Another art house bites the dust

Houston's Greenway Theatre, which has offered alternative film fare for more than a generation, and once served as the annual site for WorldFest Houston, is slated to close on New Year's Eve. The three-screen multiplex is one of two art houses operated in the city by Landmark Theatres. The other, the River Oaks 3, also is on the endangered list, despite ongoing efforts by local preservationists. It is my coolly considered and entirely objective decision that this really, really sucks.

And yet...

I have to admit: Every year I'm given a free-admission pass to the theater, but I can't remember the last time I actually saw a movie there. The Greenway Theatre, I fear, is one of those local landmarks that can all too easily slip off your radar. You know the sort of places I'm talking about: You feel like they've always been around. And you take them for granted because you think they always will be around. But then you wake up one morning -- in this case, Christmas Day, for cryin' out loud! -- and you learn that, pretty soon, yet another one will be gone, baby, gone.