Roger and Eggheads

Late one night, my cousin Orange (family nickname--it's not on her birth certificate) and I decided that we were going to watch Lords of Dogtown. The movie is about the "founders" of skateboarding. Anyway, it was about 2 a.m., neither one of us could sleep. I had just finished watching Dead Poets Society, and she was still working on her youth retreat program. She suggested Lords of Dogtown, because her teenage daughter Tina and our nephew Chuck Tanseco highly recommened it.

After fiddling with the DVD player, we skipped the previews and started the movie. It opened with a few kids sneaking out of their parents homes with surfboards. The music was intense and the sounds of their skateboard wheels hitting the pavement was really loud--the were carrying their surfboards, while skating down to the water. The surf scene was also intense, with the music blaring and the sounds of the waves crashing against either surf bodies or the water.
When they finished surfing they started talking to each other. The bizzare thing was, their lips were moving but no sound emitted. We could hear the music, the waves and even an occasional siren in the background. There was no conversation that could be heard.

Orange and I immediately speculated that one of the surfers was deaf, or the narrator was deaf and this was being told from his point of view. I started getting into the movie, trying to understand sans conversation what was going on. I began to get into it, saying this was a great director's artistic and creative way of telling the story. I began to read into what I thought the author was trying to do also. I told my cousin that maybe symbolically we couldn't hear the main characters speak because they were "The Lords of Dogtown", that they were above us all and in their own world. We weren't allowed to be in their world.And I also began to understand what was going on. There were these friends who would skateboard, win competitions, but then were torn apart by fortune and fame.

It wasn't until 30 minutes before the show was ending that I realize the stereo system wasn't on. I was thinking, I am sure it doesn't have to be one since we can hear the music and the background people talk. I hit the speaker buttons and ta-da, CONVESATIONAL SOUND was emitted. I could suddenly hear the people on screen speak.

I'm going to end here. I don't think there is much more to say except that, I won't be applying for any movie critic positions in the near future. And I won't attempt to operate any stereo/television equipment without a chaperone.