The Classic

So, during The Present Unpleasantness, it’s only natural that we all have our moments of madness, if that’s not too strong a term for it. I started my Lockdown with a flurry of buying “wacky” t-shirts from Facebook ads. I am a thrill seeker and I live for the danger.

Then, between the anxiety spikes and depression dips, my big moment of consumerist insanity came when I finally decided it was time for me to start on my dream of actually having a home cinema.

Reasons for this being a bad idea include, but are not restricted to:

• we are renting a house that we hope to be moving away from in just a few short months.
• we are, therefore, saving for a new house.
• we (I) have not long ago invested in a reasonably large TV.
  Reasons for this being the best idea I’ve ever had are restricted to:
• I love movies.
• I will not even think about going into a movie theater until there’s a vaccine.
• it’s an impossible dream I’ve carried around in my heart since childhood.

So now I have the beginnings of a home movie theater: A Dolby Atmos sound bar, a 4K blu-ray player, an Apple TV streaming box…and a projector. My screen is a white wall…the image goes up to 100 inches wide. It is almost literally life-changing.

In our new house, I’ll be able to set it up so it’s always there – at present I have to set up and dismantle before and after every movie. I’ll put movie posters on the walls. I’ll have a neon sign that says THE CLASSIC.

It was, as I’ve said, my dad that fired my love for movies. He loved kids movies and so all three of his sons were taken to whatever was showing at the cinema at the time. Later, he was an early adopter of the video cassette recorder. His collection of Disney video tapes was legendary (in our family).

He took me to see the Star Wars movies, the Christopher Reeves Superman movies, Bambi and Jungle Book. We were the family who dressed up to go to the movies, which I think led me to believe that it was special. Like other people go to the opera, to go see a band or the ballet. We never went to any of those things. But we would go to the Classic in Monkseaton, stand in the line, and be more than entertained.

And now, in a very small way, I’ve recreated that in our little rented home in Austin. Hopefully the vaccine will bring about a sense of normality in our world, but The Classic is now a part of my life. I might never go to a movie theater again.