On Monday night Kathryn and I had a great evening with Hanif. We talked for hours about collectivity in art, and alternative models of production/creativity. Like him, I have great faith in the digital. He’s putting the finishing touches on the catalogue essay for the show this week. I expect to print the catalogue next week. And start distributing them around LA and SF (and Chicago and Tokyo and Omaha and Taipei and New York and…) by mid-week next.

I edited and uploaded a slew of new clips to the archive Monday:

Some build meetings are really just excuses to drink,

Three clips about financing and my friend Stel, who swept in to help me out when things looked strange
Payback
Details
Money

Four clips from the first meeting with our lawyer, wherein I explain that
investors shouldn’t sue me
despite the fact that investors might lose every penny
I intend to change the art world forever
artists don’t actually make anything

Tuesday I met with my friend Steven Goldstine and he put me in touch with a number of his contacts in LA, including David Wilson of the Museum of Jurassic Technology and Christopher Coppola of Project Accessible Hollywood.

Tuesday night I caught a rideshare from Craigslist, getting in to LA around 4am.

I spent Wednesday getting caught up. A lot of emails about promotion. I’m rewriting the blurb for email promotion. I finalized the show times. I also updated the website a bit. Jonny has been going gangbusters on the ephemera page and gallery.
Erin has begun the calendar/catalogue.

I also spoke to Jordan Biren yesterday. Which was great. I’ve been hearing great things about him from so many people. It was a real pleasure to talk to him about the project.

I picked up the posters today, and spoke with David, our contractor, at length. Tonight Amy and I will go measure Fringe for what I hope is the final time.

We’re 16 days to the opening, and 12 days to the first install day. I’m oscillating between exhaustion and excitement pretty much all day every day.

Oh, and I guess I should mention this cuz it could potentially play into the film, my sister called to tell me that the crew sweatshirts may not be ready for the opening because she has to fly out to Oregon where our biological mother was rushed into emergency surgery today. As it stands, Ali, my sister, says it appears she has some bizarrely strange illness. I’ll provide more details when I have them, but for now, that’s all I know.

It’s not final, because not all of the crew has weighed in, but I’m really excited that we might name the theater

The Morgellon

What a great name for a theater.

I was brainstorming names with Skye and Elise today and we came up with that. It’s frakkin’ sexy is what it is.

S&E showed me a couple of rough edits they made from the Making Of footage. Okay, yeah, I’m almost always excited, I know, but seriously, they looked so good. And not just because I think this project kicks ass.

Or maybe just because I think this project is really exciting.
I don’t know.

In good news, my friend Mik mentioned to me that he thought his girlfriend, my friend Adi, had a full size popcorn machine. And indeed we may be digging that out of storage come July 6 or 7 to drive down to LA and install in The Morgellon. Sweet!

I met with investors yesterday and today. I’ve begun collecting money, which is cool. Of course, I’ve begun spending it, too. Jake got a check for $1000 today for the architectural model. And I spent almost $400 on materials for Carol-Anne’s and Keturah’s ceiling. I spent $70 Fed Ex’ing screens to Jake (and of course Fed Ex delivered them several hours later than promised and paid for.) Another $100 went to Alex to buy DV tape. Etc.

But we’re still unbelievably close to our budget. I can’t believe that every time I do the budget it evens out one way or another.

Jonny is working on the arcades, he just sent me an invoice for the joysticks. Our theater is going to so kick-ass. Popcorn, candy, soda, and an arcade. Hell, we’re gonna have trouble getting people into the theater to watch the film our lobby will be so cool.

Speaking of which Kathryn put the sleeves on my usher uniform last night. She’s making pants next. Jack and I are going to look so good in our matching outfits.

My main concern at this point is the ceiling. We’re three weeks out and it is simply impossible to have a meeting where Ted or David can make it. Both canceled on Thursday, our final build meeting. I spent an hour and a half on the phone with David that morning. And twenty minutes with Ted that night. As it stands I think it’s safe to say they have adopted antithetical opinions as to how the ceiling is best installed. I suspect the hammer waiting to fall in my future is the installation of the ceiling, as we still have no plan and no budget estimate for it. And I’ve decided to re-measure everything the day I get back to L.A., Weds.
LOL
Every stereotype you hear about working in the building industry it turns out is true. Even in a small gallery when installing a temporary wall and drop ceiling.

