the view from row q - holy bat day!

110°, a city teetering on the edge, an auditorium filled with super-villains and people who text in the theater. with all hope nearly lost, the paramount theatre puts out the call...

and the man responds! today's matinee at the paramount, where the film also premiered forty-five years ago, was the original batman (1966) with none other than the original caped crusader himself, adam west, in attendance. you want the definition of a fun time at the movies? this was undeniably it. the festivities started out in the street, before you even made it into the theatre. the original batmobile was parked outside, at the ready, in case any of the rogue's gallery of villains decided to make trouble in our fair city. it was a hub of activity, surrounded by good citizens and li'l crimefighters alike.

for the record, that kid was awesome.

in the lobby there was an impressive lego batman statue and a flesh and blood frank miller-era dark knight making sure our gotham was protected. a vendor table at the auditorium entrance was piled high with just about every bat-souvenir you could want and upstairs, the man himself, adam west, holding court and taking photos with all the gold and platinum level film fans (just one more reason you should become one yourself). just before the actual screening, he entertained everyone with a hilarious q & a, beginning by letting us all admire his "superhero physique", and then fielding questions about everything from the rumor he is going to be in the dark knight rises (2012) - nope - to which villain gave him the most trouble - catwoman gave him curious stirrings in his utility belt - to his legacy as the first, and most fun, batman - "you know the dark knight? i'm the bright knight". the guy was a riot, fully embracing his position as a pioneer of camp and crimefighting. he seems to be having a lot of fun with it and made sure all the fans were too.

then the lights went down and it was an hour and a half of candy-colored hilarity, more dutch angles than a geometry class in rotterdam and BIFF! KAPOW! SPLOOSH! if you're at all familiar with the series, you know what i mean. the four major villains - penguin, joker, the riddler and the lee meriwether catwoman - converge on gotham to steal a device, quite clearly a vacuum cleaner painted orange and blue, that can dehydrate humans at the touch of a button. their ineptitude and inability to maintain a unified front of evil makes them easy prey for the dynamic duo. the mugging by this band of evildoers is so gleefully over the top that it makes jim carrey look downright restrained and west's delivery is the stuff of legend. batman himself is so deadly earnest and west is simultaneously so tongue in cheek that it almost gives you whiplash. in retrospect, it's almost revolutionary and it just gets funnier, and more fun, with each passing decade. exhibit A:

if that's not funny then just go ahead and spray me with bat-shark repellent right now, because i do not want to live in your world.

thanks nick, jesse and everyone else at the paramount for another great event. i just have one request if you guys do this again when it's 110° outside...

bring mr. freeze too.