By Francesca Merwin, staff writer

We’ve all been in the familiar situation. It’s Wednesday night in the summertime, and you’re bored out of your mind. You sit there in 95-degree heat, feeling hot and miserable. All you want to do is position yourself somewhere between a television and an air conditioning unit and just be lazy. But you fight it. You turn to your significant other/best friend/four-legged friend and ask, “What should we do tonight?”

They say, “I don’t know…” But they should say, “Flicks on the Crick!” Of course! (Unless it’s the dog, in which case, it should probably say nothing at all.)

See, Flicks on the Crick is actually the perfect cure for the summertime doldrums. The Sound Garden, sponsors of the event, projects movies onto the side of its building in front of the newly-updated Creekwalk in Armory Square. All you have to do is show up at dusk with a folding chair or blanket, a picnic and your enthusiasm for new releases, because the movies are absolutely FREE!

Mario Restibe and Melissa Brower knew this would be a great thing to take advantage of, because they already had movie nights on Wednesdays, and they are big supporters of Sound Garden.

“It’s not just that it’s something to do, but it’s something to do that’s really nice,” Restibe says. Restibe and Brower got to see Fighter and Iron Man 2 thanks to the program, and they will continue to give their support.

People keep coming back due to the relaxed atmosphere of the event. “It’s not necessarily a family event because some of the movies we show are rated R, but it’s also not a big beer blast festival,” says Eric Brush, general manager at Sound Garden and the brains behind Flicks on the Crick. “It gives somebody an alternative to the same old downtown festival.”

Brush has been general manager for 12 years. He was inspired by sister-location Baltimore’s Sound Garden, which holds a similar event entitled “Films on the Pier” and has 700-1,000 people attending every week.

Flicks on the Crick is quickly gathering momentum. According to Brush, their best attendance was well over 100 when they showed the Social Network, while the other shows have averaged a little less than that.

Brush is hoping to continue the program and expand it. Currently, they show popular, new releases, but Brush is considering a change to the game. “[Popular] movies fit our customer base, but we try to mix it up,” Brush explains. “We’ve toyed with maybe showing a few old classic movies. It’s going to be a little experiment we’ll try up here.” Brush would also like to develop the program through adding food vendors and sponsors.

But for now, the format is working. “It’s not the newest movie that just came out this week, but a lot of people still haven’t seen these films,” Brush shares. And what better way to watch them than in high definition, free, on a lazy summer night?

Flicks on the Crick runs on Wednesday evenings from now until August 24. Finishing the season will be Takers on August 3, Let Me In on August 10, Twilight: Eclipse on August 17, and Black Swan on August 24. Shows start at dusk (around 8:30) at the Sound Garden in Armory Square. For additional information, call (315) 473-4343.