I was talking to someone last week who bartends at the Arena Theater. I said I'd been to that place a couple of times and it's a great venue (I saw Manhattan Transfer in 1983-ish). I said it's across from the Sharpstown Mall, and he said yes.
I decided to google the Sharpstown Mall and found that it's now a Tejano mall called PlazAmericas that is Hispanic themed. The Arena is now almost exclusively a Tejano venue, which is a shame because it's a marvelous theater-in-the-round, the only one I know of in Houston. But it serves the area, I suppose.
That was my stomping ground back then. Hwy 6 to the west (West Oaks Mall), Bissonnet to the south (Westwood Mall), Post Oak to the east (Galleria Mall), and I-10 to the north (Memorial City Mall).
Alief... I wouldn't go back there in the daytime. I live near The Woodlands now.
-PJ
-PJ