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Theater Chain Bans Google Glass
mpicpp sends this report from Ars: A cinema chain announced Tuesday that it is now barring patrons from wearing Google Glass at its movie houses across the U.S. in a bid to clamp down on piracy. Alamo Drafthouse, which runs theaters in Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and soon in California, is among the first U.S. chains to ban Google's computerized eyewear. 'Google Glass is officially banned from @drafthouse auditoriums once lights dim for trailers,' the chain's chief executive, Tim League, tweeted. The decision comes as Google has made the eyewear readily available to the general public, and it follows a slew of incidents in which wearers of Google Glass have had brushes with the law.
Does it even matter? The battery wouldn't last the whole movie anyways.
People with common sense make decisions.
Alamo Drafthouse's policy seems to make perfect sense. They also have a very strict policy with regards to cell phones (and even better commercials ;-) ), so it would only make sense for them to extend the ban to other devices that distract from the viewing.
At Alamo draft house they will kick you out for talking to other people or using your cell phone after the lights dim. Their policy is the teenagers with laser pointers that walk to talk to their BFFs can go elsewhere. I like it.
Interesting, but even if we assume that the standard problems with google glasses are ignored/remediated like the GG's battery life when recording*, head movements and such, I could simply wear a button-up shirt with a camera in the pocket. A lot easier to sit still that way and get a good recording. Or better yet set the camera up away from me under an arm rest or something.
Besides, wasn't it found that most camcorder recordings of movies was coming from projector operators?
*Couldn't you run a cable to a supplemental battery pack?
I don't read AC A human right
But don't pretend it'll help prevent piracy. Does anyone really expect someone to hold their head perfectly still and never look away from the screen to pirate a film? Of course not. Google Glass is invasive for a lot of reasons, but pirating movies in theaters is hardly a concern for them. It's easier to drop your cell phone in a cup holder pointed at the screen, and less obvious to boot. Not that I think many people are doing that, I suspect most decent cams come from theater employees.
The biggest single issue with 'banning' glass is that if/when it ever becomes remotely mainstream there will be a proportion of users (likely significant) who wear prescription glasses and who have no intention of carrying a spare 'non-glass' pair everywhere. As someone who wears glasses I know that if glass was near universally banned then I wouldn't buy it, but I would happily chose a different movie theatre or bar if some bars ban it and others don't. There's no risk of people recording films on it (it neither has the battery or camera quality) and anyone using it and distracting others can be dealt with the same as cellphone users. I know I, and expect the vast majority of users, would want it turned off to avoid having it interrupt our enjoyment of the film anyway.
Some of us certainly do mind when inconsiderate jerks think they're being clever and "discrtely checking there phone for a few seconds with the light dimmed". That's the thing: the franchise caters to people who actually want to watch the movie without kids/cellphoes/etc. From Wikipedia:
"When we adopted our strict no talking policy back in 1997 we knew we were going to alienate some of our patrons," [founder] Tim League posted on the cinema's website. "That was the plan. If you can't change your behavior and be quiet (or unilluminated) during a movie, then we don't want you at our venue."
Moral of the story - regulate your behavior or go somewhere else.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Why in the world would you want to check your email, etc. if you're in the middle of watching a movie? No, I completely agree with Alamo Drafthouse from this one. There are really no good reasons to want to use Google glass in the theater other than discreet piracy. And it's not like you're completely banned from bringing the glasses into the building. You just have to put them away before the movie starts, and if something urgent came up and you needed to use your glasses, you could step out into the lobby and take care of it there.
I'm amazed that a head-mounted video camera has been banned from a venue that previously had a ban on video cameras. Same story with casinos.
These glassholes, for lack of a better term, walk around and act like they are shocked when others don't want a camera on them all of the time.
It is just like if someone walked around holding their phone/camcorder/camera in front of him all of the time and was pointing it everywhere he looked. No one wants that. These glassholes act as they have some sort of inalienable right and if someone complains then their civil liberties have been violated by a glassist.
"their pretty nonsense" and "checking their phone" And yes, I do mind someone distracting me by "discretely" checking their phone. Because it's never "discrete". And Alamo is wildly popular here in Austin; not just with the petty movie-goers. Moral of the story: grow up and watch the movie.
Same dicks.
This has got to be google trying to drum up interest. Only misfits wear google glass and only misfits worry about people that wear google glass. LOSERS.
"discreetly"
Oh my god, you actually THINK that? Are you that self-absorbed and delusional? What's your standard for "nobody minds"--nobody has punched you in the face yet? Trust me, people do notice, and they do mind. Once the previews end, yes, that screen is absolutely noticeable.
Caught between my hatred for MPAA and my hatred for Google Glass... arghhh... don't..know..what..to..do..... SPLAT
If they have banned noisy eaters as well, I would consider relocating and offer my patronage for each movie they show that I wish to see.
. .
I mind.
their.
their.
their.
You managed to spell "their" each of the ways it's possible to spell it (they're, there, their), getting it right the statistical one chance in three. So, were you just guessing each time, or did you really think you were supposed to be using a different word each time?
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Recording movies. They might as well carry a handycam into the theatre. What do you expect theatres to do, say, yes, sure, absolutely bring that recording device into the theatre? While they are at it, did you want the optimal seat reserved for you so you can pirate the best quality movie?
around here that shit will get ice/soda dumped on you
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Do they ban children and the demographic that talks to the screen?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Yes, can't have people pirating 20 year old movies. (If you've been to a draft house you know what I mean).
This chain likes to ban anything with even the slightest possibility of distracting your movie, and appeals to moviegoers that want to watch a movie.
FTFY. But I can't fix your piss poor education or lack of consideration for others. There, their and they're are different words and mean different things. Google it. And yes, people mind when you flash your phone in theaters. Whatever your phone is doing doesn't matter. Put it away. If you really need to use it, leave the fucking theater until you've arranged your shit to the point where you can watch a movie for a couple hours.
No we are shocked at the amazing lack of education people have when they act that way.
I personally have never had anything but a positive reaction and curiosity from people, I have NEVER had someone go all crazy and start screaming "STOP FILMING ME!" because it is insanely obvious when it is recording.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
if you are going to have rules about phone / device usage, they have to be black and white. you can't tell someone that they can use their phone, but not too long and how bright is too bright? everyone has an answer to that, and they are all different.
sort of like deciding not to set a speed limit and asking people not to go too fast.
Boycott Medium!!!
Its like society at large has no fucking clue that google glass only has 45 minutes of battery life...
Go fuck yourself you egomaniac. Not everyone gives enough shits about you to get in your face filming you in public
because social media and a slew of reality tv shows has convinced many, many people that they are special snow-flakes who need to be in constant contact with the outside world, and that everything they do, see, think, feel is somehow relevant to anyone.
Though part of this is just due to declining decorum and manners in general. Maybe I'm getting old, but people just seem far, far more self absorbed and inconsiderate than when I was a kid.
see also:
-selfies
-photos of meals at restaurants
If your need for connection to your bffs or whatever the fuck they're calling it these days are so dire that you can't do without facebook/text/email for 2 hours, stay out of the theater. Put the cell phone down. It won't kill you, promise.
Because when I download movies, I want a screener filmed by a tiny camera with a tiny battery, mounted to someone's head!
And be gone, Luddites! Less FUD, More HUD!
Like...? Glass technophobes always remind me of the reaction to Kodak cameras in the 1880's. A few choice quotes:
I really don't get the vitriol. In 120 years people will laugh at the primitives from the early 2000's who reacted with shock and horror to Google glass. My biggest objection is that it's rude to glance at a notification when you're speaking to someone. But that's true of a phone, too.
Who'd have thought that, between Google and theater chains, my
mind's with the former.
What do these Alamo airheads think -- we'll soon be inundated
with Glass pirated copies of the blockbusters on TPB?
This is about power, not piracy.
