vivalapsych wrote:
So glad I went!! I never owned the VHS of Uncle Meat but used to rent it from Tower every two years or so. I always criticized it as a mess, now I think of it as low grade genius. I watched the whole thing wide eyed and might have gotten off on the knowledge that some in the audience were thinking:..what the fuck is going on here???..and I'm wasting my time on this??
When the presenter asked for a show of hands as to how many had seen it, I would say only about 15% to 20% raised their hands out of a room that supposedly sat 60.
The copy itself had problems. Lots of little white static lines in the beginning with dull colors. These cleared up about 20 min in or so. Also, we got some sections of black sometimes lasting as long as 15 seconds when Frank was using his flashing effects. I guess it was too much for the player. At least it wasn't a jarring blue screen. They also turned it off right before we'd get the announcement that it was a Honker...Home Video. Perhaps to destroy the illusion of them not playing something better than a VHS tape. My one attempt at asking the curator about the format ("I think 35") made no sense.
He also thanked Gail for her support which got some applause. I didn't feel the need to join in. This is The Library of Congress. It's free and they don't need anyone's permission to play anything that's been in the public sphere...as far as I know. These are from tapes already in the library...not some new transfer. Several years back they played the abomination that is The Star Wars Holiday Special. Lucas had no recourse. It's in the library, so it's available to the public. If Gail had sent over Burnt Weenie I would have done a standing applause at the mention of her name.
Don't know if I'll be back next week for Bickford/Humor but I'm in the mood for another viewing of 200 Motels and I'm crossing my fingers it'll be on film stock...just so I can get that midnight movie feel many of you have gotten that I've been deprived of.
I didn't see any youngsters in the group. I thought I'd see at least one young guy and his bored girlfriend...but no. I'm nearly 37 and I felt the youngest in the bunch...not that it matters...but I'm just sayin'...no one under 30 fer sure. Correct me if I'm wrong..
I didn't see any kids and I only counted 5 girls there including myself. The funny thing for us was that we took the Metro and my friend and I were sitting in the train saying to ourselves, "I wonder where all these people are going?" I thought to myself, "not the Library of Congress seeing that the theatre only holds 60 people." When we go there, 3 people that were in the very same train car as we were, were sitting in the theatre...two of them were sitting right next to us! How random and weird...I wonder what the odds of that happening actually are?
Anyway.....I thought the movie had some definite highlights and I did recognize a lot of snippets of the film that have appeared in other movies. I laughed some, shook my head at times and overall am glad that I finally got the see the whole thing from start to finish. It was definitely out there, that is for sure.
I'm not sure I will go next week? I guess I should make a reservation just in case.
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"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible"- Frank Zappa
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