See ‘2001’ on The Bing’s big screen tonight

I can't remember the first time I saw Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi classic "2001: A Space Odyssey." When the film was first released, in April, I was in the army, stationed at Fort Eustis, Va., so I might have ridden a bus into Norfolk to see it at a downtown theater. But somehow I doubt it.

By October, I was in Vietnam, where I would stay for the next 14 months. And I sure as hell didn't see it there.

Most likely, I didn't see it until sometime in 1970. I was living in San Diego then, attending junior college, working to raise my grade point average enough so that I could transfer to the nearby UC campus. But I spent as much free time as I had seeing movies. And "2001: A Space Odyssey," in its various runs, was a film I tried to see every time I had the opportunity.

Movie audiences these days are spoiled. If they want to see something, they can stream it off Netflix, Amazon, YouTube or any number of other online-based sources. They can purchase a DVD, or search around in a back room to find that battered old VHS cassette.

But unless they have a huge television set, and the best surround-sound audio system, they can't begin to capture the experience that a bona-fide theater can provide. Which is the purpose of this post, to publicize the screening of Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" tonight at the Bing Crosby Theater.

Sponsored by Spokane Public Radio, the evening will begin at 6 p.m. with a taping of the SPR show "Movies 101."  The movie itself, which has a 2:22 running time and will feature a short intermission, will screen at 7. Doors open at 5 and tickets, which can be purchased at the door, cost $10.

It's not often that you get to see classic film, especially one featuring apes, talking computers and rocket ships, on an actual big screen. And The Bing's sound system is terrific.

We'll keep the pod bay doors open for you.