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July 26, 2005 The main reason to go to the movie theater is to get an experience that you would be able to parallel at home. Going to the movies in recent times has provided an experience that I cannot parallel at home, but not in a good way. There are the advertisement slides with music in the background and the volume too loud to hear conversation. Yes, they have been around for a while, but being around for a while does not make them any more right or any less annoying. You cannot go to the movies to see a movie without commercials. Commercials litter the screen before the movie experience. Somehow they are rarely lined up properly on the big screen and the volume is overly loud as well. Commercials are a relatively new development for the pre-movie watching performance. Finally there are the previews of movies that provide minimal information. Perhaps they try to convey the ‘feel’ of movies that will be coming out soon. At least the tracking is usually fixed at this point and I calm down about having to go and tell them there is a problem with the tracking. The volume is still too loud, though. Perhaps they want to hammer in to my head the wonderful ear bleeding experience I am having while I see the movie, in seats that are under-padded, too small [and before we go in to it, I am of average height 5’9” and my weight is 190 lbs.] and too close together. My 5’3” wife chooses seats above where the handicapped area is – because there are no seats in front of us and there is a nice pole ‘fence’ to rest our legs on. She is shorter than I am but the need for leg space makes an impression on her. Sometimes the actual movie I watch has the volume at an appropriate level and sometimes it is still way too loud. We have even been considering bringing ear plugs with us. Complaining to the employees rarely brings rectification of the situation. Like many people in our country – I rarely go to the movies. The industry is in a slump. Movie theater companies are merging like mad in some wild hope of maintaining profitability. Now I only go to the movie theater to see action or science fiction movies. Since I have a child, my wife and I make night of it and get some dinner and pretend it is a date. My wife has a tendency toward migraine headaches. Only in the past few years has a new trigger for migraine headaches surfaced. You guessed it, the movie theater. Now, sound fidelity is something awesome. Distinct separation of the different ‘voices’ in the music and hearing sounds “as if you were there” are all excellent experiences. The volume of that sound has little to do with this experience. Recently in some movies I have gone to the volume has sought heights to actually hurt my ears. Loudness has nothing to do with quality though and trying to make me deaf will not make me feel like I had a wonderful auditory experience going to see a movie in a theater. Directors have some weird ideas that people want rapid scene changes and flashing lights. The combination of the loud, low quality sound, the rapid scene changes and the flashing lights induce migraine headaches in my wife. So, my sole reason for going to movies – to see science fiction movies or action movies is gone. I can’t have a good time if my wife has a migraine after seeing the movie [and sometimes during the movie]. Movies like “28 Days Later” my wife cannot even watch at home. The wonderful directing [sarcasm] and fast camera action bother her even on the little screen. At home I have complete control of the volume and the equalization of the sound. Typically it sounds pretty good and if it is too loud I turn it down. My couch is comfortable – at least more comfortable than the plastic, too small and too close together seats in the movie theater. And you know, while I am not very large – more Americans are larger – and if I have trouble with the size of the seats some people must be making the decision to not go to the movies solely on the fact that they cannot fit in the seats! Now before the younger people in our audience start talking about some people being just too old I have to say this [I am only 33 years old]. Your ears are younger and more sensitive than mine and if the volume of the sound in the theater is too loud and hurts my ears – just imagine what it is doing to your ears. Let’s face it, I have not even gotten in to the overly-expensive over-proportioned food, the poor story lines in most movies or how many movies are simply – bad. Please anyone that has comments on this article feel free to contact me. If you have an idea to contribute but don’t want to write an article on the movie theaters I will do my best to incorporate it in to a future article on this subject. And certainly if there were any problems in the writing of this article feel free to contact me and indicate that there was something I should have fixed. Fixes or enhancements to previous articles: 1. In “Faulty Airplane Defense” the statement: ‘The implementation of the missile defense system leaves something reason to be desired.” The line should have been: The implementation of the missile defense system leaves something to be desired. 2. In “Faulty Airplane Defense” the statement: “The system could possible be implemented on civilian aircraft in under a year.” The line should have been: The system could possibly be implemented on civilian aircraft in under a year. 3. The article “Atheists Are No Joking Matter [I Fear Them]” was originally titled “I Have a Fear”. I do not fear atheists, but certainly do fear that jokes dehumanize atheists. ------------ About the author Alexander Flynn: I am currently a Senior Consultant who writes ABAP code in SAP and .NET code in Visual Studio.NET in New Jersey. Email: rhadamygg@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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