saying good-bye to my hometown (cinema)

i will miss this place…

…but like so many others like it, i heard of it’s demise, thought to myself, “that’s a real fuckin’ shame”, but then, more intensely, thought to myself, “when’s the last time you actually patronized the place, dude?” and realized we’ve been to maybe…just MAYBE…two movies there in the last year. maybe three? no, probably not three.

which, technically, makes us part of the problem.

we had some good times there. as i always said, it was cool because it was like you were watching a movie at some rich guys house. there were no more than ten or twelve rows of stadium seating, although most of the screening rooms had a bit less. the screens were more the size you’d find in an art house theater, like an alamo drafthouse, but the picture was really clear and the sound was impeccable.

i’ll never forget the few weeks they attempted to be a UFC venue, but their concessions would still close thirty minutes after the last seating, leaving fight fans with NADA from concessions, but we were allowed to bring in booze as long as it wasn’t in glass. so i’d walk to little cesar’s during some under card bout i could care less about, buy $20 worth of pizza, and sell the other two for two bucks a slice, more than making back what we’d paid for the pizza, beer, AND our entry fee.

i also remember when iron man came out and it was sold out EVERYWHERE i came back to town, had dinner, and casually showed up at the theater and asked for a ticket to the 9:30 show, and three minutes later i was seated. the concessions were reasonable, and for a while they had an early bird special where the three of us could get in to see a first run movie before noon for under ten bucks TOTAL for all three tickets! and this was just a few years ago!

i was kinda shocked the joint survived covid, but i think the big punch in the teeth from that was that movies were all of a sudden getting released to home viewership WAAAAY earlier than they used to, and for a while there, even simultaneously. i know that’s what kept me out – oh, the beekeeper? looks awesome, but i’ll wait a month or two and it’ll be on demand somewhere…

…and it was. took less than a month, actually.

i’ll be curious to see if anybody fixes it up or takes it over. or if it’ll just become a church. that’s what seems to happen to any decent sized gathering spot when left alone too long in texas.