things I don't get about my culture #256423

[the_siobhan]

I went to the movies with BC yesterday. The theatre had the air conditioning cranked so high I spent the last 30 minutes of the movie shivering uncontrollably. Then of course I went outside into the hot, sticky, smoggy Toronto air. By the time we got back to her place I was feeling really ill and it was hours before I was back to normal.

If this was anomalous I might think that something had gone wrong with the air conditioning or that somebody had made a mistake when setting the temperature, but this is my experience Every. Single. Time. I go to a movie. If I'm lucky enough that we've planned for it ahead of time I end up carrying a sweater around in the middle of July just so that I don't freeze my ass off.

For the life of me I can't figure out why they do that. Cool, yes. But why would they imagine that people want to watch a film from inside their refrigerator? Especially when those people are going to have to deal with a 30-degree temperature shift the second they walk out the door.

Comments

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Mostly, it's because temperature-controlling large spaces is *hard* to do right, and if someone doesn't hire a fscking GENIUS to do large vertical spaces and LOCK the controls, you'll end up with warm and cold spots, drafts, places where dust literally *piles up* on things, etc. And most architectual firms don't hire HVAC geniuses. Also, warming is way easier to do than cooling because warm just floats up, but cool piles. Theaters are worse because the floor isn't even flat, and the effect increases over the run of the film because people aren't moving around and stirring the air.

For maximum comfort, sit in the back in summer, and down front in winter.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I'd get that if it were merely chilly. But's it's not chilly it's actually cold. Even at the back it's cold, just by a few degrees less.

[otheronetruegod.livejournal.com]

Word. Poor Linda has the same problem. Even the awesomeness of The Dark Knight didn't warm her up. She wore a hoodie with the hood up the whole time.

Even I was cold, and I burn like a furnace.

[unagothae.livejournal.com]

I always take a jacket to the theatre. But I live where it's wise to have a jacket every day of the year because the temperature is always changing. I had more difficulty with it in Montana.

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

Because the people who decide these things are the same ones who decide to put water with so much ice in it it's almost a glacier on the table when it's -30F outside? Never have figured that one out.

[bellafiga.livejournal.com]

I always thought it was a way to keep folks awake. But I tend to be wrong in these things:P

Sorry you were so chilled though!

[inulro.livejournal.com]

That's what I worry most about with our trip to Florida - not the heat, but the transition from the heat to and from over-air conditioned buildings.

[scarletfaewind.livejournal.com]

Here in Kansas, that is the standard. I actually have a jacket in my car for restaurants and movie theaters. Otherwise I freeze!

[http://users.livejournal.com/cincinnatus_c_/]

My working assumption is it's a conspicuous consumption "see how rich and powerful we are with our expensive and powerful air conditioning" thing.

I get what hellsop's saying, but the question is, which direction are you going to err in--too weak or too strong? Too weak is weak!

[greylock.livejournal.com]

It's the same in Australia.

[http://users.livejournal.com/belladonna_/]

I have the cold thing at movies too. But what really gets me is the sound. I mean, sometimes it is just so loud it is ridiculous - I mean, my ears *can't* be so much sensitive than everyone else's that a sound loud enough to cause physical pain to me is completely unremarkable for others. Or can it? I dunno. It's a mystery to me.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Because a single person feeling hot and sweating profusely in an enclosed theatre will cause complaints from twenty neighbouring seats? Low temperature is much more insidious, less obtrusive, and more easily dismissed.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

It's marketing. People tend to think about, "OMG, it's hot, I want to go somewhere cool," and will pay money for that, but they don't think about the after-effects as part of that decision-making process. Making the patron happy and comfortable isn't the goal of theatres -- getting the patron to spend money is. Making them happy and comfortable might seem like a means to an end there, but I don't think it actually is.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, yes, it drives me crazy. I hate going to see movies in the summer. Freeze, boil, freeze, boil, lather, rinse, repeat.

I used to love living in the South -- before every fucking place was air conditioned into submission. Where are the fans? The verandas? The long, leisurely afternoons?

Now I'll take my Manhattan heat wave, thank you very much. Where there still exist sidewalk cafes, and shaded park benches, and integrated environments (shops leave their doors open and fans running).

And, yes, I will gratefully hop on a bus for a brief cooling off period. But it's not the freeze/thaw/freeze/thaw cycle o' doom.

[eciklb.livejournal.com]

It is annoying, but it got me my favorite jacket. Went to a mid-summer movie wearing a tank-top and realized just as I reached the theater that I was going to freeze my patootie off. Ran into Deb and grabbed a black vinyl jacket off the sale rack; it cost $2.38 including sales tax. I love it, and it makes movies less miserably cold. None of which in any way addresses your question....