Juan, I'm not sure I want to get into this whole debate (I quit D&D for a reason), but I have to at least say that you just described everything that's wrong with culture in Houston. The experiences you described are very much like the corporations that buy out blocs of the best seats at the Toyota Center and spend the whole game making deals over drinks at the bar, while the real fans are up in the cheap seats trying to yell loud enough so the players can hear them. The major arts organizations will never be in serious danger in Houston (there are 8 by the way and they have a side deal for city funding) because the city will always protect them. They are doing Peter Pan and The Nutcracker and Romeo and Juliet. There is a whole other arts scene which is the lifeblood of any city's real cultural arts: the independent scene. That's where new work is developed before it moves to larger houses and it is where real fans of the arts (the true sophisticates) go. This includes independent theatre, dance, film, art and music (much of which is bands and not non-profits). And it is here that Houston is sadly lacking, in audience, in funding and in interest. In fact, judging Houston by this metric puts it in the very lowest quadrant of all major cities. That's what we lose when we lose The Angelika. And we lost even more in this way when we recently lost KTRU (barely a blip on this board - QED). Houston has an awesome arts scene if what you're looking for is a place to wear a tux or a gown, make side deals in the lobby and ignore the show (because how could you not). Otherwise, it is quite crappy.
whether you participate in them or not, the loss of cultural venues should make people angry. it's like your property value going down. would you rather have a gallery on the corner of your block or a liquor store?
This happens at sports games too. It's precisely why Toyota Center's lower bowl always seems empty, despite tickets being sold. Of course, this has nothing to do with the arts, I just felt like complaining randomly.
Well, I think that's what I was speaking to, though I may have been a bit muddled. In the argument between people saying we have a good arts scene or a bad arts scene, I get the feeling they are talking about different things. The scene represented by The Menil, the Wortham, etc is different from that of the Angelika. People who defend Houston's patronage of the arts appeal to the high-culture examples, which the city is rich in. But, it doesn't have much to do with the Angelika which catered to a different crowd. I don't think I'm disagreeing with you at all. I'm just trying to define the parameters better (and perhaps failing).
I would like an answer to this. There seems to be Culture, counter culture, and lack of either. WIKI on c: Excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities, also known as high culture Rocket River
The more I think about it I think hipster guys are just pissed off because they have one less hipster place to take a girl for a hipster date. I'm 99% sure most people who love watching indie movies know about these movies months in advance and download them or wait for them on netflix. Its just a shock to people because they haven't been there for months and now its shut down. Saying that a city loses culture because a theater closes down are EMO. People look for culture and they will find it if they look hard enough for it.
Mostly agreed. People act like this place was some paragon of high art...it was a decent movie theater that played some artsy films as well as some Hollywood schlock. I saw La Dolce Vida there. I also saw Repo Men there. I've probably seen 30-40 movies there in the last 10 years, and I'm just mad that I can't walk to the movies now. Greenway was the best theater of the three indie ones, anyway.
as delicately as i can put it, batman and i are the only two people in this thread (as far as i know) who make their living by creating culture. i would guess we're totally on the same page on this subject. in the sense that it's a "job," money is always a factor. but nobody decides to make culture as much as they are compelled to do so. art/culture is where you find it. high, low, i don't care. make an assessment, do something, make me think. it's all good.
Course, that's the whole thing about supporting independent artists/independent cinema. We went to the Angelika, rather than downloading off the internet, not just to impress our dates with our hipster street cred, not only because it was a better film-viewing experience, but to provide a source of revenue to the few artists left who make independent films. Stealing their ---- off the internet means starving artists wind up even hungrier, and have to go back to their day careers.
You don't have to be a hipster/emo ferry fruitcake or whatever you want to call it to enjoy great cinema at an enjoyable movie theater.. Not once have I encounter a teenager texting about his/her vagina or baby mama bringing her toddler with diapers and bottles as if it were a daycare center.. Most people like myself would go to the Angelika on the weekdays in mid noon to enjoy some casual movie experience right before or after work... Nobody is impressing anybody, it was just some good old fashion movie night out!!!
You maybe partly right about hipster guys. Though notice a female actually started the thread. You're talking about straight movie viewing. Though in culture and arts, the downloading and Netflix thing goes against the cultural and artful approach. Its called HUMANITIES for a reason. What you described is a mechanical process. People don't want to watch things like theater plays online. Live involvement evokes a kind of human substance that is needed to get evoked in making art. Plus whats the difference between wanting to see a big mainstream movie live and a small indie movie live? If they removed ALL movie theaters in Houston, if you want to watch movies you'll be able to "find them if you look hard enough", but why take away a likable option?
I havent made a single piece of art or culture in 15 years. Though I realize its a bad precedent when people don't want to create any meaningful expression. Without that, people merely just function and consume. People might be content to just breathe air and live longer without immersing themselves into anything, but I think that's a step back. So keep creating no matter the quality or the amount of patronage.
Damn, one less place to take hipster date to see hipster French film while eating hipster popcorn and sipping on hipster Perrier water.
