From: a0s5108@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Neal and Mara Priestly)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Re: PEEVES at MOVIE THEATERS !
Date: 8 Jan 1993 13:34:24 -0500
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
NNTP-Posting-Host: titan.ucc.umass.edu


I marked a bunch of these to follow up to later but couldn't let this one
go....

In article <1ik4l0INN8jm@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> cb366@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Mark B. Bendiksen) writes:
>
>S. Spencer Sun writes (in response to my post)
>
>>>In article <1ii11gINN4ba@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>
>>>, cb366@cleveland.Freenet.Edu >(Mar:
>>>                                                                      
>>>Movie theaters that advertise "Dolby Stereo" and
>>>then don't have the surround speakers turned on when
>>>the movie starts. This forces me to miss the first moments

Though rare to go without, Dolby > < Surround.  There are films with NO 
surround information which are Dolby encoded.

>>>of a film to go speak to some pimply faced teenager
>>>behind the concession stand who
>                                       
>>It's amazing how pervasive hateful stereotypes are...
>
>Okay, I apologize for any stereotypes, but in a sense I
>have a right. Years ago I used to be the pimply-faced
>teenager working the concessions stand at the local
>theater.
>                                    
>>>informs me it's not his problem. Aaauuuugggghhh,
>>>I HATE THAT!!!
>                                  
>>It isn't, it's the projectionist/manager's.  The concessions
>>person certainly is not in a position to deal with your
>>complaint (although you could tell them to notify someone
>>who is...)
>
>I realize it's not his fault, but I am the patron and he is
>the employee, 

AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!    

Sorry, I feel better now.  Question for you, if I went into the 
computing centers office at your alma mater and asked the recptionist
about mnp5 throughput benchmarks, what kind of answer would I get.
At Umass I would get 3 out of four blank looks and one 'We don't 
do that kind of thing, go talk to Peter in (whatever his office
number is.)'

The point of the analogy:  You don't get lots of help from people who
can't figure out what the problem is.  They may be employees, but
they are not trained to see to your needs IN THAT PARTICULAR AREA.

>               and therefore HE IS in a position to
>deal with my complaing. 

Depends on what you mean.  Any concessionist who enters the booth and gets
caught will immediately enter the office closely followed by re-entering 
the labor pool.  Massachusetts has very strict laws concerning who may 
have access to a booth, and very stiff penalties for violations.  In 
addition to the legal aspects, there are managers I have met who I would
rather not set loose in a projection booth unsupervised, let alone
concessionists.  There are enough bells and whistles that should be seen
and not touched that I would rather not have anyone who does know what
everything is for to enter the booth once a film starts.

>You know as well as I do
>that instead of back-talking me, he should tell me
>thanks for notifying him of the problem and then
>he should go notify the proper person (projectionist,
>manager, whoever). 
>

Yes, but I must ask you this question.  It brings out one of my OBPeeves.
If you just wanted to bring your complaint to someones attention it could
wait for the end of the film.  

If you wanted it ADDRESSED (that is really why you got out of your seat.)
you would need to tell someone who 1) understood your problem.  
    A concessionist is not your best bet here.  At my theatre everyone
    starts there, and if they exhibit the brains God gave a grapefruit
    and the initiative to get any single thing done without my holding
    thier hand they may move to selling tickets, which is a little less
    directed.  Only after excelling both places do I let them into my 
    booths.  They have to show me that they will be responsive without
    the need for constant supervision.  Until they are trained, they 
    have no real clue.

and 2) you also need to tell someone who can solve your problem.
    Remember playing telephone in grade school?  everyone sits in
    a circle and the message gets mangled as it goes.  Imagine 
    putting someone who has an accent and understands no english in
    that circle.  Personally, I want to hear about these kind of 
    problems first hand so that I can ask the sort of questions 
    that ensure I know what you are requesting.  Fixing annother 
    problem may make others happy, but you are going to leave
    thinking I blew you off or that I am incompetent.

The OBPeeve is this:  there are too many people who look at the movies as
pure magic.  Merlin never fumbles spells, why do I.  Shit happens, machines
break (especially 20 year old ones) and other people have different ideas
about what right is.  (I had two people get into a real honest-to-God 
hitting-each-other-with-fists fight in my lobby last week.  Over the 
temperature of a theatre.  They came out at the same time to ask me to
move the thermostat in differing dirrections, and wound up dropping the
gloves after exchanging insults.)  

There are many people who expect that I will be able to drop everything to
immediately solve thier problem.  Even if I am midstream in solving someone
else's problem.  They don't want to hear that I didn't make the movie they
came to see and can't be held responsible for it being incoherent.  They
don't want to (sometimes can't) hear that if the volume goes up any 
higher it will be audible in Buffalo, NY.

The biggest part of the peeve are those people who are unwilling to wait 
for me to walk the (very short) length of my 4 plex, and then scream 
obscenities at me after the movie because I was unresponsive.  Movies
may be magic, BUT WE ARE NOT.

I am not saying you are one of these people.  Only you could answer that.
I just remind you that there are two sides to everything, and a lot more
going on than even some of the better informed of you know.  I must be
civil to you.  Should civility not be required of you as well.  I am
required to treat you as a person.  Does my uniform make me any less 
human.

Can you tell that if one more person opens with 'What the hell kind of
business you trying to run' that I'm going to rip out their lungs and
mincturate upon their heart?

It's been a hard customer week.  People who fall into the two subclasses
of peeve above have been the reason it's been a bad week.  The patron/
employee line I split above was thrown at me yesterday.  The patron 
needed to clean her glasses and have less beer.  The employee had less
than ten hours on the job and had no idea how a projector focused nor
how to call me on the intercom if I was not at my desk.

>Mark B. Bendiksen
>cb366@freenet.cwru.edu
>-- 
>"If we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto,
> We'll just be bogus, too."-- Dr. Jeff Spicolli


-Neal Priestly
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies