Month Twelve (aka Year One)

So it was officially a year May 7, a date I observed from Knoxville, Tennessee as I was sent by the company to their headquarters for some job training. I spent a lot of time in a classroom going over a lot of different topics, not all of them projection related. It was an all-encompassing trip, learning everything from human resources to OSHA requirements in addition to stuff we needed to know about the projection booth. This was all in the efforts to become a certifier, someone who officially can teach others about projection and certify them. There are 4 levels of certification.

Though I didn't see it, "The Simpsons" in which Bart, Milhouse, Nelson, and Martin go to Knoxville played during this trip, according to some people I hung out with.

The past month was a tremendously busy one. I saw the Spider-Man 3 premiere which I wrote about earlier. The very next day, I went to a National Association of Theatre Owners (another NATO in the world) meeting. This is basically a meeting where studios give theatre management a sneak peek into what's coming out in the next year. So I saw the hilarious "red band" (R-rated) trailers for Superbad and Knocked Up. I saw 12 minutes of Ratatouille, which I think is going to be another tremendous Pixar cartoon directed by Brad Bird. And, I saw a ton of trailers I had already seen, but there were plenty of never-seen previews and rough cuts of trailers. The highlight of the morning, though, was when the representative from Warner Bros. started talking about their upcoming slate of films. He said this about the next Harry Potter installment:

"And we've got the new Harry Potter coming out July 13. We love that son of a bitch, he makes us a lot of money."

This, much to the delight of the managers who went to this meeting. Because usually, the rep just comes up there and drones on before showing you a bunch of previews. The WB rep managed to also slip in a joke about Daniel Radcliffe's (the guy who plays Harry Potter) much-publicized London stage nude scenes in Equus.

This past month was fairly unique, with all these activities. And, I notice now that when I get back from a trip, New York feels more like home. Both on my trips back from Austin and Knoxville, when I got back it was a relief. It meant my own bed was waiting for me. It's at least a very familiar spot now, not so alien as it was a year ago. And that's normal I suppose, but I'm still looking at the city as in, "It's freaking New York." It's still largely a discovery for me, and I hope to make New York "smaller" in the next year.