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So, yesterday, after work, I had planned on going over to Dave ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
csixty4's place to meet up with him and justphoenix so we could carpool to the Silent Film Society of Chicago's live screening of Fritz Lang's Metropolis with live organ and theremin accompaniment.
I noticed my van was pulling heavily to the right on the way to his place, and I was rather concerned. Seeing as the brakes should be fine, and everything else I could think of should've been okay, the most likely culprit was a low tire. I made it to Dave's place and sure enough, my front right tire is really low. Gorramit. I figured I'd have to air it up after we got back from the show, but no way was I going to miss this!
So we pack up, head out, went to Panda Express for a quick dinner, and head on down the road towards what I later found out is the "Six Corners" area of Chicago. Unfortunately, everyone else was also headed in that direction as well, and traffic sucked hard.
We did manage to get to the theater only about 5-10 minutes late, and found street parking a couple of blocks away, and hoofed it quickly to the theater. The theater is the Historic Portage Theater Which is a gorgeous historic theater. The neighborhood has that kind of run-down, packed-in Chicago feel to it, but the marquee and the interior of the theater are excellent! It's a single screen, but the audience area is HUGE! The architecture is also amazing -- It's not the Coronado, obviously.. but then, the Coronado doesn't show Metropolis or advertise for Horror Film Fests and have lobby cards for Tokyo Shock's "Machine Girl" either.
We made it in, found seats, and experienced Metropolis as the way it was meant. The organist was amazing, and some of the deeper bass notes and subsonics were giving me chills the way that good choral harmonies will. The theremin player had what appeared to be a fairly small theremin, and while it definitely added to the showing, I feel that maybe due to limitations of that particular instrument, he couldn't quite do all that he wanted. There were a few times where he was trying to build a crescendo of pitch during some "build-up to explosion" scenes and he would top out on the theremin's pitch abilities, and so, instead of being able to do a typical build to crescendo would play the same note a few times and then back down a few notes and then climb again. It's hard to describe in text something that's audio in nature, but I hope that gives a sense of it. Still, I'm not complaining because it was still definitely a wonderful experience. The theremin was perfect addition to the sound in the "Worker's City" scenes of the men at the huge machines, and they also did other sound effects, such as a jingling noise (ala belly dancing) during the scenes when Robot Maria is carousing with the men in the Yoshiwara club. They also had someone making knocking/gong noises during the scene where Real Maria is trying to alarm the worker's city with the mechanical gong in the central square.
All in all, it was a really good experience. Afterwards, folks were able to go to the front stage area and talk with the theremin player and he was letting people try it out. I took a few pictures, along with a few of the inside of the theater, but didn't opt to try my "hand" at the theremin.
On the way out, I ordered a SFSC 2008 T-shirt (their logo for this year is Robot Maria!)
Unfortunately, they only had women's t-shirts available (which I -tried- to get) except their "2xl" women's t-shirt was most definitely NOT a 2xl. Maybe 2xl for a 10 year old. So unfortunately I had to order the men's 2xl which they will mail to me. Still, a Metropolis t-shirt! WOOT! I signed up on the SFSC's mailing list, picked up some materials about the Historic Theater Preservation Society, SFSC and some other flyers, and then we hopped in the car and headed back to Dave's.
Originally, I was going to drive out toposicat's place and crash overnight and then hang out with samiitiger today. Unfortunately, when I got back, my tire had progressed from "low" to "flat" which meant the leak was worse than I figured. My spare tire was also low, but it only has a "slow leak," so I ended up using Dave's mini air compressor to pump it up, put the spare on, and decided that I needed to go home instead of staying out in Chicago. I called Samii to let her know, and proceeded to drive home, worrying about whether I would make it or not.
However, I shouldn't have been worried, made it home without incident, and passed out after catching up on LJ and email. And now I'm home and it's Saturday. And only a little dirty/greasy from changing the tire. Ahh bliss.
