The first Tribune column is up today: Defeating the New Albany Syndrome.
In my mind, the columns bear the title of "Beer Money" even if they're not identified as such in the newspaper itself. This will be the title of the collection of essays that will be published when there's time. Like 2015.
There's little time because one of the best ways to defeat the New Albany Syndrome is to do something, and plenty is being done. Accordingly, there's another busy day ahead as we seem to be gaining speed toward the Bank Street Brewhouse's taproom opening.
Here's the weekly report.
As noted previously, it would appear that the bank's on board, and the financing package will be complete very soon following a few formalities.
Construction has resumed at the building, and because of it, we won't be able to stage the Benjamin Franklin birthday party and Old Lightning Rod rollout originally planned for January 17 inside the new site. Instead, we'll tap the beer like always at the original location in the 6th council district. Many thanks to Steve Resch for his patience as we have designed and configured the interior. The man is a saint.
Currently our team, informally called the Gang of Seven, is in place and immersed with all the pesky details required to open the doors. When all the biographical information for the team members is in place, I promise to share it with readers.
The ATC hearing comes on February 3, and we should be clear of the alcohol licensing hurdle after it concludes. The plan is to open at some point just after that, with the probability that it will be "soft" for a while, perhaps only lunch and Progressive Pint hours in the evening. We're still groping through it. The brewing system can be ordered when cash is in hand, and will take at least three months to fabricate, deliver and install, so until then, we'll be brewing on Plaza Drive and giving the pickup truck a workout.
There'll continue to be small-scale guerrilla marketing in Louisville and limited amounts of NABC beer to vend until the new system is up and running. We're buying more kegs, ramping up production as much as possible, and hoping for the best.
I recall the words of John Lennon: "People think I'm crazy/doing what I'm doing," and to be honest, there are times when I question the origin of the compulsion. But it's clear to me that the single best thing I (and NABC) can do for downtown -- for our community -- is make the new business a success, and help make the pie bigger. We're doing the right thing, and I believe we're doing it the right way.
Time to get to work.
Your column is most excellent.
ReplyDeleteYou just keep on with the "doing" and yell when you need help.
ReplyDeleteAfter Monday's council meeting it's obvious to me at least that other than throwing platitudes at plauges, the "do nothing" course is locked into our local leaders computer guidance system, the autopilot switch has been thrown, and Elvis has left the building!
Crimony. Dan Coffey gets elected council president, Steve LaDuke gets booted, and now I have to agree with IAH.
ReplyDeleteThe brewhouse can't open a moment too soon.
Oddly enough, the whole shebang led me to my Free Will Astrology horoscope which in turn pointed to Vaclav Havel, a bookend apropos of El Capitán's column.
“Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out” - V.H.
I'm not sure in New Albany's political case, that something accidentally turning out well may be the only "hope" that we have. I doubt that it will ever make sense.
ReplyDeleteAnd Bluegill, I think that I need to introduce you to Aretha. Have a little RESPECT for your elders!
I liked your article Roger. For me it speaks to my experience of growing up here. You know, that being just a little too smart feeling, asking too many questions, searching a little too passionately for the truth, thriving on change... until you’re proverbially shown the door. Then spending my adult life in Boston, where everything is upside down, and now being a truth seeker, a searcher for knowledge is the sine qua non of life itself. Alice-in-Wonderful-Land and then I come here and it’s Alice-in-Cl&#terF@&k-Land. NA syndrome is a collective psychic trauma from 100 years of social-economic-political wars the good citizens have waged upon each other here. Not two weeks ago I was in Boston trying to describe to my German doctor what it was like growing up here. After telling him about the vicious social wars, the battle between the modern world and the past, the physical carnage and destruction,.. he said, “Ja - this is just like Germany when I am growing up.” So give that thought a twirl. We’re the same age and when I pondered his statement I started to see the parallels. This may mean we’ll need a Berlin style reunification and rebuilding scheme. We need a Wall somewhere to tear down...
ReplyDeleteOnce again Gina I'll volunteer my latent talents.
ReplyDeleteYou find the wall and I'll operate the bull dozer for free. Well maybe a progressive pint or two!
Pretty bold going with Socrates your first time out. Many people around here probably only know him from "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and then the most significant fact is He comes from a time when most of the world looked like the album cover for Led Zeppelin's "houses of the holy".
ReplyDeleteI rode my bike to work from May through the first of November and you wouldn't believe the stupid comments I got. When I told most people I rode my bike they would usually ask if it was a Harley. "No, its a Schwinn"
It was just five miles from New Albany to Jeff but you would think I was riding all the way to the moon.