Well, weigh that against the new age of self selected abstinence that Glass will usher in for it's wearers. And for that -- Google should be commended.
As someone who wears glasses I know that if glass was near universally banned then I wouldn't buy it, but I would happily chose a different movie theatre or bar if some bars ban it and others don't.
Sure. Maybe AMC, Cinemark or Regal might not want to displease you as a discriminating minority, but people go to Alamo for an experience, and a trivial thing like changing out your Glass for other eyewear isn't likely to change your mind about Alamo.
Props to Alamo. Nothing sensational, just put away (and silence) the smartphone and take off the Glass when the lights go down.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
How's the sand tasting down there?
Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
I wish, though that is the exact opposite of what the theatres want. Notice that before every movie they play some ad that includes the sound of someone pouring a soft drink? You can hate that it works, but you know that your mouth just started watering. The smell of buttered popcorn and the sounds of people eating may drive away a few, but it's money in the bank from the rest of the cud-chewing masses. The people who aren't buying the concessions are a much lower profit margin anyways. Just look at what it costs to make your own popcorn at home.
Account -> Discussions -> Disable Sigs
I have NEVER had someone go all crazy and start screaming "STOP FILMING ME!" because it is insanely obvious when it is recording.
We are more polite then that, but that doesn't mean we don't deeply resent being filmed.
These glassholes, for lack of a better term, walk around and act like they are shocked when others don't want a camera on them all of the time.
It is just like if someone walked around holding their phone/camcorder/camera in front of him all of the time and was pointing it everywhere he looked. No one wants that. These glassholes act as they have some sort of inalienable right and if someone complains then their civil liberties have been violated by a glassist.
A battery big enough to record continuously on a Glass or a cellphone all day long and upload data to the cloud would weigh 5-10 pounds and require a cable to the device. That's not even mentioning the hit on the user's data plan.
So people being outraged at something that literally cannot happen, thereby demonstrating their profound technical ignorance and inability to do basic math ('mathholes', perhaps?) to the world.
(Disclaimer: I do not own a Glass, nor do I intend to. I merely am tired people bloviating on /. about it.)
No we are shocked at the amazing lack of education people have when they act that way.
I personally have never had anything but a positive reaction and curiosity from people, I have NEVER had someone go all crazy and start screaming "STOP FILMING ME!" because it is insanely obvious when it is recording.
It's funny how people cite a lack of education when someone calls them out for doing something they don't like.
Alamo shows very limited runs of niche films. It's not like this is a giant MPAA-related move, whatsoever. Just a relatively small chain trying to keep its business clean and without court appearances.
The anti-piracy thing is usually BS, but coming from this type of business I am less inclined to call them out on it.
What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
yeah, a shaky loud recording from inside a theater hurts tickets...not.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Let's face it, the manager that makes this decision is not just stupid, they are clearly deliberately trying to run the company into the ground in the long term. The company is on a path that, with improving technology, will quickly become "we discriminate against the partially sighted" and then develop to "we show movies, but no-one is allowed to watch them". I'm pretty sure they'll go out of business before becoming something you'd read about in the Hitchhiker's Guide.
I'm in agreement.
If they're banned in enough places, and enough people get their jaws cracked when they insist on wearing them in other places, then it will sink in: a lot of us DON'T FUCKING WANT some asshole recording us in public and putting it online with not even a chance to consent.
How sensitive is Glass to IR light? I'm beginning to think there's a market for jewelry or clothing that is studded with high intensity IR LEDs that are invisible to the human eye. Certainly, movie theaters should be putting them all over the place.
until they have steadycam technology incorporated into GG, bootlegging a motion picture with them is a dream.
ah i bet your mom and dad told you how special you were all the time didn't they?
if someone wants to record me, i'd be quite flattered. the reality is that no one wants to record me (or you) because we are nobodies. thinking otherwise is narcissism at it's best.
Do they ban children
Yes, under 6 years old is not permitted and under 18 requires a parent or guardian to go with them.
and the demographic that talks to the screen?
Yes they have a no talking policy as well.
"no one minds someone discrtely checking there phone"
I do. I mind very much. Guess what? A bright light in a dark theater is NEVER not distracting. And a phone at any dimmed level that is readable is bright in a theater.
A cinema is where we go to quietly enjoy immersion into a film.
You are being a distraction, you need to grow up.
The fact that you are telling people who want other people to be polite to 'grow up' must require a huge ego to muster that much cognitive dissonance
" and enjoy the movie."
That's the problem, douche bags like you make it so we can't enjoy the movie.
Watch it at home if your damn phone is so important.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
As a person who makes this mistake frequently, I can say that it's not that I don't know the proper usage of these words, it's just that I seem to think in terms of sound (i.e. I *hear* my own internal monologue), and when I am writing quickly, I am just blindly transcribing this internal monologue. When I am writing in a more formal setting, I actually proof read whatever I have written after the fact. For slashdot comments, a lot of homophones slip through the cracks because I don't really spend a lot of time proofreading them.
I don't really have too many other grammar problems or spelling problems, because my internal monologue tends to have fairly good grammar, and I tend to remember (better than most people) how words are spelled.
"... other than discreet piracy."
or they need glasses to, you know, see.
or they want to record their one year anniversary date for latter?
or..well a thousand thing that have nothing to do with piracy.
Not that a movie filmed on google glass would stop anyone from seeing the movie.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I would give my left testicle to have had google glass when I took my , then fiance, to a theater filled with 50 of her friends as a surprise. To have that 25 years later would be awesome. TO see her face when we sung Happy Birthday to her and a theater of hundreds joined in.
And yes, that was all before the previews started. They didn't have ads then.
So stop telling me what I want to record. People are just as inconsiderate as when you where a kid, they just have another outlet.
I don't like lights from personal devices in the theater, but it's still better then when they allowed smoking.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It certainly seems that they are a reaction to people's perceptions that there are unacceptable oiks in the world.
They come across as the country club of cinemas. Deeply intolerant and with a sure sense of their own superiority.
I'm with the GP. No problem if someone has their phone open, briefly. Perhaps they are being texted with information about who is picking them up?
If the films were any good anymore, they wouldn't be so easy to distract us from.
Couldn't such a specialist, niche-market cinema just make their money from tickets instead of relying on attachments and add-ons?
It is just like if someone walked around holding their phone/camcorder/camera in front of him all of the time and was pointing it everywhere he looked. No one wants that.
I honestly don't care. And I don't feel like this is the same thing as someone pointing a camera at me.
There are security camera's everywhere. I don't freak out whenever a camera happens to be pointed at me (which is nearly all the time in public). If someone continuously focuses their camera on me (i.e. targeting me specifically) then I'd have a problem with it, because I don't know what their intent is.
I don't care if people glance at me as part of just the normal looking around and being aware of their surroundings. For the same reason I don't care if they are just filming their own experience (of which I might be in the background) without targeting me specifically, nor do I care if I am in the background of a security camera.
I don't care about being recorded. I care about being targeted.
For example - (Thinks)"Ah good, my spouse is picking me up at the north side of the car park at 4.30pm". [Puts phone away.]
If self-righteous and overbearing, like you, is the average "drafthouse" customer, then I am glad I'll never be near one.
Gee, I can't wait to see blockbusters on the big screen at 640 x 360. The pixels are going to about an inch in diameter.
Your and idiot.
You do know that glass will not record more than 10 seconds at a time without hacks and has a bright glowing LED on it when the camera is recording...
Wow you must be the dumbest motherfucker on Slashdot, probably dumber than a salad bar.
Right, because you're so important. I'm sure in the flurry of billions of GG videos that show up on the web, everyone will be watching for the ones with you in it..
No need for violence.
Three days ago, I had my first experience with a Glasshole.
