OH WE HAVE A MARATHON
Nov. 18th, 2005 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spatchYes, it's on! The 31st Annual Boston 24-Hour Science Fiction Marathon ("SF/31") is a go from noon Sunday, February 19 to noon Monday, February 20, 2006. That's President's Day weekend and that's a goddamn tradition. I've been going for over 10 years at this point, missing only the 2002 edition (when they finally showed THE OMEGA MAN like I'd only been asking for since like forever.) Tickets are $42.50 if purchased before December 1, when the price inexplicably rises to $46.50. When you consider that's about 12-13 films plus shorts and cartoons and Rice Chex/Wheat Chex battles, it's one heck of a deal.
Since you haven't been going, you've missed a lot of fun, such as watching BARBARELLA, GALAXINA and BATTLEFIELD EARTH back-to-back, enjoying recent science-fiction such as THE DISH and PRIMER that didn't get such a wide release, and being treated to some real gems like THE APPLE (disco sci-fi set in the far-flung future of 1994), INCUBUS (the movie made entirely in Esperanto and starring a young William Shatner) and the real cut of BRAZIL, up on the big screen and just as Terry Gilliam wanted it all along. I love this event more than anything else and I suspect the real reason why I've been loath to move from this area is the fact that I'd miss the 'thon.
Ok, that's only one of the reasons. The rest of the reasons know who they are.
The venue this year is the West Newton Cinemas in, uh, West Newton. It's close to the West Newton Commuter Rail stop (Framingham/Worcester line) and I've checked their Sunday schedule and they've got two trains running on Sunday morning. Their return trips on Monday (President's Day/Saturday schedule) don't look promising, but there's a bus that runs to Newton Corner and from there you can get to Kenmore or Copley or wherever you'd like. So the public transportation is doable, even if it's not as convenient as the Somerville Theatre was last year. But there's bad blood between the Somerville management and the Marathon management, so we won't be going back. But hey, we're nomadic. In the 31 years of the event we've gone from the dearly-departed Orson Welles Theater in Cambridge to the Somerville to the Coolidge Corner (which is where I started) to the Dedham Community Theatre to the Somerville again and now to the West Newton. I've logged quite a few hours in these theaters now, haven't I.
Every year this happens:
Since you haven't been going, you've missed a lot of fun, such as watching BARBARELLA, GALAXINA and BATTLEFIELD EARTH back-to-back, enjoying recent science-fiction such as THE DISH and PRIMER that didn't get such a wide release, and being treated to some real gems like THE APPLE (disco sci-fi set in the far-flung future of 1994), INCUBUS (the movie made entirely in Esperanto and starring a young William Shatner) and the real cut of BRAZIL, up on the big screen and just as Terry Gilliam wanted it all along. I love this event more than anything else and I suspect the real reason why I've been loath to move from this area is the fact that I'd miss the 'thon.
Ok, that's only one of the reasons. The rest of the reasons know who they are.
The venue this year is the West Newton Cinemas in, uh, West Newton. It's close to the West Newton Commuter Rail stop (Framingham/Worcester line) and I've checked their Sunday schedule and they've got two trains running on Sunday morning. Their return trips on Monday (President's Day/Saturday schedule) don't look promising, but there's a bus that runs to Newton Corner and from there you can get to Kenmore or Copley or wherever you'd like. So the public transportation is doable, even if it's not as convenient as the Somerville Theatre was last year. But there's bad blood between the Somerville management and the Marathon management, so we won't be going back. But hey, we're nomadic. In the 31 years of the event we've gone from the dearly-departed Orson Welles Theater in Cambridge to the Somerville to the Coolidge Corner (which is where I started) to the Dedham Community Theatre to the Somerville again and now to the West Newton. I've logged quite a few hours in these theaters now, haven't I.
Every year this happens:
- I go "HAY MARATHON HAY HAY HAY"
- people go "OOOOOH BUT I CAN'T GO"
- Some people go "I WOULD GO" but then don't
- I end up going myself and have a good time and sit near the same girl with white hair who laughs at all the same parts I laugh at, yet we never speak to each other
- I come home and post a writeup of half the films, then say "I'm passing out, will write the rest later" but never do because by the time I wake up, it's all gone.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-18 07:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-18 07:16 pm (UTC)![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lydian says she'll go, and she ends up going, but we sit on like different levels of the theater and only see each other when it's time to get a burrito or go to the bathroom.
How's that?(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-18 07:19 pm (UTC)Well, I WOULD GO but probably won't.
It sounds like a blast but (1) I really can't afford this and (2) as interesting as some of these movies sound, 24 hours is a bit too much for me.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-18 07:33 pm (UTC)Either way, I'll be far away and busy. Have fun. And yeah, public transport in the area sucks.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-18 08:03 pm (UTC)Is this the place with the Gallery of Bad Art and the extremely horrible men's restroom from 2004?
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-18 08:20 pm (UTC)I've never actually been to the West Newton location, mostly cause of the lack of easy-peasy transport. This will be an adventure.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-18 08:14 pm (UTC)EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU.
Has failed.
Except Prog.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-18 08:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-18 08:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-18 09:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-20 10:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-20 03:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-20 03:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-19 05:39 pm (UTC)If you can arrange it, you could bring a laptop and do a stream-of-impressions writeup while you watch.