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Last night was Action Movie Night at our condo theater, and we had seven people in attendance: Tony, Jake, Joe, Derek, Chris, Shobhit, and myself. After having such huge attendance the first few times Shobhit and I went (starting in late August), I asked if it was typical to get larger numbers over the summer and fewer people over the holidays, which would honestly make sense to me. But, according to Tony, those times we had between 12 and 14 people were the unusual ones, and it's much more common for around six people to make it. It sounds like the mix of people often kind of rotates, though.
Tony, if I recall correctly, almost never misses an Action Movie Night, basically being the host—he and Jake are the only current regulars who have been coming from the very beginning in 2012, and I think Tony has said he only ever missed two or three through all of that time. And one of those very few times was our Action Movie Night two weeks ago, on November 2—because his mom passed away and so he had to be in Buffalo, New York, both grieving and taking care of logistical business. He shared a fair amount about it last night, and it seems even Jake learned some new things about Tony, such as the fact that his two siblings are respectively 10 and 20 years older than he is—he's one of three and they are all fully ten years apart. That seems nuts.
Anyway! I had been selected as "backup pick" last time, and was much relieved I did not have to step up and fulfill that role, as I was unprepared. I'm genuinely surprised I even came up to pick this soon, only seven Action Movie Nights in—about three months. But, I got sort of misdirected by the 12-14 attendees when we first started coming, making me think it would take that many Movie Nights for me to get to pick. Presumably Tony selects whoever is next among those he is reasonably sure will actually make it. (The guy who chose last time, in fact, did not come last night.)
I was just glad Tony was back, because I didn't want him to be absent when I first had the pick. He even emailed me last night, telling me he didn't want me to ruin the surprise but was curious what decade my movie was from. I wrote back,
Well, my long held first idea was from the nineties. I changed my mind though and the one I’m bringing is actually from … the twenties! (2020s)
I then said I may still bring my first idea next time my turn comes along. If it's another three months, that takes us only into February. I have the DVD on hold at the library, and at the rate it's going (one copy with something like 14 holds), it may take until around then to become available anyway. I can't even rent this movie VOD, and may otherwise have to resort to going to Scarecrow Video, the one local movie rental store still chugging along. Or, I could look at Everyday Music on Capitol Hill and see if there's a super cheap used copy I can just buy there, which I've done a few times in the past for other movie nights. (Or not: I guess
Everyday Music just closed last year. Shit.)
I can't remember how the idea came to me, but I decided to go with something far more contemporary—which I was quite easily able to get from the library, my first library copy of a movie actually on Blu-Ray, no less:
The Hunt, the politically charged violent satire from 2020 that I didn't even bother seeing in theaters due to mixed reviews. It wound up on HBO Max in the summer of last year, though, and Shobhit and Ivan and I all
watched it together—and had a blast. People who didn’t bother watching the movie had no idea how it skewers liberals every bit as much as it does conservatives.
Still, I hoped its political bent would not alienate anyone in our group. It didn't seem to, or if it did, no one said so. Tony told me he had seen it in theaters but completely forgot about it; Jake seemed to enjoy it, and Shobhit and I certainly did. I
think Chris liked it, and Joe and Darek never openly expressed an opinion one way or the other really.
Most of the recent films have been two hours and sometimes longer, and although I don't mind that at all if the movie is good, a lot of these movies have been mediocre at best. So I was fairly happy to have mine be a brisk 90 minutes long. We all hung out about as long as usual eating in the kitchen before the movie, but after the movie ended after only an hour and a half, it was still comfortably not particularly late evening when we all went our separate ways and back home.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ चौदह —
— पांच हजार तीन सौ चौदह —
Shobhit and I always bring food just to be sure there are vegetarian options available. I'm a little uncomfortable with Shobhit's persistently open disappointment in other people's contributions not being vegetarian—I don't think it's the entire group's obligation to accommodate the two of us. That said, we brought scallop potatoes from Costco, and cheesy garlic bread Shobhit made out of a ciabatta roll I quickly walked up to Trader Joe's to buy; and even on top of that, Chris came with two pizzas and he actually got one that was tomato basil, which was very much appreciated by Shobhit and me. And I suppose it would be relevant to note, it was by no means only Shobhit and me who took slices from that pizza, which proved just as popular as the pepperoni one.
I brought a hot buttered rum for my drink. It had four shots of rum in it and didn't even give me a slight buzz. I really don't drink that much, but somehow I seem to have developed this super high tolerance for alcohol—I mean, to a point, anyway. Had I had two such drinks with that many shots, for example, I probably would have blacked out and then had a horrible hangover today. It's sort of feast or famine with the intoxication for me, although it does seem to depend on the type of liquor and how concentrated it is; my drink was in a large insulated travel cup and still mostly hot water. It was tasty, at least.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ चौदह —
[posted 12:30 pm[
