Two weeks ago, Karrie and I posed for a series of photos inside the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown at the request of one of our old-school long-time customers, David Hill. Turns out David has mastered the art of 360 degree panorama photography and has taken it on to COMPLETELY photo-document the original 4th Street Alamo Drafthouse Cinema before it gets turned into whatever that thing is they are turning it into. Check out the complete hi-res panoramic tour on his website. I recommend downloading the full 334MB file and then viewing the images offline. Enjoy, and thanks again David for helping us remember the Alamo!

As it’s the day of the Blog-athon, I’m bumping this post up to the top. I’ve also just scanned in some negatives that my old buddy Dave Garaway unearthed this week, including the picture above where I’m looking positively maniacal. That was week one of construction in the 4th and Colorado space and I’m obviously raring to go. The rest of the photos from this set of negatives are on our Flickr Page.

Now the BLOG-ATHON. This is happening today, so read on for details. Here’s the original post:

I just received this blog feed from our pals Jette and Blake and figured where better to post a blog about a blog about the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema than on the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema blog…

Announcing the Alamo Downtown Blog-a-Thon!

Jette Kernion of Slackerwood (www.slackerwood.com) and Blake Ethridge of
Cinema Strikes Back (www.cinemastrikesback.com) are pleased to announce
the Alamo Downtown Blog-a-Thon, to take place on Monday, June 25, 2007.

Alamo Drafthouse Downtown on Colorado St. will be closing its doors after
a final triple-feature on June 27, 2007. The movie theater will be moving
to Sixth Street in the newly renovated Ritz Theater. While we’re looking
forward to the new digs, we want to remember and celebrate the old Alamo
Drafthouse that we’ve been visiting for the past 10 years. And we’d like
you to help us.

We’d like to hear your favorite stories about a movie, festival or event
you attended at Alamo Downtown, or read about your favorite memories, or
look at photos you took at Alamo. If you’ve ever visited the theater and
have something to share, we’d love to have you share it with us on June
25.

Anyone can participate. If you have a blog, post an entry about Alamo
Downtown to your website either the weekend before or on June 25, 2007.
Send the link to jette@celluloideyes.com, or post the link in the comments
section of the master blog entry that we will update on June 25.

We’ll compile a list of all the entries from participants in the
blog-a-thon so that readers can find everything in a single location.

If you don’t have a blog or website, you can post your favorite Alamo
memory or story in the comments section of the master blog entry listed
above, starting on June 25. Alternatively, if you want to write up your
story ahead of time, email it to jette@celluloideyes.com and we will post
it to Slackerwood for the Alamo Downtown blog-a-thon. If you have a Flickr
account and pictures of Alamo you want to share, you can tag them
“alamoblogathon” and we’ll include a link to photos with that keyword in
the master blog entry on Slackerwood.

If you just want to read everyone’s Alamo Downtown stories, be sure to
visit the URL posted above on June 25, when we’ll publish the links to the
blog-a-thon entries.

Feel free to publicize the Alamo Downtown Blog-a-thon anywhere you like.
Email Jette (jette@celluloideyes.com) or Blake
(blake@cinemastrikesback.com) if you have any questions. We hope you’ll
join us on June 25, as a contributor and as a reader.

As you might imagine, things are a little strange in Drafthouse-land right now. It is a rather weird place to be in watching a new Alamo being built while the one that started it all is slowly being taken apart. Last week I spent some time boxing up non-essentials in the booth. That wasn’t a big deal. But when I got to the Master Pancake show on Friday night I noticed that the big “The Alamo” poster that hung over the front stairs was gone. That right there was a big slap in the face. I mean, that poster shouted out to us every day (“NOW! AGAIN!”), but to see that blank wall, well, it was a really strange feeling; Of all the changes I have seen take place in that lobby over the last 4 years, that big ass poster has ALWAYS been there. In no small way it is almost as if a part of the theater’s soul has been prematurely taken away.

