7/21/08:  "As the header explains, I hadn't been to the Hampden Center 8 in 4 years, and it was honestly never a favorite.  But even so, it stung a bit to learn last night that the 20 year-old multiplex was running its' final shows even as I was reading the news.  I've never understood the gripe of multiplex-haters about their sameness.  I've been in all kinds of theaters, large and small, old and new, hometown and corporate, and to me, each place, each screen in each place, has its' own character and personality.  In that way, the Hampden Center was something of a grouch, perhaps, but I spent some fine afternoons there, and while I'd stopped going without regrets, it just feels wrong that it's no longer out there doing its' thing. " MORE

7/31/08:  "Few theaters have had a bigger impact on my life than the 12-screen Cinema Center of Palmyra.  The reason is simple:  I'd have probably never fallen in love with my adopted hometown, perhaps never even driven through it, had my desire to check out any theater within driving distance not brought me there on a lazy May afternoon in 1999.  I don't remember a lot of The Thirteenth Floor, the Roland Emmerich/Dean Devlin-produced sci-fi thriller that built its' entire ad campaign around its' one really memorable moment, but the theater made an immediate impression.  So did the town upon whose outskirts it sat and seven year later, I would move here.  For three years, I had the pleasure of a dozen screens five minutes away from home, until I drove by today to find only these words on the marquee:  "WE ARE CLOSED"  The windows were covered by movie posters and a sign on the front door informed the employees who'd waited on me in some cases for a decade that their checks would be mailed to them.  Turns out that an announcement had been made two days prior, when the media was informed at 9:26 on Wednesday night that the current shows were the last.  My hometown theater, for now, is no more." MORE

6/7/08:  "I've only ever been to two drive-in theaters, and the first shouldn't even count.  The Pine Grove Drive-In was on its' last legs when I caught Judge Dredd there on a mosquito-infested Saturday night in 1995.  I couldn't tell you what the screen was made of, but it seemed like siding, and the picture was hopelessly warped and distorted.  But that odd, uncomfortable evening did get me across the drive-in barrier.  My sister (take a bow, Tammy) and I had heard better things about another area Drive-In that had re-opened the year before, and in August, 1995, we made the drive to Gratz, PA to see Batman Forever (which we had seen before) at the Sky-Vu Drive-In.  First, we learned Drive-In Lesson #1:  the family movie always plays first, and as such we instead watched A Kid in King Arthur's Court (surprisingly resonant performance by Joss Acklund as Arthur, and I don't remember one other thing about it except that it was not good).  But with that lesson learned, the theater made a good impression and has become an annual destination for a handful of trips during their May-August season even now, when I live about 80 minutes away." MORE