( Pictures! )
csixty4's place to meet up with him and justphoenix so we could carpool to the Silent Film Society of Chicago's live screening of Fritz Lang's Metropolis with live organ and theremin accompaniment.I noticed my van was pulling heavily to the right on the way to his place, and I was rather concerned. Seeing as the brakes should be fine, and everything else I could think of should've been okay, the most likely culprit was a low tire. I made it to Dave's place and sure enough, my front right tire is really low. Gorramit. I figured I'd have to air it up after we got back from the show, but no way was I going to miss this!
So we pack up, head out, went to Panda Express for a quick dinner, and head on down the road towards what I later found out is the "Six Corners" area of Chicago. Unfortunately, everyone else was also headed in that direction as well, and traffic sucked hard.
We did manage to get to the theater only about 5-10 minutes late, and found street parking a couple of blocks away, and hoofed it quickly to the theater. The theater is the Historic Portage Theater Which is a gorgeous historic theater. The neighborhood has that kind of run-down, packed-in Chicago feel to it, but the marquee and the interior of the theater are excellent! It's a single screen, but the audience area is HUGE! The architecture is also amazing -- It's not the Coronado, obviously.. but then, the Coronado doesn't show Metropolis or advertise for Horror Film Fests and have lobby cards for Tokyo Shock's "Machine Girl" either.
We made it in, found seats, and experienced Metropolis as the way it was meant. The organist was amazing, and some of the deeper bass notes and subsonics were giving me chills the way that good choral harmonies will. The theremin player had what appeared to be a fairly small theremin, and while it definitely added to the showing, I feel that maybe due to limitations of that particular instrument, he couldn't quite do all that he wanted. There were a few times where he was trying to build a crescendo of pitch during some "build-up to explosion" scenes and he would top out on the theremin's pitch abilities, and so, instead of being able to do a typical build to crescendo would play the same note a few times and then back down a few notes and then climb again. It's hard to describe in text something that's audio in nature, but I hope that gives a sense of it. Still, I'm not complaining because it was still definitely a wonderful experience. The theremin was perfect addition to the sound in the "Worker's City" scenes of the men at the huge machines, and they also did other sound effects, such as a jingling noise (ala belly dancing) during the scenes when Robot Maria is carousing with the men in the Yoshiwara club. They also had someone making knocking/gong noises during the scene where Real Maria is trying to alarm the worker's city with the mechanical gong in the central square.
All in all, it was a really good experience. Afterwards, folks were able to go to the front stage area and talk with the theremin player and he was letting people try it out. I took a few pictures, along with a few of the inside of the theater, but didn't opt to try my "hand" at the theremin.
On the way out, I ordered a SFSC 2008 T-shirt (their logo for this year is Robot Maria!)
Unfortunately, they only had women's t-shirts available (which I -tried- to get) except their "2xl" women's t-shirt was most definitely NOT a 2xl. Maybe 2xl for a 10 year old. So unfortunately I had to order the men's 2xl which they will mail to me. Still, a Metropolis t-shirt! WOOT! I signed up on the SFSC's mailing list, picked up some materials about the Historic Theater Preservation Society, SFSC and some other flyers, and then we hopped in the car and headed back to Dave's.
Originally, I was going to drive out to
posicat's place and crash overnight and then hang out with samiitiger today. Unfortunately, when I got back, my tire had progressed from "low" to "flat" which meant the leak was worse than I figured. My spare tire was also low, but it only has a "slow leak," so I ended up using Dave's mini air compressor to pump it up, put the spare on, and decided that I needed to go home instead of staying out in Chicago. I called Samii to let her know, and proceeded to drive home, worrying about whether I would make it or not.However, I shouldn't have been worried, made it home without incident, and passed out after catching up on LJ and email. And now I'm home and it's Saturday. And only a little dirty/greasy from changing the tire. Ahh bliss.
( Pictures! )
