trash filter

A filter is nothing more than a baracade. It will let cetain things pass and keep other things from passing. Some time the filter is there because you want to keep something and get rid of the rest, not unlike panning for gold. You want the filter you use there to remove the mud and water and leave possible gold pieces. The coffee filter keep the gound coffe in while hot water infused with the essence of the coffe beans go through. Some times filters are less tangible, but there none the less.

It's been almost 10 years since I last went to Disney World. On the flight home, I met a very interesting fellow who claimed his wife was a marketing director for Disney Resorts. He told me about the numbers she has brought home, and claimed the revenues were so robust on food, lodging, and merchandice, they could actually let people in for free and still net a profit in the billions. My next question was "Why don't they?", and he had the answer. "Dinsey caters to people with money." The resort doesn't want just anyone walking in causing all sorts of havoc. So they set a high price so that only people who meet their standards may enter and consume. So the gate price is a trash filter of sorts. People who cannot afford the $60 a day per person can't go. People who tend to not be able to afford the nicer things in life tend to not have the self-control to behave properly in public either.

So, Disney makes a nice chunk of superfluous cash and keeps out people that may be too trashy to enjoy themselves and not ruin it for everyone else.

You might be at this very moment saying "OK....and you're going WHERE whith this?"
This past week, Robyn and I went to see two movies. One was at a very nice theater in a more-or-less upscale mall The Southpoint Cenema and we watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The other was at the $2 theater, Spiderman 3.

Wow what a difference.

Total cost with concessions at Southpoint: Over $50.
Total cost with concessions at Graham Cinema : $10.

Graham Cinema has cheap conessions too, a drink and large popcorn is $5 with unlimited refills. Nice, very nice....
What is not nice is the absence of the trash filter. Every piece of hot ghetto mess that had $2 and would be breaking parole by staying out so late was there. I did find it amazing that pay-as-you-go cell phone can have mp3 ringtones. People were interacting with the movie like it would somehow change the plot. Some of them, I'm not sure they could even tell you what they were watching since they didn't shut up once during the movie. Some chunk of trash took thier infant (infant as in the umbilical cord was still there). It was a 9:45 pm show! It was more amusing than anything else, but it cements the fact that if you want quality, you have to pay for it. I don't blame them, they grew up knowing only what they were around, apathy, ignorance, crime, and dysfunction. I think I'll take the kids there one day to show them how NOT to act.

Just for example, there is a photo album of what I saw here