Shift of Attention

Well, the music scoring has worked out pretty well. I was dealing with time signatures and dynamics, even though I thought I would leave that until later, but really it's best to do that before printing out a hard copy draft. I can print a draft to PDF because that doesn't burn up paper and ink though.

So now the shift for the next week or two is on puppetry. I picked up a job modifying a dragon puppet that I seem to be in charge of. A few years back we built a 40 foot, seven headed dragon for a pageant at church. It's very cool and it take ten people to operate. On June 19th The New Church celebrates it's founding with a pageant depicting Revelations 20. So we have a seven headed dragon for that. I am modifying two more heads to accommodate having water spew out of the mouths of three of the heads. One was done two years ago and another two are now being done. So I'm busy with that for the time being.

In regard to the Gnomes, I am beginning to produce more books and I anticipate that I will release the first book (of seven), certainly to the industry, but possibly to the public. I will likely use that book to raise the funds to continue with the remaining artwork for the rest of the books.  I did not want to release any of the books until the full collection was completed, but I may have no choice. If luck turns in our direction, then maybe I can acquire the funding for the artwork without having to release any of the series. I certainly think it would be far better to release the full collection at the same time, right up. But we'll see what happens. For now I am looking into putting a printing press into the shop so we can publish on demand and bind the books as we need them. Besides the application to publishing the books, this would help for other materials as well. I have printing capabilities, but we need to bring the cost of printing down to a marketable level. So far that is not the case. Even though I was hot on the trail of publishing the books, when it became clear that I needed to publish the sheet music before we could advance, I shifted over to that. Now I need to look at all that again.

I am also considering developing a marketing strategy for internal activities pertinent to the industry and I believe that implementing that before releasing the product is most likely the best approach, but in addition to that I am building a Raid Array for Final Cut Studio and with that considering working with Poser to create some basic CG animations.  I have been rearranging the shop space with the intention of getting the green screen up and running, so these are all considerations. Truthfully however, I'd rather cut a good deal that would buy me some time to work on shop issues, while seeing the production activities advance. But that another issue.

That's all for now. AG

OK, here's an old model I made years ago. I was trying to conceptualize the basic idea so I made little Gnomes out of clay and the set for The Squirrel's Nest scene. The model sets are made out of paper mache and what you see here represents the upper branches of Constable Warren's Tree, where the Gnomes hold their town meetings. This was made before the shape of the show was really formed and before we created the personalities of the characters.  You can see from the artwork provided elsewhere herein, that the characters have become very distinct. These Gnomes were rather generic and we even crated a doll of this style of Gnome. But this design was rejected because everything was too androgynous. I thought it would be nice to include a photo and this is the only one I have available at the moment.

Scoring the Music

I just posted on The Gnomes of New Hope blog thinking I was posting on this blog. Check that post out. Basically I have been busy publishing the score for The Gnomes of New Hope.

The Industry Review Package, the Libretto, and the Storybook DVDs are finished being set up and only await the Music Score being completed before they can be distributed. Anyone wanting to review these materials can do so by paying a visit to the studio and having a sit down conversation with me. I will not be indiscriminately distributing these materials, but I am still looking for an agent to represent this show. As I mentioned before, everything needs to take place out of my Studio in Southampton. I am just so busy that I simply cannot get away. The shop facility is large enough to meet the production needs, so unless someone comes up with a better plan, production will take place centered out of IMS Studio 1325. But I am open to any proposals, so long they are legit, square & fair. and put the money on my table, to be rather blunt.

I do try to keep posting on all the sites that relate to these matters, so if you find one is not current, check one of the others. That's all for now. AG

New Postings

I find that I have some folks looking at the Image of the Mind Studios page on Facebook. So I have tried to post there to keep it going. What this means is that each blog/page that I post on ends up having somewhat different conversations on equally different subjects. Of course most all of what I am posting relates to The Gnomes of New Hope or Image of the Mind Studios. So I suggest you look for that if you care to. I will have to rely on the search engines to get you there because I have yet to have set up a link to that page. It may be n the header here, but I'm not sure. I will try to get a link there when I can. It's easy to loose track of all this stuff. (Actually there is a link in the header!)