Tomorrow I meet with Ali and Terry to go over plans for the concession stand. Which I haven’t yet drawn up or figured out. So, obvs every stereotype you hear about artists and musicians is likely true, as well.

Well, here’s the skinny today:

Chantal, my 16 year old niece bailed this morning. She was going to be an usherette, however her Summer is not going as planned. This is sad news, but not, prehaps, bad news. I have the sneaking suspicion the theater was going to be overstaffed with three employees…
Plus we were a yard short of material before this. I was going to have shorts as opposed to proper long pants for my uniform. Now I’ll have the long pants.

I spoke with Amy this morning, her endeavors to find food in exchange for promotion are not going well. That is no surprise. Though it is disappointing. We may be eating a lot of bread and butter sandwiches. LOL.

Janet sent me the final contracts this morning. So, I’ll have those for my trip to Chicago Friday, and SF next Tuesday.

My production assistant, Arthur, set the wheels in motion today to get parking stickers and permits for July, so we’ll be able to house the vehicles that deliver ten people to my folks’ home (where 2/3 of the crew are staying).

Jonny is uploading ephemera to the 23E ephemera library. I asked him to pick most of it (I suggested a few things I’d like to see up there). I think the archive, like everything else on the project, will be more exciting if I’m not micro-managing it. It is fascinating to me to see the project through other peoples’ eyes.

Spoke to Ali, and she’ll be starting the hoodies for the crew next week.

Also spoke to Carson, and sched’ed a build meeting for next Tuesday night, and a full crew meeting for Thursday. The full meeting will coincide with his birthday, and be a meeting/party.

Alex and I have been emailing all morning discussing how we’re going to capture sound. We’re struggling with finding wireless lavaliers we can afford to rent. But they are not an item we can really forego, we think.

Finally, a potential investor out of NYC offered his regrets today. This is not the best economic climate for convincing people to risk money on an independently produced artwork/art film. LOL. Fortunately, we have all we need now. Everything from here on out is gravy (of course, the kind of gravy that makes architectural models and other important elements possible…)

Monday Alex and Keturah and I met at Danang to go over the budget for the interior design and the production facility and recording studio. It was a good meeting. They pointed out a number of necessary items I had missed. And gave me some concrete costs on chandeliers and other elements.



Tuesday I met with Marcella and Bonnie Banks. Mostly we looked at mp3s I got from Phil. Bonnie also loaned me a couple more vhs and another book. Earlier I was with Skye. We copied over all the footage thus far shot for the Making Of. I left him with two 500GB drives, one each for him and elise. They can start familiarizing themselves with the footage we have, the stories that might be developing, etcetera.

Skye and I also talked about art and film.

Before that I was with my friend LaTasha, a video artist, musician, writer and performer who is movign back home to NYC. We watched some docu of her performances from last year. She’s super mega-talented. I really want to find a way to get her involved in one of my East Coast projects next year.

I spoke with Amy, as well, and she’s going to help me get the food donated to feed everybody. Ali gave me some advice on that today. I’m also going to see if we can get some of the materials donated for building.

I started the day with our fabulous seamstress, Kathryn. She picked up the lining for the usher/usherette uniforms. They are going to be spectacular. I knocked out an email to Chantal to get her measurements. We have Jack’s (and I got her ticket, too).

Tomorrow I am going to try and hunt down AH and SG, two potential investors. And maybe SL, who is definitely not a potential investor, but is always good for great advice.

Jonny is coming out to SF this weekend and he and I will drive down to LA together Sunday.

Erin is working towards getting the ephemera page up, and getting ads and posters ready.

Ote is also starting the poster for Japanese distribution, which is great.

Finally, Keturah pointed me towards a potential screen printer for the candy boxes. Her art is great, so if she can do it, we’ll be in really good hands.