The marathon is not for the faint of heart or head. It takes a strong constitution, a deep commitment and a large piece of luggage carefully loaded with tools to be able to prevail over the (sometimes) unrelenting hours of dark, flickering lights, sudden loud noises and often traumatic epic unfolding all about you. The baggage we carry into the movie cave has a motley assortment of items, often personalized to the owner's specific needs. But, without exception the following are always present:
- The Oscar Movie Marathon Program - this is a gift that Esoterica authors and provides each year and each year it becomes an even more comprehensive, useful and valued souvenir to those of us marathoning.
- Pen or Pencil & Notepad - for notations about the movie, ideas about the food to be served at the Oscar party, jotting down the names of movie trailers seen & which we wish to remember to go and see later.
- Kleenex - for the emotionally charged movie's impact, unexpected spills, sneezing fits and a make-shift napkin
- Hand lotion - it is winter, after all. . . a small comfort and luxury during a 12-14 hour day spent in the movie cave
- Lip Balm - Salted popcorn and pretzels can do dreadful, painful damage and as already mentioned, it is winter.
- Small flashlight - for studying the Oscar Movie Marathon Program after the lights go out; we learned the lesson of the flashlight several years ago whilst in a dingy, frighteningly dark and hazardous theatre in Council-tucky. . . my knees have never fully recovered from the tumble I took that day. By the time we finally left that theater, the only thing that hurt worse than my bruised and contused knees was the knowledge that I could never get the hours back from the dreadful viewing we'd just suffered.
- Money
- Blanket - for the chilly theatre, for comfort, to hide beneath, to muffle sounds, to silently weep into
- Health(ier) snacks - movie theatres do not serve a lot of vegetables or lean meats and it is best to pack a few items which will protect our health and complexion from several days of eating nothing but pretzels, popcorn, sugar, fat, salt and preservatives.
- Water/Juice - for healthier drinking
- Painkillers - this is a marathon, there is pain sometimes and one must do whatever necessary to plan for mitigating its effects on the overall experience.
The weekend was fully successful, although we did sport weary countenances by the end of both Saturday and Sunday. We decided to end our Sunday night a bit early after having seen The Pursuit of Happyness because it left us with a smile on our face and a hopeful feeling in the cockles of our heart. This was such a blessing after the arduous, violent, and sometimes difficult to watch panoply of cinema we'd experienced. Our original schedule had us bookending our week in Africa, i.e. Sierra Leone on Thursday (Blood Diamond) and Uganda on Sunday evening (The Last King of Scotland), but instead we finished in San Francisco with Will & Jaden Smith's performances.
The best part of the weekend was far and away the comradery of truly beloved friends, enjoyment of the occasional clever witticisms ("team urination"?) and enjoying our traditions from both the past and adding new ones for our future. The worst part of the weekend, for me, was insomnia after having viewed Pan's Labyrinth. Yeesh.
My own personal quick & dirty review of each movie follows under cover of another article on this blog. . . so stay tuned.
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