For the most part I am busy Scoring the music for the Gnomes, which basically involves literally thousands of pages. I am also working to improve the IMS Producing Partners page and post most often on The Gnomes of New Hope page.

That's all for now. AG

Stuff For Sale

Can't seem to get links working, so here is the page for 

Stuff For Sale

this is not for IMS product sales, its for horse trading.

Divergence

Rafe and I are starting to work on this film again, after many years of no activity. Since I am setting up the film/video editing bench again, I thought it might be a good idea to finish the eight films I have laying around which never got finished. Here's a .mov file of the "Divergence" PowerPoint Exhibition... if it posts, it is a rather large file which I am working to compress.

Continuing Production efforts for "Nunc Licet" : link to script

"Nunc Licet" was presented with some success at

The 2011 World Assembly of The New Church

For the advancement of the play, I offer the most recent edition of 

entire script of Nunc Licet for your review.

An assessment of the presentation at the Assembly; 

During the Assembly, we drastically edited the script reducing the size and eliminating much of the subplot elements in order to fit it into the one hour time frame. We felt that since we were addressing a New Church audience, that certain points in the play did not need to be dealt with, since most of our audience already had a foundational knowledge of who Swedenborg was.  In addition we were limited in our rehearsal time and production values,  so a significant number of subplot elements were removed.  I was not too please about needing to do this, but it had to be done.  You will note that the script provided here for your review has all of the staging instructions included. When I removed the assorted descriptions, instructions and the directions to the actors, leaving only the lines to be spoken, the script is reduced to 126 pages (with some of that material removed simply by crossing it out bringing it down close to 100 pages double spaced).  So here is the unedited script for your review.

Please use the search function above to locate other posting on the subject.

I do expect that we will present another reading in the beginning of 2012.

If you are a producing organization and would like to consider mounting this production as a reading or a full production, please do feel free to contact me in that regard. 

I am removing the postings which refer to the production efforts for the readings that have taken place. If you need that information let me know. I expect to move it to the "Nunc Licet" Archive.

 Nunc Licet... a stage play

 Download a READ ONLY copy of the full script

On-line Synopsis of Nunc Licet
Slightly different than that provided in the script

Purchase a Printed Hard Copy or CD of the Script

This is a limited production custom order item.

Most Recent Thoughts on the Blogs

I've decided to print out all the blogs and revert them to draft. Basically that means that I will be eliminating all the older posts and bringing everything up to date. Since most of the materials for "The Gnomes of New Hope: Zach & Zebby's Adventure " have advanced enough to move out of Development, it seems counter productive to keep the Development Notes posted. This Site represents, what I call - "The IMS Virtual Studio" which essentially is focused more on Image of the Mind Studios than on any particular project. So I think it is time to purge it of any dialogue that pertains to projects that either have fallen into stasis (for one reason or another) or have been discontinued.  The primary focus of attention for IMS is building the organization structure, on the premise that an expansion of operations is imminent. Clearly, the advancement of The Gnomes involves an infusion of resources to IMS, so I expect some kind of expansion or advancement of the goals which have been discussed in the past.

The most significant goal, that has been lingering for years, is the establishment of a Retreat Environment. In terms of theatre, that is part of The Theatrical Development Centre. But that retreat environment also has the objective of being a Spiritual Retreat for The Alpha & Omega Society. What progress may occur on that front is not clear, but the business structure for the Gnomes of New Hope has accommodation for supporting that project.

You may like to watch the blog for The Gnomes of New Hope, as I often post thoughts there more frequently.

In regard to the progress on that front - the Industry Review Package is almost ready for distribution to Industry Professionals and Investors. This package will require submission of a signed Restrictive Covenant Agreement, which is self explanatory. I will try to post that agreement here but you can send me an email requesting that agreement if you are part of an organization whose activity is relative to the project as it is presented on the web page. I will also need confirmation of your position and authority in that regard. I may post some of the proposal package on the web as a secured site requiring a password if it seems appropriate for me to do so.

