One Year Later...

A year ago today (technically yesterday, but I haven't gone to bed yet, so still think of this as Saturday the 9th), the Landmark Keystone Art Cinema and Indie Lounge opened inside the Fashion Mall at Keystone at the Crossing.

A year ago, I did not work for Landmark Theatres. I was still marking time at Clearwater Crossing 12, but I remember clearly what I was doing one year ago, plus a day - on December 8th, 2005. It snowed like crazy that day, and I wound up sweeping something like eight inches of snow off of my car before slogging back to my apartment in Southport.

That day was also the 25th anniversary of the death of John Lennon, who was gunned down outside the Dakota Hotel, just off of 72nd Street and Central Park West, in New York City. A portion of Central Park, roughly across the street from the Dakota, was later renamed Strawberry Fields, after the Beatles song and in honor of Lennon. There is in that part of the park a black and white tile mosaic that reads "Imagine," after the song Lennon was best known for as a solo artist. It is that mosaic that local band Rebuilt refers to in the song "Central Park," from their debut CD, called Ghostman On First.

I spent that day, a year ago, at work, listening to Lennon's Acoustic CD, which my parents had given me for my birthday a year or two earlier. I didn't just listen to music at work that day, of course, but there weren't many customers with all the snow, and what customers there were thinned out as the day went on and the snow kept falling. I'm sure I knew that Landmark was opening the next day, but I wasn't thinking of it on that particular Thursday - nor was I thinking that roughly six months later I would have left Clearwater behind and gone to work at Landmark.

But so I did, and it was a great decision on my part - brought about by the fact that Jason Maier got a better job offer in Boston and took it, opening the position at Landmark, to which he tipped me off. I don't know if I ever properly thanked Jason for letting me know about the job and for (probably) putting in a good word for me with the GM at Landmark, so if I did not, then: Thanks, Jason.

Every single thing about being a movie theatre manager is better at Landmark than it was at Clearwater. Everything. Well, except that the projection booth was built in such a way that one could do one's self serious bodily injury (think gaping head wound) if one is not careful about the way one moves around up there. Apart from that, though, everything is better. The employees are great, the movies are a ton better than the mainstream drivel playing at what I still hear the wayward customer refer to as a "normal" theatre (as though there is much to recommend normalcy in this world), I work with the best Booth Squad on the planet, and every now and then there are cookies. Huzzah!

Also, the Key Cinema is still alive and kicking. Its owner seemed certain that the opening of the Landmark theatre, despite being all the way on the other side of town, would spell doom for his own little operation on the south side (southwest corner of Keystone and Hannah, which is just south on Keystone from I-65). It has not. Hopefully both theatres can continue to coexist for many years to come.