Booth Bijou Garage Theater (2 Viewers)

[Bob Bielski]

I feel like a kid but I love Mary Poppins. And as a kid I grew up with Queen. Haven't seen that movie yet. Great to see you up and running and enjoying the theater again.

 

[Mark Booth]

Wow, our guests really loved the 'Driving Miss Daisy' & 'Green Book' combo. Most hadn't seen the former since it was in theaters in 1989 and all but one couple hadn't seen 'Green Book' at all. Both films earned applause as the credits rolled.

Coming up in 2 weeks at the Booth Bijou Garage Theater: 'Philadelphia' & 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. I sent the invite this morning and about 80 minutes later all 20 spots were taken.

I decided to save 'Mary Poppins Returns' for its own feature presentation slot at the next movie night after this one. I need to decide on a fun and whimsical film to accompany it in the B-movie slot.

I'm really looking forward to seeing 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in the garage theater. I actually prefer the 5.1 sound system setup out there to the 5.1 setup in the house.

Mark

 

[Mike Frezon]

Peg and I hadn't seen Green Book yet, either, Mark...until last night.

We watched it on my HT and REALLY loved it!

 

[Mark Booth]

The most amazing thing about Green Book is how long the real Tony Lip lived after sucking cigarettes with nearly every waking breath. OMG, if the film is accurate, the man was a damn chimney.

Mark

 

[Bob Bielski]

Wow sounds so nice. I can't wait until you decide on the B movie to go with Mary Poppins Returns. I think you are spoiling these people.
Obviously they are having fun.I hope you are to. Why do you prefer the theater 5.1 to the House 5.1??
Love reading your posts. I just wish I lived closer so I could come over and get some of that popcorn.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I'll go with ya, Bob. We'll have one hell of a road trip.

You drive to my house on the way West and then we can share driving duties the rest of the way (kinda like Tony Lip and Don Shirley did at the end of the film)!

I think the popcorn would be worth it!

 

[Bob Bielski]

You are tooo much. If i am ever in your neck of the woods I would come by full handed and sit back and enjoy your theater. You are so wonderful to share what you have with others, It warms my heart to see you offer this set up to so many friends and send them home full of enjoyment. The world needs people who think and live like you do. I love to see the news on this post. Keep doing movies and tell me why the 5.1 theater over house 5.1

 

[Bob Bielski]

Sorry Mike senior moment i thought I was talking to Mark. Yes it would be nice to share the driving duties. I have never been out west except for a trip to Colorado once. We should both show up at Marks house with a fist full of movies and a sleeping bag. LOL

 

[Mike Frezon]

We should both show up at Marks house with a fist full of movies and a sleeping bag. LOL

He can keep the Miata in the driveway for a few days while we sleep on the floor!

 

[Mike Frezon]

The Mass Pike runs right by my house (near Albany). Then we'll take I-87 West and then just start following the smell of the melted butter to Mark's door.

 

[Mark Booth]

You guys crack me up!

The next time HTF members make a trip to Los Angeles for a studio tour, perhaps ya'll can make a side trip to San Diego for a night at the Booth Bijou? Our house is modest but our garage is awesome!

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

We decided to pair 'Mary Poppins Returns' with 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' (which will be in the B-movie slot). Cathy and I haven't seen Spider-Verse yet. I may be able to holdout to see it for the first time in our garage theater (two weeks from now). Or, maybe not.

The two seem a good fit from the "fantasy and whimsical" standpoint.

Mark

 

[Bob Bielski]

Haven't seen that one either. I am sure it is awesome. You and Cathy just may be a new breed. The way all the brick and mortar stores are disappearing I kind of wonder if the theaters will follow. Everything is changing so fast. Retail is going south. And I am into computers and networking, but now we have AWS. Amazon web services. First we saw the discs go away like Blockbuster and the rental hard copy places.
Now all the computers, I mean physical computers are going virtual. Networks are going virtual. Discs are only going to be streaming. i really think the old way of living is changing like the blink of an eye. I miss renting movies and I am going to miss going to the mall. And what about socializing. Especially for the young kids. What you are doing with your theater is AWESOME in my eyes. Not only are you entertaining many people who don't have a home theater but you are keeping socializing going. Now we get food delivered, even cars now.
Mark you are the last of a dying way to view movies and i truly thank you and want you to know you are sorely needed throughout the country. Thank you for providing a theater for your friends. It warms my heart to see how kind you are and to open your theater to everyone including me THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

 

[Mark Booth]

Thank you, Bob, that was very nice of you to say.

I have to admit selfish reasons for the Booth Bijou Garage Theater. A projection system isn't really practical for our main viewing room. We've got a 75" LCD TV in there but it's just not the same as front projection. So, the garage theater gives me a chance to enjoy my favorite films with a big 110" screen and front projection. Plus I enjoy watching films with others because the "audience" is part of the experience.

