My Netflix triptych last night:

(1) The Great Outdoors with Dan Akroyd and John Candy.

Made in 1988, it's the typical bad SNL/SCTV comedy with broad slapstick humor. However, one notable facet is the differing income levels of Candy...who plays the then typical middle class husband and his wealthier brother-in-law Aykroyd. While Candy tries to sell the kids on good old fashioned hot dogs and row boats, Aykroyd brings in lobster tails, a brick-style cell phone and hot rod water craft. The funny thing is back then the differences were still so little (the big deals are in the tens of thousands).

(2) Banshee Chapter (2013). Here the usual horror story of 20-somethings doing things being videod in quick edit fashion gives way to a road trip film with a strongly modelled Hunter Thompson character. It all comes down to MK Ultra turning our brains into receiving stations.

(3) Apocalypse Now. Why this again? Oddly, this film is known for its massive budget and whatever could go wrong production. Seen again, and after Banshee, it's funny how closely shot and intimate most of the action is. In some ways, Coppola was doing 00s films...in 1979!

The Blue Mouse, a little 2nd-3rd run theater in Tacoma's Proctor district was in fairly decent repair but they did get their digital projectors paid for with a Kickstarter campaign of all things.

Last time I was at that charmingly ramshackle theater, there were rats/rodents climbing the walls during the screening. It's on my "will politely avoid" list now. :\

I can relate to the LGBT&Q's in the D&D story wanting to be able to have a character that reflects their gender/orientation; I always strongly identify with my avatar and want her to reflect my personality as much as possible. The author makes that point as well:

When I'm playing a game — any game: video, board, whatever — that gives me the chance to play as a woman, I take it.

Even if that woman is dressed in frills or nothing at all. Even if she looks, acts and thinks nothing like I do. It feels better when I play as someone I can identify with, even on a surface level.

Despite a handful of attempts over the years, I have yet to see a film at the Admiral that was in focus.

Even a charmingly kitschy, moderately historic, 2.5th-run theater with a negligible ticket price needs to have some minimum viewing standard.