Meanwhile, five blocks away I’m watching a new theater being built. No matter how exciting it is, and no matter how cool this new place is going to be, it is going to take a little while to get used to; Every time I set foot in the Ritz I get a little excited, and every time I set foot in Downtown I get a little depressed. Rectifying those two feelings is becoming an exercise in frustration. If this is what I’m going through, I can barely imagine what Tim must be dealing with. In fact, the other day I asked for his thoughts on the situation the Drafthouse is in right now. He said he is so overwhelmed with everything that’s going on he doesn’t even have time to think about how he is feeling. “I’m feeling like a plow moving forward,” is how he finally expressed it.

But I do have to say that Tim seems to be handling it all in stride. I ran into him while leaving the Ritz on Friday and we talked about the Alamo Downtown remembrances that had just been published in the Onion. He was positively beaming with pride, grinning from ear to ear.

Shit, Wednesday night is going to suck.

Damn. Now I’m too depressed to write about the new place. Any news about progress at the Ritz (and there’s plenty of it) seems to pale in comparison to what is happening at the Downtown theater right now. All of us Downtown have been labeling everything as “last” this and “last” that, any other news seems trivial. Hell, go back a few months and, after the last show of the evening, everyone at work would be chomping at the bit to get the hell out of there. Now we linger, soaking up as much of the nostalgia as we can. As I was making my way down the stairs after the Joss Whedon Birthday event early Sunday morning, Josh K. was trying to convince me to hang around with everyone else. “But it’s the last Saturday!” he reminded me. If I hadn’t been so exhausted, I’d have felt guilty for leaving.

“Remember the Alamo.” For me, that phrase will no longer be just an empty cliché.

Check out the Flickr set for information on progress at the Ritz.

Last night we had the last sing-along at the Colorado Street location, and there were lots of pictures taken. Here are some of my favorites so far, courtesy of Posh Deluxe.

Owen forgot to order cheese sticks before the dance party.

99 red balloons! No, wait… 98 red balloons. Someone popped one.

Oh dance area near the screen, how we will miss you.

I guess I’ll die another day.

Owen hearts Jodi.

Oh HEY!

How we touched and went our separate ways!

Caitlin! Rock!

Got other photos from last night, other sing-alongs, or any other Alamo memories from the Colorado Street location? Send us some! We’re looking for as big a scrapbook as possible, and we’ve got a special email address all set for the reception of memories. Shoot us a line at lastnight(@)originalalamo.com!

Last weekend we welcomed Larry Weir, the songwriter for the incredible TEEN WITCH, to a packed house of rabid fans. Alamo intern Stephanie Cook was onhand with a camera and edited together this lovely montage of the Q&A. She’d like to apologize for all the crossfades, but that was the only way she could get through the really long screaming sessions from the fans. Dang!

<

Even better than a theater chair, how about a taking home a utilitarian memento, a piece of functioning Alamo Drafthouse kitchen equipment. Had they mouths, oh the stories these babies could tell. As you all know, we’re out of the downtown theater on June 27. On June 28, we’ll be moving almost all of our equipment into storage in anticipation of the new Ritz opening. There are a few things that just don’t fit the new kitchen space at the Ritz, so we are offering them for sale. We have them posted on Craigslist right now, and if you are interested in coming by and checking them out, you can see them in operation for the next week.

Here’s how it works. If you want to buy something, you can reserve it by giving us cash/check/credit card for the item anytime between now and June 27. On June 28, we’ll have folks to help you take the stuff away.

Check out photos of the items on our Flickr page.

You can come by Alamo downtown anytime from 4 PM until closing time to check out the items in person. Everything for sale is functioning and in use now. Everything you buy helps is on the road to getting the new Ritz space built.

