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.

Yeah, I was supposed to update you a few days ago. Traveling and a busy week have kept me offline a bit.

The good news is that the investor concern of my last post was resolved. The investor is Stel, a dear friend of many years. He was hoping to have money available to invest. Money, that is, on top of his labor the week of the show, his travel expenses which he’s paying himself, and tons of equipment (including the projector and multiple computers) which he is loaning. However, he does not have ready cash right now.

What he does have is a line of credit he has made available to me. This is pretty frakking dodgy territory, borrowing from a friend to make this happen, but it’s necessary. And Stel and I are both confident we can do this without wrecking the friendship. So…

Actually, knowing that the money to pull the project off is coming this way is all the more pressure to stay within budget. Because the last thing I want is to have to ask Stel for more than we discussed already.

Good news on that front, Jake Lee High, a frakking genius artist, programmer and architect, and close friend of Susan’s, is making an architectural model for us for $1000 this weekend. How amazing is that!
This morning I picked up video screens from Elise, and overnighted them to Jake. He is going to build the screen into the model so that it shows the actual film. RAD!!!!
And all affordably!

Also, through my friend Travis Meinolf, I was pointed at the fine folks at Howard Quinn. They do the newsprint calendars for a few theaters in SF. And they will do our theater calendar for a great price. So, now we have that lined up. Sooo exciting.
Of course, exciting for me, less so perhaps for Erin, because she just finished two amazing posters and two amazing postcards, and now I’m throwing an 8 page fold out calendar/catalogue at her.

Plus she is teaching Jonny how to screen print so he can make the candy boxes. Which, of course, she’ll be helping design…

Jonny is also working on our arcade game. And found two other arcade games he is dying to include in the arcade. So the current plan is to try and build three 3/4 size arcade machines with these three games.
LOL
We’re fools in the best way!
Jonny also has the cameras streaming and the timelapse working. And I understand he’s got the switch for the confessional smoothed out, too.

Amy’s mom sent out an email today asking her many contacts in the film world to consider investing in or making in kind donations to the project. So hopefully that will lead to some good news.

The last two days I’ve spent the afternoons printing out posters for Disembody. And a poster for another 23E production, KR-3.

This morning I had a long phone meeting with our lead contractor, David. And tonight I meet with Ted, our architectural designer. Sadly, between us we can not seem to find a single hour when we’re all free to meet together. This is super fucking lame. But it is a fact. So, I’m meeting with folks individually and trying to coordinate. I’d say it makes every aspect of the build at this stage take about four or five times as time consuming.
Good thing this is my entire life.

Stel and Alex and Jonny are currently talking about the network situ and how we’ll do the final editing of the film during the actual premiere. I think Stel came up with a very graceful solution.

Last night Alex and Carol-Anne and Carson and Keturah and I met. The tiles are looking amazing. The ceiling is going to be quite something. The chandeliers arrived, and we’ll see them Saturday. We’ll also be picking up a bunch of molding for the ceiling Saturday.

Kathryn finished the body of my usher’s jacket last week. And we did a final fitting the other day. I think the sleeves went on yesterday, so I may have a complete uniform to show you by week’s end!

So, yup, busy. Exactly the way it should be with less than three weeks to the start of install.

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.

Tuesday morning the 13th, I met with the investor, JLM, who is not super fond of publicity and would prefer not to be talked about. But trust me, she is faboo.

We spent a long morning together, lots of coffee and eventually went for lunch.

From which I raced to another investor meeting, and another lunch. I was late to that meeting because I am unaccustomed to how long it takes to drive places in SF. I’m used to biking, which is a whole other beast. My best bike routes were useless when driving Carol-Anne’s truck. Regardless, I made it to the lunch, and my friend Tiffiny was very wonderful and had ordered food for us. Sadly I chose to meet at a thai restaurant, and I’m allergic to lemon-grass so much of what she ordered I couldn’t eat. LOL

We had a very nice afternoon despite my food issues. And Tiffiny invested $1,000 in Disembody, which was wonderful of her.

Then Kathryn, the wardrobe designer and seamstress, and I went to see our friend Veronica Klaus, who starred in one of Skye’s earlier projects, The Elk Hotel, which I love. Veronica was fabulous performing a very bluesy cabaret set. Kathryn and I discussed soem of the finer details of the usher and usherette uniforms.