writing by flashlight

earlier today anna & I watched bits & pieces of a harry potter movie marathon as we did our weekly chores

my distraction to the potter films was not so great but I was watching enough of the movies to gather a few thoughts about the art of watching films

by which I mean the viewer helps construct the story as the storyteller creates the movie

I remember a great pleasure I had as a kid going to the Sac 6 drive in theater I would often turn my head to the movies playing on the other screens

I could see the films but I couldn't hear them so I would make my own stories to go along with the action on the screens

this kind of storytelling married quite well within the imagination of a working class northern Californian kid who loved watching movies at the drive ins most of all

often it was on a warm summer night & the night air smelled of gravel car exhaust & popcorn 

wouldn't matter what the hell the scenes of the films were actually about for I would turn my head to the next screen

it was like writing by flashlight deep in the summer night as I created tales that carried forth what I was witnessing on the screen

but what about watching these harry potter movies put in mind the Sac 6 drive ins was two-fold

first it was a very hot late summer day

second my attention often wavered toward my set chores so that often I was moving thru the room as the action happened on the TV without my hearing the movie

& I started to make my own stories silly as they are to the movie

I don't recall what film or what narrative I made up as I cleaned & vacuumed & so on 

I just remembered my love of making up stories at the Sac 6 when I was a kid & the magic of being at the drive in theater