Why not drop in and have yourself a time?
The hawrd-werkin' and devoted team of artists, musicians, deepthinkers, and imagination technicians over at Harkview Cinema has been striving to reinvent the lost art of gleeful escapism through the medium of intimate (remote) social gatherings. So far, we're having a blast!
Noisily living in the present with a quiet focus on the past
If you're lucky enough (read: old enough) to have had a genuine drive-in theater in your town growing up, you'll probably enjoy what we've been up to the last couple weeks, over on yonder ScrewTube channel . There is something about the experience of piling into a big car and watching a movie under the stars with friends and family that can't be duplicated... but our weekly party streams come sort of close in a weird way.
Part of our success has to do with the fact that our artistic output/caring-about-criticism-from-jerks ratio is 99.999990/0.000001. In fact, if they're pissed when they see we're having a great time doing the things, that lets us know fer shur that we're doin' it right.
Observe this here (totes pro) pie graph. It should help illustrate where our community values are rooted:
So much meh...
The notoriously Great Unwashed (read: haters) pipe up and lip off from time to time, like they predictably do with anyone in our particular category of stellar awrt-makers. But when they do, we go like this bird here:
How did THIS happen???
The idea came from an old friend of mine in the early days of our new "normal", back when the entirety of our big weekly do-something-novel day was suddenly stripped down to the tiresome effort of buying groceries (and maybe getting the added treat of gawking at some desperate person railing against the oppressive new culture). We were on the phone yapping about how sucky it is not to be able to go out and shake it a little. He was like, you know what I miss doing? A long discussion ensued where we got nostalgic about how cool those old outdoor theaters were and how kids today... well, kids today in general, amirite?
Anyway, that conversation led to my latest project. I love producing this show because it gives me a chance to create all new content with a weekly theme; while providing a showcase for a whole bunch of talented content creators. We hang out in the live chat during the premieres and heckle the film/music clips (and each other - gently). It's a way to play around and have some fun together even though in "reality" (ptew! Dirty word!) we're profoundly isolated, both virtually speaking, and by actual IRL distance. The spirit in our chatroom is warm and friendly. It's a nice place to hang out for a little while on a Monday night.
Things have been dreadful (so I hear) for folks that have had their world turned upside-down by the whole stay home, 2 meter distance in public baloney. For me, nothing has really changed. But I do miss being able to do other things besides buy groceries when I go out. To help scratch that itch I've been hosting these virtual parties with the help of some close friends. I'd like to invite you to join us.
This video gives a little peek at the making of one of the original pieces that went into our most recent show. This small piece was a whole lot of fun to make.
You can catch a great interview with George Romero, talking about his attitude toward movie-making in this past week's Drive-In Night. Skip to 17:10 to hear what he has to say
For the George Romero fans out there, this will be a little treat.
If you'd like to join in the fun next time, subscribe to the channel and make yourself not-busy Monday at 9:15pm EST. When you pop into the chat, let us know you found us here on #hive. We'll make a big deal about it!