I was in a bar at the edge of Chino's industrial park. Most of the patrons were people who stopped for a few beers after work. At some point a few people in their thirties showed up, and one of them was wearing Google Glass. His girlfriend or whatever kept a running commentary on the bar, the dartboard action, and how they were going to see "The Edge of Tomorrow."
At some point one of the other patrons got pissed off and asked the Glasshole to get rid of his toy. Before the situation could escalate, the barmaid stepped from behind the bar and told the guy he would have to leave unless he removed the glasses. He started to say something about having paid for the drinks, but at some point realized that he was getting really dirty looks from almost everyone, and got lost.
I fully expect that as Google Glass and similar devices become more popular, some places will welcome them, and other won't. As far as I am concerned, this is how things should be. I certainly know which kind of bars/restaurants/clubs I'll choose to patronize.
It's no different from Thad Starner at MIT back in the 90s. He got asked to leave quite a few parties, but he was also welcomed by many. I didn't particularly enjoy meeting him in E14 after pulling an all-nighter and feeling/looking like shit, but at least I knew that no one was looking at his feed.
Now that storage is cheap, and processing is becoming much cheaper, I am even more leery of being recorded in some specific situations. A friend of mine has the device, and I hope she has the bad taste to use it when I am hosting a party at my house.
No good deed goes unpunished...
Arghh.. "I hope she does not have the bad taste to use it when I am hosting a party at my house."
No good deed goes unpunished...
No, this is about Alamo Drafthouse pleasing their customers. They get a big boost in attendance when they publicly crack down on stuff that people complain about. Such as when they kick out people for using phones during the movie. They know that banning Google Glass will make a lot of people happy, and will gain them some new customers, whether or not that ban actually improves the quality of the movie going experience.
This is probably not anything new anyway, they already ban using mobile devices after the movie starts. So this is just a reiteration of the policy, with emphasis that it does indeed apply to new technology and no special dispensation is given to Glass.
Feel free to sit in the Dome at the other theaters. The Alamo has full theaters all weekends, so they must be doing something right.
Their "niche market" is making them money hand over fist.
Even Rocky Horror Picture Show sells out. Get that? Know any venue that can pack people for that every Saturday night? Not many.
If you want to cam, text, chat, or other things, there are plenty of theaters. The Alamo caters to those who want to enjoy a show, dinner, perhaps a beer, and they are doing quite well.
Who in the smeg watches these 'handy-cammed' movies? The quality must be crap. If you have the time to watch this stuff, go get a Golden Retriever and spend the time walking him / her instead. The Golden'll be up for the walk, I guarantee it.
Theaters, and movie makers do *not* lose money as a result of manual recordings made in the theater.
When you record a movie that way, the quality sucks. The only people who buy those recordings are people who wouldn't have gone to the theater anyway. The set of theater movie-goers has no intersection with the set of second-hand-recording-buyers.
All this enforcement just makes things harder on everyone, without profiting anyone. It is stupid.
I've been wearing glasses almost all of my life, and since I am wearing them already, it would be great to have additional functionality. Its seems like all the privacy issues related to these already exist, except worse, because people pretend the issues dont exist, and it seems much harder to hide google glass. I really dont think you have to worry about somebody wearing 'smart' glasses following you around recording you, and if you do have to worry about that, then you are already in danger and already have an awful lot of your plate. Besides privacy the only other problem seems to be that people just dont like the users. Maybe Im under thinking this, but if the human behind the device is the worst part of it, then why demonize the technology
I swear I am not making this up, but I was at the first day opening of a highly popular movie (one of the Star Wars I think) and the guy in front of me has his phone ring, and then he actually answered it! And he talked to the other person, not whisper, so that just about everyone in the theater could hear him. And the place was packed. From the side we could hear it was not some home emergency. After people starting shusshing him he said, loudly enough for us to hear, "I have to go, I'm in the middle of a movie".
I can't begin to imagine how that sort of person even has a friend who would want to call him.
Granted, there are other distractions at the Drafthouse, since they serve food there. However I think the policy at least reduces the possibility of violence against the Glass wearer.
I think EVERYONE minds.
I have never heard of alamo draft house, but now that slashdot has advertised them to me as a sensible business that bans the glass holes, I will look up if one is near me!
I'm in agreement.
If they're banned in enough places, and enough people get their jaws cracked when they insist on wearing them in other places, then it will sink in: a lot of us DON'T FUCKING WANT some asshole recording us in public and putting it online with not even a chance to consent.
+1 insightful. GG will go down in the flames of an incinerator as a horrible product that allowed 1% of people to annoy the other 99%.
From what I understand, this chain is fairly mild as far as "intolerant and with a sure sense of their own superiority." The similar place by me - there are many such places that serve beer and have no-kids policies around the US - only shows boring films of the sort people think they're supposed to like, instead of the kind of films people actually like.
No problem if someone has their phone open, briefly. Perhaps they are being texted with information about who is picking them up?
Then leave the damn darkened cinema area to check it, or check it after the show! Have some impulse control if you consider yourself an adult.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Alamo would be happy to let you do that today, provided you take them off once the lights dim. After that I don't think the other patrons would like you belting out happy birthday.
Also, what's up your ass about the Drafthouse? Did someone there serve you a turd milkshake?
Excuse me? You've got it *exactly* backwards.
200 people chipped in to share an experience. They outnumber you. There is literally *no* socially acceptable reason to be checking your phone during a movie. You are deliberately causing a distraction to everyone else to satisfy your own incredibly petty reasons. It doesn't matter how brief or how slight, you're still doing it deliberately. You are the self-important dick, here.
Actually, yes.
Children are only allowed for certain screenings and if someone is being an ass they will get their butts tossed.
I've never seen it - because people at Alamo behave - at least in my experience. And that's why we go back.
I do. I mind very much. Guess what? A bright light in a dark theater is NEVER not distracting. And a phone at any dimmed level that is readable is bright in a theater.
I rarely go to theaters these days, but I suspect a screen dimmed to a level I could still read in a dark theater might not be noticed by others. Having extremely good night vision has its moments. (FYI I don't plan to try this and I rather doubt people who do this on a regular basis dim their phone's screen at all)
How good would the recording be, say, compared to a typical commercial VHS? An analog recording from a cable box source? Sound looped from the projector/sound system or live miked (stereo or mono)?
I would imagine if you could shoot it with a telephoto lens on a hidef camera from the projection booth and grab line-level audio it would be reasonably watchable.
I'd worry about the generic cam videos, but maybe they're VHS/VCR cable recording OK.
Perhaps you've not been there? While they do have some niche films and events, they must certainly show standard MPAA movies.
Maybe instead of impulse control, given that many people have a legitimate need to check a phone, people could stop being so petty and bothered by something so minor?
You know, if they consider themselves an adult.
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
Because movie popcorn is sorta like a experience.
Maybe I know the difference and was just overtired and made a mistake?
I'll never get over the inherent stupidity of grammar nazi's in assuming the person making the mistake is never aware of the difference and needs to be told each time.
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
a phone with a dimming screen is not bright. I can turn the brightness completely off on mine, and no, it can't be seen. Especially if I check if hiding it inside my jacket while I do so.
Process takes about 5 seconds.
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
I hope you violent thugs wear your brown Microsoft or Apple Genius shirts so we can see who you are and preemptively take you down. I'll be happy to take an axe-handle to the head of anyone I see wearing a MS shirt. It'd be justifiable self defense.
lol your status: #told #analdevastated
First, the the Alamo, then there will be others.
After all, we can't have people wearing active recording devices into an area where they charge money to play copyright protected media to a limited audience, can we?
Besides, if you were sitting here in a typical theater with a smart phone in a little tripod-thingy recording the movie, you could reasonably expect to get in trouble, if spotted by any staff members, right?
So, how long before we see anal-retentive stars at ComiCon who charge an arm and a leg for a pic, setting their body-guards on Google Glass-wearing attendees for "stealing" pics/video of them at the Con? Next we'll see Google Glass Banned from such conventions...
