I'm so glad I finally got to do this. Paledaddy (and Mrs. Paledaddy) has been inviting me (and Mrs. me) to "Movie Night," a well-attended and semi-regular event at his house, for at least the last year or so. The fates have always conspired to make attendance impossible, usually at the last minute. On Saturday night, I finally got to go and see what it was all about.
Right out of the gate I'll say I dig the Paledaddy clan. Their house is out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by woods and steep hills and run-down buildings. They grow vegetables in their front yard without apology. By comparison, I live in the midst of suburbia — though I could probably grow vegetables in my front yard too without anyone bitching about it. The last vehicle I saw either of them driving had an Apple sticker on it and there's an artiness and creativity in the family which is being carried forward by their offspring. (I'll add for the record that our offspring mingle in school, giving us common ground upon which to lament when lamentation is due.)
In the front yard were several folding beach chairs arranged in a rough arc in front of a projector screen. Several people sat in chairs talking while others milled about and visited the cooler and snack table. One of the "snacks" was a gigantic pizza topped with a mountain of cheese massive enough to exert its own gravitational force. Behind the screen were a digital projector, a DVD player, an amp and speakers, and cables coiling around.
After everyone got settled in the show started, and the screen lit up with a homebrew DVD menu. Paledaddy announced this evening was a bit of a departure from previous movie nights and the focus would be many short-format clips and videos instead of a single feature-length film. With that, he launched the first clip — the ten scariest movie moments of all time as ranked by Bravo — and encouraged us to discuss openly, cheer, boo, or react in any way we felt appropriate. Of course, we all strongly disagreed with Bravo's choice of Jaws for the top spot and made our displeasure known.
A nice, but certainly unintended, touch: Dusk progressed throughout the scariest movies sequence, and bats kept swooping down in front of the projector screen to capture insects attracted to the light.
After this, as promised, more videos, shorts, and clips of all kinds including a Lord of the Rings / vuvuzela mashup, videos of Porcupine Tree's "Way Out of Here" and Steven Wilson's "Harmony Korine" (hooray!), some Japanese game shows and kung fu spoofs, Top Gear, and Tom and Jerry. The short format worked well, as did the eclectic mixture of things shown. We went through two DVDs of video and ended up leaving way past midnight, watching for curious deer on the journey out.
Now I'm ready for the next one. Hopefully it will be soon, and hopefully it won't be on a weekend where there's already a million other things going on — usually the norm around here.