X-Men: First Class and the Garland Theater

Now that it's hit the bargain circuit, and looking hard for a reason to go someplace air-conditioned for a couple of hours, I went to see X-Men: First Class. It's a good little superhero flick, and doesn't try to do too much with too many characters... but it's not my favorite superhero movie of the summer (that would probably be Captain America). Still, I'd say it's generally worth bargain theater price, or DVD/streaming rental, when the time comes.

Of course, that depends on the bargain theater you have in mind. I've been a long-time fan of the Garland Theater in Spokane... sure, it's always been a little run-down, but, generally, it's been an enjoyable experience. This time, not so much... never mind the bits that they don't have much control over, like the genius parents who brought a fussy baby to an action film. The price has gone up since last I went, to $3.50, while the general quality of the theater has gone down even more than in years past. The seat I got, at least, was so swaybacked that I couldn't sit in one position through the whole movie, or else I would have damaged my back. The projector sync was off, so "still" scenes were all but unwatchable. Heck, even the popcorn (at full movie theater popcorn pricing, of course) was considerably south of fresh. All in all, in its current state, I couldn't recommend the Garland to anyone these days.

So, another nail set in the "going to the movie theater" coffin... I'm still in the market there for some good first-run movies (for all those are fewer and farther between than in recent memory), but, especially at the price, it just makes more sense to wait for something to hit a streaming service than bother with the bargain theater, in my book.

The (d)evolution of the mall

Since I had to wait for an inspector to check out my newly-installed sewer connection (all done but they paying, finally...), I took the morning off from work. It was a pleasant surprise when the inspector came relatively early, leaving me with a few hours of prime mid-workweek normal-business-hours time to burn. I decided to get a much-needed haircut, then hit the food court at Northtown Mall and have lunch like a normal human being (as opposed to my regular routine of snagging something at a drive-through to scarf down at my desk).

That done, I still had some time left, so I decided to meander the mall. Now, I know we've been in down times for a while, and I fully expected a number of vacant storefronts, as I've seen elsewhere. More interesting, though, were the odd "stores" that have taken root under these adverse conditions. Coffee-bars are barely worth mentioning, except how many there were. The gym was a bit odd, but suitably clean and "up-scale-looking" to not throw me too hard. The storefront that, I believe, serves as a staging area for indoor paintball games, that was more than a little odd. The strangest, though, had to be the convenience store right in the center of the mall.

Things have changed at Northtown, and are likely changing all over... what used to be a somewhat-exclusive locale for a shop, where shoppers were welcomed while loiterers (read: teenagers) were discouraged, is now desperate enough for foot traffic to set up an entire, manned soda-and-snacks convenience store in the heart of the mall to encourage loitering, on the off chance that somebody might decide to buy something. It's seems strange to me now, but I guess time will tell whether it's a strategy that pays off for the mall in the long term.