Re: 2 Days Til Comic-con and 1 week until TLT! (Rant/Blog-type thinking ahead!)

On Sat, 28 Jul 2007 09:45:01 -0400, Matt Ion wrote
(in article <xLHqi.11039$_d2.686@pd7urf3no>):

Jon wrote:

Sure, we get more Babylon 5 in a week.

Amazon.ca shows my expected delivery date as "August 3 - August 8".
Woot woot!

These are very exciting times, and Babylon 5 is leading the way again
to revolutioninze the way we see media. I honestly think that
television and "the movies" are pretty dead as formats. No one wants
to watch commercials anymore, and no one goes to see movies.

I must beg to differ there. Until I can put a 60-foot-wide screen and
full THX/DTS sound system in my basement, "going to the movies" will
still hold the advantage of completely wrapping yourself in the experience.
<<

I'm going to agree, and add a few things. For me, it isn't just the
experience of being able to see a film huge and with a theater-quality sound
system; it's also the communal experience of being in a theater with other
people of a similar mind. I saw "The Simpsons" last night, and it was
_great_ to be there on opening night with what was obviously a bunch of other
serious Simpsons fans, who got all of the little in jokes and references, and
laughed at all the same parts.

For me, there's a lot of an unquantifiable quality of magic about going into
the theater, with a crowd of strangers, and entering another world for a
couple of hours.

Also, I'd like to add that I don't think this is a generational thing, based
on a lot of experience of going to the movies over the years. I don't see
_less_ younger people in the theaters nowadays; I see _more_ of them.

For your average chick flick or dramady, this may not be such a big
deal... for the big-action blockbusters, there's simply no equal. Yeah,
I'll be buying Transformers and Live Free Or Die Hard when they come out
on DVD too, but I still have to see each of them AT LEAST a second time
on the *BIG* SCREEN. <<

Honestly, I wouldn't even enjoy a chick flick or a dramedy on an iPod screen,
while we're talking about sf fans and their embracing of cutting edge
technology. I mean, more power to WB and Joe for getting B5 onto people's
phones, but, me? Nah, not interested in viewing a film like that. I read a
New Yorker article on the phenomenon of changing formats, and the writer
talked about trying to imagine watching a film like "Lawrence of Arabia"
(with its sweeping vistas) on a cell phone or an iPod. For me, it's a worry,
because I wonder if it will change the artistry of film in the same way that
the decline of the LP and the rise of CD changed the artistry of album art.
You'd never have had a cover like "Sgt. Pepper" in the age of CD. And hey,
what would all of us Baby Boomers have decorated our dorm rooms with if the
White Album only came with passport-sized photos of the four Beatles?? ;-)

Amy
--
"In my line of work you gotta keep repeating things over and over and over
again for the truth to sink in, to kinda catapult the propaganda." - George
W. Bush, May 24, 2005

.

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