Where does it end?
You self-absorbed, inconsiderate, halfwit! If you can see it, sure as shit so can everyone around you.. You think your dimmer switch is making a mini black hole which is sucking in light? That would be the only way your phone isn't visible.
It only takes a moment to get distracted from a movie. 5 seconds is at least 100 moments.
Get out of my cinema!
Because if you like Google's and their ilks' never-ending surveillance, you must be a MS or Apple fanboy?
Amen.
An Alamo Drafthouse Cinema opened up near me in Ashburn, VA mid-last year, but I only really learned what their pitch was this past March.
Until then, the last time I had been to a movie theater was for The Dark Knight in 2008, which was a rare event for me even then, but I vividly remember how that was the experience that killed cinema for me. I was stoked for that film. Like, super incredibly jazzed about it. I bought three IMAX tickets and walked out twice to see it once. I'll spare you the infuriatingly cliché details of the first two, but even the third "successful" outing was sub-par: the volume was cranked so high that half of the dialog was incomprehensible.
I've now been to Alamo eight times in less than three months and thoroughly enjoyed myself without exception.
But even if you remove their disturbance policy from the equation, you can just compare them to every other movie theater in the area and marvel at the fact that those shitholes are still somehow in business. The ticket prices are actually cheaper. You can reserve specific seats. The chairs are better and don't smell bad. The floor isn't sticky. The drinks are reasonably priced, with more variety. The popcorn is better. The soft drinks and popcorn are cheaper (as in, several dollars each)... and bottomless. The other food is actually fantastic, too. There's a burger joint in the same plaza... and Alamo's burgers are better. Has anyone mentioned the adult milkshakes, yet? I've had them before, but this was the first one I actually liked. In a darkened theater, no one can see your girly drink. :)
In preparation to see the new Godzilla, I went to their showing of Gojira; the original 1954 version, subtitled. They also had an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. For all three, I had a child-like grin plastered all the way across my face from start to finish. Just the fact that I can say I saw those classics on the big screen is so goddamn cool.
As far as I'm concerned, the petulant, self-absorbed assholes can trash talk Alamo all they like. It's free advertising. Anyone with manners will be able to put two and two together: this place is exactly what we've been looking for all this time. Alamo's success, rapid expansion, and high praise in an industry that has been withering for over a decade speaks to the truth:
YES, WE REALLY DO FUCKING MIND.
Maybe instead of impulse control, given that many people have a legitimate need to check a phone, people could stop being so petty and bothered by something so minor?
You know, if they consider themselves an adult.
Just don't go to the cinema, if you can't leave your phone switched off for 2 hours.
They come across as the country club of cinemas. Deeply intolerant and with a sure sense of their own superiority.
Maybe we need a little bit more of that. The current theater experience can be unacceptably poor.
I'm with the GP. No problem if someone has their phone open, briefly. Perhaps they are being texted with information about who is picking them up?
There are ways to do it while minimizing distraction to other theater goers. I wear a t-shirt, and slide the phone under it to create a "hood" where no light escapes. You can use the armrest of a chair so that the screen never comes into the field of vision of someone else. Lots of people just hold their phones right up like the house lights were still on.
or how about you communicate with your wife before the movie, after the movie, leave into the hallway if you must communicate during the movie. most people's annoyance with others' distracting use of mobile devices during the film is entirely justified as the activity is not allowed in the first place. its great that you dont find it distracting, but others do and there are rules prohibiting it. grow up and deal with it.
For example - (Thinks)"Ah good, my spouse is picking me up at the north side of the car park at 4.30pm". [Puts phone away.]
Why do you need to get that text before the credits roll?
This dumbass gives decent movie going Texans a bad name... I think it is great that Alamo DH ridiculed her on Youtube. They also recently banned Madonna from the theaters until she issues a public apology for being on her damn phone the whole time during a special screening. No BS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L3eeC2lJZs&feature=kp
Also reminds me of this from The Oatmeal: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/movie_theater_layout
So, do you also kick out people wearing a tie, or using a phone you don't like?
Maybe it's a t-shirt for a band you don't like because they play the 'wrong' music.
Sounds more like the people that weren't wearing a headsup display accessory for their phone are ones being "glassholes".
Yeah, from what I've read, they'd be lucky to record the previews before running out of juice.
Lol cause Google is without sin
So, the glasses don't seem to be generating lights or noise that are annoying other people, and they were not being used to record anything, though if they were, the batteries would have run down so fast you'd have to have a whole bag of them to make it through the movie.
One of those listed in the article was OFF and also the wearers PRESCRIPTION GLASSES HE NEEDED TO SEE WITH!!!
Yeah, your torch wield mobs of conformity police are really doing of good job of proving yourself worse than that douche that talks on his phone everywhere.
It's amazing how pissed so many people are getting over somebody else having a new and expensive accessory. What's even more amazing is the massive and undeserved overreactions that people are having that far out weigh anything that I've seen reported for actual "glassholes" doing. So far, most of the reports boil down to "somebody dared to actually wear googleglass, so people immediately started doing awful assholish things to them, all of which were unfair and several were illegal, isn't it awsome". I'm embarrassed that you technophobic luddites even found out how to get to the internet.
Yeah, I know, now you're going to go screaming about how I'm an evil monster and threaten to burn me at the stake. You should really look at yourselves first, you've turned into a mindless mob screaming for blood and attacking the innocent. Metaphorically that is. Nobody has been killed yet, though there are reports of theft and assault, so I doubt it'll be much longer before your kind kills someone over a tech accessory. Maybe next you'll go after kids with tablet computers.
I expect that in a few years, you will be able to get something equivalent to the googleglasses, but with much better battery life and a price more in the range of $150-$250. I'll want to get that, and load up a variety of apps to help deal with some issues of mine.
My meds screw with my memory, so an intelligent scheduler and notes app is on the list. Popping up reminders in my vision works much better than me trying to remember to check my phone all the time, or the 10 million alarms that often aren't even heard over the noise.
Another app will help with my face blindness. Yes, that's right, the dreaded facial recognition software. I want pics of the people I meet stored with their names and reminder notes so when someone starts talking to me, I can figure out who they are in a few seconds instead of agonizing over it for hours. Even if people know you have that issue, they tend to get upset when you can't remember who they are.
Besides, it won't be that much of a change for me to wear them, as I need glasses to see pretty much anything in the first place. You know that big E at the top of the eye chart. Let's put it this way, the last time I saw that without glasses was in grade school. I've been banned from having glass lenses since I was in high school. Fortunately they have these fantastic optical polymers that are so much lighter and thinner than glass for lenses. Even so, a little bit of extra weight could be tolerated for the benefit.
So again, you want to ignore something what it can be used for and instead be an even bigger pain than someone you suspect might act like an entitled douche?
Well go get some rabies shots fido, because you're foaming at the mouth again.
Next, separate but equal restrooms. People only; no glassers allowed. That's right, I used a hard "r". If you don't like it, go back to Google.
"We don't want none of your kind here" isn't an emotion I sympathize with from any establishment for any reason."
It isn't the geek that is being banned ---- it's his gadgets.
The geek is as attached to his gadgets as a redneck to his guns, he feels naked and impotent without them --- and like a sex deprived adolescent will take his gadget-play into the theater or the church, where it is neither welcomed or appropriate.
OK, so wearing the camera makes you look like a voyeuristic dork.
But the biggest problem with Google Glass is that it is proof positive that you can't cut the cord that binds you to the machine --- and that is what really creeps people out.
You're an inferior specimen that natural selection would have normally weeded out and you step on a soapbox and preach to the healthy and beautiful? How droll. Face it: if you wear google glasses you're a pedo who wants to take pictures of children. We'll not just burn you at the stake, we'll blood-eagle you.
