Farewell Alamo

On occasion, I like to use this space to evangelize about my dear city and in all my gushing I am sure I have brought up the Alamo Drafthouse Theatre at least more than once. How could I not go on and on about this theatre. I had never lived anywhere, where I could get a beer, a burger and watch silent movies while a real band played the sound track or sing along at the top of my lungs to the Buffy musical episode or catch a burlesque act. And I have so many fond memories of meeting my pals underneath the big ass "The Alamo" poster in the lobby. That is where I solidified a lot of my Austin friendships while standing in line with hundreds of other young Austinites waiting to watch the sinus guys goof on Tom Cruise's teeth or the iguana in the Terminator (it's a funny iguana trust me). Now the Alamo is another victim of the gussying up of the Austin down-town. Driven out by inflated rent, the Alamo is finding a new home in another theatre downtown called the Ritz. I don't know much about it but I hear it is nice and will be a fitting replacement and at least the business establishment that considers Joss Whedon's birthday a day worth celebrating is not gone from Austin forever. But it's still sad to know that original location will be a over-priced yuppy bar.
The Alamo is well known for having all night events and the last night was of course no exception. I always thought that being in a theatre all night watching every Buffy episode or all 6 Stars Wars movies sounded like great fun but when I actually got to the point of buying the tickets I always wussed out. I knew deep in my heart that by 1 AM I would be cranky, uncomfortable, and pining for my pillow top mattress. So, we didn't even attempt to get the sought after tix to the last show. However, a couple of my friends are just that crazy and they looked exhausted yesterday but had a blast! They watched the old Earthquake movie with sound equipment that made the whole building shake and wine glasses creep their way to the edge of the tables. That's the kind of fun stuff we will miss. But when one movie reel is removed another is replaced, right?