where better when I was a kid or a “back in my day” type of blog entry.  No, this is just a reminiscence of time gone by.  So without further ado,

Back in my day, capturing a television signal with an antenna was better.  I recall getting my first television for my bedroom, a 13” Symphonic complete with coaxial cable and UHF connection.  What a beauty! I mean that sum-bitch was cable ready!  I didn’t have cable in my room though.  Which is odd because I was living in Litchfield at the time and when we lived in Gardiner prior to that my brother and I had cable in our rooms.

So, technically the Symphonic wasn’t my first television.  We lived in Gardiner from like 1983 – 1987 and I clearly remember having a TV in my room, it had the dual dials one for VHF and one for UHF.  Then in February 1987 we moved to Litchfield and not only did we now not have TV’s in our room, but Litchfield didn’t even have Cable!

Moving on.

Back then you could plug in the TV, hook up the rabbit ears, and bam you had 5, 6, 8, 10, 13 & 51 just like that! Sure you had to move the rabbit ears around a bit to get 5 to come in, but that didn’t really matter much. Even if the picture was a little fuzzy you could still see and hear it. 

Then the digital conversion happened, June 12, 2009.  Now all television broadcast signals must be sent out digitally.  It has its advantages, a clearer crisper picture; more channels can fit in the same spectrum of data, i.e. Channel 6, 6.1 and ect. 

But it has its disadvantages as well; a weaker signal, as in the data can only be broadcast so far from the tower before it breaks down and the equipment can’t decode the data to present a picture.  The digital signal lacks the feedback that the analog signal provided so you can adjust the antenna to clear the picture.  What this means, for those that remember, when you put it on Channel 5 and the picture is fuzzy as you move the antenna around the picture either got better or worse letting you know where to position the antenna, with digital the picture is on or it’s off, there is no in between.  A signal meter does help with this issue.  

Now in my apartment when I first hooked up the rabbit ears I got channels 10, 10.1, 10.2, & 10.3 and 23.  That’s it, and most of the time Fox 23 just didn’t work because I couldn’t remember exactly where I had the antenna when I got it to come in.   I put the antenna away a few months back because we just didn’t use it, we don’t have cable just internet, Netflix and HULU Plus.  The other day I put it back out and hit the auto program button and not a single channel appeared.  I tried moving the antenna around to get channel 10 to come in.  After several minutes of nothing I just decided to put it away. 

When I was a kid I used to like hitting the auto program button, let the television run the channels and then see what it gave me when it was done.  I always had 5, 6, 8, 10, 13 & 51.  For a while though I got 26, another PBS channel and a religious channel that I didn’t bother with. 

One stormy night I accidentally hit the auto program button and was shocked to discover that I was somehow getting Channel 4 an NBC station out of Boston!  So on stormy nights I would hit the auto program button and see what signals the storms would bring me.  I would get Channels 2 & 7 from Bangor regularly, and occasionally channels from New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  Granted these pictures weren’t very clear and sometimes barely tolerable, but it was neat all the same. 

When I moved to Pittston I was setting the Symphonic up down in the basement and using the rabbit ears just for shiggles I ran the auto program and my friends 5, 6, 8, 10, 13, & 51 where there along with 35 & 23! 

The digital conversion made a lot of electronics obsolete.  The old school battery powered handheld and portable televisions no longer function because you need a digital tuner or a digital converter box.  Even with Time Warner Cable you can’t just plug the coaxial cable into the back of the TV anymore.  You have to have one of their mini digital converter boxes, no matter what kind of TV you have, even it has a digital tuner built into it.  Of course Time Warner charges you a monthly fee for those little boxes. 

I can’t see me ever getting cable again, and sadly the days of rabbit ears have gone by.  As long as I have internet and services like Netflix and HULU Plus I’ll make due.  Sure this fall I’ll probably try to get Fox to come in again so I can watch Football, but it won’t kill me if I can’t.

  For those of you that missed it, the post title is a spin on a line from the Dire Straits song Money For Nothing.

Until Next Time!

UPDATE!!

In 2016 we moved to house I'm currently living in and I bought a new TV last fall, a Roku TV and the digital receiver is much better, with my rabbit ears sitting on top of a book shelf on a clear day or night I can get channels 6, 8, 10, 13, 23, & 51 and with all there sub-channels that's 21 channels total.  I really want to get an antenna on the roof because during storms or windy days 6, 8, & 51 have broken reception.