In terms of producing The Gnomes of New Hope, my primary goal is to raise $50K to be used for that additional artwork needed to complete the Illustrated Storybook. We still need 342 illustrations to complete all seven books. Even though the Libretto and the Music composition is finished, nothing can happen until we finish the illustrations for the Storybook. I will not go into the reasons for that, but if you are a publishing, theatre, or film professional who wants to talk about involvement, investment, licensing, or optioning the project, you ar welcome to leave a message on my phone at 215-292-9787. I don't answer unknown numbers, so you will need to leave a message.

Things are ready to pop on this. I am constructing the puppets for the stop action animated film and moving forward with that aspect of the project. IMS has a 10K sq ft shop space with two stage areas which are being prepared to construct a number of scenic components, including the parade float. I am progressing in-house as much as possible, but still have the desire to involve larger Studios with more resources than IMS as partners in this project. But anyway you look at it, progression will need to conform to the objectives and guidelines that have been developed for this project. basically that means that all work to complete the development and designs will take place in IMS as the Developmental Facility. Details and variations on that will taken place in direct communications contingent upon the level of investment and/or whether or not a party Board of Directors. In that regard, the Board of Directors means the Board of "The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture". Sitting on the nine-member board requires a buy-in at the rate of $1 per share. Each Board Position holds 1M shares, which belong to the Joint Venture, with recoupment and stock-split terms. There is also a Front Money Agreement which has a return of 300%,for those Industry Professional who understand the other intricacies of a project of this nature.  That is just a taste of the elements included in the Production Management and Business Plan for this project. I am hesitant to post too much of the details oin the web, but I know there a lot of folks watching the progress of this project. I intend and plan on posting the details on The Producing Partners site, which is a membership only site. That site is not fully developed at this point, but it will be the method by That's we communicate with out Vested Producing Partners. If you are serious about getting involved, do leave me a message at the number given above.

That's all for now. AG

YouTube

I found that the post of "Never Been So Near" below was usurped by YouTube and replaced with a political message about President Obama. I do not approve of this and I avoid any advertising whatsoever on this blog. If you find advertising or political messages here, they were not place there by me. The only purpose of this blog is to promote Image of the Mind Studios and the modus operandi stated above and most significantly at this time "The Gnomes of New Hope" and related business in that regard. AG

S.1a Never Been So Near

Here's a new copy of this animation. I brought it in from the IMS YouTube page, 

as the one previously posted here got erased since it was lower resolution.

Status Report:

    I have a limited amount of time to post and my computer crashed on me when I was writing this update.  Please go over to The Gnomes of New Hope for an Update which was just posted.

  Briefly - I am focusing primarily on the Illustrated e-Storybook, which is taking a lot of time and effort, other than that, the focus of attention is on building the studio facility and animatronic puppetry. We are beginning to return to work on the music and preparing to record another lyrical song "The Stone of Wisdom".  Preproduction packaging materials for the industry are a priority and release of the Illustrated e-Storybook  will likely be delayed until all three volumes are complete. This for marketing purposes. 7/11/16 I've altered the date of this post to bring it to the top. I recently looked at this again and it delighted me. I'd like to get busy working on the real animations. AG

Hello again

Well, I've been off-line for almost two years with only an occasional touching base. The reason does not matter, but the advantage has been that I could focus totally on the work of refining the studio space and producing the prototype materials for "The Gnomes of New Hope". Many things have happened, which I need to report on and I hope to be doing that in the future. Suffice it to say that the books and product lines are on the brink of being released to the public and the Business Plan is almost ready to release to Industry Professionals. Any way you look at it, I intend to remain in the studio working on these materials, designing the shows, building sets and such. I expect partners or participants to come to me. I will make what effort I can but, I have too much to do to go out on the road. If you care to participate in any degree, you will have to make yourself known to me by contacting me via mail or visiting the shop. So basically all activities are focused on Bucks County PA and all construction will be taking place in Southampton. Anyone with another workable plan for distributing this on an international scale will need to make a proposal, as the work required of me at this point has me completely occupied with an unbelievably huge number of production matters. That's all for now. AG

