2001 at 35,000 feet
On a recent trip instead of designing, drawing, or reading I settled down for the joy of inflight entertainment. Alaska Airlines had all the recent hits good and bad. After watching a recent Hollywood product I started poking around and found a category called either “classics” or was it “critically acclaimed,” I can’t recall. But either way it was the good stuff. I was astounded to see they had one of my favorite films Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey!
I had recently finished reading the excellent history of the film: Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece by Michael Benson. So I was primed to watch it again.
2001: A Space Odyssey on a tiny screen, not exactly how Kubrick intended it to be seen I’d imagine.
It felt very poetic to watch it on a tiny screen at 35,000 feet. I felt a little like Heywood R. Floyd on my way to Space Station V or Clavius Base. Maybe someday we’ll be able to watch it on our way to the Moon or Jupiter, but for now I’ll have to be satisfied watching it on the way to Austin.
