M is for Movie Night

 When I was a little girl, movies used to be special.   You didn't get to go to the movies very often.  There was no such thing as DVDs or VCRs, certainly no cable or satellite or streaming downloads.  When we did go to the movies, you exercised some care about what you spent your money to see.  Nowadays, the studios just seem to be cranking out flicks left and right--if they're not good enough to release in theaters (a very low threshold I might add) they can go direct to DVD. 

We're fairly careful what films we allow into our home and into our eyegates if you will.  And I'd like that experience to be special for the whole family.  So this year we're kickin' it up a notch and starting a backyard theater.  The Toolman stalked the online auctions and Dell's reconditioned sales site and found a bargain for a projector.  We tested it out last night using read projection from the garage.

We couldn't set the projector right behind the screen because it created a "hotspot" right in the center of the shot.  The projector allowed you to skew the image so that everything appeared dead on even though the shot was actually coming from about a 45 degree angle.

Eventually, we'd like to show movies projected on the front of our barn in the back yard.  We've got a sloped hill that would make a natural amphitheater.  Off to one side is our fire pit so we could have hot dogs and s'mores  --a snack bar for the drive-in if you will.

I've got a long list of movies to share with family and friends.  Epics like Ben Hur, old Disney flicks like So Dear to My Heart, comedies like Bringing Up Baby.  Maybe we'll start a Friday Family Flicks review feature and I'll tell you how each one went over.  Anybody have any films they'd like to recommend?

This M is for Movie Night is part of the Ben & Me's ABC Challenge.  You can check out the other M topics by clicking here.