4/3/16 Update

Well, I have not been very attentive to this blog for awhile. My focus of attention has been the work of setting up the studio, sound stage, art and sales departments. Work is continuing, albeit slowly, on the puppetry for The Gnomes of New Hope. Other projects are also underway, but generally the work of refining the studio operations has been a priority. As you may see from looking at The Gnomes of New Hope blog, IMS Publishing and time studies for the assembly line have also been a priority. The Business Plan for the overall operation is pretty far along and some of those aspects have been mentioned here. I am taking the position that all activities will be taking place out of the Southampton facility, so anyone interested in sales or production, as mentioned herein will need to be visiting the studio to advance that cause. I do not expect to be hitting the road with this anytime soon and the focus of making any presentations will be strictly limited to Bucks county Pennsylvania, Bryn Athyn, PA and Mercer County, NJ. Philadelphia and Allentown will follow after a successful presentation as mentioned. In the meanwhile I will be focusing on cinema and television working with puppetry and stop action animation out of our studio. Classic animation may also be taking place. Continued development of numerous product lines is ongoing and those items will be licensed, again out of our Southampton Studio known as Studio 1325. Any interest in those items will need to be initiated by the interested party at our location. I will not be soliciting these materials any where other than here on the internet because my time and energy is in such complete demand for the items that are underway, that I simply cannot leave the studio for anything other than activities which are taking place here and in the general vicinity. This may change with sufficient funding to allow more freedom in that regard, which of course, I am opened to. I am sorry that I cannot post more often, or provide more detailed reports but, I am quite busy with the matters at hand, which demand my attention, including rebuilding equipment and setting up both a metal and wood-working fabricating operation. I invite your inquiry and recommend hard copy mailed to Image of the Mind Studios 1325 Industrial Boulevard, Southampton Pa 18966. At this time I am avoiding email for various reasons. If you have my phone number, give me a call. AG

Business Plan

The layout for the Business plan includes "The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture" formed on the basis of a Governing Board of Executive Producers. The project has been valued at fourteen million shares, half of which is to be assigned to the Joint Venture for funding the operation. Each of the seven board members must be vested. The second organization is IMS Management Incorporated, which will be funded by The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture. Within IMS Mgmt Inc will be "The Gnomes of New Hope Productions" which will be entirely managed by IMS Mgmt Inc. All rights to the project will be resident with The Elder Gnomes Joint Venture, with the management being entirely resident with IMS Mgmt Inc. All rights to every market, including all ancillary markets will be present in "The Gnomes of New Hope Productions" but term licensing will exist. There will be stock issues and possible Limited Partnership Agreements. Current funding is implemented using Front Money and this will continue until the Joint venture is fully vested with all board members. There will be an expected stock split because the buy-in is for the rights only and not operating funds. If you are a potential participant, make inquiry via a hard copy letter sent to the studio address- Image of the Mind Studios, 1325 Industrial Boulevard, Southampton, Pennsylvania 18966 materials will be made available. AG

Studio operations

I've been busy for the last few months, refining the studio environment and constructing a new business plan, as it pertains to the operations of The Gnomes of New Hope. After having finished the bulk of the creative materials for The Gnomes of New Hope, I am refining the studio environment, so that we can enter more actively into the production process. Part of that is upgrading the building services to restore the building after it served as a rental facility. The previous tenants imposed a great deal of damage to the building, which I need to straighten out. That means rewiring the electrics & lighting, as well as, rebuilding the plumbing systems, at the very least. There are other damages which need to be corrected as well. So this is the focus of attention. In addition to that I am putting a new roof on the 2oK sq ft building. Part of that is in preparation of future solar power installations. So in addition to that work, there is also the work of setting up manufacturing capabilities for the numerous product lines. Since I have a background in manufacturing, this is easy for me, with the exception of having sufficient resources to move forward rapidly with this. Today I came up with a variation of the previous plan for a green screen, which should increase the capabilities in that regard. My plans for wood and metal working shops has changed a bit, so I'm doing some rethinking on the layout. But anyway you look at it, there is a lot to do and focusing on developing the IMS facility is the priority. As I mention in the business plan, IMS is not intending on being a service agency and all the facilities are being structured to service The Gnomes of New Hope and other properties owned by IMS. Check out the Gnomes of New Hope blog for some other thoughts on these subjects. Other areas of attention are equipment repairs and preparations to consolidate supplies and equipment that are currently stored in remote locations. And of course, there are the preparations for releasing "The Gnomes of New Hope: Zach & Zebby's Grand Adventure" to the public. Our work on illustrations needs to continue and I an rearranging the art department with the intention of beginning the work required for animations. The molds for Constable Warren are completed and I am about to construct a cradle nest that will allow reproduction of that sculpture on a ongoing basis. We are needing to sculpt the characters in a smaller edition and anticipate producing a collection of those smaller Gnomes. That leads me to mention that we have located a supplier for cloth goods and are preparing to produce a run of dolls with a special twist. I am still intending to move forward with the food products and anticipate making some molds for a few of those items. That includes a mug to go with the Gnome Gnog. So clearly many things are moving forward, mostly those items which pertain to refining the facility and our production capabilities. There is plenty to talk about, but that will have to wait. That's all for now. AG

