The Time Has Come

(More blog entries from kellykelly)

The time has come
the time has come
the time has come today
The time has come
the time has come
the time has come today (bells)

Call me sooooo spring 2007 to have LCD soundsystem on the brain but as I strutted through yesterday's 60 degree weather with spring fever on my mind and my ol' schooley ipod pumping out James Murphy beats, I couldn't help but think how apropos those words.

I'm shaking off my winter hibernation to say the time has come to start thinking all things Crown Point. Funny thing about hibernation is its never this dormant period of lethargic rest. Oh no. Hibernation is all about curling under soft covers and internally gestating all that needs to be developed to kick it when the ... time has come. And hell, I needed some REST! Did you see Crown Point 07? Damn, that was a lot. So December and January were all about recouping and getting our strength back. Sure its nice having a bunch of accolades about all we did but when I'm aching for a nap because I spent 4 weeks straight rockin' out, priorities are priorities and napping needed to happen.

Funny thing is, Crown Point is always a little on the mind and what the public does not know til now is that hibernation has yielded some big results:

• New location - killer location - Bleeker & Lafayette. I'm already getting the wide-eyed, holy hot damn looks of "way to go big time" from our supporters about this new great locale.
• Another grant award from LMCC. They came, they saw, they said we want to support you again. And we say thank you very very much.
• Team rebuilding: no doubt we had a great team last year. But as Alli finishes her Masters at Columbia we welcome Alison Ostergard as our new Theater Producer. Chuck helped create one of the most talked about music line ups in NYC last fall and now he needs to pursue some of his own amazing talent as a musician. He'll still be involved working with us - thank god! - but we welcome our long time friend and also ridiculously talented musician Paul Daly as this year's new music producer. (Check out Paul's band Figo playing the Fader SXSW show if you're in Austin and know what's good for you.)

Speaking of what's good for you: Derek and IMPOSE have been wonderful friends and supporters of the fest. And now IMPOSE is working with us in a much bigger way and we couldn't be happier. If you think we kicked it in 07, expect more. With IMPOSE as a major partner, we're going next level.

That's not to say we don't have our challenges and we definitely have room for improvement. A think tank met in December to hash out what worked and frankly what we really sucked at - and that in 2008 we want to get as many kinks out as possible. The irony of "Harder Faster Stronger Better" as a 2008 motto is not lost on me. We'll be opening submissions soon but first we want to make sure we lay down the ground work to get some things right because at the end of the day, we want to make sure we're serving the fest and the artists best.

The theater folks of 2007 have been in touch with me first hand about some challenges we as a young organization have had to juggle and this event we're holding this Saturday is specifically to support them. We thank IMPOSE for putting it together along with the generosity of Bleeker Street Theater, James Bedell lighting designer and once again the mighty Chuck Plummer. Also special thanks to our Councilman's office for standing by us.

So here's the deal: this Saturday at our new location IMPOSE is hosting a show specifically to go toward artists of the festival. The line up consists of Hard Bop, Video Hippos featuring OCDJ and the headliner is John Cougar Fuckpants (who sure look and sound a lot like O'Death... hmmm). It's $8 (or $10 depending upon your ticket price) to get in with and this venue is way more conducive to the thing I want to see you all do: dance and party.

So stay tuned for submission and application info, as well as Artist Development Forums to meet with the new producers and curators. But I hope we see you there this Saturday.

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