Smiling because

I am occasionally caught smiling while all alone. I guess I'm not the type of person who just walks around smiling all the time. Or if I do, then the smile I'm talking about is a different kind of smile. What are you smiling about? someone asks. I just thought of a joke I should've said a few days ago. A funny one.

The film goes off the reel

I like watching and listening to the film pull off the reel at the end of the movie. It’s the best part of many movies. The entire very end of any movie in a theater is great. Of course it’s great when all the other people leave, and it’s great reading who was responsible for catering and key grip and hairstyling of the lead actor and who was Toronto legal counsel. It’s great reading who wrote some of the songs you recognized. But all of the other pleasures of waiting through the credits are not as pleasurable as the bizarre music and fireworks created when the film spins off the reel.

Sometimes the teenagers running the theater will close the curtain or shut off the projector before the wonderful stripes, numbers, blotches, tears, and scratching sound (cousin of the record needle clearing its throat). I don’t get too upset about this deprivation because I convince myself it adds to thrill—not so different from waiting until the clock runs out to see if your team can score the winning point. As I exit I have this lofty, upholstered room all to myself.