Marathon Monday

Living in the Boston area, you can't escape the Boston marathon. When that Marathon Monday in April rolls around, you best be prepared for streets to close down and wall-to-wall television coverage. And now, thanks to the recent bombing, for heightened excessive security and "Boston Strong" slogans everywhere. But that's not the marathon Monday I'm talking about. I don't have much use for marathons. For me, when Marathon Monday rolls around it's an annoyance. But my family likes the marathon, and my nephew was even born on a Marathon Monday, so I can't escape it. But marathons bore me to tears.

What I do love however is movie marathons. And tomorrow is going to be a movie marathon Monday for me, as the new Hobbit movie comes out and they will be screening all three that day. I've gone to a few movie marathons over the years. I saw the Dark Knight trilogy marathon (that was the night of the Aurora shooting). I even went to the Twilight marathon (and now I never have to see any of those films ever again).

I remember back when Return of the King came out there were Lord of the Rings marathons, but I wasn't able to go because it sold out in like an hour. Now, I have the opportunity to watch the three Hobbit movies together. And it's going to be fun.

There are few things I like better than movie marathons. I wish there were more of them in my area. I've always wanted to do a Star Trek movie marathon. Some nights at home I've done marathons. My sister and I did a Toy Story marathon, and a Lion King marathon, and a Rush Hour marathon. Back in the 1990s, for awhile the Disney Channel did "Triple Feature Friday" where they would air a marathon of movies either in the same series or related topically. I wish they'd bring that back. Of course, I wish they still aired movies without commercials.

I remember when I was a kid and the Sci-Fi Channel (back when it was called that) aired the Star Wars Trilogy all day. It was hosted by Carrie Fisher that year and I taped it because I wasn't home all day. The following year they did it again in letterbox format hosted by Billy Dee Williams. They're sister network USA used to do it pretty often as well after that. Nowadays, TNT is always running Lord of the Rings in a similar fashion.

Great as it is at home, nothing beats doing a marathon in a theater the way they were meant to be seen. To me, a movie marathon is a perfect first date. Kinda wish I had someone to go with to one. Anyway, I'm looking forward to marathon Monday tomorrow, the only Marathon Monday that I can get behind.