IMS Publishing

My focus of attention is on setting up IMS Publishing and I am concentrating on the Industry Package of The Gnomes of New Hope this involves setting up a production line for manufacturing the retail products. So that being said, I do not have much time to post here. I am still working on building puppets and setting up the stage facility. Take a look at the Gnome blog. If you would like to discuss this project, I advise you to visit the studio, as I cannot easily pull myself away from the work I have in front of me. I prefer to do business face to face so that's were things stand for the time being. Sorry for being so brief. That's all for now. AG

Audio book update and other subjects

Well, I've been busy preparing the industry package for The Gnomes of New Hope. It all looks great! But what that means is that I have VERY little time to be online. So on occasion I can check in here and make some kind of update. Just so you know that things are progressing, even if you don't see an update here.

The primary activities that are happening are refinement of the materials and projects mentioned here and setting up a production line for making those materials. My focus of attention remains with raising the necessary funds to complete this work, through licensing, options and production partnerships and to acquire the support needed for the facilities.

Use; image.of.the.mind.studios@g mail,  if you can't send a letter or visit the studio. If you know where the studio is, you are welcome to pay a visit to see what we are working on. Eventually I may post a video tour, but I will be providing that to partners on a request basis.

 I'm not able to get away, because I have so much work to do. So if you want to be involved, discussions will need to take place from my location, unless your funding makes it possible for me to come to your location for however long is required.  Sorry about that but I'm swamped. If there is the possibility of moving toward the Joint Venture Agreement, then we will be setting that up through our agents and legal team. In that instance a hard copy letter is best.

I am working toward setting up video conferencing/Skype but that is not up and running yet. Anything along these lines is contingent upon sufficient funds being committed. In that regard, Front Money is the best approach at this point, but with that investment the investor will get the right of first refusal to negotiate terms, with a limited time frame, depending upon the amount of Front Money provided. Options and licensing are also a possibility if Front Money is not desirable, but a 300% return is noting to shake a fist at. But realize that my Front Money is capped at 250k, for the time being.

I will make attempts to keep these posts coming, but other activities are interfering with the ability to do that. Significant funding will rectify those issues. I am looking to license assorted markets, most significantly the Hard Copy Illustrated Storybook, but also the figurines, games and possibly puzzles & other assorted ephemera. Contact me in that regard.

We do intend on producing a rental puppet show, so if you are into that let me know, because I certainly would be looking for a partner in that market. Of course, that market is also tied to television and the concert presentation, but also there may be a feature film option for that arena, as long as it does not encroach on the CG Animation Project. CG Animation is open at this point but once I set up an animation studio I will not be wanting to license that market, unless the numbers are irresistible.

Also I am looking to market Gnome Gnog and am looking to enter into discussions with a food supplier and/or a brewery. Candy items are available for further development, but all of this needs to take place on a national scale.

All these markets are still unencumbered, because I am busy with other pre-production activities, but once I finish that this may not be the case.

We are needing to fund the animation activities and the other  illustration work and need to gather at least 50k for that, so the licensing will need to cover that. Further, I need to gather significant funds to support the studio operations and facilities. Depending on the agreement, that might involve some connection to the future growth of IMS, since I expect that my role in that will probably come to an end within 15 years, because I will be getting on in age. So a corporate restructuring is in the future there.

Also there have been discussions about selling all rights to the Gnomes across the board, so that is on the table, if anyone else is interested in that subjet.

That's all for now. AG

Communications

As I have said on the Gnomes of New Hope blog,
   I expect to be discontinuing the services of Verizon due to a billing dispute.

