What Are Your Favorite Movie Snacks?

What Are Your Favorite Movie Snacks? I'd love to know. Send all comments and answers to:

Freds.NoMoreStinkyMonkeys@gmail.com

For a very funny story on the same topic:
Stephen King's guide to movie snacks Stephen King: The Pop of King News + Notes Entertainment Weekly 1


When I go to the movies, I used to try and avoid buying snacks, because they are outrageously expensive, but then I had a change of heart a few years ago. I found out that movie theatres only make a small fraction, like 10% of the ticket price on a new movie. If it keeps the movie there for several weeks, the percentage rises in their favor. I remember Home Alone would play at a theatre for like 4 months and I'd wonder why. Because by that point every cent of the ticket goes in the theatre owner's pocket.

Now there is no doubt I love the movie theatre experience. I'm not really interested in making a home theatre for myself, because it would be a waste of money. No video system, no matter how special could ever truly replace the feeling I get when I see a new spectacular, on opening weekend. The energy in the crowd, the total immersion in the experience helped by the surrounding darkness and hushed quiet. I have yet to see the TV screen that can challenge a 50+ foot wide screen at a theatre. Well since I love the theatre and want to keep as many open near me as possible, doesn't it make sense to support them? When I was younger and poorer I'd sneak food and drink in, or just not eat at all. But to me part of the fun and anticipation is the waiting on line at the food concession. Modern theatres have TVs playing trailers and commercials for shows that I might be interested in. If it's a special night, the fellow patrons have a buzz about them. The food ads are surrounded by enticing lighting with primary colors whetting your appetite. Reminds me of going to McDonalds. Just once I'd love to eat a Big Mac that looked as good as the one in the signage.

As for which theatre offers the best treats. Regal Theatres are the most expensive in all aspects of the game. Their ticket prices are higher, they have less deals as far as matinees and such. And their food prices are expensive even by concession standards. But they are well-stocked. I think you can order 12 different types of fountain drinks, along with two different sized bottles of water. They have pretzel nuggets and regular sized pretzels. Popcorn, nachos, hot dogs and about 20 different types of candy. Many other theatres offer this kind of range, but few actually have them ready to sell. A Regal hot dog might be made with pig anus and cow vagina, but it's fresh anus and vagina. When I order a hot dog at another theatre in Fresh Meadows the wiener looks so old and dry that archaeologists could call it a fossil.

My favorite theatre for snacks is also my Snobby theatre. I feel like an elitist snob when I go here, but I enjoy it so I don't care. The Film Forum on West Houston Street in Greenwich Village shows foreign films and reissues of old classics. The seats are uncomfortable, but I still feel fancy going there. And the food. Oy. Fresh popcorn with real butter, not the monkey sweat that Stephen King called it in the past. Fresh lemonade, several different types of coffee for people who enjoy that. And fresh bakery items. I've had the lemon poppy seed cake, which is tasty and oatmeal raisin cookies. But my favorite is the apple sponge cake.

My brother is always pushing the gun when it comes to getting to places on time and this theatre is no exception. He picks me up way late and has to speed into the city to get a parking spot. We hope there's no line to get in, then wait on line for snacks. We invariably get in our seats after the lights have dimmed and sometimes when the movie has already started. Just once I'd love to get there a little early, be able to find a seat in the center. And enjoy my cake with a fork and some peace. Instead, I'm forced to find a seat in the dark and cradle my food so that I don't spill anything. Eating my cake with fingers because I can't see the plate well enough to use a fork.

I've heard of a theatre on Long Island, out in god's country, Exit 60 something that has a huge concession stand filled with hamburgers, pizza and the like. Sounds wonderful, but I could not go there without having another trip planned as well. Something like a trip to the Splish Splash waterpark tagged on.

The key to going to any concession stand is never go hungry. My weight class teacher often said, never go to the supermarket hungry or you'll buy the store out. The same goes for concessions. Too often I go right from work and skip a meal to make a show. Bad idea. Any money I might have saved on the matinee price, or even better a free ticket (which regular Regal goers often get), will be spent big time at the snack counter. The most I've ever spent on myself is probably $22. Which is not a lot of food. That would be a "value pack" of large pretzel nuggets with cheese and medium soda, $11. A liter bottle of water $4.25. A hot dog, $3.75. And a candy, $3.

