Harry Potter and his gang of wizards won’t be the only ones spinning magic Friday morning when the final installment of the film hits Billings screens.
Carmike Cinemas Inc. is creating some sparks of its own as it rolls out the BigD theater Thursday night at Shiloh 14 with a wall-to-wall screen, digital high-resolution images, surround sound and cushy leather chairs. Billings will be one of four cities in the U.S. to get the BigD, said Terrell Mayton, director of marketing for Carmike Cinemas.
“It’s a very bright, crisp dynamic screen,” Mayton said. “The picture is edge to edge, with thousands of colors. It looks just like a flat-panel TV on steroids.”
Mayton said Billings was selected because of the loyalty of its moviegoers. Billings is the first city in Montana to get the new-style theater. Missoula is scheduled to get a BigD system later this year.
“Billings is a very discerning movie-going audience,” Mayton said. “It was the ideal place for us to put in this facility in Montana. We think that a community that is large in attending movies deserves the biggest screen in the West.”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2” will be showing on all 24 Carmike movie screens at Shiloh 14 and Wynnsong 10, starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Most of the 365 seats in the BigD theater had been sold by Tuesday morning.
The first installation of the two-part film, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1” will be shown in the BigD starting at 9 p.m. on Thursday, followed by the new film. A package ticket buys admission to both movies.
A $2 surcharge will be added to the price of a ticket to the BigD theater. Special pricing is in effect for the midnight screenings of the Potter film. Admission to the 2-D version of the new Potter film is $12 per person. Admission to the 3-D version of the film is $15.
The BigD is powered by a Christie Brilliant 3-D flash projector onto a screen measuring 78 feet wide and more than three stories tall. The theater will feature 7.1 surround sound and digital projection of both 2-D and 3-D films. Mayton said the new theater will primarily host blockbuster movies, but it will also present other entertainment, including screenings of opera and ballet.
Colorado National Monument is without a doubt one of the most spectacular places in the world to ride a road bike.
The steady climbs between sheer cliff walls, the three short tunnels, the rolling terrain over the top, the snaking switchbacks and the silky smooth road offer cyclists of all abilities a challenge and a reward.
The suffering endured while climbing the east side to Cold Shivers Point is but a remote memory as you cascade down the west side with just a slight flick to the brakes to control your speed.
There is something about the place that is exhilarating and just makes me want to ride. The pain and exhaustion from pushing myself to the limit in a strange way gives me joy and strength and I can’t help but smile when the wind cools me off as I scream back down into the valley on less than a half inch of rubber.
But there is something about riding it at night that is really exciting.
I have been waiting for a warm and clear full moon night since last fall. In May, some friends and I rode in the cold, but we did not see a wisp of the moon and we had to use our lights.
With summer finally here and the forecast calling for clear skies, my excitement level increased. I was able to convince my wife, Mandie, and three buddies to come along with me for this adventure. Actually, my wife insisted and crashed our little boys party.
We loaded the bikes and a cooler of cold beer in the car and drove to the visitors’ center on the west side so we would not have to worry about traffic.
The moon was predicted to rise at about 9:15, but clouds and gale force wind gusts were making it look as though we might get shut out again. We were getting a bit discouraged until we saw a bright light over the eastern horizon.
Someone said, “Is that the moon?”
PANAMA CITY — Like he has been doing three times a week for the past four years, John Hearn got on his bicycle Thursday at 6:10 a.m. to ride12 miles to work at Tyndall Air Force Base. But as he rode along U.S. 98 at 23 miles per hour, his routine was interrupted at 6:40 by something very unexpected.
“I saw something big and black out of the corner of my eye,” Hearn said. “Then it hit me and I felt bear all over my leg.”
Hearn was broadsided by a black bear that was about 250 to 300 pounds. The collision knocked him, his bike and the bear over. Drivers stopped at the red light on the highway near Tyndall watched in utter shock.
“At first I didn’t know what happened,” witness Debbie McLeod said. “The bear was flying across the road from the left side to the right. I thought he was going to miss the rider, but then I saw the florescent colored vest fly up in the air, and knew the bear hit him.”
The black bear appeared to be shaken, but got up and scurried off into the woods. Hearn, on the other hand, had to examine the damage the bear had done.
“As soon as I got hit I knew it was a bear so when I hit the ground I was ready to run,” Hearn said. “Then I looked and the bear was already running away.”
The back tire of Hearn’s road bike was ripped off, his body had road rash on his elbows, back and hip, and the frame was damaged. His residual pain is mostly in his neck and hip.
A driver gave him and his broken bike a ride to Tyndall.
“Normally, I look in a 25 degree radius for cars turning, or coming at me to be safe, but the bear hit at practically a 90 degree angle so I barely saw him coming,” Hearn said. “It was like getting tackled by a furry, toned, boney body in football.”
Hearn has been riding bicycles for nine years and never got hit until he moved to Panama City four years ago. Now he’s been hit three times — twice by cars, once by bear.
“This is by far the worst damage done to my body and my bike,” Hearn said. “We must’ve been going almost the same speed. But sadly, the bear didn’t have insurance so I can’t do anything about it.”
Lt. Stan Kirkland of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission believes there are over 3,000 black bears roaming the state.
“It is very unusual to hear of an event like this,” Kirkland said. “You hear about people seeing bears, but never being hit by one. That’s usually about deer or wild hogs.”
While this incident might be isolated, Hearn says he may be a bit wary when he rides to work again.
“After my last two accidents it took me awhile to get comfortable on my bike again” Hearn said. “I’m sure it will be like that now too.”
He said he’ll still ride a bike to work three times a week, but will be on the lookout for bears in that area.
“The bear packed a pretty good punch.”
Walking, Paris' elite cadre of haute couture designers seems to have determined, is out - at least for the handful of women wealthy enough to fork out the price of a car for a single dress.
Judging from the hobbling looks on display Tuesday at Chanel and Giorgio Armani Prive's fall-winter 2011-12 haute couture displays, women rich enough to afford four-to-five-figure ensembles should never need suffer the injustice of actually having to walk.
Instead, let them mince, like the poor models who struggled to make it down the Chanel and Armani catwalks without incident.
Walking was a trial by fire at emerging French designer Julien Fournie's show, too, where bowling shoes had been fitted with weighted cork platforms that forced the models to walk on pointe, like ballet dancers. By the end, the models were turning back only halfway down the runway, in a bid to save their battered feet.
Footwear wasn't the issue at Stephane Rolland, but a few of the Frenchman's elaborate, sculptural garments also posed some mobility issues. Though most of his dramatic gowns in flowing silk were easy enough to move in, Rolland's bride was so weighed down in her embroidery-covered wedding gown that she got momentarily stuck at the end of the runway.
Only rising French star Alexandre Vauthier's sexy she-devils in head-to-toe red and Rabih Kayrouz's barefoot models - who splashed through the water-covered runway in breathable, flattering knit dresses - had a full range of motion on Tuesday.
Paris' three-day-long couture extravaganza wraps up on Wednesday with shows by romantic Italian label Valentino, Lebanese red-carpet wonder Elie Saab and one-time French enfant terrible Jean Paul Gaultier.