Because, because, because, because, because

I’m on month three of my movie outreach. It’s supposed to be outdoors, but that’s kind of touch and go since summer is monsoon season. The first showing, “The Princess and the Frog,” was outside but the second, “An American Tail,” had to be moved inside.

This time, we had as perfect weather as you can get here in the summer – sweltering hot, but not all that humid and definitely not raining.

So we were off to see a wizard, even if we did have – for the third month – some technical difficulties. We have to use the English subtitles (most of the guest speak English well, but it just makes for easier understanding when you can also read it to make sure you’ve got it right) but we don’t use a straight DVD player. Instead, it’s a projector, and at first (and with “Princess”) we didn’t have the remote. And when you hit the wrong button to start – it’s very hard to tell where the stupid dot, arrow or whatever symbol is to know if you’re on the “setup,” “language,” “play,” or whatever other sub-menus there are.

If you miss and start the movie, then you can’t just go back to the menu unless you have the remote. It doesn’t work if you hit stop twice like on most DVDs. And when you play again, it just resumes where you left off.

So the PR guy fiddled with it and we couldn’t get the subtitles on the screen and kept resuming the film. After several tries, we just started it playing with subtitles, but about five minutes in, PR Guy said he’d go get his laptop and play it on there. I then got back up in front and took a poll to see if they wanted to wait another 10 minutes to make the fix and it was unanimous.

We went back to the office to grab the laptop and turns out, there WAS a remote. Now, since we went through this two months ago with “Princess,” I’ve no idea why PR Guy didn’t think to bring it this time, but it was there and we got it, along with the laptop.

And we ended up not needing the laptop. I punched the right buttons and got the subtitles and a round of applause, then we hit the yellow brick road.

Watching it with the audience was like seeing it through a kids' eyes: Most of the people are adults, but they'd never seen this before. It's a truly American thing, and to observe people's reaction at, say, the first glimpse of the in-color Oz, the Horse of a Different Color or the Munchkins was really cool. I could hear oohhs and aaahhs. And watching them make the connection that the Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow were her farm pals  was fun. (I'm positive the first time I saw it, I never put that together).

Prior to the movie, I’d given the little spiel about it being the first American fairytale, 75 years old this year, Academy Award for “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” first full-length film in Technicolor, etc. I had a map and pointed out Kansas and explained about farmers, too. I'd also gone into some of the quotes from it, so when we got to parts like the Wicked Witch screaming "I'm melting! I'm melting!" or Dorothy’s “We’re not in Kansas anymore,” I could hear them murmuring in recognition. (Having subtitles really helped on that, too.)

We had a quiz after (my straight-A audience!) and then I sent them to home, where there’s no place like. I do think they enjoyed it.

In 1939, that movie must have been phenomenal on the big screen. All the color of Munchkinland. Impressive.

It was my first attempt at a non-cartoon movie, and I hope to build on that. So far, the audience hasn’t exactly peaked – we had about 40 people – and I hope it’ll go past summer. It’s only one night a month and it really is fun to do.

Next month, I’m aiming for “The Rookie.” I hope I don’t ruin my chances to do “Field of Dreams” later by doing a baseball one now, but I am going with the rated G one first.

And that’s been the sum of my excitement lately. I wish I could make up something more interesting, but that really has been it. I also proctored a test today and I have two sets of tentative plans for tomorrow, but it’s possible neither will materialize.

It’s not quite mid-June, but today it was already 95 with a “feels like” 102. And today really wasn’t too humid at all. As we progress through the summer – and I’m really not sure how long it runs – I am pretty sure I am not going to be in to wandering around outside It’s just too miserable.