A Mash-Up

With the advent of social media, and especially smart phones which allow you to let all 1000 of your friends know where you are at any given time (I think there's even an app for the iPhone which automatically keeps track of your whereabouts and publishes it to your friends in case, you know, you never ever want to be private again in your entire life), people started having things called mash-ups. They may be called something else, but I remember mash-ups.

A mash-up is where you let all 1000 of your closest friends know that you're going to be at Joe's pizza (or, perhaps, are already there), and you invite everybody to come and meet you there, if they are in the neighborhood. Presumably people in other states or countries ignore these kinds of notifications.

It matters not whether you actually KNOW the people you've invited. Presumably when someone enters Joe's pizza with a smart phone in his/her hand and begins looking around the room, you will find each other.

It all sounds like a lot of fun (unless, of course, you remember that there are bad guys on the net who now know that you are not at home and that you are a person with electronic gear so you probably are a good target for a home invasion robbery. But let that pass.)

To my great surprise today, I created a small local mash-up.

I suggested to Walt that we go and see The King's Speech which was finally playing in Davis. Last year, you may recall, we saw a whopping three movies all year and I thought that if we saw one in the first couple of days of January, we might actuall see more movies in 2011...like maybe four or...gasp...even five.

Anyway, we went down to the theatre but the garage seemed to be full and we found a line of people waiting to buy tickets.

OK, so it's a wimpy line and you probably stood behind more people in your supermarket, but it was a line. True, True Grit, The Fighter and Little Fockers, all current blockbusters were also playing but this being Davis, and given the age of the crowd, I was betting this crowd wasn't there to see True Grit. I stood at the head of the line and eavesdropped and learned that the theatre wasn't completely sold out and that there were still some seats near the front.

I did that. Once. Sat in the front row of a movie theatre. It was for The Empire Strikes Back back in the 1980s and the kids wanted to see it. But I vowed I'd never do it again.

I suggested to Walt that we buy tickets for the 4:30 showing, and we did. This gave us the opportunity to go to the store, and then relax at home for an hour and a half. I posted a Facebook status report that we had tried to see the movie but had bought tickets for a later showing.

Not wanting to risk not getting a seat the second time, we went very early and I got my favorite seats in the house and sat there, watching the theatre fill up. It was lucky that we went early because the line for the later show extended to the corner.

Shortly before they started showing previews, my friends Evelyn and Anne came in. Apparently Evelyn had read my status report, had called to make sure there were still seats available, called Anne to ask if she wanted to join her and they were able to sit next to us for the film. What fun! My first mash-up.

As for the movie, it left me speechless and teary-eyed. What a fabulous movie. Even grumpy old Derrick (former boss, current movie reviewer) gave it 5 stars and he rarely does that. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are just amazing. I can't gush enough about the film.

After dinner, we went next door to the Thai restaurant for dinner, so I didn't even have to cook. All things considered a real winner of a day!

And now everybody, go see The King's Speech. I probably won't be there, but create your own mash-up.