Pop Goes Your Culture

Last night I felt like a kid again. I finished reading all seven hundred and fifty-nine pages of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". I carefully avoided all the possible spoilers and distractions that could have kept my experience from being anything but a focused one. I was a man on a mission. Now I wait patiently to find those people who have also accomplished this literary feat so that I can have a polite discussion with them about what's inside.
But this will not be a review or rehash of my Harry Potter experience. Instead I found myself remembering that I have a life of "first-nighter" to reflect back upon, and that is the feeling that came over me last night when I snapped the book shut. I believe that pop culture is best when it is fresh, not unlike its namesake, when the lid has been off too long, it tends to go flat and lose its fizz.
That's why I love to go movies on opening weekend. I feel the whirl of the zeitgeist pull me along as I walk into the movie theater or book store. I'm not a big fan of events, but I've always been big on that opening day thing. One line for ticket holders, one for those who need to purchase theirs. Did you reserve a copy? Here's your receipt and you can pick your book up at the mound of cardboard boxes to the left. It's a silly little thrill that you get for standing in line. I sat on the concrete out in front of a theater for three hours for a chance to sit for another two hours to be the first in my zip code to see "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" with the hope of finally seeing how Darth Vader became such an awful guy. Turns out I had another two episodes' worth of lines to stand in before I got the news. Back in college, I used to get a phone call from my local bookstore when a new Stephen King novel was coming out. I would get to read it first, and therefore be the first to swear that I would never read another - until the next one arrived six months later. I'm saying there are pitfalls to this lifestyle.
Then it's over, and you have to wait for someone else to share the experience. Or you can start looking for the next chance to stay up late and stand in line.