The Clinton Theater

Posted on October 18, 2012 by funnygurl2

There is a little place I sometimes go. It is cheap and entertaining (Not many places can say that these days).

Do you know how in movies whenever they show a small town street scene from the 1950’s there is always a tiny movie theater? Unbelievably, some of them still exist.

Clinton Theater, Clinton, Michigan. Image owned by The Clinton Theater


The Clinton Theater is one of these theaters. Located in Clinton, Michigan, pop. 2,336, their movies were only $3 when my husband and I first went to a show there. The refreshment prices were incredibly reasonable as well. The theater only has one screen. They only have one showtime a day in the evening, sometimes two on Saturday and Sunday. My theory is that everyone who works there also has a day job and is therefore unavailable to show movies during the day. And that whoever works there are probably the same people who own it as well.

If the Clinton Theater is showing a popular movie, it is usually necessary to get there early, as seats are limited. The lobby is very small and is usually filled with the people in line for refreshments. The theater is small and cozy. They play an eclectic selection of interesting music (or maybe it is just really old music) while you wait for movie time. They store their extra bottles of pop in the front of the theater. They are very trusting of their customers. It adds to the small-town feel. I am not that trusting.

When the film (yes, 35mm film) begins to roll, first you see hand-drawn animation of…an alien maybe? (The official website informs me they are a bird and a fish.) who welcome you to The Clinton Theater. Then the previews. Watching the previews, you have no idea which films will play in this actual theater. Unlike the ten screen multiplex, this theater only has one screen, remember?

Which movie they show each week is based firstly on a website vote (how modern for such an old theater). Secondly, it is based on when they can get a physical copy of the film. Those are becoming harder and harder to come by, with all movie studios moving to release all their films in digital. This causes a delay for when The Clinton Theater can get a new hit movie. I assume that this process probably frustrates the hell out of the owners. I kind of like it because if I missed a movie when it was at the multiplex, (ex. Snow White and The Huntsman) I can watch for it to be showing in Clinton. Or if it was a movie I wanted to see again in theaters (ex. all Twilight Saga movies) without having to pay full price, I can go to Clinton.

They have since raised admission to $4 a movie, although they usually still have a $3 bargain night if you check their website. Which is a perfect price point if you see a movie advertised that you think you might want to rent, but you don’t want to have to wait that long (ex. Joyous Noise). They also sell refillable fountain cups and popcorn tubs that you can bring in on future visits and get a refill for a fraction of the price.

The Clinton Theater had a few fundraisers to raise money to buy a digital projector, as they knew the future of their business depended on it. I kept meaning to attend one of their fundraisers or send them a check. I figured I had plenty of time, as they would be collecting money for it for years to come.

Then last week they announced that they will be getting a digital projector, possibly as early as November. Well, dang. That was fast. I am guessing they must have received one huge donation to fill in the gaps in funding. I saw an article in Readers Digest where a small town won a contest run by the magazine to put in a digital projector for their own down-home movie house. They only won $25,000 toward their goal of the $70,000 needed to convert their theater.

Well, since I missed my chance to donate to The Clinton Theater, I guess I will just have to support local business and watch movies there more often. Nowadays, I have to go to the movies by myself, as my husband and I have a shortage of babysitters. I can’t wait until my son is old enough to sit through a movie with us. Maybe in a few years…

My parting thought: The Clinton Theater is awesome and cool! If you live close by, drive there for a movie sometime (additional parking in the back). If not, find the closest similar theater to you and enjoy the savings and fun. (The Maumee Indoor Theater is another great small theater I have been to.)

Image owned by The Clinton Theater


132 West Michigan Ave. (US-12)
Clinton, MI 49236

For Showtimes:
Call: 517-456-4315
Visit: http://www.clintontheatre.com/Home.html

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What I Learned This Week – 10/14/12

Posted on October 14, 2012 by funnygurl2

I learned this week that if you have three dogs in your house and it is raining outside, you better not forget to put down a towel for them to walk on, or your white kitchen floor will end up full of muddy paw prints.

Muddy paw prints on my kitchen floor


I also learned that if you are trying to print from the Internet and it doesn’t work in one web browser, try another.

That’s all I got.

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The Bounty of My Garden

Posted on October 11, 2012 by funnygurl2

Most people garden and grow a plentiful bounty of vegetables that make their way onto their dinner tables and into their stomachs.

Our garden? Eh, not so much.

Gourd collection on the front steps


We got gourds. Lots of ’em. And they are large too. I, personally, don’t know anyone who eats a gourd. But they are pretty. And it saves us money on Halloween decorations. Did I mention we have a few small white pumpkins as well?

This started last fall. After Halloween last year, when the decorative fruit started to get squishy, my husband threw our white pumpkins and gourds into the corner of the backyard we call our garden.

We call it the garden, but no matter how many times he rototills the ground, grass insists on growing there. Which is super humorous, because we can’t get grass to grow in the rest of our yard at all!

This spring my husband planted sweet corn. But, surprisingly, the gourds came up as well. My husband almost mowed off the vines, but I knew what they were from having unsuccessfully tried to grow pumpkins year after year growing up.

