— पांच हजार छह सौ छियानवे —
Last night was Action Movie Night at the Braeburn Condos theater. Shobhit spent the whole day representing SAG-AFTRA at the Tasveer Film Market, and didn't even get home until around 9:30, so he didn't make it to Action Movie Night.
I never actually counted the number of people there, which I usually do, so I can try to account for who all attended. There were Tony, Jake, Ben, Ryan, Chris G, Derek, Kevin, Daniel, and a new guy who lives on the 7th floor of the East building whose name I have already forgotten. I think that covers everyone? That would make it 10, counting me. The theater has 14 seats, so there would have been only 4 empty ones.
The official line is that there are no saved seats, but there has become a kind of intuited understanding among most of us where the regulars sit, usually in the same seats. Shobhit and I, the only actual couple who ever attends these nights together, tend to sit off to the side in the very back row, where the seats go all the way to the south wall (
the theater has three rows: four each in the front and middle; six in the back). When Shobhit does not make it, I usually just sit in the seat against that wall. It makes it easier for me to look at my phone if I get bored, without getting self-conscious about distracting anyone.
It was Ben's choice this week.
his choice history has been hit and miss in my opinion (this happens with most, of course), but honestly some of his hits were big ones. He had a good run in 2021 and 2022, anyway. His last three picks weren't my favorites, although they weren't terrible. His last one was
A Scanner Darkly, which I find a bit dull.
His choice this week?
Airplane! (The exclamation point is part of the official title, for the record.) My favorite comedy ever, the movie I have long insisted is the funniest ever made. With my logged movie viewing on Letterboxd pretty complete since at least 2002, my account shows
Airplane! as the movie I have seen
the second-most number of times in that timespan, behind only
Batman Returns. Before yesterday, I had seen
Airplane! 13 times since 2003; now it's 14. Although I did fall asleep during maybe 20 minutes of it, something I usually get annoyed with Shobhit for doing. He often starts snoring lightly, though. I sure hope I didn't, but how would I know? No one seemed to be reacting to me in any way when I came to, but they never do to Shobhit either.
It's not like
Airplane! was boring me, although it did feel a little too soon for me to see it yet again; I watched it with Alexia in January 2022. And my Letterboxd diary indicates I never go more than three years before rewatching it, although honestly at this point I could probably benefit from, like, a ten-year break—so I can finally forget some of it and experience the humor from that place again. Although a lot of the humor hasn't aged especially well. I still think the movie is hysterical.
— पांच हजार छह सौ छियानवे —
— पांच हजार छह सौ छियानवे —
Indeed, I actually had
Airplane! on my working list of future titles for when it's my turn again. I guess I can scratch that off my list now. It never occurred to me someone else would beat me to the punch on that one, although Ben choosing it is actually pretty on-brand.
Most of us had seen it before, I think. One or two said they had never seen it all the way through. It got a fair amount of laughs in the room, but nothing like I would have hoped, or would probably have happened when the movie was actually fresh in 1980. Even Shobhit has watched it several times now, and I cherish the first time I showed it to him, because when he had never seen it before and watched it, he laughed so hard he actuall fell off the couch.
That is the best way to experience it when I practically have the script memorized, to watch with someone who genuinely finds it hilarious.
The other upside to choosing
Airplane! is its 88-minute runtime, and that includes the credits. The movie was over unusually quickly, which was why I got back upstairs shortly after 9:00.
I brought leftovers with me: the last bit of uneaten scallopped potatoes we bought at Costco for bringing to this next Action Movie Night; and two slices of the vegetarian Greek pizza Chris G had brought. I totally forgot that Jake planned to make a huge tray of baked ziti, with Impossible meat, including both veggie sausage and veggie meatballs. His dish was a certified hit, at least half of that huge tray getting eaten. It even had a slight spicy bite to it. Even Jake was kind of bummed that Shobhit didn't make it, because he's one of the two vegetarians in the group and he made it vegetarian for our benefit.
As such, I ate
way too much yesterday. I'd have skipped the pizza, but took a slice because it kind of feels like he expects me to any time Chris brings a vegetarian pizza—also a choice for both Shobhit's and my benefit. So, I had baked ziti, a rather large slice of pizza, and some of my own scallopped potatoes.
And! Two different desserts, also an unusual thing at Action Movie Night. Kevin brought a birthday cake, as a jokey part of Ben's "birthday pick," even though Ben's birthday isn't actually until next month. I felt like there was some level of an inside joke going on there that I wasn't quite privy to. But, after it was noted on the email list that someone would be bringing cake, Daniel came with pumpkin ice cream from Trader Joe's.
I had some of both. Even though I had
already had cake at work: there had been a PCC carrot cake brought in for a photo shoot, then left out in the kitchen for consumption. Gabby came by my desk with a plate in her hand, telling me there was cake in the kitchen. "Get in there!" she said. So I followed orders.
My decision to skip the cereal yesterday morning hardly made any difference. I suppose it was still good; I'd have had another 300 or so calories on top of all that otherwise. Still, I was up nearly 2 lbs this morning. And I knew I would be: I was seriously stuffed by the end of the evening last night. It practically felt like Thanksgiving.
— पांच हजार छह सौ छियानवे —
[EDIT: Oops! I totally spaced posting this right after lunch. It's the only reason I'm posting later than usual.]
[posted 3:10 pm]
