In Search of the Afterlife ... and the After-party?

The Harp Room up the stairs,
a Stargate and a Pet Sematary?-)

Uploaded on February 25th, 2019?!

On February 25th, 2019, I spent the day in Brisbane's CBD watching movies on the big screen.
The next day I was watching Jeff Mishlove interviewing Raymond Moody, PhD, MD on my small screen on the latest 'New Thinking Allowed' podcast that was uploaded on February 25th, 2019 in the USA.

I went to the Elizabeth Cinemas to see the Academy Awards beamed live Monday morning/afternoon Australian time.
It was the same cinema complex I watched the ceremony live last year, but this time in one of the cinema's smaller theatres underneath the main #1 cinema, in cinema #5 of the

'Five Star Cinemas' ironically enough.
I wrote a post about my day out at the Elizabeth Cinema complex watching the Oscars last year in this post -
HARP On oPRAH?-)

The Harp(O?) Room back in 2017 maybe?-)

The Elizabeth Cinema is the home of Queensland's old Irish Club, so there is Guinness stout on tap at the bar still, in honour of the fact, which makes going to a movie here even more attractive to me.

Who needs popcorn when there is Guinness on tap at the
candy bar?-)
But if you are a Vegan, then Guinness ain't on the menu for you I'm afraid, like I wrote about in this old post -
The Nightmare of being a STRICT Vegetarian or Vegan?
While I'm still sticking to a dairy free diet, I have since the New Year gone back to occasionally eating seafood, which is great not having to wait for the vegetarian section of the train to come round at my local Sushi Train restaurant.
But did this Irish themed cinema complex have to keep the green theme going on the day by having the movie 'Green Book' take out the "Best Picture" Oscar?!

How the hell didn't my tip for favourite (Roma) not win?!
Psyncho and the Year of the Pig?

I couldn't believe it when they called 'Green Book' the winner, I was waiting for the non-host to say that they had done a 'La La Land' and handed out the Oscar to the wrong movie (which in my book they had ... pardon the pun:-).
Viggo Mortensen and Synchronicity?

I couldn't get out of that cinema quick enough to head for the bar and buy another ticket to see another movie and try to forget about this injustice.
I saw 'Green Book' weeks before the Oscars and while I didn't mind it as a movie apart from its twisting of "the truth", it just wasn't in the same league as 'Roma' I thought, but I agree with the Academy that Mahershala Ali deserved his award.
I don't care for all of the political BS that is bandied about at Oscar time, I just want a movie to be judged on its merits, not political content.

I only had basically two choices for a movie to see that was starting soon after the AAs had finished and that was 'What Men Want' screening in the Harp Room, or 'Stan and Ollie' in another of the Five Star Cinemas.
I'd already promised my sons that I would see 'Stan and Ollie' with them on the Wednesday of that week at another cinema ... which I did 

... and I didn't want to see that movie twice in that same week, so I saw the Tracy Morgan movie Monday afternoon.

Not that I really wanted to, but what choice did I really have as far as choices went on the day?
Oddly enough my son bought my ticket to 'Stan and Ollie' that Wednesday night and gave me a ticket with the same seat number I had of C-4 for the screening of the Oscars on Monday.
He knew nothing about my Oscar seat number either.

I'd always wondered what the Harp Room was like to watch a movie in anyway and I remembered hearing a podcast interview that Tracy Morgan had done with Oprah about his NDE, so I was interested to see him in his latest movie for that alone.
And in the HARP(O?-) Room, too.

Tracy Morgan on screen in the Harp Room Monday

The end credits of 'What Men Want' in the Harp Room

Luckily, I hadn't read the movie review section of the local newspaper a few days before, or maybe I wouldn't have bothered.

I didn't think 'What Men Want' was as bad as the above review, but it probably wasn't worth the price of the ticket and would have been something to watch on Netflix rather than the big screen.
I found out two days later that 'Stan and Ollie' was worth seeing on the big screen, but for me only once would be enough, I think.

Stan and Ollie puppets in the Elizabeth Cinema's display case

Stan and Ollie have been a fixture in the display case since the Elizabeth Cinema opened, so it was a bit strange for me to look in the display case and see those puppets the same week a movie about Stan and Ollie had opened in Brisbane and which I had promised my boys I would see with them on the Wednesday night that week.
Who's the puppet here I wondered and who is pulling my cosmic strings?-)

Tracy Morgan in Green Eggs and Ham

I also found it amusing listening to Dr. Raymond Moody talk in the 'New Thinking Allowed' podcast about the dying and nonsense language, like in children's books like those of Dr. Seuss and then seeing that Tracy Morgan is starring as the Fox in the new 'Green Eggs and Ham' Netflix series.
Hey Dr. Zeus?!

The display case at the Elizabeth Cinemas,
Brisbane, Oz

The Elizabeth Cinemas owners also run the last drive-in theatre around Brisbane, which is just outside the outskirts of the Brisbane city limits down around where I live now.
And seeing the old drive-in memorabilia in the case made me think of the 'BTTF predicts 9/11' synch film we sync-heads put our heads together to make, where I gave Joe the idea of the drive-in screen being a portal along with the movie screen and iPhone.

The carpark across the road from the Elizabeth Cinemas

And on the subject of driving-in, I tried to get a carpark spot at the carpark across the road from the cinema, where you could park all day for $15 with a validated Elizabeth Cinema ticket, but the carpark was full when I got into town with 10 minutes before the Oscars were due to start.
The carpark attendant met me at the top of the carpark and said it was all full, but if I left my keys with him ... and all of my possessions in my car he failed to mention ... he would park it behind other cars, like all of the precarious cars I had seen parked behind others as I was looking for a spot on the way up to him.
Visions of 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' sprung to mind and I told him "no way".

So, I had to go back out and look for somewhere to park my car without paying $11/hour.
I headed over to Southbank and parked there for $17 for the day and had to walk back into the Brisbane CBD, getting to the cinema 40 minutes late and missing out on my complimentary glass of sparking wine.
Oh, well, at least I felt my car was safe while I watched the screen on Monday.

As I'm walking back to my car late Monday afternoon, I walked past another cinema to get some sushi and there was a big poster for 'Green Book', just to rub it in my face of what a crappy year these Oscars tuned out to be on many levels ... especially car-parking levels;-)

Butterflies all over the car-park walls?

But at least my life wasn't transformed by getting into a near fatal car accident that day ... that wouldn't be something I would have wanted ... not my conscious self, anyway.

The Brisbane CBD as seen from Southbank

It was a nice day for a walk across the bridge and along the river anyway.

The Brisbane River seen from Southbank Monday

As they say, "you can't walk along the same river twice", can you?-)
You Can Never Walk Along the Same River Twice

Cheers!

UPDATE: March 10th, 2019

After I had put up this post the latest 'Cosmic Keys' podcast popped up on my iTunes podcast list (we're a day ahead in Australia, so it is Sunday here) and I had a listen to it -
Episode 12: Dan and Scarlet Visit The Boom Life Podcast

I'm not a Roman Catholic, but I am a Liberal Catholic (even though I haven't been to a service in probably over 25 years ... but I would if I lived closer to the city ... promise;-) and I am surrounded by RCs friends and family members ... as well as Protestants I might add.
If you have hours to spend watching all those You Tubes in the post above, and then listen to the 'Cosmic Keys' podcast you will get just how much it resonates.
But you guys in Chicago know diddly-squat about Australia and Australians, sorry to tell you.

Whatever floats your boat without
harming others, I guess

The Cosmic Keys: We Are the Keys?