(UPDATE, March 1: Sorry, but there won't be a new entry from me today; I'm fucking exhausted right now, to tell you the truth, after spending the last two nights dogsitting for a friend, with a dog that howls all night long, each and every night, because it misses its owner so much. I've gotten something like a total of two hours' sleep in the last two days; and of course I wouldn't be doing anybody any good to try to write an entry in such a state. Anyway, keep an eye out for new stuff tomorrow!)

Oh, well, hi there, everyone, and I hope you're enjoying the day no matter where you are. So, good news - I have yet more official announcements to share about the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography (or CCLaP), this new arts center of mine that's set to open this September. Regular readers will of course know that yesterday I was able to announce the name of the place in public for the first time to begin with; and that's because the URL for the center is now purchased, and I don't have to worry anymore about some asswipe stealing it from me if I mention it in public now.

And now for the new announcement - that our first show of the "CCLaP Sessions" series is now official! It's been confirmed both by the guest and by the venue now, so I'm happy to announce that our first guest will be none other than Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn, taking place on Friday, September 15th, from 8 to 10 pm, at Dollop Coffeehouse here in the Uptown/Buena Park neighborhood. Well, yeehaw for that, man, I'm telling you. And this of course means a couple of things for CCLaP at once; we not only have our first show to officially promote now, that is, but also a stronger weapon in which to woo other potential guests for the series. (That is, "Yeah, and Eric Zorn has even agreed to be a guest, and don't you want to be a part of a series that Eric Zorn has said yes to as well?")

Oh, and well, there's this really great new announcement as well - that Jimi Sweet, the guy who's been graciously hosting my personal site for free for the last six years, got wind of the CCLaP URL purchase as well, and happily volunteered to host the CCLaP website for free too. Well, double yeehaw! And Jimi already has a commercial license for Movable Type for his servers, which means that he'll be able to install it at the CCLaP website as well: which, yeah, means that we'll easily be up and running by my deadline of Memorial Day; already offering what will hopefully be a regular supply of DRM-free, Creative-Commons-released creative work at no cost (not only text but audio and video); already getting the CCLaP FAQ (frequently asked questions) filled out in this nicely detailed way, concerning such things as what rights CCLaP Fellows have, how to submit a manuscript, etc; already be posting news about the center, as well as news about the arts in general; already building a fan base, already building an audience.

But I guess what's surprised me the most about all of this stuff going on recently is just how quickly it's all been happening; because, seriously, I didn't even come up with this new plan for the center in the first place until the beginning of February, less a month ago now. But yet look at all the things that have happened in that month: my first employee hired; my first venue confirmed; my first guest announced; the center's website and URL already set up; in negotiations now with my second venue, as well as three or four other potential guests; and ready to start accepting Membership and Fellowship applications on top of everything else. And now compare that to the "full" plan for CCLaP that I worked on for over a year and a half before this "lite" plan; how I worked just as hard on that plan as I have on this new one, just as doggedly, yet after 18 months had barely one physical result I could point to and say, "Okay, things are moving forward."

Which, sure, may convince some of you to argue that CCLaP's lite plan was the one I should've been pursuing all along, and that my two years pursuing the full plan were ultimately a waste of time; but oh, you know, I'm just not so sure about a statement like that. I mean, just take this tidbit for example: that the majority of people who have been exposed to this plan for the first time this month have seemed to have been really just overwhelmed by its complexity, and by my ability to actually pull it off; while for me the plan seems ludicrously simple, because the full plan was just even more complicated than it, which makes me always want to compulsively laugh and respond to people, "Yeah, well, you shoulda seen what I wanted to do!" I'm convinced that part of why the lite version of CCLaP is coalescing so quickly and powerfully right now is because I see none of these new challenges as big things at all, which allows me to step into the situations with full confidence, which rubs off on these new people and gets them as excited as me about it all, leading to all these quick successes. And that wouldn't have happened if I had started with the lite version to begin with, because suddenly those challenges would be the biggest ones I had faced, and I might not have as much self-confidence about pulling them off. Believe me, it's no big deal to shoot off an email to Eric Zorn, when for the last year you've been trying to figure out how to book JJ Abrams or David Mamet. (No offense, Eric!)

