Protesting The Twenty.

Last night, when Kacoon and I went to see the surprisingly good "Dirty Pretty Things" at the Tara, she was dressed all in black-and-white and looked fantastic. Seriously, it was the cutest I'd ever seen her in my life. She looked like the sort of girl you'd want to be with at an art house movie, the smart-looking, geek-chic one. She looked like Thora Birch from "Ghost World." White shirt. Short black skirt. Pale skin. Dark hair with bobby pins. Black Mary Janes. My geeked-out Poindexter glasses that she borrowed during the movie. I was proud to be with her, particularly when she and I got all sarcastic during the Regal Cinemas' pre-movie showing of this digitally-projected ad block called The Twenty, which we hate. It's worse than those slideshows they used to show. I mean, why are tickets so expensive when the theaters are selling ad space? I realize they want to maximize profits, but those ads are annoying as hell.

During the promo for LidRock, the latest gimmick where they put CDs in the lids of all the large-sized drinks, Kacoon walked out because she found The Twenty beyond annoying. And I laughed all through the ads, saying that the new Lid Rock CDs featured songs by Celine Dion, Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore (who slaughters John Hiatt's "Have a Little Faith in Me"). Dion and Simpson, in the videos they showed in the ads, both had apparently gone shockingly blonde. It was horrifying.

Kacoon, when she came back to her seat after those pop divas stopped invading the screen, joined me in mocking The Twenty until the actual previews began. She and I would boycott, I think, if it weren't for the fact that we know neither one of us would actually be able to avoid the movie theater.

I sent an angry comment card to Regal, but I can't threaten to boycott. I couldn't handle not going to the Tara or to the IMAX at the Mall of Georgia. I guess I'm just going to have to live in perpetual annoyance with The Twenty.