We don't just pop collars...

Less than 10 days to the soft opening of a/perture cinema. You may have noticed my absence which this time was due neither to epidemics nor laziness, my two most trusty excuses. Instead, we've been doing everything we can to get ready for January 8th. Decorations, concession area design, bane of my existence Dymo Label Printer, and silly little things like occupancy and ABC permits. Some might say those last things are imperative to officially being in business, but as a movie theater, we made that leap the other day when we did the following:

That's right, the popcorn popper is operational. Our secret recipe of pre-mixed idiot proof movie theater popcorn will knock you off your feet with yummy goodness. Some of the staff is already enjoying it.

Scott "4-D Viewmaster" DuVall, Lawren "Popcorn Czar" Desai, and Jigar "I already eat too much popcorn and candy without partly owning a theater" Desai enjoy the first batch.

So I just indirectly introduced you to one of our master projectionists Scott. Aside from still having an ABBA song stuck in his head from his first official screening at a/perture, he along with the other projectionists have managed to avoid concussions in the low clearance projection booth while getting the place ready for some films. But who was taking pictures while you guys were chowing down? Photo credits go to our jack-of all trades assistant manager Genevieve Moore.

Not only can she make popcorn look artsy, she makes some mean cookies, likes schedules and lists just as much as Lawren, and has helped the curator keep her sanity for the last month by doing everything. I'm hoping you'll get to know Scott and Genevieve and the rest of our amazing staff by coming to visit a/perture, and maybe even through some guest blog spots and interviews.

Not only are these bags earth-friendly, but they're specially designed to keep the "golden" popcorn topping in the bag and out of your lap. Who says we don't love you?

I will survive...

Jigar, 1. H1N1, 0.5. I'm just glad I was able to get it out of the way, before we opened and I was working concessions, passing it along to all my peeps. It's not that I wouldn't try and stay home to keep the virus from spreading, it's that if I was well enough to shovel snow, drive in the worst blizzard since '93, keep working on that bane of my existence point-of-sale system, learn to thread a projector, and operate power tools (which if you know me, is probably scarier than any flu and ice on the road combined), odds are I would be forced to work if we were open. Run on sentence much? Speaking of being open, we're getting a lot of questions about that. What's the date? How do I score free tickets? Seriously, when are you opening? Are you really opening a movie theater? WHY DO YOU LIE???

Kanye'd again! I know I'm like 6 months late on this joke, but I was watching the Karate Kid III like it was the first one as noted the other day, so it seems somehow appropriate. Come back in April when I make a joke about how I slept with Tiger Woods, too!

While we're waiting on some final things to fall into place construction wise before we let you in on any new scoop, at least we finally have our new website up. We're really excited about how it turned out and how sweet it looks, so if you're like me and just have this blog as your favorite, check out the main site and let us know what you think of it. Feel free to let us know if we're missing something, too. Hopefully with the next update I'll have some more pictures of the projection booth in its completed state.

Long live public radio

Sorry to disappoint all of you Jigar fans out there, but the curator has taken over the blog once again. Jigs is a little under the weather, not only fighting the flu but also the weird dreams that are a side-effect of the miracle drug Tamiflu. We have had a sick household for the past few days, but we have a theater to open in only a few short weeks, so we (or I in this case) must press on. To that end, the blog will be short on written words. Instead, you will be treated to my first radio interview, courtesy of David Ford at 88.5 WFDD. Other than the fact that I say "actually" a lot, I think I did an okay job. Here is the link: 88.5 WFDD Interview

I have also added some recent (and random) photos, so you can see some of what else has been going on in the world of a/perture.

at December's Gallery Hop with the Christmas Tree Lady

our projectionists!!!

the first screen test

Okay, I really have to get back to taking care of Jigar....he is watching Karate Kid III now.

