Laser Madonna: Dark Fate
I suppose the most interesting thing I did all weekend was on Friday night, when Shobhit and I went to see "Laser Madonna" at 9 p.m. at Seattle Center's Pacific Science Center.
It was totally different from any other kind of outing either Shobhit or I ever go on, which was what made it the most interesting. I get notifications on Facebook of a lot of events happening at Seattle Center, and I had seen others in the past for laser shows featuring other artists. I was never too compelled to attend any of them, until I suddenly saw a notification on Thursday morning of "Laser Madonna" and my immediate thought was, WHAT?? I had to go!
I thought briefly about who I should try to go with. This was only one day notice, if I was to go on Friday. I considered asking Gabriel but then I saw on my calendar that Shobhit was off work that day by 5:30. So, even though "Laser Madonna" is scheduled for every Friday in November, this was the only such Friday I knew Shobhit would be available. (I already know he's working until 9:45 p.m. on the 8th, when I have my November Happy Hour with Laney at Flatstick Pub for mini golf, and again until 9:45 on the 15th.) So, Thursday morning I texted Shobhit to tell him about it, saying I REALLY wanted to go and was hoping to convince him to come with me. It was only an hour, after all, and $14 per person. I barely had the budget left to cover $28 for both of us.
He said okay, and so to save online service fees I walked right over to Seattle Center from work on Thursday evening and bought tickets at the box office. Once we actually arrived on Friday, it became very clear very quickly that there was no urgent need whatsoever to get tickets early, but it was still worth getting them at the box office to save myself a wholly unnecessary $3.50 of extra cost. Fuck online service fees! I'm so glad I live in the city where it's so much easier for me to just get tickets at box office windows.
I actually took the bus from downtown after work to meet Shobhit at Big 5 when he got off work on Friday—actually remembering the right place he was working at this time—so we could then drive direct to Costco to do some grocery shopping, as it was also payday. We also stopped by Petco across the large parking lot to get some cat treats. Then we were on our way home when I reminded him of the show, and he had forgotten about it. He even started talking like he wished he couldn't go, and he was concerned about how loud it might be; he said music had been on too loud at work recently and "caused him anxiety." It sounded to me like he was kind of searching for excuses to get out of it, except, I had already purchased the tickets so he was kind of trapped, as he'd never want $14 to go to waste. In retrospect, for that reason I am certainly glad I bought the tickets early, as if I did not already have them at this point, he might have found a way to weasel out of it at the last minute. And as I already said, I really wanted to go to this. It was by far the least possible replacement for her current tour being the first I have been unable to see her perform in since I saw her live for the first time in 2001.
I'm not sure how much Shobhit appreciated this, or even realized it, but I would have gone to this by myself if I had to, but I much preferred having him with me. I bought his ticket so we would still be able to spend the whole evening together. And, I grabbed a couple of ear plugs for him to use just in case the music was too loud. He never did ask to use them, though.
So now, about the show itself. First off, I was shocked by how poorly attended it was. I don't know what the capacity is in the Laser Dome, but it looked like maybe a few hundred? The seats open up to a floor area in the center for those who want to lay down and look straight up at the lasers—something that was only moderately effective, as the laser patterns were projected more to the front of the room than straight up—and all but two of us who came did exactly that. And I counted the number of patrons, including us, right before the doors closed: 20.
Twenty!
I have no idea how well attended laser shows with other artists are—there are many—because this was the first one I had ever gone to. There was a few comments on the Facebook event post I had seen making it sound like at least some people were excited about it, so I was genuinely surprised when twenty people showed up. Shobhit kept calculating how much money that meant Seattle Center was making from the event: $14 x 20 = $280. Not much for one show. But, I never did tell Shobhit there are apparently four of these one-hour shows any given Friday or Saturday night, all for different bands or singers. I suppose it still adds up after a while.
And, another thing I did not know at all: this is not an entirely automated show. I have no idea how it's done, but there was a single DJ in the back, who noted to us all that although the music itself is not live (I found myself later wondering how the licensing for the use of this copyrighted music works, given the Pacific Science Center is definitely profiting off of it), what he's doing is, and apparently every single show is therefore different. The same goes even for the playlist. So, if I went back to Laser Madonna next Friday, the songs would be different and so would the lasers.
The DJ in his announcement told us all to cheer to offer feedback on what we liked so he could "build on it." This might have worked better with a larger crowd, I presume. It was a few tracks before the lot of us were even applauding at the end of a song.
The track list on this particular Friday leaned very heavily on eighties Madonna, which I don't suppose was a huge surprise; aside from "Vogue" which is only barely not-eighties having been released in 1990, the only more recent tracks that were played were "Hung Up" (2005) and, as Shobhit guessed right before the very last track that it would be "Ray of Light" (1998), which suddenly made sense, given what we were looking at.