Our Garden


So, the corn grew and the gourds grew. We called it my husband’s garden and I left it up to him to care for it. But as it became clear that we are in a drought, I took pity and watered it when I remembered to. He forgot to thin out the corn. And he forgot to harvest it, or rather, kept waiting for the ears to get bigger. (They never did.)

Meanwhile the vines for the gourds and the white pumpkins crept through the chain link fence and tried to climb the neighbors’ tree–multiple times. It grew out through the chain link fence toward the street. It grew every which way in our backyard, increasing the size of our garden by three-fold. It was like something out of The Great Green Turkey Creek Monster.

We started harvesting the fruits of our labor last month. We got most of them to shelter before a freak hailstorm hit. Only a few were damaged. What do you do with a butt-ton of gourds? A few years ago when we grew them (similar seeding process), we tried to sell them. (I think my mother-in-law may have been the only customer, bless her heart.) This year I gave a couple to my mom. The rest, well, we will use them to decorate.

More gourds


And re-seed for next year.

Now, to get rid of those corn stalks. Ooo! Maybe I could get my husband to bundle them up for decoration as well!

Yes, we have a very bountiful garden. What do we grow? Oh, exterior harvest decorations, of course!

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No Handlebars

Posted on October 9, 2012 by funnygurl2

This is my son and his father disassembling his tricyle. Bear in mind, I asked him to tighten the handlebars, not remove them.

tricycle

“I can ride my bike with no handlebars…”

And here is the song that should play in your head when you see the picture above: “Handlebars” by Flobots. The song starts slow, but builds to the end. And there are some great/silly lyrics in it. “I can take apart the remote control, and I can almost put it back together…”

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What I Learned This Week – 10/7/12

Posted on October 7, 2012 by funnygurl2

Introduction to my week

In my life, I have participated in some strange events because something told me that I should.  An example would be when I played a ghoul on the Ghost Train.  I ended up on the train with the adults, rather than with my high school classmates outside in a field freezing and playing with a chainsaw.  I have always felt weird about this my whole life.

I just realized: THAT WAS AWESOME!!!  I didn’t have to freeze or, more importantly, spend time with people who had no desire to spend time with me.

Other events have included going to presidential campaign events, genealogical meetings, weather-spotter meetings, and numerous others.

A sticker I got from WordCamp that is now affixed to my puter


One such event I participated in yesterday.   I signed up and attended WordCamp.  Now, the write up for this event describes it as such:

WordCamp Detroit 2012 is managed and organized by a group of people who share a few key interests: Passion for the web, the love of WordPress, the drive to teach and belief in the a**-kicking city of Detroit.

From: http://2012.detroit.wordcamp.org/about/

Having actually attended the event, I would say it was a mish-mash of speakers of various levels of professional speaking ability and various levels of experience in WordPress/website coding/google/none and/or all of the above.  And you really need more than a basic level of knowledge of WordPress.

What I learned this week was that there is some degree of knowledge between writing a goofy little blog in my living room and the info that was dispensed at WordCamp.  And I am not sure where I need to look to find that info.

The word I heard over and over again that seems to be my biggest deficiency right now seems to be something called a plugin.  Or rather, many, many of them.  If my blog suddenly STARTS stalking you, then you will know I did something wrong:)

I also learned this week that I can put on my big girl panties (I hate that term) and drive all by my little self to big, bad Detroit on the frightening freeways and find the scary parking garage, and make it home again.

I was literally terrified to go all by myself.

My husband even offered to drop me off and pick me up.  But it is one thing for me to disrupt my life to attend an event, it is another to expect my husband to disrupt his entire Saturday as well.

Driving before 8:00AM on a Saturday, the traffic was not bad at all, and the one detour I had didn’t take me beyond the road I needed to turn on to.  And no one mugged me and stole my laptop on the way to the workshop.  Which was my second biggest fear, next to driving.  I had even emptied out my extra credit cards from my wallet so I would have fewer companies to call when my wallet was stolen.  And then I put my drivers license and credit card in my pocket while I walked on the street, so that they hopefully wouldn’t be stolen at all.

Comerica Park from the window of the WordCamp venue


The drive home was another matter.  My return home Google Maps directions looked very clean-cut and easy.  WRONG!  It turns out the venue was right next to Comerica Park (Home of the Detroit Tigers).  Like, you could see it right out the fifth floor windows where we were all day.  WordCamp got over one hour before the first Tigers playoff game of the year.  And Google Maps wanted me to drive right in front of Comerica Park.  So did all the one way streets that made it impossible for me to go any other direction.

I either missed my turn or the road was blocked there or both.  I ended up on Woodward Avenue, which was kind of a lucky break.  It is a very major road, so there were signs directing me back to the freeway.  Where I ran into all the traffic still arriving to the Tigers game. 

And wouldn’t you know it, my Service Engine Soon light popped on as I am trying to not collide with anyone in game time traffic?  I seriously have nightmares like that.  (My husband tells me to ignore the SES light.  It seems to only be an issue in the winter.  He claims it has to do with level of ethanol in the gasoline, or something like that.)

I was driving 80mph in the slow lane.  I couldn’t wait to get home to my safe little house.

The most important thing that I learned might be that although I don’t want to do something (and every molecule in my body is screaming at me not to), I can do it if I make myself.

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