So I joined the lemmings leaping off the cliff into a sea of commercial mass-media yesterday. I celebrated the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior, by going to the movies. This followed preparations for this momentous event lasting weeks which entailed spending a lot of money on material goods. How satisfying.
I wonder about people going to the movies. For one thing, movies are big hits on the traditional family holidays: July 4th, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Why is that? It's not just because of the long weekend; otherwise Labor Day weekend would be a big hit. I think it's because most families get together and are immediately bored with each other. It's the same phenomenon that you see with the profusion of miniature golf establishments at family vacation spots, like Lake George in New York or Cape Cod. They go there expecting... well, something, but it's not interesting enough for them, so they play mini golf in order to pass the time and not have to deal with each other.
And what's with people going to see movies in groups? I mean, I went to see "Cast Away" (I thought the title was one word too) yesterday by myself. Got in about 5 minutes before the showing, and got a good seat. No worries about seating a group of people. I mean, it's not like you're going to talk to each other during the movie. And with most movies (and most groups of people), there's really no point in discussing the movie afterwards.
Not to mention the people who go to the theater and then decide what to see. That's optimism, expecting that Hollywood would have one good movie every weekend. Either that, or they can't come up with alternatives. Fun is spending money and watching movies. Yeesh.