Endangered species- local movie theaters
For better or for worse, we’ve lost a lot of our local movie theaters. In its last days Metro theater had cheap prices, peeling art deco decor, nasty seats, and I think only two movie rooms. But I didn’t have to trek on a subway or bus to see a movie. I could take a neighborhood stroll. I believe Metro is now land marked, so it’s in this odd limbo world of what to do with it. I hold my breath walking under that awning. It looks ready to fall flat down and squash you like a pancake out of anger for its decrepit state.
There are benefits to going to a mega theater- nowadays we want good sound and good images to entertain us, less so the storylines. And cleanliness is always nice. But loosing local places seems like one more step towards our cities becoming more like the affluent suburbs.
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This fenomenon doesn’t just happen in the cities. To me, the local theater is part of the Americana, the focal point of local “scene” where everyone sooner or later ends up Friday or Saturday night. It seems that across the country, this role is taken over by shopping malls which is where the local theaters are migrating to and where teens are hanging out these days. A few months ago I went to see a movie in a small theater in a small town on Long Island. I forgot what movie I saw and I am in the process of forgeting the person I saw it with but I still remember the feel of entering small, dark, theater that smelled like popcorn and cleaning products. The place brought back memories so old I don’t even remember them. I felt like I was entering a parallel universe or a set of Porky’s or American Graffiti. I wonder, if twenty or thirty years from now we will be getting nostalgic about our local internet cafe’s or starbucks?
yes, internet cafes will be obsolete because we will have the internet plugged into our brains by then and surf the web in our minds (that will be the screen).