beulahbondo's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for not yelping in my ear Those of you who live in the Boston area and go to the movies at the Kendall cinema know this phenomenon of the overly-loud Kendall laugher. Perhaps to celebrate their good taste in movies, perhaps because they're not used to being in public, there's always two or three members of the audience who laugh loudly and hysterically from the moment the movie starts. They shriek when they see the name "Christopher Guest" in the opening titles. They howl at an ironically framed shot of a dog dish. They even sigh happily at the Landmark Cinemas "Le langue de cinema est universale" blah blah blah commerical. Last night was THE WORST. I went to see "Thank You for Smoking" with the Greyhound and the Dane. Directly behind me was a stupid little peanut of a man who YELPED hysterically for the first 30 minutes of the movie, barely pausing to breathe. I turned around and gave him a wry "ouch" kind of smile a couple of times, cupping my hands to my ears as if to say, "Dude, that's really loud." After a while I was really getting a headache, and I couldn't hear the movie, either. So I turned around and said, "Please stop, you're really loud." He hissed, "You need to calm down." Okay, the Dane has just weighed in by email -- I asked her to corroborate that it really was unbearable and I'm not just a crabby bitch. She writes: "I hereby testify that Beulah is NOT unreasonable in saying that the man sitting behind us was an Evil Noise Polluter (this is an understatement). He should be banned from all movie theatres, forever. (Even tragedies. Have a nice night. URG.)" She is alluding to the aftermath. As the credits ended, and the Yelper and his friends were loudly recapping the movie and how smart they were to have loved it so much, I lost my temper and started yelping myself. To his credit, he did not pick a fight with me, only said, "That's a pretty good imitation." I said, "Look, no offense, but you were really hurting my ears and I wish you would have stopped." And his friend pitches in with a bitchy, "Hey, next time, don't go see a comedy. Go see a tragedy, okay? Have a nice night." (With her palm up, communicating what? "That's that?") Is there any distinction anymore between private and public space? What would you have done? (Changing seats was not an option, as the theater was full.) 3:15 p.m. - 2006-03-26 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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