My snacks: I love soft pretzels, even corporate, taste-free pretzels. If there are no pretzels, which is often the case I'll settle for nachos and cheese, although mustard makes a nice alternative. The cheese is never real cheese, but a soft orange Crisco-type substance. If I eat this too much, I often get a raging pain in my stomach that engulfs everything from hips to ribs on both sides of my torso. I try not to eat this too much. As a last resort I'll order popcorn, but I have to be real hungry. If I'm with others, they'll order popcorn and they always let me share some of theirs. Almost all theatres have a Coca Cola licensing agreement, so I order a Cherry Coke. I really don't like regular Coke and will drink that only if there's nothing else and I'm really tired. If it's night and I'm trying not to stay up late, I'll order a Sprite/7UP or orange soda, but not Sunkist, that has as much caffeine as cola. National Amusements has a deal with Pepsi, so that's nirvana.

Hot dogs if I'm hungry. National Amusements (N/A) has a deal with Sbarro Pizza and Nathan's, so of course I'll get a Nathan's dog there. Sbarro Pizza is like Pizza Hut left in the sun. They also have cinnamon pretzels, but that has to be one of the worst concoctions ever conceived in this Mallworld. As for candy: Peanut M&Ms, Milk Duds, I'll eat some of Barb's Junior Mints and Twizzlers, I love Starburst, but they pull out my fillings. I used to love Jujyfruits, but it's hard to tell the licorice from the green ones in the dark and the taste of licorice reminds me of the time I licked a Yak's ass. Actually, I try to remember the Yak's ass to replace the horrible feeling of having licorice in my mouth. Raisinettes are another treat, but I have to eat these sparingly, because all those raisins will give me what they call in German "Die Scheisserei." For a candy I will sneak in, always a Cadbury bar if it's been frozen (Fruit and Nut or Caramello).

When I'm being healthy, I'll buy a big bottle of Dasani water, because knowing that it comes from a leaky hose in the back of the Coca Cola plant always makes me think Healthy!

Enjoy!

The Freditor

Billy Joel at Shea Stadium-Kicking myself for missing "The Sofa of Rock and Roll"

Reading about Billy Joel's last concert at Shea, Friday night. Sounds like it was a night of nights. Roger Daltry, Garth Brooks, Tony Bennett, Steve Tyler and Paul McCartney were all there to close the old stadium down. McCartney and The Beatles were the first band to ever play a baseball or football stadium back in 1965 and that was Shea. They had speakers the size of shoe boxes back then and no one heard anything beyond the dugouts. But they played their hearts out and opened up these new venues to the music world. McCartney sang "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Let It Be", to help Joel finish the show.

Billy Joel played "Piano Man" as the last song of the night. Funny how one of the biggest hits in jukebox history could have such depressing subject matter. Virtually every bar in the world has this song on its jukebox and at least once a night you'll hear it, but as my friend said, "every character in it is a loser." A harsh assessment, but an accurate one. That's what Billy Joel songs do sometimes, they make you sing along to stories about losers. When Hillary Clinton won the New York State Senate seat, her victory song that night was "Captain Jack". Because Billy was a lifelong New Yorker, someone in her campaign thought this would be an appropriate song, but really it is a song about a drug addict and the title refers to heroin.

But Billy Joel is infectious. I really, really enjoy his music, some of it I even love. You May Be Right and Only the Good Die Young are always blasted on my car radio. I was very lucky, because as I was starting to appreciate pop music and rock and roll around 1977/78, Billy Joel was just starting to become popular. For an 11 year old kid, Joel was a great way to ease into enjoying rock and roll. His music is nothing if not accessible. EVERYONE has some favorite Billy Joel song, from a teenager to an 80 year old woman like my mother. He transcends generations the way The Beatles and Elvis do.

