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mkultra25

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Everything posted by mkultra25

  1. mkultra25
    Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of megaplexes, but if you want to see a first-run movie, your options are pretty limited if you exclude the megaplexes. My absolute favorite place to see a movie is at the MFAH's Brown Auditorium, but they're a repertory theater, not a first-run one. For first-run, I prefer the River Oaks, the Angelika, or the Greenway, but again, the Angelika's the only one of those three likely to screen any of the big Hollywood blockbusters. As far as being even remotely convenient to where I live, that leaves the Edwards MarqE or the AMC Studio 30 on Dunvale, and both of those are still a bit of a drive. In the case of the AMC, the distance is mitigated somewhat by the fact that I almost always have a couple of AMC free passes laying around, so I usually wait until the pass restrictions are lifted after the first week or two a new film's in town, then head over to the Studio 30.
  2. mkultra25
    I'd consider the Cineplex Odeon (on Augusta, not the River Oaks one) to be a big loss - as far as I know, it was the last first-run theater in town that had the ability to run 70mm as well as 35mm. My fondest memory of it was seeing the 1989 rerelease of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA there - it was a stunning presentation of one of the greatest large-format epics. I miss the River Oaks one too, but more for its convenience than anything else - it was by far the closest first-run theater to where I lived. Seems almost strange now to think that at one time there was a large multiplex practically on Montrose's doorstep.
  3. mkultra25
    We used to live very close by to the Edwards Grand Palace, but I never went there more than a handful of times. I refuse to pay for parking at a movie theater, plus the last time I was there I nearly got run over by some idiot in a big hurry in the parking garage. At least when you go to the Angelika downtown and park in the theater district garage, they'll validate your parking at the box office. The best theaters in town as far as presentation standards (projection equipment properly maintained, picture always in focus and framed correctly, no blown speakers, etc.) used to be the Meyerland General Cinema, the Loews Fountains, and the Museum of Fine Arts' Brown Auditorium. The Meyerland GC's gone, and I haven't been to the Fountains in several years as it was much farther away once we bought our house, but the MFAH is still without peer; of course, they don't screen first-run movies.
  4. mkultra25
    Wow, I hadn't heard they were closing either. I remember when that place first opened, it was a big deal because it was the only megaplex in the area. Eventually it started declining and wasn't maintained very well. I think the last time I was ever there was when they were screening a rerelease of THE WILD BUNCH about five years ago - for some reason, it was an exclusive engagement that no other theater in town had, and I wound up catching it twice during the week or so that it was there.
  5. mkultra25
    It originally stood for American Machine & Foundry: About AMF but when they owned Harley-Davidson, it was commonly held to stand for something else.
  6. mkultra25
    I used to live not too far away from the Consolidated Arts Warehouse - saw Stick Men with Rayguns (Dallas-area punk band) there. There's a music magazine called "Left of the Dial" which published an issue a couple of years ago filled with vintage photos of Texas punk venues, and there were quite a few photos of Houston institutions like the Island, CAW, etc. in it. I was blown away when I saw it - I'd seen lots of photos of California and New York clubs from back in the day, but never such a concentration of Houston photos. I even spotted a couple of photos of shows that I'm pretty sure I was at. Anyone remember Paul Kittleson's Stegosaurus sculpture that was under 59 next to the CAW? I saw X on a later tour at Numbers - it remains one of the greatest live performances I've ever seen. I miss Real Records, which was located in the strip center on Shepherd where the Hot Bagel Shop is now and was run by Really Red's U-Ron. I used to haunt used record stores in my youth, and thought I'd hit the gold mine the first time I went to Real Records. Got a dead mint pressing of the Velvet Underground's first album there for ten bucks!
  7. mkultra25
    I've been watching that one on HAR for a while. Wish I could afford it. Thought about going to the open house last weekend, but I wound up getting sick and didn't make it.
  8. mkultra25
    We drove by the RO Shopping Center yesterday - along the wing where the Black-Eyed Pea is located, every business has already moved out except for the Pea and Jamba Juice. The Black-Eyed Pea has a letter posted next to their front door thanking customers for the past 30 years and listing the date for their imminent closure (can't remember the date, but it's very soon). Wonder if Weingarten's going to roll the bulldozers in the middle of the night as soon as they pull a demo permit?
  9. mkultra25
    There is a Scholz Garten, but it's in Austin - perhaps you're conflating that name with the other place you're thinking of in the Heights? Scholz Garten
  10. mkultra25
    What's ridiculous is that it didn't sell at $900K - the reserve was $1 million, and the owner declined to sell it when it didn't meet reserve. He should've taken the $900K and laughed all the way to the bank, as I seriously doubt he'll get anything close to that kind of offer again.
