LyricNotes, Vol. 8

You will notice that I am no longer numbering my entries in a dead language...we are already modernizing the theater and we haven't even bought a projector yet.

Ok, where to start? Well, we officially signed away our lives on Monday when the lease was signed. So now we can worry about opening, whew! Hopefully we will submit the building permit early next week, we will submit our beer and wine license today or tomorrow, I've started distribution applications, I'm completely ignoring insurance right now because I don't want to think about it, and I found out this Thanksgiving holiday that vomiting for 9 hours straight through the night isn't as much fun as it sounds like, which was a surprising discovery.

At any rate, Josh and I have spent the last couple days setting up a central office inside the soon-to-be theater so that we don't have all our papers scattered all over Ft. Collins. Here are some photos taken by Jan Kurbetez, the award winning photographer, of the space and us in the space.

A masterful depiction of where the large theater is. This is a wonderfully composed photo from the other direction.

Notice the use of light and shadow while Josh works. Could I look any more important? This man is a master.

LyricNotes, Vol. VII

I realized now that I don't know roman numerals well enough to continue numbering my notes in them.

So, at the moment, we are still negotiating the lease which is holding everything else up. We still need to submit our plans for the building permit which we can't do until we sign, we can't move forward on any of our licenses, all our funding we've raised is a moot point until we can get this building, and I have decided to name my ulcer Christopher. Christopher seems happy, I bought him some daisy patterned water wings yesterday and took him to the indoor pool, he likes the slide the best.

Perhaps, whenever I become learned enough to do so, I will post our building plans so that everyone can see just how totally, utterly, and completely awsome we are. I still haven't gotten around to posting any pictures, of which there are...um...none yet, but I did find some cool old pictures of the building we want to lease.

LyricNotes, Vol. VI

Well my finger is doing better, but I can feel my mind turning into a delicious bowl of cream-o-wheat and sweeten condensed milk.

We have hit a minor snag in the lease that is giving me nightmares. Trying to strike a deal that won’t bury us if we have a stroke of bad luck and at the same time won’t turn our landlord into the biggest philanthropist since Bill Gates is a tough one. He is already very gracious for even considering letting us use the space, seeing as how he was planning to move into it himself by now. So it’s hard to ask for much more than we already have, but here is where it gets complicated. He wants to make some money off this place, that is perfectly understandable, but in order for him to make money off this place we have to be successful. In order for us to be successful he will have to let us get our footing, which means he won’t make any money off of us for a while, which breaks the first rule, but he is willing to compromise. Now we start looking at the long term. He wants to make money off of us for a long time, which is great, but no one can foresee the future, so we don’t want to get ourselves in deeper than we can handle, but we also plan on being in this space for a while and don’t want terms to change for the worse if we have to renew. Yet at the same time, he doesn’t want us in too deep either because he doesn’t want to get stuck with a tenant that can’t make the payments and have to take them to court and blah, blah, blah. Then you factor in the remodel and what he will do if he is stuck with a theater that no one wants and the fact that we don’t want to make so many improvements to a place we don’t own that it would put us under.

It’s a mess.

This doesn’t mean that we aren’t getting the place or that we are at each others throats, it just means that I will be feeding an ulcer until I’m 40.

LyricNotes, Vol. V

Now, for a shameless marketing ploy...

Josh and I have set my lovely wife Elizabeth to the task of carrying out our shameless marketing ploy, which was tested on a slew of cute innocent animals and is assured to brainwash everyone, based on our cruel research. We will start our nefarious plan by taking over Bolivia...actually it's just a bunch of super keen shirts and stickers that we will sell at some outrageous price...well at least slightly outrageous, if not totally unreasonable.

So look out for those, they are coming soon and will be super keen.

LyricNotes, Vol. IV

Wish Us Luck!

This is going to be a big week for us. We will, hopefully and finally, get the lease signed, finally get our financing one way or another, whether legally or illegally (see, I know this guy who...um...at any rate, it's a sure fire plan) and perhaps, PERHAPS we can get started on our licenses and permits, of which one could say there are a plethora. But don't hold me to any of this, if there is one thing I've learned from this process it's to brush my teeth at least twice a day (it's gonna be a while before we get dental insurance), but only slightly less so, I've learned to count on nothing. We need at least three back up plans for every step we take.

Also, we've been getting emails in regards to how people can help with this project. Well one excellent way to insure the opening of this theater and it's success is to become an investor, or let us know about someone who might want to invest. These are not donations, investors own a part of the business and get a share of the profits. But also know that no one is going to get rich off of this, including me and Josh. But the more investors we get, the more start up capital we have, the more start up capital we have, the more likely it is we will succeed, the more likely it is that we succeed, the better we feel, so eat your beans with every meal. So if you or someone you know has some money they would like to put into the community and get a modest return, let us know.

Lyric Notes, Vol. III

Hooray for us!

We got a full page article in the Coloradoan, complete with an enormously huge picture of Josh and I reflecting really hard. Now, this has turned out to be a mixed blessing because people are actually reading the blather that I’m writing. So I guess that means no more deep contemplative confessions about my childhood or the crimes I’m planning on committing.

One thing I would like to clear up is that this last weekend was an extremely turbulent mess. We went from a two screen to a one screen and back to a two screen in a matter of two days. And our budget went from 170K to god knows how much and back down, then back up, and finally after four sleepless nights, we have come up with two very reasonable layouts for the theater that not only bring our budget back down to the original estimate (or lower!), but we will also be able to fit more seats in the large theater and open sooner. The only good explanation for how such a drastic change is possible is that I’m a genius that can not only manipulate money and costs, but also space and time, and everyone who knows me should count themselves lucky that they can be acquainted such a person. There literally are no limits to my powers.

Other than this last weekend, things seem to be going great. Our investors are coming right along, the banks are... banks, and our land lord is being very nice to us. Oh, and my mom doesn’t think that anything on this website is even remotely funny... Thanks, Mom.