It’s time for another of my nostalgia-drenched-yet-timely essays that fall under the category “Old Man Yells At Cloud.”

The trick to all visual media is to appeal to our sense of wonder. Life, society, and time conspire to rob us of that which is truly our seventh sense. This applies to comic books, movies, television, the stage (or, as its denizens call it, “The Stage”) and even architecture. The proper experience opens our minds to all sorts of phenomena and inspire us to engage in the creative process.

I suspect the past couple generations first encountered this feeling when watching something utterly fantastic on television. For a great many of my braggadocios baby boomers comrades, our initial experiences with the sense of wonder occurred in the opulent movie palaces of yesteryear – particularly those of us who grew up in large urban areas. Every neighborhood had at least one such theater, and some of those venues weren’t simply palaces, they were movie cathedrals: ornate and intricate conflations of terra cotta, red velvet, brass fixtures, Tiffany glass and brilliant lighting. This environment jacked us up for what was to follow well before our butts hit the well-cushioned seats. Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo #026: Movie Sign” →