This is all you need to know about the Alamo Drafthouse. If there was one in my area, I would go for every movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L3eeC2lJZs
We need more such intolerant country clubs of cinemas. I would pay membership to such an establishment, where people with such poor control of their compulsions to check their phone are banned.
The reason I dislike going to the cinema is not the movies. It's the audience being completely unable to keep sound and light discipline.
So, you have a webcam in your bathroom? Everyone can watch, right?
If the answer is no, turn to page 10. Congratulations, you're a hypocrite.
If the answer is yes, turn to page 18. Congratulations, you're an autistic neckbeard who will never understand normal people.
What is the point of checking - and thinking about - the pickup point DURING THE MOVIE?
Seriously, if that is your best contender for why it's a-ok to be an asshole to everyone else in the movie theater, then you have nothing. Your sense of priorities is completely screwed up, and you have no business in a proper establishment.
And for those five seconds you are ruining the movies for dozens of people around you. And you are completely oblivious to the fact that you are. And even if you realize you are, you consider such concerns beneath you.
Model citizen right there.
I would certainly kick people out of my property if I disapprove of what they are doing. I have not had to do it for a T-shirt or tie, but I can imagine T-shirts and ties that would piss me off enough.
I am also very much OK with a bar/restaurant's owner/manager kicking out people they do not like. Depending on their reasons, I will be more or less likely to patronize their establishment.
In my book, it does not matter whether you are using a Google Glass, a phone, or a hand-held camera. If it looks as if you are filming people who have made it clear they do not want to be filmed, you have to be prepared to deal with the repercussions. If you are on the property of someone who will not allow it, you may be asked to leave. If you are in a place where you cannot defend yourself, you may see your toy in pieces.
No good deed goes unpunished...
Just because you couldn't get Glass doesn't mean nobody should be able to use it. Never mind trying to get rid of the inevitable and wide-spread use of facial recognition also being a Luddite move as well.
That aside, the unmentionable place banning Glass is like Ryanair stating that they'll charge for restroom use on their airplanes. In both cases, they're going for sensationalism.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
N/T
The Alamo Drafthouse does not fuck around when it comes to theatre etiquette and rules.
It's a movie theater. Put away the gadgets and watch it. If you can't last two hours without reading a text then maybe a public theater is the wrong place to be.
Now if these are prescription google glasses, then I can see your point, as in the case of AMC theater this went too far (this is not same as Alamo Drafthouse). Of course that leaves the question, how do you prove this is a prescription and that it is not being used to take photos or videos (even photos are not allowed in many theaters)? There should be a way on these devices to detach the video and leave the glasses. Should be similar to cameras in museums; lens cap on and no one bothers you, take the lens cap off and the security guard taps you on the shoulder. Except with google glass you can't tell if it's off and deactivated easily.
I think your original line is correct. It implies there's a can of whoop-ass waiting when she brings it.
Being adult includes having situational awareness and impulse control. Checking your phone in a cinema should make you realise you just potentially ruined it for everyone else (personally i get "pulled out" of a movie very easilly). So are you in the cinema to watch a movie or to be on the phone? self-entitlement much?
If they have prescription google glasses, then they have proof of such and are perhaps exempt. Recoprding their anniversay is a horrible example, ofcourse they should not do that in the cinema for any reason whatsoever. Every reasonable exeption people can come up with there is a reasonable solution (often just having a talk with the cinema is enough, sometimes you might need a paper for proof of your issue(s)). Allowing everyone to be a jerk so you can wear prescription-googleglasses is not the solution. Allowing you to wear the prescription-glasses and everyone else no is.
I've been banned from having glass lenses since I was in high school.
What? Can you elaborate on this please?
The reason cinemas are awful is that they are full of superhero nonsense, over and over again. Adults have no business going to see these films, unless they are taking their children.
If you go to films for adults, there will be no noisy teenagers and you can see a film in peace. The last "mainstream" film I remember really enjoying at the pictures: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It was self-selectingly free of noisemakers. As for your fragile, delicate attention, you are in a minority. You have a favourite business that caters to you and your picky friends.
Just as a I prefer a relative minority choice of film and choose cinemas that are naturally free of noisy fools because, for example, those people are allergic to subtitles.
As stated before the snobbery from people sticking up for this chain is really funny. If you avoid children's films there aren't noisy children there, no matter what kind of cinema.
For some reason you are still going to Crash Bang Wallop Heroes Fly Through the sky in Lycra in your late 20s or 30s???
"Oh yeah, man. Such mature themes."
If they're banned in enough places, and enough people get their jaws cracked when they insist on wearing them in other places, then it will sink in: a lot of us DON'T FUCKING WANT some asshole recording us in public and putting it online with not even a chance to consent.
Why is everyone complaining now about visible camera in google glass when secret spy cameras are available for years?
I think that the loss of privacy is inevitable. Your eyes are basicaly making constant record of your visual input into your brain. It's just matter of time before our brain is enhanced with non-degrading memory able to store photorealistic data forever.
I can imagine legal regulations which would prevent publication of recordings made withous the subject consent. That would make sense for me. I can't realisticaly imagine how you want to prevent enyone from recording you because you have no chance to find about it.
Can't really tell if you were joking. Everyone here seems to be a shill for this company or cursed with most fragile, deficit ridden attention ever.
???? "I can hear the person next to me existing, it's so horrid."
Reason upon reason piling up to go nowhere near the kind of person who goes there.
Even Rocky Horror Picture Show sells out. ...... Saturday night?
There's famously a cinema in London that did just that for literally decades.
It was full of people dressed up and making lots of noise.
You and your kind would have hated it.
If you want to cam, text, chat, or other things, there are plenty of theaters.
Yes there are, and country club snobs like you will drive me to them.
But why waste time replying to AC
Instead of banning the devices, they could have provided extra services through them. Closed captioning, for example.
*eyeroll*
What would be a movie without the spilled popcorn crunching under my feet.
Google Glass (and similiar tech) is here. It's in the world, and it's not going away. Lots of people complain about it, and mostly they feel like it's an invasion of privacy.
I find that odd. Our privacy is invaded all the time. The US government records every text message and call you make and no one can seem to be outraged. Meanwhile, some guy has a camera on his face (and he's not even necessarily recording) and everyone is bent out of shape. No one bats an eye when someone takes out a phone to take a pic though.
There is ONE drawback to this tech. You might get recorded.
There are several HUGE benefits. For one, it turns the surveilance around. It's been shown that cop/citizen violence goes WAY down(I seem to remember a 50% reduction reported) when everyone is recorded. That's a good thing. For two, putting these things everywhere will turn everyone a lot more polite. I know it's a popular meme that an armed society is a polite society. Well, a recorded society might ACTUALLY be more polite. For three, carrying around an alibi might put an end to the practice of rounding up "the usual suspects". No more "He's black, it was probably him." We can all SHOW we weren't there. For four, I'd love to see it mandated that all public servants wear them. It's significantly harder to make backroom shady deals when everything you're doing is being recorded, but that's really just my pipe dream.
Anyway, people are bitching about glassholes. This is just... eh. Shrug. It's loosed upon the world. It's coming, and nothing you can do is going to stop it. I happen to think the benefits are well worth it. The only real drawback is that someone might record you being an asshole. :D
Sounds like another good reason to continue patronize the Alamo Drafthouse near me.
Google Glass is just like any other tech widget in a theater: Turn it off and put it away.
If you chose to put your perscription lenses into Glass, that is an unfortunate decision on your part. Go get the spare glasses out of your car (or whereever you keep them.)
Which was not that you got it wrong, but that you got it wrong different ways in the space of a couple of sentences. While getting it right at the same time.
Before I read that, I would have assumed you'd get it wrong the same way three times, right the same way three times, or maybe right twice and wrong once (if you were overtired and made a mistake).
