going to the movies

The student really loves having access to the Columbian hand press at school. Everytime she comes home, I get the option to choose one of these little posters to keep. As the former marketing director of her high school drama club, she has made a lot of posters. I can see why making posters through college has been part of her routine. Throwback to the winter of 2012 when we took her to the Crayola Factory for her birthday. I'm sure she has vague memories of the trip but I thought it was the perfect outlet for a creative snd incredibly smart little girl. Years later we would return with a little sister in tow, and annual passes to the Crayola Experience, but honestly, all I remember was the time I nearly passed out from the heat and they had to call the in-house paramedic. Real life interferes.

So, this Columbian Press. the brainchild of Pennsylvania inventor George Clymer, sits in the Hillman Library at the University of Pittsburgh. I can imagine the student, busy as a bee, creating copies of her little posters on this machine, one of a few hundred that remain today. It makes for a beautiful portrait in my head. I wish she would have someone take pictures of her while there. OMG, when we take her back one of these days, maybe I should ask her to take me there and I'm going to take all the pictures! 

We're supposed to go watch Wicked For Good today. I'm looking forward to it. My husband loves movies but hates going to the theatre and also can't stand musicals so this is an experience I get to share with my kids without him. It's insane how much going to the movies costs in this country. I would have said, today, but really, it's this country. I remember watching the latest Superman iteration all by myself and almost choked when the ticket price came up: $18.99. For a random Thursday afternoon? Are you kidding me? Wicked For Good isn't any different. $15.49 for the matinee it seems. Add concessions, which are total crap but it's not like I'm bringing my own popcorn. A movie for a family of four can easily get close to the $200 mark if you're not careful. 

Movies were supposed to be an inexpensive way to laze away on a summer afternoon. Not anymore. It's a full-on money making venture, like many things in the United States. I long for 1994 to come back. I still remember when as a college freshman were no income and virtually no money, I used to hang out at a radio station just putting in time as an unofficial production assistant. It was an unpaid internship of sorts. I would show up for this one DJ's 5am shift and help out in all capacities. Most days I just manned the phones. People call in with song requests or want their friends greeted. I write everything down and hand them to the DJ. A few times, he would allow me to go on air and read the greetings. This would be my first experience going "on the air" and one time, the newscaster was unavailable to come up to FM (she also worked in AM) but she left the copy for the DJ to read on air and he had this brilliant idea to make me do it. I cannot tell you what that one moment meant to me. Hundreds of newscasts later, I would still look back to that day with fondness. 

He had a production assistant that regularly came on all his shifts. He was a kid too, nearly the same age as me, one year ahead in college at another university. I don't know if he paid this guy. I know I didn't get paid. But I get to order breakfast for the whole gang when I'm there. Sometimes we get CDs that the DJs would just give away or tickets to things. One afternoon, Danny (the DJ) asked me and Mike (his PA) what we were still doing there. It was probably lunch time already and the shift ended at 9am but out of, well, we had nothing better to do and no money, we just hung out there. Danny gave us 200 pesos and told us to disappear. Mike and I promptly took the bus to the nearest mall, bought food and tickets to a movie. It wasn't a date or anything. Just two kids, gifted with some cash, who had a fun afternoon. I don't know if Danny realizes that he just gave me some of the most memorable experiences in my life. I don't know if Mike even remembers that afternoon. I wonder where he is now.

Years laters, I recall running into Mike in town somewhere. I think he worked at a bank. I asked him about Danny. I don't really remember the conversation well. I'd gone into the business and had a chance to walk through the old radio station years later because I got a brief contract with their UHF channel as a merch voiceover. This was probably around the time that Shania Twain released her album Come On Over because I remember there was a larger than life poster of Shania Twain along one side of the studio walls. She was lying sideways on the floor in the poster and I recall thinking, she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. Fast forward to 2009, when a university study cited Shania as the woman with a perfect face. The study talks about facial symmetry but also the distance between the eyes, mouth and ears. A certain ratio seems to be considered most universally attractive and Shania, she ticked all the boxes then. This woman is 60 now and she's been through a lot. She sure looks different now.

Playlist Recommendation: That Don't Impress Me Much, Shania Twain