When I first heard Billy, his big hits were My Life and Big Shot from his 52nd Street album. And when you are growing up and becoming more independent, songs like that really speak to you. And Joel's phrasing has always been so easy to understand, like James Taylor, you know exactly what he's singing without needing a lyric sheet. Although his last great hit, "We Didn't Start the Fire" has a line that confused me until 15 years later. I always heard the song and him singing, "Vaginas under martial law," which I took to mean abortion was always fighting to be legal. But then I saw a video accompanying the song and it showed Tianamen Square and the medical student standing up to the tanks. Ohhhhhhhh, "China's under martial law." Yeah, that does make more sense.

Does anyone have a favorite Joel album, like the Stones' Sticky Fingers or Prince's Purple Rain? Does anyone say to themselves, "Oh the new Billy Joel album just came out, let me go and buy it?" I never did and I've been a big fan for 30+ years. To me he will always be a great singer for radio, not the type of performer that you play on your turntable alone at night. His music is not that private, not that personal to me. The way say Suzanne Vega was.

I guess The Stranger is his best album (Movin' Out, Italian Restaurant, Only the Good Die Young, Just the Way You Are, She's Always a Woman to Me), but I personally think he is the rare rock performer who has amazing singles, without great albums. My "Greatest Hits" package of his, is probably the best album he ever released. 24 songs, 22 of which were radio staples back in that era (1977-1990), Seven that still are to this day. I guess he's the Rodney Dangerfield of rock and roll. You take him for granted like your sofa. Happy it's there, comfortable to have around, forgotten when not spoken of, and missed a lot if it were ever gone.

That's Joel, "The Sofa of Rock and Roll!"

The Freditor

Six_Degrees_Could_Change_the_World scared me

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/National_Geographic_Six_Degrees_Could_Change_the_World/70090419...

Greenland Melting: The End of the End of the World : Rolling Stone

Michael Crichton wrote a book that fictionalizes a man's quest to find alternative reasons for what science and particularly NASA has been saying. But if I am not to believe in conspiracies about things like the JFK assassination, then it's hard for me to believe that hardcore scientists are promoting a theory of end times just to help keep the donations for their research going. Aren't there enough real problems in the world worth researching without making up something?

In the Summer of 2003, whether it was the increased fluorocarbons in the air or not, western Europe was hit by a heat wave that they had no ability to resist. 30,000 people died from heat stroke that summer. 2500 in Paris in ONE night. Granted many were elderly and they lived in houses with tin roofs, built to withstand cold. They had very little air conditioning, but while that lead to the deaths, the cause was a freakish heat wave which they are not accustomed to.

The idea you draw from this 6 degrees show is that as the average temp rises, we will be hit by "once in a century" weather phenomena every few years. Like this heat wave in Europe. But other matters are starting to show on a daily basis. England was once known for its gloomy weather. English wine was a running joke, because the growing season for wine grapes was so short that the wine generally tasted bad. But the warm season has increased so much in England that there is now a blooming English wine business. And the French and their champagnes have been forced to uproot to England because the weather is too hot in France to grow the grapes.

Gradual changes in weather cycles is normal. But the key word is gradual. The changes we are experiencing now usually take decades or centuries to come up. Now they are happening in less than 10 years. The Himalayas are these large snowcapped mountains with enough runoff to feed the mighty Ganges River. Well the runoff has been dropping rapidly as the snow seasons have been shorter and milder. The River is a major part of the Hindu religion and it's as if God is abandoning the Hindu people.

I read an article on Greenland in Rolling Stone and it was very depressing. Greenland is losing its ice and cold seasons faster every year and instead of the companies that are causing it doing something to slow it or stop it, they are making it worse by seeing the ice free zones as potential new mining zones. Diamonds, the core elements of aluminum and even oil are all in abundance under the permafrost and the Greenland parliament is just selling the rights like crazy, killing off one of earth's last pure environments.

Think of Greenland as Ground Zero for climate change.

Funny, my wife says that people with kids at her job don't seem too concerned about the Venus-like planet we're leaving future generations. I think we have a moral duty to leave the earth in better condition than when we got here. When I cross the Metropolitan Ave. overpass on the Jackie Robinson going home and can't even see the New York City skyline because of the smog, I'd say we're failing those next generations.