Instead, you get it wrong, right, and wrong (differently) in the space of a handful of sentences. And I really can't see a mental process that leads to that other than "there is no "correct" way to spell the word, so any of the choices is fine".....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Maybe instead of impulse control, given that many people have a legitimate need to check a phone, people could stop being so petty and bothered by something so minor?
Then leave the frickin' room first if you're so goddamned important that you can't go 2 hours without checking your texts and emails*.
Personally, I don't find it petty at all to expect that the other people who also paid $16 to see this movie are going to actually watch it (and thus, let me watch undistracted), rather than play with their toys.
* In my experience, about 99.9% of the people who say they "have a legitimate need to check a phone" while in a movie theater are, in fact, not important at all, and are just making excuses to justify their bad behavior.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
And of course ever since this happened they show it periodically as their "before the movie" video to tell you not to use your phone.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Perhpas 4.30 is 1 minute after the film finishes, so I need to leave as soon as the film finishes, and the North side is not the normal side for driving home?
Then you should discuss that with your spouse prior to arrival, or excuse yourself from the theater before pulling out your phone. Have a little respect for the people around you.
As stated before the snobbery from people sticking up for this chain is really funny.
And the snobbery from people who think they should be able to break the property owner's rules and annoy other patrons because "reasons" isn't?
No, I guess it's not funny... sad and pathetic, maybe, but definitely not funny.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Yes and yes.
Also they serve beer.
Sounds like my kind of theater experience! Wish they'd open one around here.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Thing is, no one minds someone discrtely checking there phone for a few seconds with the light dimmed to the lowest setting
I mind.
Then you're a dick. A self-important wanker of the highest order.
Knowing that people are annoyed by cellphone use of any kind in theaters, a responsible and considerate person would sit in the back row, where nobody will even notice them using their phone. And if that was indeed your solution, then you would have said so instead of going wah wah wah.
Different strokes for different folks...
Is that how you got this way? I've heard that strokes can cause brain damage which can lead to alteration of personality.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
So glad there is a separate venue for such utterly misanthropic, self-important types like you.
So... he's the one who's self-important for saying "be polite to other patrons," not you for insisting that you have some imaginary right to ignore the rules of a property owner and piss off the other patrons.
If they ever make Mental Gymnastics an Olympic event, you should definitely throw your hat in that ring. I mean, you managed to get geekoid and myself to agree on something, and that's no easy feat, so medaling in the Cognitive Dissonance field should be a sure thing for you.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
So by "keeping a running commentary", do you mean that it was obvious the person was actually using Glass to record his companion narrating the whole thing?
If so, then yeah, he's a Glasshole and deserved to get kicked out.
If not, then assuming that he was recording when he probably wasn't (was the display lit up the whole time?) is BS.
Don't call Glass users Glassholes unless they're actually BEING assholes.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
A battery big enough to record continuously on a Glass or a cellphone all day long and upload data to the cloud would weigh 5-10 pounds
Which is funny, when you think about it, since a reasonably modern laptop can happily run its camera and upload files for 7-8 hours while weighing far less, including all of the other laptop bits like a screen and keyboard.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
This is why I own a GlassKap. :)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Glass is the worst covert surveillance and recording tool on the planet for a variety of reasons, and this is one of them.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
So, what makes you so interesting that we would want to waste our limited battery/storage (mostly battery) recording you?
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
But but but I demand my right to take away your rights.
Requiem for the American Dream
Perhpas 4.30 is 1 minute after the film finishes, so I need to leave as soon as the film finishes, and the North side is not the normal side for driving home?>
So check once the house lights come on but before you magically teleport yourself to the wrong place in a fraction of a second? After all, you have to get up, wait for your row to empty, and walk to the exit - plenty of time to check a text that you seem to think you can check in a fraction of a second during the movie.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Should I be able to tell whether this is irony?
Requiem for the American Dream
And who in their right mind would go for a pirate movie "recorded live at some cinema"? Extremely low quality, and head movements too. Yuck.
It doesn't matter if the glass has a good camera - try recording from a screen and cry when you see the result . . .
people who think they should be able to break the property owner's rules and annoy other patrons because "reasons" isn't?
I have never and would never set foot in their business.
A cinema shouldn't be like the Athenaeum or the New York branch of the Harvard club.
As an adult, I no longer find children's or teenagers' films entertaining. So when I go there aren't any tiresome noisy, horny 15 year olds.
I just checked listings for this chain. This adults only, highbrow-respectable establishment is showing Godzilla and that Tom Cruise mech warrior bollocks. These are children's films.
For some reason you feel the need to keep paying to see Iron Man pt (x+1) but feel old enough to shout "get off my lawn" at any detectable humans.
As I have said before, there is a minority busioness catering to you and your kind. Good luck to you.
What legitimate need do you have that cannot wait until the film is over, and if you do have such a need, stay the fuck home and watch it on DVD later. Entitled fuckwit.
Like email?
Requiem for the American Dream
You can use your phone, but: no illuminated display (or LEDs), and no sound. Not even keyclicks. If your phone can't do that - you can't use your phone.
thank you, exactly...
i'm sure the lady who was 'checking' her laptop (for 5-6 minutes) in the middle of a PACKED theater, in the middle of the movie, didn't think it would bother anyone... i should have stopped at 'didn't think'...
it BOGGLES the mind that ANYONE could be so inconsiderate, and then be self-righteously pissed off about people getting annoyed with them ! ! ! WTF, i''m hating on assholes like that...
people are annoyed by cellphone use of any kind in theaters,
Correction, some people are annoyed by any use at all. A larger number are annoyed by consistent or repeated use. The ones with zero tolerance have something wrong with their ability to direct attention. This is a skill that children typically develop by age 6, provide they don't have special educational needs. Maybe you do.
Is that how you got this way? I've heard that strokes can cause brain damage which can lead to alteration of personality.
Unfotunately for you, I have some education about brain injury, traumatic and acquired. Brain injury patients have difficulty with attention and have only single channel attention sometimes. Perhaps it is you, sir who have disabilities?
No matter, there is a business catering to your minority needs. Stay there with your autistic friends. The ones who need library silence while they watch CGI superheroes, at the same time claiming to be mature grown ups.
If somebody texts me during a movie, I'm going to feel two distinct vibrations against my chest. I then know to check the phone immediately after the movie, which is the earliest possible time I need to know about that.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
I think "take off the glass or leave" is an acceptable negotiation. But for something that they can't take off (like their shirt), if they were originally allowed entry then they deserve a full refund if they're later asked to leave.
saying "be polite to other patrons,"
The problem is you and your kind are attempting to define "Be polite" as, "your presence must be literally undetectable at all times." I am happy to avoid places frquented by such asocials.
right to ignore the rules of a property owner
Did you read the post? No you didn't. I made reference my happiness that people with undeveloped attention skills like you have a separate venue. Have never been there, will never go there. Typical 6 year old children can pay attention in the face of moderate noise, under sixes might still be developing these skills. Are you 5?
No reasonable person has their blood boil because a person two seats away got their phone out, read the text on the lock screen and put it away promptly.
Here's your cognitive dissonance -
"I am a proper grown adult who can be silent for 2 hours, but I still watch films with explosions and ass-in-lycra, so I need a special place that shows me these adolescent films but bans young people."
If you go and see films for actual adults, there aren't any noisy people in the cinema. For me these country clubs for hipsters are redundant
The ones who need library silence
Straw man. You are permitted to laugh and so on. You are not permitted to interfere with others' experience, which is what they're paying for. If they only wanted to consume the content, they could wait for it to hit video. If you don't want to participate in the shared experience, why are you there? Solely to grief people with your device?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
No, you're just a petty idiot. You wouldn't see the screen, although you might know what I was doing which would be enough to infuriate you, even though it wouldn't be any more distracting than reaching down to grab a packet of candy and open it loudly. Far less so in fact.
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
No, no one cares, except petty idiots who need something to complain about.
