The Only Way to Watch Movies...

Going to the movies these days has become an absurd expenditure. Movies in Boston cost around $12 and even in my fairly small home town, in our four theater large cinema, movies are still $7. By the time you tack on the cost of the 3-D glasses (for the movie you didn't even want to see in 3-D), over buttered popcorn and drinks that are more ice than anything else, you are looking at a pretty expensive evening. So this local find is a rare treat...

This is the Water Street Market Summer Cinema. Originally Water Street Market was built to be a series of stores to showcase local business, food and art for the tourists. I always avoided it, thinking it was a tourist trap, a place real locals would never show their faces. But over the years it's developed its taste and become a very community oriented place, supporting numerous free events to provide culture, awareness and just downright fun to all the people of New Paltz. And now you can go and see a movie for free. Granted, there's no new releases, no air conditioning and no chairs with cup holders. But there are old classics (which are better anyway), free popcorn, excellent company and a nice summer night under the stars.

Having just gotten home from watching The Princess Bride there myself, the only recommendation I can give is to bring a cushion because yeah, sometimes the ground can be a little hard.

Somemore of the their line up for the summer includes:
Harvey (July 10th), North by Northwest (July 17th), The Maltese Falcon (July 24th) and 8 1/2 (July 31st). And that's just the weekends, they run movies on week nights as well, so it's worth it to give the full schedule a look here:
http://www.waterstreetmarket.com/events.htm#cinema

If your not in the area it's definitely worth it to take a look around your town or city for something like this. Many libraries have family movie nights and as long as you're not making money off it you could even try setting up something like it yourself (fairly hassle free).