Henceforth it is advisable to use these contact points;
     email: image.of.the.mind.studios@gmail.com, imagemindag@aol.com

       mail:  Image of the Mind Studios
                 1325 Industrial Boulevard, Southampton, Pennsylvania 18966

I'm sorry for the inconvenience. AG

Writing, Illustrations, Design & Animation

I surprised myself by posting this here instead of on The Gnomes of New Hope blog.

Update: the e-Storybook is settling in at 852 pages. The remaining artwork will continue when I have $50K in escrow for the artist's work. So if you're an investor, that's what I'm looking for.

Well, even though I have moved onto other affairs,  I continue to put a few hours a day into the layout work in the e-Storybook. I have moved past S.10, which has sub-scenes up to S.10j (covering essential back-story elements). I have moved up to the middle of S.12 and the page numbers are approaching 600. From this point forward I have at least 50% of the illustrations needed, but I am inserting illustration panels on each page. Some of the inserts can be drawn from existing artwork, but I am not addressing that unless it is very clear to me that I have what I need, or can assemble a panel without dwelling on it for too long.

Oh, and by the way, I am assembling my packaging materials so that they will all be contained on a flash drive and viewed on an e-pad. It all looks so great I can't believe it! I installed the Libretto onto my micro-SD to examine how that looks and I am stunned. Most certainly this is the right way to go. The Libretto is finished and has been for a few years, but since I needed to get enough of the e-book done I switched off onto that. Well, now that the e-Storybook is nearing completion of the layout (less the required illustrations), I think it is time to let Industry professional have a look at the Libretto. I've discussed this in other postings below, but I wanted to comment here about how well this e-pad thing works, for the Libretto too. I hadn't though about that until this week when I transferred it over.

The Libretto contains the text to the play (ie: dialogue) and the lyrics to the songs (which are the essence of how the story is told) but it also contains all the technical notes, designs, and stage plots for mounting the piece as a stage musical. I have included discussions about design elements which I did not implement so that the designers and choreographers have some guidance in that regard. It has always been my intention to Direct this piece, so there is no point in any Directors approaching me in this regard. I will be looking for a Maestro/Music Director, as Shawn does not want to do that. I spent many years as a Technical Director doing set & lighting design as well as set construction, so in the absence of activity in that direction, with employed individuals, I will also proceed to craft those elements. However, I do not really want to get bogged down by that. In terms of those designs, they need to take their cues  from the illustrations, but being very experienced in those areas, I expect to work closely with the other designers to craft the look of things.

Another note about the Libretto. Once the e-Storybook is locked in (as to the complete layout) and possibly offered for distribution to the public (if I need to fund things that way) then I will be moving to assemble the Technical Specification Manual. I already have this started and much of the essential materials are in the Libretto, but a concentration on this manual will yield more detailed specifications which will go out with the show when it becomes a rental. This will have all the necessary designs, stage plots (for assorted arenas, such as set movements and blocking sheets), batten & fly schedules for the drops, lighting instrument schedules & cue sheets (including MIDI files and programming for MIDI implementation of the puppetry aspects which will be integrated into the sets), and other items not on the top of my head right now. This manual will also contain operating notes for both the first and second class production as well as the layout for little theatre and concert productions. I will probably start with a version for the little theatre, since that will be the simplest production, even though it is designed for a first class house. So that will require adaptation. That means I will need to alter the designs to use only flats and drops, something which needs to happen if this goes up in the Bucks County Playhouse anyway. But then I will also be redressing the production as a puppet show for mounting at Phillips Mill and filming for television. Someone said to me, a few days back, that maybe I should use kids in the show. This was a result of my comment about the size of Gnomes. I do think that would be great, since I used to work with children's theatre and this started out that way, but I would have to take another look at how much stamina a kid has, to be able to deliver the material that exists in the three hour version of the show. I rather moved away from children's theatre when it grew into a full blast musical. I do have numerous versions, so I expect that maybe the one hour version should be adapted for kids. That would probably work. I'll consider that after I finish with the e-Storybook.

