A Disappointing "Boyhood"
Title
A Disappointing "Boyhood"
Creator
Jacob Schlitt
Description
"When something bad (but not really bad) happens, it is not a total loss if you can get a story out of it, as my friend Bob would say."
Date
2014-08-04
Format
application/pdf
Type
text
Language
en
Coverage
2014
Identifier
A_DISAPPOINTING
Text
A DISAPPOINTING “BOYHOOD”
When something bad (but not really bad) happens, it is not a total loss if you can get a story out of it, as my friend Bob would say.
It was Sunday, and Fran and I were thinking it would be a good idea to see “Boyhood” at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, our favorite movie house, just 10 minutes from home. The movie had gotten great reviews. However, a couple of other events are taking place Sunday, which have a slightly higher priority. These events are one-shot Jewish happenings. A movie you can see anytime. So I go to the Memorial for Zalman Schachter Shalomi at Temple Beth Zion, and pay a Shiva call to someone we like very much. We will see the movie Monday.
Come Monday afternoon, Fran listens to the recorded message from the theatre with regard to show times: Boyhood is being shown at 6 pm and 9:15 pm. Great. We will make the 6 pm show and have a bite afterward. Off we go and get to the theatre a couple minutes before 6. We go to the box office and ask for two senior tickets for Boyhood. Sorry, Boyhood is not playing at 6 pm on Monday. (Monday has become a special day at the Coolidge.) There will be a special showing of Cool Hand Luke on the big screen. Boyhood will be shown at 7:30 pm. I get annoyed and suggest we go home. Fran says let us go to Panera’s across the street for a bite, and come back for the 7:30 show. I am still annoyed, and say we should go home. Fran is annoyed at me, wondering what is so important at home, that we cannot spend the next hour having a bite and returning for the movie, and getting home at 10 pm. (It is a long movie.)
I suggest a compromise: let us go to Chef Chow’s and have a Chinese dinner instead of one of those sandwiches which is not a real meal. Fran agrees; we go to Chef Chow’s and have a nice Chinese dinner, (though Fran does not like the sauce) and get very affirming fortune cookies which make me feel better—about travel and seeing wonderful sights, anticipating our river cruise.
We leave Chef Chow’s in plenty of time, get to the box office a whole 15 minutes before show time, and the man in the box office replies, when I ask for two senior tickets for Boyhood, “SOLD OUT.” I cannot believe it. I feel like John McEnroe looking up at the umpire and saying incredulously, “You can’t be serious?!” The man in the box office remembers that we were there an hour-and-a-half-before. Have you no heart? Our marriage is teetering again. Someone—the man in the box office, Fran or I, could have thought of buying the tickets at the time—but we didn’t. Who can anticipate the show selling out? So we return home. Fran sits outside watching the setting sun. I go upstairs and sit at my computer and write this.
8-4-14
When something bad (but not really bad) happens, it is not a total loss if you can get a story out of it, as my friend Bob would say.
It was Sunday, and Fran and I were thinking it would be a good idea to see “Boyhood” at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, our favorite movie house, just 10 minutes from home. The movie had gotten great reviews. However, a couple of other events are taking place Sunday, which have a slightly higher priority. These events are one-shot Jewish happenings. A movie you can see anytime. So I go to the Memorial for Zalman Schachter Shalomi at Temple Beth Zion, and pay a Shiva call to someone we like very much. We will see the movie Monday.
Come Monday afternoon, Fran listens to the recorded message from the theatre with regard to show times: Boyhood is being shown at 6 pm and 9:15 pm. Great. We will make the 6 pm show and have a bite afterward. Off we go and get to the theatre a couple minutes before 6. We go to the box office and ask for two senior tickets for Boyhood. Sorry, Boyhood is not playing at 6 pm on Monday. (Monday has become a special day at the Coolidge.) There will be a special showing of Cool Hand Luke on the big screen. Boyhood will be shown at 7:30 pm. I get annoyed and suggest we go home. Fran says let us go to Panera’s across the street for a bite, and come back for the 7:30 show. I am still annoyed, and say we should go home. Fran is annoyed at me, wondering what is so important at home, that we cannot spend the next hour having a bite and returning for the movie, and getting home at 10 pm. (It is a long movie.)
I suggest a compromise: let us go to Chef Chow’s and have a Chinese dinner instead of one of those sandwiches which is not a real meal. Fran agrees; we go to Chef Chow’s and have a nice Chinese dinner, (though Fran does not like the sauce) and get very affirming fortune cookies which make me feel better—about travel and seeing wonderful sights, anticipating our river cruise.
We leave Chef Chow’s in plenty of time, get to the box office a whole 15 minutes before show time, and the man in the box office replies, when I ask for two senior tickets for Boyhood, “SOLD OUT.” I cannot believe it. I feel like John McEnroe looking up at the umpire and saying incredulously, “You can’t be serious?!” The man in the box office remembers that we were there an hour-and-a-half-before. Have you no heart? Our marriage is teetering again. Someone—the man in the box office, Fran or I, could have thought of buying the tickets at the time—but we didn’t. Who can anticipate the show selling out? So we return home. Fran sits outside watching the setting sun. I go upstairs and sit at my computer and write this.
8-4-14
Original Format
application/msword
Collection
Citation
Jacob Schlitt, “A Disappointing "Boyhood",” Autobiographical stories & other writing by Jacob Schlitt, accessed April 24, 2024, https://tsirlson.omeka.net/items/show/248.