The Theater

I was a lowly little peon.

I mopped, served customers and cleaned vomit. I flushed people's toilets when they left their nastiness behind, soaked up soda with paper towels, inhaled caustic chemicals. I did a million degrading jobs in a day. And the pay was crap. It was the best job I've ever had.

No, not because of all those things, in spite of them.

Home sweet home.As a young woman, my job at the movie theater was the greatest job for so many reasons. The staff and my bosses were great. They were human beings. Even after I rose to upper management, everyone treated me with respect and care, and vise versa. (Some of the kids even came to my brother's funeral, which was so sweet and precious to me.) We worked as a team and we all loved working together. I was good at my job. Even though I despise public relations, I can do it and I'm good at it. I had the operation of all aspects of the building down pact. I knew that when I came to work, no one was better at their job than me. Even though it was just a silly part time second job, it really filled me with pride. (Much more than my previous full time office job, which I found to be so humiliating and degrading.)

But I think a huge part of my love for that simple job was the theater itself. Ever since I was a child, the movies have been a place of happiness and escape. You walk into the cool building and smell the popcorn and find your ideal seat in the high ceilinged room. Put your feet up. Drink your soda. Everything is right in the world.

Even though you were surrounded by strangers, you were safe and alone. In the dark, you could cry as you watch Satine succumb to her illness in her lovers arms, Rhett mourning after the accident or Rick drinking with tears in his eyes while listening to "As Time Goes By". You can scream inside your head, "RUN BITCH!" while Clarice is being watched through the night vision goggles or when Raymond Burr starts off for Jimmy's apartment. You can laugh your ass off as the group of black workers sing "But I get a belt out of yoooou!" to their racist, idiot bosses. You can I'm siiiiingin' and dancin'...sit in awe watching Gene Kelly singing and dancing in the rain. You can scream in shock and horror as the Joker makes the pencil disappear. And if the theater's not too full, you can quietly sing along with Bob and Bing in all the road movies. It sounds super cheesy but it is truly magic! There is no other word for it.

And when everyone had gone home, the lights were up but only a little. The quiet wasn't scary or overwhelming like it usually was for me. It was calming. And it was all there just for me. Not but us few were permitted in those I used to wish I could sleep there... And there were many times I did.

So with all that in one building, for me, it was such a privilege to work in such a place. A magic house where anything could happen up on that giant screen. I would often sneak behind that screen before the show and watch the giant figures move back and forth, the light pooling onto my face. These were stolen moments of perfection, of perfect happiness. Joy. Love.

I still go to 'my' theater. I still get that same old feeling. And I still feel so lucky to have been a part of it all. Sometimes I think that when I've had enough of this rat race, when I'm ready to slow things down to a snails pace in life, I'll go back there. What a way to live.

The Devil's Night

Devil's Night.

I had never heard of such a things until 1994. I somehow snuck into a rated R movie in the small town I was living in at the time. We sat down in the very back and for the first time I watched The Crow.

I'm sure you have seen it. If you love movies, you have seen this movie. It's incredible dark and violent and not meant for kids but even as a child, I fell in love. (I was an odd child.)

Among those who love it, it's a hot debate to this day. I won't try to analyze it. I won't pick it apart until there is nothing left. I only wish to share this with you. (so no angry emails please...)

Our movie begins with Eric and Shelly are to be wed the following day (Halloween) when a band of evil bastards break into their place, rape and pummel Shelly and kill Eric by shooting him and tossing him out the window. (and all to get the apartment they were living in they could tear the building down. McGuffin anyone?) On the anniversary of their death, Erik is brought back to revenge the injustice with the help of his "spirit guide", a crow.

It was shot with such vision. The design and cinematography was so different for the time. It was nothing like I had ever seen before. Toss in an amazing soundtrack and some damn fine acting, you got yourself something special.

As I'm sure you know, The Crow was Brandon Lee's last film. He had been in 3 other films previously, kinda crappy films, but this was to be his big hit. And it was. His performance was everything the film needed. He was perfect.

Michael Massee who played Funboy, as well many other character you are sure to know, fired the fatal shot. Can you imagine the guilt of something so big yet is not your fault? All the things that had to happen in order for Brandon to be shot fatally was so great is was almost as if it was meant to be.

The barrel of the gun was accidentally plugged with a blank cartridge from the previous shot. The arms master would usually check this, but he had left for the day. (jerk) Instead of shooting in the direction slightly past Brandon (which is customary if shooting blanks as they can still cause harm), Michael was off balance and accidentally shot him right in the chest. It was a minute or two before anyone knew he was seriously hurt because everyone was still doing the scene.

Stranger than all that, everything I just wrote is contradicted in many other writings. With so many people on the set, so many different factors involved, people can't seem to get the story straight. The only thing anyone can be sure of is that there was a shot and Brandon went down and died.

Much like the lovers in the film, Brandon and his finance Eliza were due to be married two weeks after the film wrapped. The film is dedicated to them. The pain she must have felt and still feels...

So as I lay here on All Hallow's Eve, Devil's Night, I think about Brandon, Eliza, Bruce, and I think of Eric and Shelly and how it can't rain all the time.


Massee talks about the accident here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjn3WqsvE_Q

Related articles about stuff I was talking about

• "Devil's Night" Fires Doused In Detroit
• Would You Want a Remake of 'The Crow'? ...with Jason Statham