When we do move back into illustrating, the material will be oriented toward using it for animation. I do expect that once we start on that, I will be trying to produce a legitimate animation of the song "Completely". Even then, the material will be hand drawn and not computer generated. Although I have programs to use for CG, I still have to learn how to use them and simply do not have the time (or much of a desire) to do that.

I had the interesting imagination of being in a position to just stay in my studio and work at this without the constant grief of worrying about my overhead. That would be heaven! I try to move forward with that attitude. It may be fortunate that I have so much to do everywhere I turn, that if I run out of resources to advance in the direction I'd like to focus on, there's always something else to do. In some ways, that is unfortunate, because doing that interferes with the momentum of a particular arena. Someday I won't have to worry about that... yeh, when I'm dead!

That's all for now on that subject.  AG

Design Work

Choir Seats - One of the projects I have been working on is the modification of stackable seating  for improving Choir seating which we are using. I am adapting the seats with a flip up base, so the extremely confined used by the choir will no longer be taken up by an unused 1 foot of space, giving the choir members more room to stand. This is a very good thing. For those of you who sing in choir, you know what I mean.  I am also creating sheet music and liturgy stowage as part of that set-up. I'm really very happy with the way my conceptual design turned out in the prototype. As it appears now the modification will run $60 per chair. I'll post photos here when it is finished and if things go well, I will get a contract to modify a number of chairs. This type of stacking chair is very common, so once I finalize the design and the methodology, making this modification to your chairs is a service I can offer. You need to let me know if this is something you might want.

Choir Risers - I am also engaged in designing choir risers which will incorporate seating and just the right amount of space for arranging the sections. This design will be able to be moved and assembled by one person and the sections will be small enough to make them extremely versatile in regard to assorted arrangements. I will be using the Bryn Athyn Cathedral as the space to prototype these designs, since this is something we need there. The risers will be available for purchase or rental. If you have a need for such an item let me know.

Update: As it stands now the risers currently being designed may be location specific, due to spacial constraints and storage options. However, the designs will be applicable in other scenarios, should anyone desire to have such risers built, just let me know. I do expect at some point to have a generic set available for rental, but I have no idea when that might be.

Other design work is always under way but these are the two main projects right now.

I am working on the technical drawings and I may post photographs of the work in progress or the finished materials as this proceeds.

Studio Facilities

As spring approaches, I expect that I will be working outside more. I am in charge of building maintenance for the building that we own, so I divide my time between caring for the building and building my studio, which uses half of the building. The front half of the building is used for a 10K sq ft CNC Machine shop, while I am working toward setting up a wood-working shop in 5k of my space and a sound stage in the other 5k of space.  That is only a sketch of what is really part of the goals, because my facilities and equipment span quite a bit farther than that.

But in terms of the most recent activities which pertain to IMS Equipment and Facilities, a big part of my focus is on rebuilding some of my machinery. Right now that means engines for a few vehicles. I have used a 1961 Corvair Rampside for many years as my work truck, but this truck has been in mothballs for eight years. I am feeling the urge to get this going again, as I had put the kabosh on grease monkey work, in deference to finishing up The Gnomes project. Well, stopping everything for the Gnomes has started to catch up to me. I have a great deal of other work that NEEDS to be done and so I am beginning to address that work.

One thing in particular, that this means is that I am now into engine building. For those of you who are Corvair enthusiasts, that means I will take on engine jobs. I used to have a business called Just Vairs where I was building engines, including race engines, but I dropped that to work on music and writing for the Gnomes, but also for my other theatre work.  Well right now theatre is not paying me what I need, so I'm shifting for awhile back to the mechanical work. I only plan on doing that long enough to get a few of my machines back together (which includes a 1931 Model A Roadster) so if anybody wants me to do any of that for them speak up now, because once I'm done with this splurge of mechanical work, I'll probably quit doing it.

Here's a shot of my truck before if got ratty;

Some day it will be Seafoam Green with dark stripes

 (basically the opposite to the way it is painted here)

The other aspect of what I expect to be doing is to establish the recycling yard again. This will involve membership and access to materials for theatre production work. I am currently rebuilding the stage which was used at The Meadow Amphitheatre and I am building a rental Choir Stage and a few other items. If you are interested in these projects, let me know.

That's all for now. AG

IMS Producing Parners

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