I've seen other people do the same thing, it barely affects the movie. Someone sneezing is 100 times more distracting.
If I thought for a second it was a legitimate concern, I wouldn't do it.
If you ignore ACs because they are anonymous - you're an idiot.
In such a situation, it is almost a social imperative that you tap the guy on the shoulder and ask him to take it outside.
The LAST ting you do is quietly put up with it then bitch about online later. If you werent willing to say something at the time, you cant claim to have been too bothered by it.
people who think they should be able to break the property owner's rules and annoy other patrons because "reasons" isn't?
I have never and would never set foot in their business.
Good for you, voting with your feet.
A cinema shouldn't be like the Athenaeum or the New York branch of the Harvard club.
Why not? It's a privately-owned business, not a taxpayer-funded park. Their property, their rules.
As an adult, I no longer find children's or teenagers' films entertaining. So when I go there aren't any tiresome noisy, horny 15 year olds.
I just checked listings for this chain. This adults only, highbrow-respectable establishment is showing Godzilla and that Tom Cruise mech warrior bollocks. These are children's films.
That's your opinion, which you're welcome to. Obviously not everyone shares this opinion of yours, as the Alamo Theater has apparently enjoyed quite the rapid expansion.
For some reason you feel the need to keep paying to see Iron Man pt (x+1) but feel old enough to shout "get off my lawn" at any detectable humans.
Actually, I don't go to movie theaters very often; most of the crap they put out these days, both adult and child themed, isn't worth $16 per person to go see, IMO.
I think the last movie I saw in theaters was War Horse, and the one before that was How to Train Your Dragon. Like I said, not a regular movie-goer. But that's not the point.
The point is, when someone else invites/allows you onto their property, you have a silent (or, likely in this case, clearly-posted) agreement to follow their rules. If you cannot or will not follow them, you can and likely will be asked to leave, which is their right to do as property owners. It's no different than if you invited me over and made it abundantly clear that smoking was not allowed in your house, but I lit up anyway.
As I have said before, there is a minority business catering to you and your kind. Good luck to you.
Minority businesses that cater to boutique crowds tend to do rather well for themselves, it seems. I'm certain Alamo and others will do just fine without the custom of Glassholes who have no respect for other people's property.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
If they only wanted to consume the content, they could wait for it to hit video
Not so. The "big screen" (bigger than the biggest TV) is one of the appeals, is it not?
Solely to grief people with your device?
You see, developmentally delayed types like you consider brief and very infrequent checking of a phone without talking to be intolerable. It's unfortunate that you cannot focus your attention. You are free to attend your bizarre members club.
I don't need it, because I don't have a taste for adolescent films while hating adolescents.
It might be that the only way to guarantee to stop excessive use is to prevent all use.
I haven't really ever been annoyed by phones in a cinema, ever.
We might also be generally more polite in my part of the world, with less need for the cinema equivalent of the gated community.
FYI, I always turn a phone off when I go to the cinema, but there are myriad reasons why someone might need an alert. On vibrate, of course.
Yes, because it would have been so much a better experience with you there holding a phone/wearing a headset and filming rather than participating in the actual celebration.
They had camcorders then, why didnt you stand there and hold it on your fucking shoulder? Wouldnt it have made it all so much fucking better for everyone else there just so you could watch it on video years and years in the future?
This is just the sort of narcissistic fucking bullshit everyone points out to you fucking idiots - you have no goddamn concern for any of the other 50+ people there and whether or not some fucking moron holding a phone/wearing GG detracts from the experience - no, all you care about is you cant go back and watch a scene years later. Fuck. You.
saying "be polite to other patrons,"
The problem is you and your kind are attempting to define "Be polite" as, "your presence must be literally undetectable at all times." I am happy to avoid places frquented by such asocials.
You keep saying "you and your kind," like you know me intimately based on a couple of Slashdot posts. That's pretty narcissistic IMO, and definitely asocial.
Trying to marginalize all people who disagree with you by referring to them as "you people" only serves to tell the rest of us that you have no intention of entering into a reasoned debate from a position of logic.
right to ignore the rules of a property owner
Did you read the post? No you didn't. I made reference my happiness that people with undeveloped attention skills like you have a separate venue. Have never been there, will never go there. Typical 6 year old children can pay attention in the face of moderate noise, under sixes might still be developing these skills. Are you 5?
One might question your intellectual age level, considering how you choose to eschew logical and reasonable arguments in favor of ad hominem attacks and playground insults.
No reasonable person has their blood boil because a person two seats away got their phone out, read the text on the lock screen and put it away promptly.
No reasonable person calls another person "utterly misanthropic, self-important" because that other person complains about self-absorbed assholes interrupting the event they paid good money to go see.
Here's your cognitive dissonance -
"I am a proper grown adult who can be silent for 2 hours, but I still watch films with explosions and ass-in-lycra, so I need a special place that shows me these adolescent films but bans young people."
All that proves is that you don't know what the term 'cognitive dissonance' means.
If you go and see films for actual adults, there aren't any noisy people in the cinema. For me these country clubs for hipsters are redundant
Then don't go. They'll survive without your patronage.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Like everyone around you doesn't have a video recording device on their person already in the form of a cellphone. Arguing for privacy in public is...interesting.
You can't just mark up a movie ticket and fix your profit margin. After a fixed allowance ("house nut"), most movie theaters lose 85-90+% of the ticket price to the distributor during opening weekends as part of their agreement. So to get a decent amount of profit, ticket prices would have to way more than double. I'd rather leave it to the person who buys way too many concessions to subsidize my visit under the current system.
The other fix is to have a dozen screens so that you're making profits on running older movies that are much cheaper to show. Which is being done these days. But that has a limited audience.
The ones with zero tolerance have something wrong with their ability to direct attention.
Are you sure it's not the cell phone users that have a problem keeping their attention directed?
To state it again, logically - Inability to focus attention in adults is developmentally abnormal. That is a medical fact.
Your demand for fully adult attention and sobriety is bizarrely hypocritical. If you go and see films for adults you will get that anyway. Teenagers and the ill-mannered that you so despise don't want to see "boring" films, do they?
You want teenager films without the teenagers.
Claiming serious minded adulthood while consuming children's fantasy films and feeling good about yourself for it would be a very good example of cognitive dissonance.
Finally, I despise the gated comunity, private members attitude that you want to bring to a trip the movies.
The only reasonable justification for these rules (other than marketing) is that it's much easier to enforce zero tolerance, rather than prohibit the genuinely annoying.The marketing is the main part, exclusivity justifies a price premium to many who want to feel special.
Believe it or not the light from that bright little screen is perfectly visible from all around you in a dim room. The image may be totally out of focus, but most of the light doesn't make it into your pupil, and it becomes a bright annoying spot in the room that moves and demands attention from everyone else with every shift of your head.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Feel free to watch children's films in your private members- country-club cinema. Films actually for grown-ups don't have noisy people in attendance anyway, so I'm not bothered.
You've repeated that same stupid no-true-scotsman at least ten times by now. Your opinion has been duly noted, now STFU and stop posting unless you have something new to say.
I am bothered by the zero tolerance attitude displayed by people who are simply looking for something to complain about.
This chain of "exclusive" cinemas is catering to their pettiness.
So what?
I don't really mean to sound so unsympathetic, but I do mean to suggest that your position is not going to have much meaningful impact in the long term.
A lot of people DIDN"T WANT people to have portable microphones, cameras, or transmitters to permeate society.
Now, people all over the place have camera phones on them.
When telephones interrupted families at dinner tables, some people objected to the intrusion of their lifestyle. Today, those who oppose the technology are not likely today to getting millions of families to be discontinuing all phone service in their household.
Similarly, your argument does not seem sustainable over time. Your arguments may be able to win over some supporters now, so early that the product hasn't caught on very much yet. However, such support is likely to reduce over time. The clearest evidence of that is to look at some other, more recent technologies.
