Yesterday was Screen on the Green. HBO, which is famous for the HBO song and dance (explanation forthcoming), sets up a film screen on the National Mall, and shows a movie every Monday evening during the summer about half an hour after sunset. This week's movie was Dr. No, which I hadn't seen before and kept confusing with Dr. Zhivago. Giant crowds of people bring blankets, foldy chairs and picnics to the lawn to camp out for a good light of sight for the show.
The people in front of us brought KFC to snack on, and I couldn't articulate why I thought it was weird, but it was. First of all, you should have Popeye's if you're going to have a fried chicken if you're not going to make your own. Then the people poured mashed potatoes from the larger container into one of those plastic wine cups, and it looked like poop. Ew. They did have the good fortune of having acquired some cup holders on stakes to pound into the ground.
Dr. No doesn't quite cut it as a modern film. The sexism is overt and ludicrous, and received lots of laughs. It is kind of amazing that what was normal--I think it was normal, I didn't view it back then through the lens of the early 1960s--forty years ago is merely risible now. I probably wouldn't be pursuing a graduate degree if those social norms were still in place.
I need to remember to bring a pillow next week, and/or a chair. And a sweater... it actually got fairly cold. I also need to wear pants that allow me to properly do the HBO dance. Screen on the Green runs a cartoon to begin the evening. After the cartoon, however, is the HBO song, which is the cue for all the crazies to get up from their blankets and do some relatively organized jumping and flailing, i.e. the HBO dance. I couldn't get into it quite as much as I wanted to, because it seemed like my pants were falling down. Next week, though? It's so on.
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