  11. mkultra25
    A postcard with a picture of the interior of Los Troncos was posted earlier in this thread - scroll up to post #317 to see it.
  12. mkultra25
    I did not know that!
  13. mkultra25
    For those who still subscribe to the paper version of the Chron, this was actually on the front page of the City & State section, not the Heights/Neartown one - apparently I should've had that second cup of coffee before posting.
  14. mkultra25
    Some good news in the Heights/Neartown regional section of this morning's Chronicle: a deed restriction which prevents razing the West mansion until 2012 has been discovered. How the West won
  15. mkultra25
    Indeed. The fact that a place appears on Marvin's report is generally not sufficient to make me quit going there - by the time these reports air, the cited establishments have usually addressed the issues in question anyway. I was going to post this link earlier, but the website was temporarily unreachable: Hot Town, Cool City That's probably the closest thing to a canonical list of unique Houston places I've ever seen. The film premiered at the MFAH a couple of weekends ago, but I was unfortunately unable to attend any of the screenings; however, there is apparently a DVD for sale on the website. The director/producer is a former veteran operations director for Landmark Theaters.
  16. mkultra25
    The sports teams at the school I attended from 6th - 10th grade were known as the "Blue Devils". The mascot was someone dressed up in, yep, a devil costume that was blue, complete with horns, tail, and trident. First Baptist Church bought the school in 1979-80, and shortly thereafter decided that "Blue Devils" was an inappropriate name to be used by a Baptist-affiliated institution, so it was changed to the "Mustangs" (unfortunately, they never had quite as much success with that name as Aldine did). I transferred to another school after that year, but as far as I'm concerned, they'll always be the "Blue Devils".
  17. mkultra25
    Yep. The Alabama is definitely unique in that very few changes were made to the theater when the Bookstop moved in - I believe the original screen is even still in place behind the magazine racks. I can't think of too many other potential tenants that wouldn't gut the interior irreversibly. It would be fantastic if, as previously mentioned, the Alamo Drafthouse moved in and started showing films again there. They've done well in their other locations in Austin and Houston by following a proven formula, but the rent that Weingarten would probably charge for the Alabama might be a dealbreaker.
  18. mkultra25
    The two Wyatt's I used to eat at most frequently were the one at 45 & Little York next to Grant's (before that space became Big Texan Lanes), and the one at Merchants Park. There's still a Piccadilly open at Northline Mall - it's been there as long as I can remember, possibly since the mall opened, and they still do a very good business. The one at Northwest Mall closed a couple of years ago as part of a corporate restructuring. I'm still irate that Pappas closed Luby's No. 1 on Buffalo Speedway. The building is still vacant, the last time I drove by there. I'll never understand how they couldn't manage to do well in that location, especially after the huge retirement community was built practically next door! The Dinner Bell on Lawndale is great - that's my choice for cafeteria food these days, even though it's a bit of a drive from where I live now.
  19. mkultra25
    Ha! We used to do that, too - couldn't be beat for low-cost fun. Even as late as high school, I had a few friends that would occasionally head out there just to ride around and around on the tram. You probably couldn't do something like that now without attracting unwanted attention from Homeland Security.
  20. mkultra25
    It actually says "Closeout Sale", not "Going out of Business", and there are a bunch of undraped female mannequins in the display windows. My guess is they're just having a big sale on women's clothing.
  21. mkultra25
    They had an item on the menu which we used to always order that I've never seen anywhere else - Green Onion Pancake. It wasn't a pancake in the Western sense, more like a cross between a crepe and a thick tortilla, with chopped scallions cooked into it. It was much better than I'm probably making it sound.
  22. mkultra25
    I suspect you're thinking of a different restaurant, but this made me think of Ta Hua, which used to be in the strip center on the east side of Post Oak just north of Westheimer (the one anchored by Container Store on one end and Oshman's superstore on the other). Ta Hua wasn't exactly upscale, but they had dependably good Americanized Chinese food, and I have many fond memories of it as my wife and I used to be semi-frequent diners there when we were first dating. They moved to a much larger location way out on Memorial a few years ago. We went there once, but it was simply too far to drive when there are plenty of other Chinese restaurants that are much closer, and the new location didn't have the funky charm of the old one, which always seemed to be fairly dark and a bit cramped inside.
  23. mkultra25
    There used to be another Malibu Grand Prix at I-45 and N. Shepherd, but it closed years before the others did. There was also a watercoaster in the same location - I think it was right next to the Malibu. When I was growing up, I had a friend that used to work summer jobs at both places.
  24. mkultra25
    Here's the Chron article: St. Thomas snaps up prime real estate
  25. mkultra25
    Not sure about Indy, but there were lots of tracks around the country made of wood at one time. The first board track opened in 1910 (the first Indy 500 was in 1911). Board track racing
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