So, was it worth $14 a person? I think so! I don't know that Shobhit would, but whatever. He didn't really offer any opinion of it after the fact. I don't think it would be worth paying $14 a bunch of times to see for a bunch of different artists, but this was Madonna we're talking about. That said, I did feel like the sound system, with only large speakers at the front of the room, left a bit to be desired. It was plenty loud enough and still not too loud, but the sound was too focused on one end of the room given its shape as a dome roofed venue.
Curiously, it also brought back a rather specific memory: a Music album release party at Re-bar in September 2000. I went to that by myself just because it was a Madonna focused event, and it was pathetically attended, maybe even fewer than 20 the way I remember it. They did pass out free promotional copies of the album on CD, though, which truly thrilled me and made me think it was totally worth attending, even alone (and even in spite of the fifty-something guy who tried to pick me up at the bar there, when I was 24 years old, until he finally said "Am I barking up the wrong tree?" and when I immediately said "Yes" he replied with a matter-of-fact "Thank you" and left his bar stool). It was a then-rare advance copy of an entire album before its official release date, and I still have the CD with the words "FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY" printed in gold lettering on its inlay card. I still bought another copy of the album just because I wanted to support Madonna with my money, and I kept it in its cellophane wrapping thinking it might be worth some money one day. Ha! No one knew in 2000 how useless CDs would become within only about a decade. People now value vinyl way more. If I had that album still shrink-wrapped in vinyl, I could probably sell it for a nice profit. Not the CD though.
Anyway. The sense I get is that Seattle is not a huge stronghold of Madonna fans and has not been for at least twenty years. I mean, when she made the very rare choice of making Seattle one of her stops on the MDNA tour in 2015, she had no trouble selling tickets at Key Arena. But that's different, as Madonna is known for her showmanship and people would have come from all over the region for that, even people who don't necessarily own a lot of her music but appreciate her as a live performer. Smaller events like this, though—Madonna's name alone doesn't seem to be all that huge a draw. It makes me sad. Not that it really needs to. I think Madonna's doing fine.
There's not a huge amount to tell about the rest of my weekend. Shobhit worked 12:45 to 9:45 on Saturday and I had my second of four Star Wars Double Features, Revenge of the Sith (2005) and A New Hope (1977). For the second of these in a row, literally no one showed up, so I'm considering not bothering with the Facebook invite for the next ones, and just watching them in the condo—as I did on Saturday this time, instead of going down to the theater that I had reserved. Not so much because it was what Shobhit wanted because the cats would otherwise be left alone (something Shobhit worries over far more than is ever necessary) but because it was just easier. I figured I'd go downstairs if anyone showed up, but, no one did.
It is an interesting experience watching those two movies as a standalone double feature though, particularly three weeks after watching The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Those first two movies are by far the worst of the entire franchise; Revenge of the Sith is nice and dark, and is by some distance better than the previous two films put together. The pacing is way better, the effects are better, and so is the overall plotting, with the curious exception of Padmé being reduced to just another damsel in distress, after being such a strong, royal presence as Queen Amidala in The Phantom Menace. That part of it was a little ridiculous, especially considering that when you go in episode order, you are introduced to Princess Leia, who in 1977 was a badass female character the likes of which had never before been seen in movies. Rey in the current trilogy is a nice return to form on that front.
And then: even though Revenge of the Sith is by far the best of the prequel trilogies, following it up with A New Hope truly underscores how inferior the entire prequel trilogy is. I have always felt, and still do, that the prequel trilogy was unfairly maligned by older fans to a truly irrational extent, but that doesn't change how much better the original trilogy actually is. There is a nice simplicity to both the storytelling and the pacing in A New Hope, the first Star Wars movie that was ever made. These elements really stand out when you move into it only minutes after finishing the prequels. Also, the humor in the original trilogy consistently lands, when the "humor" in the prequels tends to fall with a flat thud.
Another thing I thought about while watching these movies on Saturday: the lasting cultural impact of any new Star Wars installment is definitely a thing of the past. The prequels largely coasted on a cultural cachet, still very strong in the early 2000s, that just doesn't exist anymore. It brings to mind the Mythology course I took in college, which studied ancient mythologies (Roman, Greek, etc) in chronological order, and ended with brief sections contextualizing American Westerns and then the Star Wars films as examples of modern mythology. I am certain that if I took that same course today, a new modern section would be added, which pushes Star Wars back the way Star Wars itself once pushed back Westerns (setting aside the fact that Star Wars is just a Western in space): the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That is what dominates pop culture now, not Star Wars.
