I'm going to take a minute to talk about one of my favorite films and my uncanny habit of finding REALLY good showings of it; Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

First, my personal history with the film. One night, I came across the last half of it on AMC, and was totally mesmerized by it. I eventually caught the whole thing, and fell almost hopelessly in love with it.

A couple of years ago, I actually went to Devil's Tower itself. And, albeit on a 20 inch CRT monitor, I and fifteen others actually WATCHED the film itself at the foot of the mountain. It was one of my favorite film experiences ever.

Then, last night, I went to a showing at the Alama Drafthouse. Oh. My. God!

OK, first of all, we were shown the Duck Dodgers in the 24th1/2 Century cartoon right before. Awesome. Second, the print was... a print! And it was gorgeous, and epic, and had character. And, third... I ought to explain.

A couple months ago I went to a similar showing of Jaws, and there there was a guy who had brought a large collection of Jaws related memorabilia. It inspired me to do the same here, especially since I actually own a couple Starlog issues with Close Encounters-related stories and the Marvel comic. So, I brought them. This got me way farther than I expected.

Apparently word got around the ushers, and eventually... I got to look at the print myself! Not to mention, I had a great conversation with the projectionist about the art of real film being in decline and the replacing of it by digital prints.

And, if you're wondering what I think of the film after all this... It's still one of my favorite films.