Burritoville

The Netscape-friendly hunt for the perfect urban food log.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

"I stood in line for an hour to see Serenity and all I got was this lousy poster."

First off, let me say that Joss Whedon is a creative genius. I loved the TV show Firefly. I hope Serenity lands on the top of the box office heap this weekend, wins eleven Oscars, and that Elijah Wood begs to play one of Inara's clients in the sequel.

I can't tell you whether the movie was any good, though, because despite being "invited" to participate in a "Serenity Blogger Bonanza" by "Your Friends at Grace Hill Media," I did not get in.

I would not be bitter if the Bonanza had worked as advertised: Show up 45 minutes before screening time at the AMC Van Ness in San Francisco, find a Universal Pictures representative, give that person my printed confirmation and find out if there were enough seats open at the screening for me to get in. Instead, the two other bloggers and I who arrived at 6:35 for a 7:30 show were told that the rep was too busy to deal with bloggers and that we should just go stand in the line outside. The AMC troll added that, since there were only about 200 people in the line and 300 seats in the theater, we should be able to get in.

Reader, I should have turned around and driven back to East Oakland right then. Or if not then, as soon as I realized that the people in front of me in line were not bloggers, had a "pass" they'd been handed on some street corner, and had no clue, even, what the guy dressed in the blue gloves doing street theater was all about. Instead, I stuck around, even after the Universal rep showed up and started handing out dinky little Serenity posters and "passes" to some movie called Prime "just in case you aren't able to get in." The "pass" to Prime, by the way, looked just like the turned-out-to-be-worthless pass the no-clue-bies in front of me had for Serenity.

Anyway, the whole experience has been educational. I realize that there are a lot of large corporations out there who are eager to use the so-called blogosphere to flog their merchandise. It's tempting to go commercial, even in small ways. (Dooce recently explained her decision to allow ads on her RSS feed.) I was tempted, Lord, by the promise of free Serenity tickets. I have been punished. I will not transgress again.

This blog is about the search for the perfect urban food log. From now on, all other topics must take themselves to some other corner of cyberspace.
Hey, Universal Pictures: If you're going to treat me like a space hooker, at least have the courtesy to pay up when you're finished.