And the thing is, the producers of Star Wars have taken a page from the Marvel playbook, to detrimental effect, which I expected from the start: flooding the market with Star Wars IP was never the way to go. Both the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy consisted of three films each released three years apart, which effectively stoked anticipation and excitement over the course of their respective six-year runs (idiotic fan backlash against The Phantom Menace notwithstanding; that movie raked in a stunning amount of cash). The same could be said of The Phantom Menace being released a whole sixteen years after Return of the Jedi.
There was a similarly wide break between the prequels and the current trilogy, The Force Awakens coming a full ten years after Revenge of the Sith, but that's where the consistency ends: each installment of this new trilogy has been released only two years apart, rather than the previously-standard three. And that might still have been okay, except for other Star Wars movies being also released in the "off years": Rogue One in 2016, and Solo in 2018. The Marvel-ization of Star Wars was too much, as I always predicted: Solo was merely serviceable as a Star Wars film and it under-performed at the box office. And, I heard on a podcast just last week that this year's The Rise of Skywalker is predicted by some to be the least successful film in this trilogy. Why? Because people have gotten sick of them! Nobody needed five Star Wars movies in the space of five years. How could they ever be widely regarded as special in the same vein as they once were?
Even Shobhit used to watch Star Wars movies with me with almost surprisingly enthusiastic interest. He went to see Revenge of the Sith, the only one of the prequels to be released after we met, in the theater with me. But, when I brought up the plan to see The Rise of Skywalker in December to find out if he wanted to join, he immediately said, "I don't want to see another Star Wars movie!" (He doesn't see Marvel movies in theaters any more than I do either, by the way. He does watch them, but he watches on Netflix.)
I always felt flooding the market with Star Wars movies was a naïve and misguided move. The way I see it, I have been proved right. I still love the core "episode" installments—in fact, in contrast to many fans decrying 2017's The Last Jedi as "not a real Star Wars movie" (which is a moronic, take, by the way), that one is easily my favorite of all those outside the original trilogy. But, none of us get excited about new installments the way we once did. And that, I think, is a big reason I had more success getting people to come watch the double features I did in the lead-up to The Force Awakens being released in 2015, and so far, literally zero success at it this time around.
Sure, yes, people are busy, they have lives. I get that. There's still a core point to be made here: in the past, these same people would, on average, rearrange their schedules to accommodate something like this. Now, yes, as we have with every single one of the most recent four Star Wars movies, Gabriel and I already have tickets purchased several weeks in advance and a set plan to see the new film the first night showings happen. But still, we are the last gasp of this level of fandom for the franchise. Tickets are not selling out for these movies as quickly as they did in 2015, when there had not been a new Star Wars movie in ten years. Then there were five movies over five years! And as a result, people care less. There is no massive swelling of fandom among the younger generation springing up from these new movies the way there was even with the prequels, so far as I can tell. Star Wars just doesn't matter to people the way it once did. I think it should, and I kind of wish it did, but it just doesn’t.
And really, it's Disney and their "grand plan" to flood the market with them that is largely to blame. I doubt I will ever not feel that way.
So, anyway! I spent Saturday evening at Steamworks. I had a pretty good time.
Shobhit worked again yesterday, and I met up with Laney to go down to Pacific Place to see Terminator: Dark Fate, which we were both very much looking forward to after seeing the first two movies as a double feature last month. And then, in sharp contrast to my three-word review of The Lighthouse last week, I went home and wrote a review to this one that was unusually long. I had a lot of thoughts. Solid B.
I had other stuff I could have gotten done yesterday, most notably working on this year's calendars, but I never got to any of it, largely because I seemed to kind of crash from the popcorn I got with rewards at Pacific Place. I thought I would just make that my lunch the way Laney did with hers, but whenever I try something like that, my body really doesn't like it. I developed a slight headache, some nausea, and got super tired. After I also made myself a veggie hot dog as a late lunch just to get some protein in me, I lay down on the bed and snoozed for maybe an hour. I did feel better after that.
But then I set about making dinner, and was done with that right when Shobhit got home from work, and we spent the whole rest of the evening watching TV. We finished up the final four episodes of American Horror Story: Apocalypse, which tied everything together kind of nicely in the end. Still pretty hokey in a lot of ways but I liked the return to witches and the return to a lot of elements of other seasons, including specific characters. This was the first season I bothered watching since the witches in season 3, and these were many of the same characters. I feel no particular compulsion to watch any of the other seasons, however. Then we watched an episode of Will & Grace and a couple episodes of Cheers before I finally went to bed.
[posted 12:43 pm]