Telephone communications

A 1908 Buick Speedster

     I have been deluged by solicitations. Therefore, I do not answer any calls that do not have a familiar called ID. If you are wanting to contact me via my cell phone, you will need to text me first and both identify yourself and the reason for contacting me. If it is legitimate business, I will get back to you. I do not answer cold solicitations. If I answer and do not get a response, the number will be blocked. If I use call screening and there is no response or a hang-up, the number will be blocked. 

     My email is likewise deluged. If it is legitimate business, I will respond. If the communique is a solicitation, I may look at it or not.

   I'm sorry it has come to this.

AG

Animatronics

    I'm expecting to engage more actively in constructing the Animatronic Puppetry for The Gnomes of New Hope.

 There are two primary projects in this regard. The first is the Parade Float. We will create an animatronic scene on the Parade Float to use in promoting the Stage Musical. The second is to begin creating a Walk-thru Cyclorama depicting assorted scenes from the show.

   We have been working on learning Poser for CGI and are now discussing both 3D printing and programming cues for the actions of an animatronic chassis. We are still far off from a workable prototype, but we are on the path. 

  Some other things are happening in this regard, particularly the establishment of IMS Technologies as a vehicle for developing the animatronics and other related mechanical activities, including robotic technology and general manufacturing for assorted product lines.

  Truth be told, I will be looking to establish a Board of Directors to supervise operations with IMS Technologies, IMS Publishing, and IMS Management, each of which requires it's own staff. I am seeking individuals who would like consider buying into the operation as a hands on participant. Funding is a separate issue. There are numerous avenues in this regard, of which I can convey to interested parties.

Communicating Business

  

   I have established a new and more secure email address to use for discussing more classified business. In order to access this email, I require a hard copy letter on company letterhead submitted to my studio address. That address is readily available in a number of ways, here and elsewhere.

   Regarding telephone communications; I maintain both a cell phone and a hard line at IMS. For the most part, I let voicemail be my answering service. I do this because my time is extremely occupied with other hands-on business and unless a number is programmed into my phones, I avoid answering the call. This is because of excessive solicitations that essentially steals my attention and time away from my work. I do not employ a receptionist at this time.

   I will be addressing budget and management issues in more details on another blog set up for that purpose. If you want to be involved in that regard, let me know, as I said, preferably via hard copy.

AG

Time Marches On

 

   

   I'm in the frame of mind that tells me; I don't have much time left to achieve the things I have worked so hard for, for so long. My Studio space is coming together, as I am coming apart. I'm not really falling apart, not much anyway. But as it goes "Time waits for no one".

   I will continue to work at building the studio and implementing the projects I have, many of which are waiting in the wings. But the one very real fact is that; I will need to sell Image of the Mind Studios. 

   I have a very plausible Business Plan that establishes an excellent Management Structure that works well to delineate the layers of management to accommodate the full range of addressing the Industry, basically Departmentalization. 

   I think I will transfer that Business Plan over to a blog, where I will be able to present it's outline electronically to potential business partners and make it possible to share it on a worldwide basis. I tend to think this is Classified Information, by since I'm running out of time on my end, I guess that doesn't matter. I may secure it from being available to anyone and require a direct inquiry in order to access it. But it will be a revelatory document designed to promote establishing a scenario whereby IMS will endure without requiring me to be the primary force behind it's sustainability.

Recording Studio, Print Shop. Machine Shop

Recording Studio

    As you may have read, I am working toward installing a Sound Stage in my studio. Now, as I am taking title to the property, which consists of four buildings, I am planning on some changes to Building Two. It will take time, but I'm beginning to plan out the installation of a recording studio. One that will be large enough for an orchestra. It probably will need to be flexible, with adjustable partitions or maybe a few separate rooms. I'll post my floor plans when that moves forward. 

Print Shop

   The Gnomes of New Hope: Zach & Zebby's Illustrated Storybook requires publishing. It's a Seven Book Collection. If we sell even 10k of each book, that 70k books. My objective is to maintain on-demand capabilities and to avoid a large inventory of books. If demand calls for higher quantities, management of that demand will be jobbed out to a larger organization. My only criteria is that the content and design remains unaltered, including the hand-stitched cover. 

