Lyric Notes Vol. 24

Whew! It's been a hell of a week...and a half... since I last wrote anything. A lot has happened. We have sheet-rock up and taped, the texture is on the walls in the cafe and the carpenters are currently putting up the corrugated metal on the ceiling in the cafe as well...and just so you know, sheet rock sucks, but the one good thing about it is that Josh and I are now totally cut, which is a first for me. It seems like we are on our way to getting insurance as well, which is pretty crucial to opening the doors, and we are going to start installing the projectors in the next week or so. We are also aiming to install the sweetest counter-top on the face of the earth this weekend, and this you will have to see to believe how sweet it is. Our architect, Dustin, has devised this cast resin counter with movie images below the resin, which looks killer. It's such a great idea that we stayed up until two in the morning obtaining images...which is much later than I am physically capable of staying up, and I love my sleep. If all goes as planned we will have the cafe done by the end of next week and the big theater well on the way to being done.

It's been a lot of 15 hour days for the past two weeks, but hopefully it will all pay off. Needless to say Josh and I are perpetually crabby and tired, but we will be magically transformed once we get closer to opening...I promise...really.

Lyric Notes Vol. 23

This insurance thing is a pain. We have been trying to get insurance for the past 3 months and not one agency knows how to insure a movie theater/cafe that sells beer and wine. How can that be? there are probably 60-70 in the United States, if not more, and they still haven't figured this out yet? Just make a call and find out. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!!

Enough about insurance, I dislike insurance companies almost as much as I dislike green peppers. They are both over-baring and over-powering, yet add no substantial contribution to society. (I'm sure I offended at least 10 people with that analogy...sorry green pepper lovers.) Anyway, Valentine's day, what a wonderful holiday. It's a time for joy, laughter, family getting together and playing boggle, drinking absinthe and shooting BB guns...I love Valentine's day. Oh, wait, that's Columbus day. Valentine's day is always too wet for me, that's why Josh and I spent it drywalling. If all turns out well we will be painting and flooring next week, then trim and finish stuff, and finally the grand opening (note: several items were omitted to save typing and make a point). I'm hoping that we can get open by....sometime...in...the near future. AHA! You thought I was going to give a date didn't you?! Well, I'm not going to paint myself into a corner yet, that will be next week. HAHAHA, another pun...it's all pun-central here. I'm going to stop typing now, before I say something really stupid.

Lyric Notes Vol. 22

We have had a productive couple weeks. Josh bought American Psycho and I watched that again...awsome movie. I have also been finding change all over the place and that never hurts...but before I get started here are the pictures of the plaster, before and after.



Here is Andy and Todd helping us smooth out the walls and fill all the holes in the cafe so we can plaster. I want to note that these two took a Saturday to help us doing this crappy job. Thanks fellas.


Todd expressing his exasperation at the sheer crappiness of the walls. Yes, Todd, they have seen better days.

Here is the grand finale of the plaster...



I don't know if you can get a feeling for the space with these pictures, but Josh is always in the same place, if that helps. Either way, the walls no longer look like something straight out of Baghdad, which is better for business.

On to more current affairs. If you were driving by our space on Mountain, you probably saw two extremely attractive men painting the building in a very manly way...that was us. Believe it or not, two big shots like us will occasionally meddle in common labor, such as painting. In case you didn't know what dire need this building was of a paint job here are a couple pictures.




No we did not keep the monkey. I know everyone's heart is shattered, but we are all going to have to get over it together. Maybe we can form a support group or something.


As you can see, a much needed improvement. Wait until you see the canopy painted.

Ooo, who is that lethally handsome man. Boy is he manly.

There he is again. I wish I were as cool as that intensely debonair fellow.

And here is the near finished product. Though we still have to finish it and touch it up, you can now understand the scope in which we are magically transforming this building.

Soon we will have drywall done, and our equipment is being seeped in as we speak, one piece at a time...used of course, but new to us.

Lyric Notes Vol. 21

We are officially a delinquent establishment. We just had our beer and wine license hearing and they determined that we are of high enough moral fiber that we can now corrupt the next generation of alcoholics. Hooray for us! Actually, Josh needs to go to a alcohol training class so he can learn the intricacies of the trade...because of his rough and tumble past, actually it's mainly because he's the cafe guy and I'm not. So, now all we need to do is get our cafe equipment, our theater equipment, finish construction, paint and trim, set up all our accounts, and everything else and we are in business. But seriously, as far as licenses go I think we are gravy. We have our sales tax licenses (both city and state), we have our movie theater license, as soon as we finish construction we will have our vendor license, and we now have our beer and wine license.

Man, this whole process is cake...easy as pie. A blind man could do this while balancing a live grenade on his nose and teetering over a 5000 foot cliff with monkies flinging crap at him...Ok now I'm rambling, I'll go now.

Lyric Notes Vol. 20

This has been a pretty amazing week...well, an amazing Wednesday anyway. We had the plaster class and it went splendidly. About 40 people showed up and plastered the hell out of our walls, so we owe a debt of gratitude to all involved. I will have to get some before and after pictures so you can see it (my camera is with my wife at the moment) but, in essence, our vintage WWII bomb shelter, complete with collateral damage, is now magically transformed into a vision of earth-friendly color and splendor. Boy does it look good in this cafe...I mean really good...Hey everyone, come see how good it looks!

On top of all the plastering on Wednesday, we had the carpenters frame a bunch of stuff, and are currently just hours away from being done with that, the heating guys put in all our duct work and Josh and I drank two pots of coffee in a 3 hour period. In short, it was crammed in this building, so Josh and I left and pretended to be on very important errands, it was our first day off in 3 weeks. But we are now back at it, and by the end of next week we should have all the framing, rough electric, rough plumbing and HVAC done so that Josh and I can insulate, drywall and begin the finish work.