There's a reason E.T. didn't want to leave Earth

So remember how when you were 15, you couldn't wait to get your driver's license so you could get out of the house whenever you wanted? Then, when you did get the license, it was turning 18 so you could assert your independence, and get out on your own? Then, it was turning 21, so you could do whatever kids do at that age. Then, turning 25 so your car insurance rates would go down? That constant feeling of let's just get here and then everything will be awesome pretty much sums up how things are at the theater. Screens? Seats? Projection Equipment? Point-of sale systems? All the million little things that you keep saying you'll do later, then one day you're less than a month from opening up???? If the housing market wasn't so bad, I'd just sell the house and go ahead and move into a/perture's office space, since Lawren and I have been living there, along with other family members, who have been amazingly accomodating through all of this mess. However, all my worries melted away when the magical delivery truck caring all of this showed up the other day.


Sweet, sweet candy. I know we looked for suggestions on crazy stuff to serve up, and we've filed them away, but starting out the fare is pretty classic, with maybe a trick or two up our sleeves. I'm just happy to see Reese's Pieces, possibly the most underrated candy ever made. There, I said it, and E.T. would agree. These various nectars of the gods have got to have a home, right?

The soda fountains are coming in this week (Coca-Cola products, in case you were wondering) and we might even pull that popcorn popper out of storage. And I did finally figure out how to use Lightspeed, no thanks to any of you. I'll remember that when we're open. Double ticket prices for all blog readers! That's the kind of power I have since I did setup the POS (point-of-sale, not the other commonly used acronym). Not the kind of deals you were looking for, huh? Ok, I'll change it back to regular price for you guys. Only because I love you all.

So tell me whacha want, what you really really want...

December has snuck up pretty quickly on us. With the cold weather has come a general propensity to hide under the covers rather than write blogs. But with crunch time approaching this is my preferred method of procrastination, winning out over working on our point-of-sale system. Anyone know how to setup Xsilva's Lightspeed to run a movie theater? Bueller? Bueller? I'll keep struggling along...speaking of struggling, we had projection equipment delivered this past Thursday. Our last crew of helpers sparked cries of sexism and lack of nepotism, so Lawren recruited our first official employee at a/perture, her mom and brother Jay "Don't call me Dan Dickau" Callahan, who in turn recruited some of the Salem Spirits soccer players to unload three pallets of an a/v geek's dream (that geek is me). Girl power is still alive.

Thanks ladies and gentleman. If you ever need to rent a pallet jack, apparently there's a place out on Union Cross road. Lawren's a bigger tool (user) than I am. Hehe. See what I did there? I've just been grounded for a week.

I teased with some pictures of the seats the other day, and now our PR team has delivered with a brand new video for you to enjoy. If I say "Uh" any more my 10th grade English teacher is going to have a coronary. Why do people keep saying I have a face and voice for blogging?

Trailers aren't just for haulin' dirt

So now that Lawren has become a celebrity, the approval process for my blogs has become more cumbersome, so if you don't have updates as frequently as you like, don't blame me. Black Friday not only saw some wicked deals at your local Wal-Mart, but two articles about Lawren (with very slight mentions of me, and hardly any of my wonderful mother, brother, and sister-in-laws, or any other family for that matter - just go ahead and call all of us the Chad Lowe to Lawren's Hillary Swank). The Winston-Salem Journal wrote a great piece as did the Triad Business Journal (subscription only, but here's a slight preview). I imagine there are a few new readers here because of those articles, so welcome, and no I cannot get you free tickets.

So front of the house is pretty close to wrapped up, and we're expecting to get most of the fun projector equipment that Lawren won't let me touch because I'll probably end up breaking it this week. That can only mean one thing. We should be opening soon. While we don't have a firm date, the rumors of a January opening are pretty on target. Here are two films of the films we'll be screening for our opening month. Drumroll please....

A Town Called Panic



New York, I Love You



Who says I'm not in the loop? If you want to find out more inside info, like why there are urinals in our front window, stop by our table at the First Friday Gallery Hop on Trade Street (December 4th).