Here’s what we have to sell:

Quan 2: 6 tap 90″ kegerators (CONTINENTAL KC-90-6) Bought new 6 months ago for $3472, Still under warranty. $1400 each
Quan 2: Blodget 1000 gas Deck Ovens, $1000 each
Quan 1: Glass door, 23″ upright refridgerator (TRUE GDM 23), $600
Quan 1: 12″ 2 burner stove and table (IMPERIAL IHPA-2-12), $400
Quan 1: 8′ Beer Cooler (TRUE TD-95-38) $650
Quan 1: Visi-Cooler (BEV-AIR) $400
Quan 1: 6′ pizza prep table (BEV-AIR) $250
Quan 1: Star 2 drawer Chip/bread warmer $150
Quan 1: Walk-In cooler w/ remote condenser (Kolpack, 5′X7′) $1300
Quan 1: 8′ Commercial Vent Hood with grease filters $650

Of course you are! And all I can really say is OMG. That’s blogger speak for “Holy fucking shit, watching people pretend to have sex on stage in a movie theater is FUCKING WEIRD and yet still awesomely entertaining. If you missed the first round of competition, check out this highlight reel from our own Stephanie Cook to get an idea of what went down:

We’ll have full performances posted before too long, and to answer that burning question in your nether region, yes, we will be having another round of competition, most likely in the early fall. So start practicing your sex skills now.

Read the Daily Texan’s AIR SEX coverage!

I got a call from Daniel at around 9:30 in the morning last Monday telling me that a big photo op was in the making. And he wasn’t kidding. I got on my bike and peddled my ass down to the Ritz to watch as six guys worked to raise a 4,200 pound steel I-beam 16 feet, 2 inches off the ground without the use of a crane. When Daniel first told me about this monster of an I-beam, I asked if they were going to use a crane. He said no, and I had a hard time envisioning how they would get the thing into the building, much less 16 feet off the ground.

Turns out the process is rather straight forward, though it is a hell of a lot of work involving chainfalls, winches, blowtorches and lots of elbow grease. You can check out how it all works in the new Flickr set, or peep the short video (4 1/2 mins) I made of the event on Google Video. Don’t worry, I didn’t add hip background music or anything (no YouTube cliches here!), just the sweet sounds of a construction site, including profanity (you’ve been warned). Also, please pardon the technical problems. I have much to learn about posting videos online.

Anyway, as you can see from the rest of last week’s photos, the project has really moved ahead by leaps and bounds. The major interior steel structure work is almost complete and that big hole where a roof used to be is back to being a roof. Sort of. When I left the site Friday afternoon, most of the new roof had been installed. Next up: light gauge steel framing for the wall interiors. And once those walls are up folks, we’ve pretty much got ourselves a movie theater. Well, maybe not quite yet, but we’re certainly getting there!

Fun Fact: The guys from Bill Jett Fabrication, the folks responsible for our steel construction, have put approximately eight tons of steel columns and beams in place inside the Ritz.

NOTE: I have started a second Alamo @ The Ritz photo set:
Alamo @ The Ritz Set 1 (April 24 – June 7)
Alamo @ The Ritz Set 2 (June 11 – present)

Earlier this month, we invited the boys (now men) who created the shot-for-shot remake of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK to come on back to the Alamo Downtown one last time to share their cinematic masterpiece with us and hang out a little bit. Some of the questions from that show were great, and the answers proved to be even greater. Check it out:

Whoah! RATATOUILLE is Great! We saw it Monday night thanks to the folks at Aint It Cool and Disney, and it’s the best kids movie for grown-ups since, well, THE INCREDIBLES. And speaking of which, Brad Bird was kind enough to tape an intro for the movie where he said a lot of kind words about the Alamo. So we appreciate that.

Of course if we are showing a food related movie we have to have food involved. So when you see RATATOUILLE at the Alamo South Lamar (opens June 29), think about checking out the RATATOUILLE Family Feast, which will have seperate menus for adults (with wine for the grown ups and a high-end soda or juice flight for the kids).

Also, you will be able to enjoy fine dining, including Ratatouille at every show of RATATOUILLE at The Alamo South through July 12.

Here are Trish and Shivann, our distinguished food preparers: