Lost My Keys

So the unthinkable has happened . . .

I cancelled my Houston Chronicle subscription earlier this week. I know, my first post on this blog was dedicated to what I called, "The Key to the City." My how far we've come, right? This is actually a rather sad event in my life. I ADORE newspapers, I love the idea of spreading the Sunday paper out across the bed with a steamy cup of coffee. I would become indignant to those that say print media is dead. Not so fast, I would say. The newspaper is a vital part of everyday life. Well, not anymore for me.

I've become bored with the Chronicle. There just isn't all that much exciting local information in it anymore. It's become a varitable AP news feed that I can get just as easily online browsing the latest headlines on CNN.com. Plus, all the parts of the paper that I loved, Outlook, the unusually large comics section and Sports have all slipped considerably. Outlook is one bitchfest after another, and generally not even local issues. Even when they do cover local issues, it's gotta be METRO, zoning or what we need to be a better city. I'm fed up.

The comics section is being slowly whittled away, where absolutely idiotic comics have taken over from more clever, funny fare. And Sports, I'm not sure how they have been able to keep this section afloat. It's a collection of smarmy, fair weather writers who are more concerned coming up with a catchy retort on the state of Houston sports, than actually talking about what it going right or wrong. Richard Justice wrote today that it may be time to bring out the ol' tombstone.

You see, back in the 2005 season, the Chronicle Sports section featured an article saying that the Astros season was done. It came complete with a tombstone. When the Astros captured the Wild Card, many of the players commented that it was that article that had a part in the dramatic turnaround. Ever since that article, Justice has had at least one article a season where he threatens to bring it out again. Newsflash Dick, this season is over, and it was over before it began. Sure we were making a go of it for a while, but this was never going to be a season where these Astros could have expected to compete. Instead, we are getting what should be considered a rousing success of a rebuilding year. This team is ahead of expectations when the season began, and not those that have been manufactured in the last month.

My point is that Justice and his fellow sports writers have no new material to bring to the table. It's all a repackaging of tired bullshit that I have finally gotten tired of. I would much rather spend my mornings reading a magazine than struggle through the Chronicle. Like I said, it breaks my heart to do it, but there is nothing wrong with saving $17 a month when gas is rising out of control. That's a third of a tank for me, and believe me, it'll make a difference!

Now I'll still pick up a paper every once in a while, and we get a copy every day at the office. The hardest part will be my first weekend without it. I still have until the beginning of July, but it'll be a nice change; I haven't been without a newspaper in close to 20 years. Enjoy your week, and I'll catch up with you soon.

Houston - The Movie

This is going to amuse those of you who know me well, but I was thinking about something the other day regarding the Sex and the City Movie. It came as I was seeing yet another picture on the front page of the Chronicle about the FLDS children. I mean, I was looking at these women, and it's rather startling to think that we still have women who truly don't know what it is to be an empowered female in this country. I don't want to get into a gender discussion here, I was just thinking that there are women like this all over this country that didn't know what Sex and the City is. Despite its hundreds of channels, television can still have a very limited reach. But I started thinking about the movie was going to be available to women all over the country. It's a story I think no one is really talking about. Think about it, how many women do you think have snuck out to see SATC in a theater two towns over? How many women do you think have had their minds blown to the sheer possibilities it presents to their sheltered existences?

Yes, these are the kinds of things I think about from time to time. Anyway, I started thinking about the power of film to change the world. The power that doesn't exist in a television medium. Of course, TV has its own power to make change, but I don't think it can have as immediate an impact that movies have on us. There is something sacred about sitting in a theater, popcorn and/or candy in hand, and the anticipation when the lights dim. I am sure many of you can imagine times when the opening fanfare for 20th Century Fox has given you chills.



I remember when I saw Star Wars: Episode I, the entire theater erupted in applause and cheers when the Lucasfilm logo flashed across the screen. You may not know it, but you have multiple experiences where your life has changed after seeing a movie. See where I'm going?

Speaking back to SATC, and I remember hearing this back when before the series finale aired, the fifth character in the series/movie is New York City. Yes, the Big Apple. That mythical city that has been memorialized in more films that I can count. It joins the likes of California, LA and San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia and Boston on a short list of cities whose very fabric has been stitched with film. The Empire State Building and Golden Gate Bridge? Icons of romance and no small amount of magic.

Houston? Yeah, we have Terms of Endearment, Urban Cowboy and Reality Bites, but those ar three films over 25 years! Spiderman churned out three films in five years. Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks threw two romantic comedies together, Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got mail, in NY in five year too!

Oh, and I should mention that the recent sightings of Sean Penn in Houston while he is shooting Terrence Malick's Tree of Life got me to thinking about the idea of movies in Houston. I have nothing more to report on that situation other than what I was able to read from Shelby Hodge and IMDB. Tree of Life does sound like a pretty interesting film.

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that the so called superstar cities of the US have a mystique. Houston doesn't. That doesn't mean that our stories aren't less interesting than those of New York or San Francisco, it's just that no one is out there telling them. I don't if that anyone ever will, but I see no reason why they can't. That's one reason I didn't think that the idea of turning the Astrodome into a production studio was such a bad idea. While I have been in favor of some kind of entertainment super-complex to compliment Reliant Stadium, there are very real benefits to creating a large film production studio.

Hell, Universal needs some extra space these days, why not? Have a great week, enjoy all this HOT weather!