I'll Always Remember The Alamo

So long, and thanks for all the buffalo cauliflower

All things must end, or so they say. After thirteen incredible years (one-third of my life!), it has come time for me to leave the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

When I was first hired as an Executive Assistant for Triple Tap Ventures, the Houston franchise operator for the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, I was positive of two things: A) I would be lucky if I were still working for the company in a year and B) I never wanted to work anywhere else. In the years that followed, I was given amazing opportunity after amazing opportunity. I learned so much from the people I worked with, I developed actual, honest-to-god leadership skills (it only took me ten years, give or take), and I met people and went to places I would have never dreamed of. People who starred in the movies I obsessed over as a kid are now folks I consider friends. I’ve had people come up to me on the street while I was on vacation in strange cities, wanting to shake my hand and thank me for showing them a movie that changed their life. I can only assume that movie was I COME IN PEACE since I showed it four times over the last thirteen years.

Malcolm Gladwell writes about the need to practice a skill for 10,000 hours before one becomes an expert in it. Well, thanks to my penchant for not taking vacations and working on the weekends, I have become really, really good at a number of my work-related skills.

So, why am I leaving? First things first, this has nothing to do with any recent changes at the Alamo Drafthouse. I’m confident that Sony's purchase of the company is a fantastic thing, and the purchase will ensure that the brand thrives and grows for decades to come. I spent way too many years building a community around the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Houston that I wouldn’t ever willingly leave if I thought there was any danger of that community disappearing.

Honestly, it just felt like the right time to start a new chapter in my life. Making a change is scary - made even scarier when jumping into the unknown from the coziest bed you’ve ever had. The Alamo Drafthouse is family - but we all have to leave our family at some point, right?

I never would have dreamed I’d be able to experience some of the things I experienced while at the Alamo Drafthouse. Post-college, I had zero idea what to do with my life. I stumbled through job after job, hoping that something would feel right eventually. The Alamo Drafthouse and Triple Tap Ventures felt right immediately. It wasn’t all roses - there were hard times, especially during COVID. I lost many friends to the Alamo Drafthouse - either because I let those friendships die in the first few years because of my obsession with work or because of conflicts that arose due to that work. While I mourn those friendships, I’m also grateful for the friendships the Alamo provided. My best friends today are all people I met at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema.

I’m so thankful to everybody I have had the privilege of working with over the years - both at Triple Tap Ventures and at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. I’m thankful for every guest who bought a ticket to any event I programmed. I’m thankful for the hourly team members at the venue who put up with my chaotic bullshit over the years (“Yes, I know it’s going to affect your tips, but I really want to give everybody at DEMOLITON MAN a Taco Bell value meal”). I’m thankful for those who took a chance on me at the beginning and those who kept taking chances on me every single day after that.

So, what comes next? I’ll have more to share soon, I promise. In the meantime, this is my final week of full-time employment with the Alamo Drafthouse. If you live near Houston, you’ll still see me hosting weekly Graveyard Shift and Film Club screenings through the end of August. And, if you live near Houston and have ever wanted to host a weekly series yourself, I’ll have news on that soon because, like Willy Wonka before me, you bet your ass I’ll be looking for somebody to dump all this responsibility onto once it’s time to ride the Great Glass Elevator out of here.

In the meantime, I want to thank everybody again for all the support you’ve shown over the years. This has been the best thirteen years I could have ever imagined. The next thirteen sure have a whole damn lot to live up to.

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I don’t have any WHERE WOLF 2 updates this week (I’ve been busy, sorry!), but, as always, you can request a copy of WHERE WOLF from your local library or buy a personal copy directly from the publisher, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Ghoulish Books in San Antonio, or Whose Books in Dallas. If you've read WHERE WOLF, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon, Goodreads, The StoryGraph, or wherever you discover new books.

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I’m hosting two screenings this week at the Alamo Drafthouse LaCenterra. Up first is Pedro Almodóvar’s TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN! Antonio Banderas stars as an unhinged mental patient who kidnaps an actress in the hopes of convincing her to marry him. Exactly the shade of unhinged sexy you’d expect from Almodóvar, TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN! is an essential film in the director’s filmography and a wonderful time at the movies, if I do say so myself. See it Wednesday at 7:30 PM and buy tickets here!

On Friday at 10 PM, I’m screening I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, the late ‘90s teen slasher from writer Kevin Williamson. Fresh off the success of SCREAM, Williamson adapted Lois Duncan’s classic YA novel, and all of young Hollywood came out to play. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Freddie Prinze Jr star. There aren’t many Fourth of July-themed slashers, let alone ones with Toad the Wet Sprocket on the soundtrack, so buy tickets here!