There's perhaps one thing about growing up in Los Angeles that spoiled me that's I've not really mentioned here. Movies. I'm not talking about being near the movie industry, that kind of blows. What I mean is that movies are ubiquitous. Everyone's been to see the latest, and I don't mean the blockbuster. Any movie you want to see is playing somewhere, and the majority of theaters have at least one independent or foreign flick playing at any given time. When the local AMC has 30 screens, there's a lot of room for the kind of thing that will never make it to a theater near me. I miss seeing small movies, and I'm not a fan of having to wait for them open. Every time I want to see something here, I run into the problem of "Now Playing in New York and LA, Coming Soon to a Theater Near You." Maybe my instant gratification gene just kicks in too early.

The other branch of this argument is that people just saw movies more. They mattered. Now I'm completely out of the loop, and there's one theater where I can catch interesting movies, but it doesn't make much difference, because most everyone just wants to see the big ones anyway. Oh well, I'm really not that bitter, but was just noticing how much my expectations have changed since leaving SoCal.