Did something last night I've been wanting to do for years!

scottasf called up & suggested a movie, but we couldn't find a single current film we could agree on... then he said one word, and I said, "YES -- we are doing THAT..."

That word was "Niles," as in the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum. Every Saturday at 7:30PM they have a program of silent movies with live piano accompaniment. I've been wanting to go there for years but never have, so we turned our back on the modern culture that produced Zero Dark Thirty and a Haunted House. Rather gladly.

The place itself is tiny, with uncomfortable chairs probably salvaged from an abandoned elementary school (there are free cushions to soften the pain). The museum component is fascinating, with all sorts of stuff from the Nineteen 'teens and '20s. And only 5 bucks for the show, too!

Program had shorts from Snub Pollard and Charlie Chase, followed by the feature, Power, about two rough-and-tumble construction workers who keep fighting over the same dames because the two of them can't admit their real feelings for each other. I think I'm making up the last part there. Very typical of its day, nothing special, but Alan Hale is engaging, and William Boyd looks a lot like Robert Montgomery. Carole Lombard and Joan Bennett in tiny parts. All three films had that wonderful aspect of unintentional documentary, windows onto the fashions and ethos of nearly a century ago, plus fascinating looks at Los Angeles as it was still half-grown.

I'm definitely going back to Niles -- in a few weeks they're showing the 1921 version of Kean, and after that, Murnau's City Girl, which I'm particularly excited about. And it's easy to get to -- just get off I-880 at Alvarado-Niles Road and drive southeast until the train station is on your left! Or you could turn west on A/N Road and go to the Union Landing 20-plex instead & see a Haunted House. Ew.