When cell phones first came out, there was serious discussion about banning cell phones from movie theaters, and even grocery stores. After all, hearing somebody else's phone ring, and then needing to listen to them yell "I've got bad reception. I'm losing youuu..." in a crowded place isn't very pleasant, and may be rude of them to do.
Fast forward, and what do you actually find happened? Movie theaters have banned cell phones, but they are allowed most everywhere else except for driving a car. Only some states have outlawed cell phone usage while driving, and most Gen Xers will admit to breaking that particular law on a somewhat regular, or very frequent basis. Many and perhaps most Gen Y'ers will admit to being guilty of sending a text message while driving.
In a random sampling of society, I would generally expect the majority of adults and teenagers have a readily usable cell phone on them. This is why I'm suggesting that it doesn't matter if some people DON'T WANT the cell phones. Other people DO want the cell phones, and they have their way.
The fact that you are insightful enough to realize certain potential unpleasantness so early on, before Google Glass mass-market adoption, is not going to be sufficient to overcome what most people want. Today there are many people who would like to try out Google Glass, and there are others who do not want that technology to be used, and many people who probably have no enthusiasm for or against the product. As more people start to enjoy the product, resistance will shrink and many apathetic people, or even opponents, are likely to be swayed over time.
The only legitimate need to check anything is being on-call for something important, such that you'd immediately leave the theater and go to work if paged. Anything else? Leave your phone off for 2 hours, the world will be there later.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Once more, a movie theater chain takes an action that makes people think they are cracking down on piracy. That's also the real reason they ban texting during the movie; the audience distraction thing is a smokescreen.
But very little video piracy is done by going into theaters and recording the movie with a camera, and those bad recordings probably have little effect on the box office or on sale of legitimate videos in any case.. Most of it is inside jobs where somebody gets access to the movie server and rips the film from there.
Forget attention. The point of watching a movie in a theater isn't attention, it's immersion. If cell phones had a near-zero brightness level that could be enabled that would be a start (they don't - because users wouldn't be able to see well enough to turn it off in normal room lighting). A cell phone screen is always distracting and annoying. It may not break attention, but it breaks immersion - something that makes or breaks theaters. The ideal field of view for proper film immersion is 30 to 40 degrees (depending whether you ask SMPTE or THX). Setting this up at home with the proper sound is not easy. People pay for a movie for what they can't get at home.
There are very few reasons that require checking a cell phone once that can't simply wait until the movie is over. If you suspect an urgent situation involving one or a few persons, set the phone to vibrate for those contacts, silence for all others. No need to check the phone - just leave if that call comes in. Anything else is pure impatience. Zero tolerance is because when you multiply that "once" by 200 people, there's a light popping on every minute. It seriously adds up.
When Glass is mated with prescription frames (with Rx lens) wouldn't that be like asking someone to remove any other prosthetic aid? What about bioptic telescope low vision aids (picture a micro telescope mounted on a pair of glasses)? A few of the better ones can record short rounds of video too. It's pushing the edge of the law and sanity but the ADA has been pushed a lot.
You see, developmentally delayed types like you consider brief and very infrequent checking of a phone without talking to be intolerable.
You continue to claim that people who don't want you to be rude are developmentally disabled. But in fact, you are the sociopath here.
FYI, I always turn a phone off when I go to the cinema, but there are myriad reasons why someone might need an alert. On vibrate, of course.
Oh, so you're arguing about something you don't care about, just to argue? We have a name for that, and thy name be troll.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The theatre asks you not to do it. It is annoying. Please, for the love of gawd, stop being a douche bag; just turn off the phone and leave it in your pocket. That "dim" light is distracting.
To state it again, logically
- Inability to focus attention in adults is developmentally abnormal. That is a medical fact.
What's it called when someone shows an inability to distinguish between inability and preference? Because that seems to be what you're doing here.
Nobody (well, other than you) is saying that they are physically or mentally incapable of not being distracted by some asshole who can't leave their phone alone in a movie theater - what we're saying is that we shouldn't have to. The property owner in this case agrees, why can't you accept that? Put your phone away during the movie or don't go to that theater. There's no need to make a federal case out of it.
Your demand for fully adult attention and sobriety is bizarrely hypocritical. If you go and see films for adults you will get that anyway. Teenagers and the ill-mannered that you so despise don't want to see "boring" films, do they?
You want teenager films without the teenagers.
I want people to respect property owners. That's all. You can extrapolate that to mean whatever you want to (as you've already done), but that's the full of it - if the property owner says, "you can't do that here," and you do it anyway, you're being an impolite asshole, and they are well within their rights to kick you off their property.
Claiming serious minded adulthood while consuming children's fantasy films and feeling good about yourself for it would be a very good example of cognitive dissonance.
No, it's not. Hell, Einstein watched cartoons, and Bill Hicks (Google him) used to say that the Simpsons was the only thing on TV worth watching. Both were quite serious-minded adults, I assure you.
You seem to have this notion that 'anyone who doesn't think exactly how I do is not a "serious minded adult." That's about as immature and narcissistic as one can get, FYI. Glass houses.
Finally, I despise the gated comunity, private members attitude that you want to bring to a trip the movies.
The only reasonable justification for these rules (other than marketing) is that it's much easier to enforce zero tolerance, rather than prohibit the genuinely annoying.The marketing is the main part, exclusivity justifies a price premium to many who want to feel special.
Then open your own damn theater and make your own damn rules. You do not have a right to tell other people what they can do on their property or how they run their business, assuming they aren't doing anything illegal.
Personally, I'm not a fan of this apparent generation of self-entitled egomaniacs who believe they have an absolute right to do whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want, and other people's rights (as well as common courtesy) be damned, and if you disagree, oh, well, then you're just "not progressive enough" or "a hipster" or some other marginalizing term that exists solely to invalidate that person's opinion.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Personally, I refuse to use plastic lenses, because I've had bad experiences in the past with their ease of scratching. I'm told that the compositions have improved ; "fine", I'll let someone else find out. I'm told that I'll find it so much less uncomfortable with the much lighter plastic lenses, and I say "I'm not uncomfortable with them at the moment." I'm told that they're much more stylish and that plastic lenses will make my dick bigger, but my dick is already stretching the wife and I don't give a shit about my appearence. But even so, as my prescription changes through the years, I'm coming close to the limit of what I can get in glass lenses and will probably have to start ot take plastic in the near future - within one or two sets of lenses.
You may have more choices in America, but since I'm already using German lens suppliers (in standard size blanks, fitted by a local optician), with a 300-odd million market, I doubt you'll have much more choice.
I wonder if I can get a glass outer surface (for scratch resistance) bonded to an inner of optical plastic?
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
I've been to several more modern mainstream theaters in the past couple of years, and they do seem to be changing for the better. Well cleaned and comfy seats, and pre-movie warnings that threatened to eject you for phone abuse (not that they actually would, but at least it deters some). If I go after the movie's been out 2 weeks, so that there are just a handful in the theater, it tends to be OK. But the volume thing just makes some theaters impossible.
Of course, if I were in Texas, I'd have better options!
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Serious ... how much battery life does Google Glass have?
If you're telling me that Google Glass can record an entire 2 hour movie on a single charge, then I'm sooo getting one!
A device that size that can do so much - I gotta have one!
Oh, so you're arguing about something you don't care about, just to argue?
Something doesn't have to affect a person directly for them to care about it. This does not have to affect anyone at all, since attendance at such businesses is voluntary.
I still find them to be at best, sledgehammer-to-crack-a-nut.
You can't use your phone, period.
If you can't be away from your messages for more than 2 hours, stay the fuck at home.
Since you are obviously a glasshole piece of shit, let's put you #1 on the list to be selected for termination.
This is about putting inconsiderate pricks in their place: out on the street.