The Freditor

Jump on board the New York Mets bandwagon, before it gets too full--fred

They finish the first half with a 9 game winning streak, longest since April 2000.
Are 52-44 after hovering at or below .500 for over a year.
Their pitching seems to be worked out and their hitting has been timely.
The firing of Willie Randolph appears to have been the perfect move, but even more so to me is the firing of "pitching guru" Rick Peterson.
RP was like some of the admittedly brilliant people in the Bush administration (Wolfowitz). Too smart for his own good.
Too tied in to a philosophy that might work sometimes, but refuses to change it when it doesn't.

I hate pitch counts and sp does Jerry Manuel. I hope they continue to let the good pitchers pitch and stop worrying about arm strength. When you are winning, you get stronger.

1/2 game out of First place. The season is starting to look very promising, indeed.

And I love these no name players who are making such huge contributions, like the 2000 team.

The Freditor

Let's make example of this man-Killed daughter for not wanting arranged marriage

Pakistani Man Charged in 'Honor Killing' - AOL News

These people from different cultures have to learn that when you come to America you can't force your children to do the barbarous things you did them in the old country. I'm glad this Garbage is grieving, he can grieve in prison for the rest of his life.

Arranged marriages and beating women must be stopped any way possible. My mother told me stories of poor young Albanian girls in her high school who were forced out of school to train them for their arranged marriages, because they were getting too many American ideas. They'd come into my mother's nurse's office crying their eyes out at the hell their lives were about to become and it would kill my mother when their parents would come in and sign them out of school. Making them dropouts at 16. Disgusting.

I don't care how many "happy" arranged marriages Oprah shows, when someone is forced to do something against their will and by will I mean that they would do it without any family pressure--then it is Always WRONG!!!!! I can't be subtle about this issue. It makes me sick that in 2008 we still have to deal with this kind of crap.

The Freditor

Great Praise for the Blogs

HEY FRED,

I think it is very very good. You give good background information about your life and share your interests. I GIVE YOU 4 GOLD STARS. I LOVE THAT MONKEY. Looks kind of like the Ralley Monkey the L.A. ANGELS used in the 2002 season.

SEE YAA NICK

Let's Put On a Show!

Let's make June's last Saturday Nelson Mandela Peace Day to honor his birthday. On Saturday it won't effect work schedules and each year, hold a big concert like Live Aid to promote some great cause. It would be the Super Bowl of music, love and charity.

The Freditor

Where have all the fireworks gone?

It is 1 hour and 14 minutes away from the 4th of July and I haven't heard one firecracker go off all week.

Where are they? Has the Guiliani/Bloomberg regimes been so successful at eliminating fun that no one dares light off a bottle rocket anymore?

Sad. Watching the Macy's Fireworks on TV was always for old people, if you wanted a really good show, you'd just sit on your stoop and your neighbors would blow your eardrums off and make your retinas dance.

I guess we're safer now, but not better. Bring back M-80s and screaming gypsies and all the other noises and colors that made July 4th special. Otherwise Independence Day becomes just another holiday like Labor Day but with more summer to go.

The Freditor

Bruce Springsteen's Fortune-Teller Dies

Kudos to Marko for discovering this story.

'4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)' is becoming a cursed song. A month or so ago, Springsteen organist Danny Federici died from melanoma. His biggest claim to fame was his great accordion work on Sandy. Although I think his keyboard work on The Detroit Medley is his greatest achievement. Still gives me chills to this day. As for Madame Marie, I only found out recently that almost all the characters on Springsteen's first two albums were based on real people, including his old girlfriend, Rosalita.--Fred


by David Sprague

From Spinner.com

The news that New Jersey-bred Marie Costello died Friday at the age of 93 probably wouldn't get too much attention from non-family members -- unless those strangers happen to be true Bruce Springsteen aficionados. Costello, you see, was the boardwalk fortune teller immortalized by the Boss 35 years back when he offered up an image -- in '4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)' -- of "the cops finally bust[ing] Madam Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do."For the record, Madam Marie was never actually arrested for plying her trade, though she did count Springsteen as one of her regular visitors. Her 'Temple of Knowledge' stall, now run by her daughter Sally, remains a fixture on the Asbury Park boardwalk.