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Peter Fenzel and Matthew Wrather start by postulating that they didn’t go to see the new Jungle Cruise movie form Disney, and end up, naturally enough, with Pete cleaning out his garage and Matt deciding that, dang it, he should buy that $17.99 bottle of Syrah. Routines, infrastructures, and the hierarchy of entertainments suspiciously resembling Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are discussed.
Bonus coffee recommendation from Matt.
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Further Reading
- “Vortex” by Ezra Pound
- “Disneyland to make the Jungle Cruise more inclusive after years-long complaints of racism” from the L.A. Times
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Wikipedia)
I fell out of the movie habit in college. Multiplexes sprawled, second-run and matinee showings vanished, and the investment–money and time, since that’s time the group could be working or talking–didn’t feel warranted. Some exceptions felt worth supporting, but I usually just wait for them to show up on a service.
It’s definitely a problem, though, that nobody is making the non-quarantine case for rental prices that looks suspiciously like physical media purchases. It makes intellectual sense in terms of dividing by movie ticket prices. But if it exists, the emotional argument seems to just be “oh, what, are you going to get your blockbuster movies on Peacock? Wait a couple of months while you miss out on Twitter memes like a plebe?”
I forgot to mention the obvious: That despite the problems, I still prefer having the option to watch new movies at home, even though I’m practically never going to do it. There’s probably some value in the group-watch feature, here, too.
Price pegging is a very funny psychological phenomenon. I was loathe to spend $30 to stream Black Widow on Disney Prime (which I watch with a mooched password from a friend, so in reality I would be renting for him) so I went to my recently reopened reserved seat cineplex. Two tickets, convenience fee, and tax came to $29.85. And then I bought some popcorn.
My father was extremely frugal and for movies we would wait for a film to come to the base theater. Before the show he would pop popcorn at home and give each of us kids a brown lunchbag full of popcorn. And that had to last us the whole show. Buying popcorn at a theater is my way of indulging in a luxury good I was deprived of as a child. This is probably an issue I need to discuss with my therapist.
My dad also once used my Dungeons and Dragons group as a blind taste testers for Orville Reddenbacher popcorn versus generic store brand. While the final results would not pass any sorts of statistical rigor, he felt justified that at least some of my friends preferred the cheaper alternative.
When dining out I often check to see if the beverage costs exceeded over 50% of the pre-tax total bill. A round of cocktails and a bottle of wine will frequently get very close. Yet I have no qualms about that since the cocktail program at many of the mid-level independent restaurants I try is as good or better than the food as far as quality of ingredients and care of preparation go.