"Do you have a fever?"

Wynter, my boss, leaned over today and felt my forehead, asking, "Do you have a fever?" No, I wasn't looking sickly, or saying I felt warm. It was something I said in the course of normal conversation.

What could I say that would prompt Wynter to make that comment (jokingly, of course)? I had said that I wouldn't mind going to see the new movie "Fever Pitch" in the theater. The key to this comment is "in the theater." Since I've lived in San Francisco, I have paid--with my own money--to see a movie in the theather a total of four times. That works out to an average of a little more than one per year. Wynter knows this, as whenever the topic of movies comes up, I get on my soapbox about how much movies cost these days, I'll just get it when it comes out on video, etc.

Growing up in rural northern Michigan, I could go see a movie for something like $5. Granted, the movie theater in my hometown, in an effort to show more than one movie at a time and bring in more revenue, decided to "add" a screen by simply building a wall down the middle of the one existing theater! But still, it was a movie on the "big" screen, and even going to the neighboring town that had a little more modern theater still only cost $6 or $7.

Then I left for college. The local theater was something like $8 or $9, so I almost never went there, especially when the college showed movies (fairly recent releases) for $2 on the weekends. During those four years, I think my total of movies (in a real theater) reached somewhere in the vacinity of three. (Two of those were historical dramas that I saw with a history prof and/or fellow history nerds.)

So that's my soapbox. Movies cost a lot. But what's the importance of this well-known fact to this blog? It's to demonstrate my love for the game of baseball. The aforementioned movie "Fever Pitch" is built around the dating life of a hard-core Red Sox fan. I love the game and though I only rooted for the Red Sox for a few weeks last year, would love to see a movie about baseball--especially since it was shaped around the incredible run the Sox had in 2004. Even if it means shelling out $10 for two hours of sitting in an uncomfortable seat behind noisy teenagers and having to smuggle food in...oops, there's my soapbox again!