Today… well, er, uh, yesterday — Saturday! was good!
Started by me grabbing my Ant book and hoping to get some reading done downtown somewhere, maybe try and find out what was playing at Burns Court Cinema (an independent movie house, sort of like The Roxy). Got sidetracked before I reached the parking lot. The mutant ducks were out in full force!

Well, okay, I don’t know that they’re mutants. But they’re sure not mallards.

Roosterducks?

This guy is swimming across the lake in the middle of the townhouse complex. You can see some of the apartments in the water.
So I jumped in the car, threw in the second half of the Sasha-Digweed Delta Heavy Essential Mix (04-06-2002) in the CD player, and made the 15 minute trip downtown. Car was a little weak in first gear as I was leaving the apartment complex, hopefully that’s only because it’s cold out and it hadn’t been running all day.
Got downtown, parked close to where I thought I remembered Simon parking when we watched Bowling for Columbine. Didn’t see Burns Court Cinema anywhere! Found The Weekly Planet (think Monday magazine). Checked the listings. Burns Court Cinema is located on, good heavens, Burns Court. I keep a map book in the car for just these sorts of occasions. Walked back to the car. Turned out I was all of a two minute walk away from the theatre.
As I was walking toward the theatre and waiting for a light to change, I glanced over at a car to my left. I thought I might have been impeding its right turn, standing too close to the sidewalk — you know, that kind of thing. I smiled at the car, took a step back, and looked at the traffic signal, which was still on don’t walk.
“Excuse me?!”, said a female voice. “Can you tell me where Burns Court Cinema is?”
Me, a little flustered: “Uh, ha! I’m looking for it too. There’s a bunch of people over that way, that’s where I’m going.” The light changed and the car disappeared in the direction I had pointed.
Walked 50 feet more and found Burns Court, another 100 feet and I was at the Cinema. Said Simon of this area: “Rich hippies live here!” It’s a nice little closed-off C-shaped road, lined with odd looking single-story dwellings and a few very expensive-looking-yet-very-low-profile cafes and ristorantes. Also a few places selling kitchen art.
I read the films names from the posters on the side of the big pink Burns Court Cinema building. Didn’t reconize anything. The lady who had asked me where Burns Court Cinema finally rolled in with her man-friend. Lady jumped out of the car while mister found a spot to park. She rushed to the box office to discover The Pianist was sold out. Next showing was at 8:10pm, more than 3 hours from then. I had just come to find out what was playing, not to actually see a show. Ladyperson hummed and hawed, and decided to see Nicholas Nickleby, which was playing in 20 minutes. “They’re both nominated.” I walk over and look at the poster, see nothing about nominations for anything, and walk back to the lady. “Nominated for what?” “Golden Globes”. Me: “Oh!”.
And right there, on the spot, I decided to see Nicholas Nickleby.

How often do you see reels just lying around? These were for The Man From Elysian Fields.
Got some popcorn, of course. Paying for overpriced movie-popcorn is something of a tradition for me.

This stuff is extra special; it’s got popcorn salt on it. “What’s the difference?”, I asked the girl at the counter. “Well, it’s finer-grained, so it pours a little more smoothly, and it’s a little bit stronger. And oh yeah, it’s orange.” Orange?!
I was a bit late walking in. Took my seat up at the front. The room couldn’t have held more than 60 people.

I call this shot “remember to put away the woofers!” Taken using a 2 second exposure.
Nicholas Nickelby was fantastic, by the way. See it if you have the chance. Didn’t know a thing about it before I went in. I love surprises like that.

Outside, after it was all over. The third poster from the right is the one for Nicholas.
A totally enjoyable day!