Our guests in the Booth Bijou are far better behaved than a lot of strangers we've experienced in regular theaters.

Mark

 

[Bob Bielski]

That may be true but please be ready for the exception. Some night it might go south. It is all good though. No matter what everyone will have fun and you will to. just please keep an open mind that when dealing with a crowd you have to have a wide range of acceptance.
I know in your heart it will be easy. To open your theater and give access to all the people you do you have what it takes to be tolerant of less than perfect or average behavior.
Like you I would love to share my theater. I have toiled for a long time and have an exceptional theater mostly on the audio side but am looking forward to getting an OLED. Contrast has always been the hardest thing to get perfect. To get a real Black no vottage and no backlight, no output, and to get a super white, without clipping the power supply it is unique to each display device. The color part is easy.
One of the best signals I have run into with all the test discs to set up your display has been the clipping test pattern from Spears and Munsil. you can get your display to the finest contrast right up until it clips and then back off one notch, And that is awesome.
In other words push it to the limit and when it goes too far bring it back to being accurate and linear.

 

[Mark Booth]

Everyone we invite to the Booth Bijou are people we spend time with at other times too. Former co-workers, members of our car club, and friends we've met through other means (such as a fellow magician friend). In short, we know them well and know that it is unlikely we'll have any "issues" with behavior.

We did have one person (from our car club) that attended a few movie nights but later proved to be a bit of a troublemaker in the club. We casually stopped inviting him and he's never said anything about it. He had flaked out on a couple of movie nights (cancelled last minute or was just a complete no-show) so I think he figured that was the reason.

Beyond that, no issues whatsoever. So far.

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

Now that Spring is here we've returned our attention to our backyard remodel (a space that gets used during dinner on movie nights). We've had several landscape contractors out to work up proposals for drip irrigation and plants on the back slope and railroad tie planter area. The first estimate came in a bit higher than we expected, we are hopeful the next few will be lower, not higher.

In the meantime, I finally got around to installing the strings of LED lights on the pergola. Since the pergola beams and rafters are constructed from Trex, I didn't want to put in a bunch of screws or nails to hold the pergola lights in place. With wood you can later fill the holes and paint and it would look as good as new. Trex would be more challenging to repair.

Since the Trex beams and rafters are a very smooth surface, I figured some sort of adhesive-backed hook would be the ideal solution. I found just what I needed on, where else, Amazon:




The hook portion is stainless steel and the semi-transparent attachment pad looks clean and unobtrusive against the white Trex rafters.

This is the end result:

That is with the dimmer module (which is HomeKit compatible and controlled by voice through Siri) at 60% brightness. Here is at 20% brightness:

And at 10% brightness:

I am VERY pleased with how the pergola lighting worked out. The pergola canopies can still be opened and closed just as before, there is enough space along the edges of each canopy that they don't even touch the LED bulbs.

You may notice several empty pots sitting on the pavers (there are a few more out of camera view). We've been picking up a few different sizes of cobalt blue glazed pots as we've come across various deals (Costco has some gorgeous ones at a very good price right now, we purchased 3 of those). We've begun the process of researching which plants we want to put in each pot, we plan to visit a couple more nurseries today.

If we end up choosing the landscape contractor we think we might hire (the one who impressed us the most, but we won't get his proposal until next week), the irrigation & in-ground plant work should start by around mid April and be finished by the first week in May. It's been a long (and, at times, challenging) road, but we can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Mark

 

[Mike Frezon]

I am VERY pleased with how the pergola lighting worked out.

You oughta be!

 

[Mark Booth]

Looking back through my photos here, I realized I never updated this thread with information about the patio furniture we ended up choosing. We got it through Costco dot com, two different sets. A square fire table (55,000 BTU) with four swivel/rocker chairs:

https://www.costco.com/Tivoli-5-piece-Fire-Chat-Set.product.100354397.html

And a 4-chair dining set with 36" table:

https://www.costco.com/Tivoli-5-piece-Sling-Dining-Set.product.100354398.html

We purchased the sets in October, after a price reduction from last year's Summer prices. We paid about $1,000 less than the current prices so the timing worked out well.

The tables in each set are concrete (quite heavy) with a few pieces of inlaid tile. Very attractive and the colors go well with our pavers and pergola canopy.

We added an umbrella (visible in my lighting pictures above) to the dining table. It has LED lights built into the ribs and a solar panel at the top of the pole. It's just enough light to see your food and, amazingly, the battery lasts for about 10-11 hours after a full day of sunshine.

Mark

 

[Bob Bielski]

I just don't know. Might be mis interpereting but I am spooked.