TUES, 12/23
Ben Burch
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For you movie fans worried that your baby's arrival means a life trapped at home, condemned to watch reruns of Teletubbies, fear not. Madstone Theaters in Tamarac Square has come up with a brilliant plan to let you have your baby and your media, too.Starting this morning, the movie house is offering a trial program called BYOB, as in Bring Your Own Baby to the movies. Your baby? To the movies? Sure, says Madstone's Joe Marchione. If you're in a movie theater with a pile of other parents with babies, nobody's going to give you dirty looks when your kid starts crying. Or worse. So come on down, let the baby howl, breast-feed, babble, nap or make a dirty diaper on BYOB mornings, and, hey -- no big deal.
Instead of having to settle for G-rated shlock, though, you'll get to take in stuff you'd probably only see a year from now on video, like Mystic Riveror The Human Stain -- or even adult shlock.
And note that BYOB is for babies, not preschoolers and such. Marchione says that if your kid is old enough to be asking, "Mommy, what is that man doing?" it's best to leave the youngster at home.
Madstone Theaters is at 7777 East Hampden Avenue, between I-25 and South Yosemite Street. BYOB doors open at 10 a.m., along with the theater's coffee bar and bakery. Gymboree sponsors a baby-activity time beginning at 10:15 a.m. in the lobby; the movies start at 10:45. For ticket prices or information, call 303-752-3200 or visit www.madstonestheaters.com. -- Hart Van Denburg
Phun Physics
BOOM! offers kids an earful
SAT, 12/20
Hey, kids, you know those sound effects -- roaring rockets and searing phasers -- in Star Wars and Star Trek? Sorry, but they're fake. To learn how they're created, check out BOOM! The Physics of Sound and Air Pressure, part of the University of Colorado at Boulder's CU Wizards program. In BOOM!, physics professor Michael Dubson uses various props, including a bullwhip, hydrogen-filled balloons and homemade musical instruments, to explain the scientific aspects of sound and air pressure. Audience members invariably get the giggles when they learn how helium can make people sound like Munchkins. "And they learn that sound doesn't travel in a vacuum like space; you'd never actually hear the Death Star explode from your seat in the Millennium Falcon," says the professor.
CU Wizards is an informal introduction to science for middle-school kids. Dubson says he enjoys doing the show because the audience wants to be there and "is usually more receptive than my 8 a.m. classes."
The program, which starts at 9:30 a.m. in room G1B30 of CU's Duane Physics Building (on Colorado Avenue, across from the football stadium), is free and lasts about an hour. For more information, call the school's physics department at 303-492-6952. -- Hart Van Denburg
