saturday nite double feature

after our weekly chores our custom is to get take out for dinner & settle in for an evening of ordinary pleasures.  for me, that usually means a movie or two.  or a deep dive into the rabbit holes found on youtube.  & how my movie viewing has changed in this century.  we subscribe to a few streaming services.  so my habit is to fire up my laptop, put on my headphones, & log unto a platform.  there's been much written & said about movie going during the pandemic, as well as what movie going may be post-pandemic.  in california most theaters remain closed.  the movie going experience i knew as a wee lad is gone.  there are no longer matinee movie theaters where parents can deposit their offspring for a few dollars where the kids can sit thru two to three to four movies at a pop.  the drive-ins are still around.  & i love the drive-in experience.  i really do.  but even if drive-ins are having a moment in the sun because they are relatively safe options for something to do during the pandemic halcyon drive-in theater days are a relic of the 20th C.  movie theaters will survive the pandemic.  but their nature & their numbers will change.  i recall studying movie posters in the lobby of both indoor & drive-in theaters.  their art was as enticing as the movies they advertised.  movie posters are still in lobbies but are they the point of endless fascination for a young movie-goer.  i don't know.  but again, why would a kid be wowed by wall art when that kid can watch videos on their phone.  but i am not one to complain about how we watch movies.  in the early days of this young century i was mad for dvds.  those physical artifacts of digital media.  i remember going to the theater to see the 2004 remake of dawn of the dead.  to use a phrase by emily dickinson that pic took off the top of my head.  i couldn't wait for the dvd release of that flick so i can slow down & pause scenes in a way digital media allows for.  the early 2000s was a renaissance of dvd releases.  many many wonderful old movies were remastered & released to disc with extra content & even easter eggs, hidden information embedded within the discs that can be found by playing with the remote on the dvd menu.  the world is changing as i type.  movies will remain movies no matter how & where we choose to watch them.  my laptop/headphones set-up is a pretty intimate experience.  it doesn't replace that collective energy we have when watching a comedy or horror film with a few hundred other people.  but again, the world is changing.  even the division between television & movies is blurred.  so tonight, after our chores & getting dinner from our favorite tacqueria i whipped out a pair of dvds that i have not seen in some years.  the movies, blade runner 2049 [2017] & dog soldiers [2002] is a damn fine pairing of flicks for a saturday night.  the former movie, directed by denis villeneuve, i saw for the first time at the imax theater.  the latter flick, directed by neil marshall (a whip saw story about a small platoon of u.k. soldiers in the scottish highlands & a pack of lycanthropes is excellent.  there are few werewolf movies being made.  this is a worthy exception), i can't recall how the movie got on my radar.  i didn't see it in the theater so i must've read or heard about it some other way & bought the dvd.  i'll keep my discs for a while still.  same way i'll continue to go to the theater/drive-in post-pandemic.  but i am under no illusion that movie going has changed to favor streaming platforms.