So once again I have found myself unemployed and living in Brooklyn. I am a scrub. I know it. I'm cool with it.
So I thought I would take this time to just write.
This need to write will come out in a number of ways. I'll be blogging about life in general and the people I meet as well as adding the random fiction article just because. (This is my blog! I can do what I want!)
Along with the tedious full time job of searching for employment, I'm back in acting classes! Finally, after nearly five years in NYC, I'm going back to the sole reason I wanted to move here in the first place.
(As I write this, an email just popped up informing me that Paul Simon is coming to Queens in June. Because I'm a scrub, I am unable to just buy tickets to this once in a lifetime event. Looks like I will not be joining he and Julio down by the school yard...)
So, I'm back to acting and writing. I've been developing my web series and trying to complete a feature film script I started years ago with the help of my wife, Amanda, and a good friend, Jim Cremins.
The good thing about being an actor/writer is that I get to watch a lot of movies and shows and chalk it up to "research". The bad part about that is that I live in NYC and good theatres are hard to find.
For a while Amanda and I would frequent a theatre that wasn't too far from our apartment in Brooklyn, UA Court Street. That was our go-to for a few years. Then we went to see Black Mass and decided we needed a new cinema.
Before I begin on my rant, let me just preface this with the fact that I used to work in a movie theatre. It's tough to police every auditorium. In the event that an usher hears some loud mouth bitch commenting through the movie from the back row, that usher is most likely in high school and isn't making nearly enough money to confront the hyena and shut her the fuck up. Even more, she probably still wouldn't shut up! This would probably only escalate the issue and create an even worse situation and further disrupt an already ruined movie.
With all of the "take-matters-into-my-own-hands" people with guns these days, I'll just sit and sigh out my frustrations rather speak up and risk another St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
That said, there are managers that make enough money to deal with it and they should be notified to step in and resolve the issue. If none of these things occur, then I'll just take my business elsewhere. It's not like they're going to miss me.
"Well did you notify someone so they could try to make it up to you?"
No.
First of all, I'm not going to get out of my seat and miss part of a film I paid to see just to try to hunt down an employee and explain what's happening. Nor am I going to call and complain or seek out a manager after the fact. Customer service in this country has turned to shit. Nobody cares. All anyone wants is for the person complaining to just go away. Nobody is interested in fixing the issue. I've learned this and I'm coming to terms with it.
I digress.
This isn't even the theatre I came to talk about!
So, with the Oscars upon us, Amanda and I try to catch as many Oscar nominated films as we can before the colossal controversially caucasian ceremony. Some of these films become more and more difficult to find in theatres the closer we get to Oscar night. Luckily we live in NYC and there are an abundance of cinemas for us to visit. Unluckily, one of those cinemas is the AMC Empire 25 in the heart of Times Square.
(For anyone who doesn't or hasn't lived in NYC, Times Square is one of the most painful places to be at any time of the year, month, day, hour, minute, second! To people who live here, it's the equivalent to being trapped in the middle of a fat, sweaty-man bubble with a shower and a slice of Juliana's Pizza just out of reach.)
As our luck would also have it, AMC Empire 25 was the only theatre showing Room. So be it. We arrive early (I'm a stickler for getting to the theatre early to ensure our seating is ideal!) and wait in an excruciatingly long line for tickets. Now, people, it's 2016. If I purchase my tickets online and pay the service fee to do so, I shouldn't have to wait in ANY ticketing line! I should be able to walk to the ticket taker who then scans my phone and allows me to then fight through the concession line. One of the busiest theatres in Manhattan that is also right in the middle of Times Square, next to Madam Tussaud's and has you exit through Dave and Buster's LACKS THE TECHNOLOGY TO SCAN A FUCKING CELL PHONE!!
Ahem.
So we wait through a ridiculous line, get our tickets and then stroll to the concession stand. Not just A concession stand... THE concession stand. Keep in mind it is opening weekend of Deadpool. As stated earlier, this is one of the most popular theatres in Manhattan that has 25 screens and they only have a single concession stand open! So the 50 or so people who want to watch the independent feature, Room, have to stand in the same ridiculous lines as the hundreds of people there to see Deadpool in all of its' various formats (IMAX, 3D, standard...you get the idea). This movie was basically starting every 30 minutes on a screen somewhere in that building.
Amanda gives me her order and rushes off to the auditorium to secure our seats while I wait to grab drinks and snacks. My order was simple: a small Sprite, a bottle of water and some pretzel bites with cheese. As I get closer to the register, the guy in front of me takes the last pretzel bites in the warmer. Damn! But then again, maybe this will mean I get fresher pretzels! Maybe not so bad after all.
I approach the counter and place my order. I pay. I'm informed that it's going to be a short wait on the pretzel bites. I check my phone for the time, I have roughly fifteen minutes to spare before trailers start, so I can wait.
Five minutes later I check in. About five more minutes. Okay.
Almost ten minutes later I check back in. About ten more minutes. Not okay. I'm clearly upset as the clerk gets her manager. The manager did refund my money and gave me excuses as to why it takes a theatre more than 20 minutes to prepare some (most likely) frozen pretzels on the opening weekend of Deadpool with just one concession stand open. Customers in line were trying to offer me moral support.
(Allow me to digress, once again. As I write this, I see how petty and ridiculous this all is. Especially when there are so many tragedies happening in this world. Just have some perspective. It's a blog, not an article in the Times.)
So after all of that waiting, I forego the pretzels and travel up the three escalators to get to my auditorium, passing an empty concession stand on each floor, arrive ten minutes late where I find my lovely wife sitting in the perfect spot: middle/middle! I join her in our row and sit back to watch a great film with a quiet audience.
Maybe this isn't so bad after all...
