Boat-In Theatre event 'Kung-Fu'

Last evening I hosted my first boat-in theatre event in several years. I have been having mixed feelings about my hobby of collecting classic 16mm films. I do a few showings a year, but I never get a really big audience. I am hosting a dive-in theatre event for the Rainbow Girls this Saturday at my home. I will be showing my print of 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' for that event.

The logistics of showing a movie on my boat are always challenging. I have to worry about weather, wind, and electricity. I was disappointed earlier this week to find out that my small portable (and quiet) gas generator wasn't working. It has been used for less than five hours but, apparently, just sitting unused for several years is enough to cause a problem. There was no way it could be fixed in time, so I had to rely on batteries. However, my deep cell batteries are also over four years old, and I didn't know if they would be able to hold a charge.

All day yesterday it threatened to rain and in downtown St. Louis there was a torrential downpour that caused a rain delay for the Cardinals game. I still got everything set up in hopes that I could pull it off.

I was doing a premier showing of my awesome pristine print of the original 1972 TV movie 'Kung-Fu' with David Carradine. I had two boats and a decent audience of about ten people. My deep cell batteries, it turned out, didn't hold a charge, so I ended up using my main boat battery which got me through a cartoon and the entire first reel. I was just about ready to close up shop and move the second reel showing to my house when a third boat pulled up, driven by one of my neighbors. We borrowed his battery and were able to get through the entire film.

At the top of this post is an embedded YouTube video showing my screen setup and a brief snippet of a cartoon that I showed last night.

Right now I am getting packed up and ready to head out to San Jose for the Nvision conference where I will be most of the week. I'm filling up my Iphone with podcasts to listen to on the airplane and looking forward to some time away from the office.