Small town movie theater tech

I was reading Roger Ebert’s lament over the disgraceful decline of quality in theater projection (a function of theater owners who just don’t care anymore and the corrupting influence of bad 3D), and then I remembered that last year I took some pictures of the funky old technology in our local movie house, the Morris Theatre.

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This is a classy old place, a bit run down now, but once it was the entertainment center for the whole community. It was built in the 1940s, and it’s very old school: a single screen, so you don’t get many choices here. What’s playing this week is what’s playing this week. That’s fine, though, since you don’t go just for the movie, but for the atmosphere and to sample the different audiences that show up for different movies.

Anyway, my daughter, Skatje worked there until she graduated from college and abandoned us to move hundreds of miles away and leave us desolated and lonely, and so one evening when I was the only customer in the theater (that sometimes happens, and then I get the whole big screen to myself, which is not economically viable, but that’s a whole different matter), I puttered about getting in the way and seeing what was involved. I took a few pictures. I don’t know if they’ll make sense — the room was awesomely cluttered and complicated.

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Next week in St Paul

I’ll be on Minnesota Public Radio on 31 May, on a program called Bright Ideas, in front of a live studio audience, which will probably pepper me with obnoxious questions. Or fun questions. We’ll find out.

This event may have already been ‘sold’ out (tickets are free) — but you locals can try to get in here (Never mind, it is already sold out).

That’s our Michele!

Michele Bachmann opened her mouth again. She compared increasing the tax rates for the rich to the Holocaust.

She said she was shocked to hear that many Americans weren’t aware that millions of Jews had died until after World War II ended.

Bachmann said the next generation will ask similar questions about what their elders did to prevent them from facing a huge tax burden.

“I tell you this story because I think in our day and time, there is no analogy to that horrific action,” she said, referring to the Holocaust. “But only to say, we are seeing eclipsed in front of our eyes a similar death and a similar taking away. It is this disenfranchisement that I think we have to answer to.”

Shorter Michele Bachman: “Expecting me to bear a fair share of my civic responsibility is like gassing me to death!”

Jen McCreight gets to experience Minnesota!

Living in paradise, the Pacific Northwest, has probably spoiled her, so it’s good that Mother Nature is preparing for her visit. Right now, Minnesota is looking horribly bedraggled and grubby — we’ve been thawing, slowly, over the last few weeks, so the snowpack burying us has diminished by a foot or two, and what’s left is the filthy black dirty detritus covering everything, with a few exposed brown patches here and there. But nw we hear that temperatures are about to plummet again, and a snowstorm is on the way, timed to arrive just when I’m picking her up! She’ll get to experience the range of exquisite torments Minnesota offers us, with the exception of the bugs. She’ll have to come back for that in July.

Anyway, Jen McCreight is touring the state, visiting Minneapolis, St Cloud, and of course, the cultural center of our fair region, small town Morris. She’ll be speaking here on God’s Lady Problem: Breaking up with abusive supernatural beings, at 6:30 in HFA 6 on Wednesday, 23 March. We’ll be having a slumber party at my house that evening, with my daughter Skatje also planning to be in town, but before that, I’m sure we can make a run out to Old No. 1 for some conviviality. Come on out and hang out!

If the weather allows, of course. We might be snowed in for a while. I hope she’s prepared.

Jen’s full schedule, in case you don’t want to travel to the cultural mecca on the west side of the state to see her:

Tuesday, 3/22
St. Cloud, MN
7:00pm in Atwood, Cascade Room
720 Fourth Ave South
Host: Secular Student Alliance at St. Cloud State University
Facebook event

Wednesday, 3/23
Morris, MN
Host: UM Morris Freethinkers
Part of Pride Week programming, woo!
6:30pm in HFA 6

Thursday, 3/24
Minneapolis, MN
7pm in Murphy Hall 130
206 Church Street SE
Host: Campus Atheists, Skeptics and Humanists (CASH) at UM
Facebook event

Let’s dissect Terry Mortenson

This is a local reminder: we’re gathering at the Morris Public Library today at 3pm to discuss the lies of our recent creationist visitor. All are welcome, if you want to try to defend him, please do…just be aware that there will be a group of intelligent, well-educated UMM students present who will add you to the menu. But hey, we were brave enough to show up for the Mortenson follies, are you brave enough to step into the lion’s den?

Ask an Atheist

This week, the University of Minnesota Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists will be hosting an Ask an Atheist panel discussion on Thursday, March 3, from 7:00pm – 9:00pm. This will take place on the UMTC campus, at:

Amundson Hall B75
421 Washington Avenue SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Here’s how it is described:

This week we are welcoming everyone from all theological backgrounds to come and learn more about atheists. We want to hear your questions and be able to answer them, candidly, to clear up any misconceptions about atheists that you may have. We will have a panel of an undergraduate student, a graduate student, and esteemed professor and atheist blogger PZ Myers available to answer your questions.

So show up, ask questions!

Another Minnesota embarrassment

It’s state representative Mike Beard. Republican. Christian. Moron.

He thinks we don’t have to worry about natural resources.

God is not capricious. He’s given us a creation that is dynamically stable. We are not going to run out of anything.

Nuclear war and the death of a few hundred thousand people? Whatever. Get over it.

How did Hiroshima and Nagasaki work out? We destroyed that, but here we are, 60 years later and they are tremendously effective and livable cities. Yes, it was pretty horrible. But, can we recover? Of course we can.

No, he’s not from the same district as Michele Bachmann. But he fits right in with her.

What should we talk about?

I’m going to be on Atheist Talk radio on Sunday morning at 9am, for a whole hour. Greg Laden is going to be interviewing me, and he’s put up a thread asking for questions. Any questions. Go ahead, make me writhe and suffer and struggle on Sunday — I don’t mind, and it’ll be entertaining. Greg also has a sadistic streak, so he’ll have more fun if he can pin me down and needle me for an hour.

I’ve got a busy weekend ahead of me, but fortunately I don’t have to travel too much this time. I’ll be speaking to the Humanists of Minnesota at 10am on Saturday at the Nokomis Recreation Center (2401 E Minnehaha Parkway, Minneapolis), doing talk radio at 9am Sunday on AM950, and speaking to the Minnesota Atheists at 1pm Sunday at the Roseville Public Library. And I think I’ve talked myself into buying a decent pair of shoes in the Big City somewhere in there. Come on around if you’re local; both my talks will be sciencey stuff about evolution and genetics, but I’m always open to random questions in the Q&A, so if Greg Laden doesn’t pick up your suggestions, you can always deliver your zingers in person.

Hey! Who let those Rethuglicans into my state government?

It’s astonishing how regressive Republicans can be. Would you believe the Minnesota Republicans think women are worth less than men, and are willing to pass legislation legalizing that view?

Minnesota Republicans have introduced legislation that would repeal the 1984 Local Government Pay Equity Act (LGPEA), which directs local governments to ensure that women are paid the same as men. While local governments say reporting requirements are costly, equal rights groups say the law needs to stay intact in order to ensure fair pay, especially for women of color.

HF7/SF159 would repeal a laundry list of mandates on local governments — including regulations on part-time police officers, agricultural programs for low-income farmers and grants for libraries — but buried in the bill is a full repeal of the LGPEA.

Republicans have lately grown very fond of tossing descriptive rhetoric into the titles of their legislation. I would propose calling this one the “Buy Female Slaves Cheap Act”, except that I’m worried that such a label would make the Republicans stampede to favor it.

Deeper in the article, it mentions that Minnesota was the first state to pass pay equity laws. Once upon a time, we would have been proud of that.