An alien experience

            The other day, while I was out to dinner at a restaurant, I happened to over hear a conversation that was going on between two women at a table next to me. Both women looked to be in their mid-twenties and one of them was confessing to the other that all her life she mistakenly thought that a spoonful of peanut butter was called a lollypop. I thought this was weird statement, so I continued to eves drop to see where the conversation was going. Apparently, she went on to tell to her friend who looked at her sideways in shock and confusion, expressing my very sentiments, when she was growing up, that was what her mother had always called spoons full of peanut butter and no one had ever corrected her as she got older. People probably assumed she knew better, thought this was cute and just played along. This little redress of a simple word left the poor woman in ignorance until many years later when she was in her freshman year of college. She continued to say, that one day, when she was with her roommate, she asked her if she wanted to join her in having a lollypop. Her roommate gave her acceptance and she proceeded to go into the kitchen and returned with a jar of peanut butter and two spoons.  She dipped one of the spoons into the jar, and after pulling out a heap-full of peanut butter she handed it over to her roommate. Her generosity was received by a look similar to what her friend sitting across from her gave and she was not able to live down that story until she left college.  To this day when she gets together with her former college pals they recant this err in grammar and remind her of all that college had really taught her. What a lollipop actually is.

            Yesterday afternoon, as I was waiting in line to purchase tickets for a midnight showing of Prometheus, I overheard a little boy who was not much older than seven, studying a poster for the movie, asking his father if aliens were real. The boy's father was clearly distracted while talking to his wife or baby mamma, who knows, when the boy was nagging him for an answer to this question his father never heard. The boy's father finally replied with a snap, "Yes! Sure. I'm talking Alex, wait a minute!" then returned to talking to his baby mamma/wife. Slightly stunned by the tone in his father's reply, he shrank back and took another glance over at the Prometheus poster with wide eyes. As his father's answer seemed to settled in his tiny little head I could almost see the fear that was, quite possibly, beginning to shape into what he will think about aliens for the rest of his life. This poor little guy is probably going to be scarred forever now. See what you did Dad? Your son is now going to be as crazy as the woman who thought spoons of peanut butter were lollypops!

            It may be possible that aliens do exist. The odds are not likely. But as a Sci-fi geek, it would be bloody fantastic if we ever did come in contact with an alien life form. However, this little guy is not imagining cute aliens like ET, he's thinking more like these demented Tyrannosaurus Rex looking aliens that eat people and suck out their brains.  He obviously won't be watching this movie because he's under-aged, but I'm sure he's seen the previews at some point or will in the near future. So, the boy is not utterly clueless about this movie or at least not for long. God help him. If someone doesn't correct the thoughts he's mulling over in his head about these aliens while in line at a movie theater, this kid is going to be looking under his bed until he goes to college. Let's just hope he goes to the same college that lollypop lady went to. They'll straighten things out for him over there.

           By the skin of my teeth, I made it to the midnight showing of Prometheus. However, my last minute arrival got me a front row seat looking up the nostrils of Logan Marshall-Green all night. If I were at a baseball game I could appreciate that. Being that close to an IMAX 3D ETX (Extreme Theater Experience) was a bit too much of an experience for me. When the film started I thought I was going to lose my hearing. I had to cover my ears for the first few minutes so that I could get accustomed to the blast of sound. I wasn't sure what an Extreme Theater Experience was until someone at the ticket counter told me when I decided to buy the ticket. Apparently, when you sit in the stadium style seating the subwoofer speakers are set at such a pitch that your seats vibrate beneath you. Your bottom gets a nice little massage but your head feels a little out of whack. So, whenever an alien appeared out of nowhere, with the music expertly cued, the shock of sound and motion would explode any adrenaline I had left to muster at stupid o'clock in the morning. If you thought you were going to fall asleep during that dull monologue in the previous scene, think again. If you've never had the ETXperience you should, at least once anyway. More than that and you may have to brush up on some sign language, you're going to need it.