Dave's Thoughts of the Day: April 26th

Great NFL Draft last night!  Lots of highlights, and other good business.   Too much to say, and a lot of it was already said by others on the internet.  Let's get into the other things...

I am REALLY excited about the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year.  The Western Conference could have literally 8 contenders to make the Cup Final.   Great offensive threats on the Blackhawks, Canucks, Ducks, Red Wings, Sharks, Kings, and even Minnesota and St Louis are no slouches.

The only prediction I have, in such a wide open playoff, is that whoever Vancouver gets in the first round they are going to DESTROY.  Can you imagine the pent up rage they will have for getting punked in back to back years?  First, losing in a Game 7 at home to Boston, then the next year losing in the first round to the Kings in 5, getting eliminated at home.  I think Vancouver had enough... they want blood.  I pity the team that goes out to face them in the quarters.

Tomorrow, I make my descent onto San Diego with Coach.   The one thing I'm excited about, other than meeting my friends and the Petco baseball game, is fish tacos.  In San Diego, great fish tacos are as abundant as pizza is in NY, or tacos are in Los Angeles, or Rice-a-Roni is in San Francisco. 

When I go to the movies, I love big screens.  HUGE screens.   70 foot wide screens, my friends.  It's not the sort of thing you get in rinky dink Oxnard and Ventura.   When I see large screens like this out there, it's a treat.  

Over the years I've seen some good ones... The Village Theatre right here in Westwood.  The Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood (sadly it's seen better days [and movies for that matter -- I mean you have to be kidding me booking a freakin Tyler Perry movie in Grauman's, no offense to Tyler Perry of course as he's quite successful]).  The Cinerama Dome at the Arclight.  The IMAX screen at the Universal 18 at CityWalk.   The Fremont theatre way up in San Luis Obispo.   The Arlington at Santa Barbara was ornate, although underwhelming with screen size.  I may have not mentioned this, but I added a new one to the list: the cozy, but enormous Big Newport Theatre in Newport Beach.  Easy parking, great staff, and a FAN-TASTIC screen.  FANTASTIC.   It is HUGE!!   You can get drowned out by the screen.  I love it.

It's a little sad that movie theater companies don't want to build huge screens like this anymore, IMAX aside.   They're getting closer however.  For example, at L.A. Live, they now have their own version of the "Big Newport" but in a Stadium Seating configuration.   It's a little like an IMAX screen but they happen to use top down masking (meaning they cover the screen from the top down when showing wider films, really lame because 80% of movies today are the wider-screen scope movies).  Even so, it's about 70 feet wise I'm told.  That's good news!

We have to get back to making the big screen a BIG screen.   The "spaceship", i.e. the AMC Century 15 pleases me... now, their screens don't come close to 70 feet but I think their largest one might be around 50 feet wide, so it's pretty good.

Even so... I get a thrill out of those old school 1000 seat auditoria with scope screens from wall to wall... side masking and all.   I don't know if they will ever build a new one in the traditional style but the largest stadium auditorium at the Arclight is about 70% there, with side masking to boot.   Hopefully they continue with making enormous screens such as this.  This kind of cinema is my bag.

Now, most people from coast to coast are big supporters of the Stadium Seating auditorium.   I like the general idea of it, but the reason I like the traditional slope seating is this:   In stadium seating you're not letting the movie make a presence over you.   It's such a steep angle for most seats that you're looking DOWN on the picture.  That doesn't seem to be the same to me.   Sitting around the middle of the Big Newport two weeks ago, I realized what the impact was of a sloped auditorium:   when you sit on a gradual slope you're basically looking up (albeit slightly) at the screen.  You let the screen dominate your field of vision... the movie then takes over.  I saw "42" this way.. and it was like I was there -- in 1947 with the goofy looking cars and everything.

I never get the feeling that "I am there" with stadium seating.   It's more like I'm looking at the movie through a balcony window when I sit within a stadium.  So... that's all I had.

HOLY CRAP!  As I was writing this I heard the report that Russell Westbrook is out for the season!!  WOW!!!

That's all from here, have a good weekend...