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Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation.... Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation. |
Saturday, August 16, 1997
A fun Seattle thing to do on summer Saturday evenings is the Almost Free Outdoor Cinema, held in Fremont. They show double features of older movies, with fun goings on in between reel changes. Tonight was a special edition of this activity. Instead of being in a parking lot in Fremont, it was held at Gasworks Park, with live bands, food and a lot of people.
Earlier in the day I went to Goodwill and got troll dolls for next week's Trollsylvanian Heritage Day. Lucky me, the trolls were on sale! Were 65 cents, now a low, low 10 cents each!
I drove to the North End, and parked under the freeway at 40th. I like the spaces underneath bridges, mysterious and strange, with tall pillars. From there I walked a half-mile or so along one of Seattle's good bike trails, the Burke-Gilman trail. It's one of those created out of an old railway right of way, so you can walk, skate or bike along it and not be in the way of the traffic.
It was only five o'clock when I got to the park, early for a show that didn't start till dusk. But the sponsoring organizations had done so much promotion for this event that I knew the crowds would be numerous. The large hill in the middle of the park forms a natural amphitheater, but still, the space isn't unlimited. Some other Cacophony buddies were there, and we got a good spot where we could see, but not be blasted by the live bands that were playing.
We were treated to sets by the Dudley Manlove Quartet (kind of a lounge band) and Critters Buggin' (I don't know how to categorize this band) while we were waiting. Finally it was dark enough to start the first feature: Metropolis, with live original accompaniment by the Young Composers' Collective.
What a strange, disjointed movie! (but maybe the print we saw had been nibbled at over the years.) I had seen bits and pieces of it over the years, but this was the first time I saw it all the way through. I can see that the imagery has been very influential over the years. I couldn't figure out if Lang intended us to take the story seriously, or if he was being satirical throughout.
Unfortunately some folks who were sitting behind us didn't know the difference between watching a movie at home and watching it with other people. I don't expect strict silence at an informal setting like the outdoor cinema, but neither do I appreciate comments like "Bring on the dancing girls!" or (speaking as the leading man) "Oo! Oo! I have an incredible wedgie!" But I didn't have my squirt gun with me, and I am ashamed to say that I didn't confront them and tell them to SHUT UP! But when I rule the world, such people will be relegated to the seventh circle of hell!
The music was very good, very atmospheric, with only one cheap shot: the band played a quotation from Mendelsohn's Wedding March at the end when the hero and heroine went into a clinch.
I decided not to stay for the second feature, King Kong, but walked back along the bike trail, and so home and to bed.
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