Machine shop

    I can design and manufacture a stitching machine if necessary, since I am also working on setting up a machine shop for the animatronics. That shop already exists, it was founded by my grandfather, it will only need reduction from a production shop and modification for my purposes as a prototype shop. Plus, I have my own puppet and automotive shop underway and functioning.

That's it for now.  AG

Bryn Athyn Orchestra

Here is the final version of the flyer for 

the Summer Concert

and an order form for purchasing advance tickets by mail

go to the web site shown on the flyer above 

for online purchases

Here is our Playbill for this concert

You are welcome to print this Playbill 

if you'd like to have one before the performance 

or to assure that you get one

AG

The Alpha & Omega Society

At some point in time, I will make The Alpha & Omega Society official as a registered foundation. 

But in the meanwhile, I continue to plan for the establishment of a Retreat Community to be part of the A&O Soc..

There is a blog of the same name that is developing and there is a theatrical project called 

"I Am Alpha & Omega" 

that I am beginning to work on again. What will come of this is unknown.

My game plan has been to acquire between 25 & 100 acres of land and to set up an Artist/Spiritual Retreat. The slogan I have started to attach to the A&O Soc. is " supporting creative influx".

The goal is to create a living/working environment that combines some residential structures (to maintain the operation) and mostly temporary housing in the form of cabins, campsites, and RV hook-ups, these being connected to an assortment of studio spaces relative to the Arts & Crafts necessary to produce Film & Theatre. I have coined that "The Theatrical Development Centre"

I am currently interested in this facility being in upper Bucks County, because that location is close enough to the current location of IMS that we can use the shop to construct a number of things and it is less than an hour away. Originally, I had thought somewhere in central Pennsylvania might be good and I was looking for land in Sullivan County. That thinking was determined by locating the retreat in a remote location with access off of Route 80, central to major routes and somewhat equidistant to New York, Chicago and Washington. But further evaluation of those locations brought the conclusion that access to supplies and an increase in travel & heating costs (among other considerations) made that concept less practical. After a change in thinking, I began looking at the Poconos, which I still like. We looked at more than one campground already in existence and that remains a possibility. But my current thinking is to locate in Nockimixon Township, preferably within eyeshot of the lake.

I've always, since I was 20, wanted to build and run my own theatre. I've worked managing three separate movie theatres, two of which were multiplexes and and an assortment of live theatre stages during my career as a theatre artist/technician/Stage & House Manager/Technical Director/actor/writer/designer/filmmaker...

So, the idea of building a theatre up around Lake Nockimixon is feeling quite good to me. It's close enough to my shop that I don't need to pull up stakes to make that happen. That is the current thinking. With enough land to create a retreat environment that is attached to a theatre, The Theatrical Development Centre (TDC) can become a larger reality.

Initially, TDC was a concept that hinged on this concept of a Retreat Community, but since I have been setting up shop in Southampton, I have decided to make The Theatrical Development Center a sub-division of Image of the Mind Studios. Eventually, IMS may come under the purview of The Alpha & Omega Society, unless IMS becomes funded and converted to a major corporate studio operation.

As it stands now there is a business structure that involves four separate business operations, which is in the Business Plan that is attached to The Gnomes of New Hope. I'll discuss that on IMS Producing Partners (which for now is a members only site). Anyone who wants to see that plan can discuss it with me. Initiate a dialogue via email.

I will post more often regarding the Retreat Community. I'm beginning to reconstitute my thinking and my notes on this subject.

Years ago, I had a pocket sized notebook that was filled with notes and designs for this community that I wanted to build. Well, let me offer some advice; don't use a pocket notebook for important information. I say this because that notebook, filed with extensive details and designs, disintegrated in the washer machine when I left it in the pocket of my shirt! When that happened I felt like I got slammed in the head with a baseball bat and has taken me over fifteen years to recover from that shock. The designs are starting to come back into my mind and I am beginning to reconstitute them. I guess part of the reason for that is that; there needs to be some degree of reality surrounding a concept before any sense if viability can come about.

With the impending release if The Gnomes of New Hope; Zach and Zebby's Grand Adventure, there seems to be the possibility of sufficient resources to look again at these ideas as if they could in fact become a reality.

For my part, I need to begin to transfer my life's work and resources to someplace where they can be useful and remain intact, because, quite frankly, I could drop dead at any time and these thing need to be taken care of.

I welcome dialogue via email or Facebook.

AG