And another thing, for example, that I think has people responding so well to the center right now, and that also needed a year and a half of contemplation from me, has to do with the mission of CCLaP; of what exactly we're planning on doing, how we're doing it, and why we're doing it. Because let's face it, when you're an arts center (and especially one like CCLaP, that is planning on offering a whole bunch of different products and services), the temptation is great to just start doing everything that flits across your consciousness, that seems like something you could actually do. I mean, certainly, since starting to share the plan for CCLaP with others, I too have received just an astonishing number of suggestions of what the center could and should be doing; everything from tour sponsorships to corporate tie-ins, a dating service (if you can believe that), a larger merchandise section than we currently have, etc. And certainly, even the products and services we have chosen to pursue can sometimes get quite confusing: three different series of live events, in three different venues, plus electronic book publishing, paper book publishing, clothing, memberships, live spoken-word files, studio spoken-word files, music recordings, interviews, member-generated content like essays and reviews. It just seemingly goes on and on and on sometimes; and I think it can be difficult at times, frankly, for others to easily see how they all fit together under a grand master plan.

And that's where a strong mission statement can really come in handy, and is why so many smart business experts practically beg you not to overlook this seemingly simple step. And so CCLaP's mission, for example, is at once extremely simple, and yet in a certain way infinitely complex: to connect underground artists of outstanding quality with the audience members looking for such artists. Our mission, when spelled out in the actual statement, is to provide as many additional resources, opportunities, audience members and revenue to underground artists as we can; and to do so by maintaining an unusually intimate relationship with our audience, letting them have a heavy hand in what services and artists we choose to sponsor in the first place. And that's a great mission statement, because it accomplishes two things at once: it's general enough that it can adapt and grow with the times, and have new ideas constantly introduced to it; but it's specific enough that everyone has a general agreed-upon understanding of what the mission is, and a way to test if new ideas fit that mission or not.

Anytime a new product or service is suggested to me, then, I can simply ask myself, "Does this fundamentally fulfill the mission of connecting underground artists with the audience seeking underground artists?" Live events? Most certainly. Books? For sure. Our Membership/Fellowship program, entwined in the way I envision it? Oh, mai oui. Member-generated content? Sure, if you understand the potentials for what they are: a chance for even audience members to be artists themselves one day a week; and for them to understand just how fucking hard it is to be an artist seven days a week, which makes them appreciate those artists even more. But, say, a dating service? Well, it's certainly something we could pull off easily; all our members will have to be registered with the site anyway to participate, and they'll all have profiles as well. And it's certainly something that would be fun, and that could get us a lot of attention/press for its gimmicky aspect, and that wouldn't cost us any extra money to implement. But does it fulfill our mission? No, it clearly doesn't, which is why it's not something CCLaP will do. And I can explain it this way to people who suggest such ideas, which makes them understand instead of be offended; and it also gets their mind ticking in this direction as well, so that hopefully down the road they'll have yet more suggestions, this time right in keeping with our mission. And plus, of course, it's easier for me to explain quickly to someone new how all these complicated products and services we do offer all tie into each other; after all, they're all ultimately ways of connecting underground artists of outstanding quality to the audience looking for these artists.

But here's my main point: that the reason it's a great mission statement is that it took me nearly an entire fucking year to write it. I wouldn't have had this clarity at the beginning of it all, and I didn't have this clarity at the beginning of it all, and undoubtedly CCLaP would be much more of a disaster right now if I had started with the lite plan from day 1. Say what you will about the "self-taught MBA" I've been giving myself over the last two years or so; but to me it's been an extremely necessary part of this entire process, to simply get myself educated about the basic issues of it all, and to let my mind get at least as complex as the average 24-year-old freshly-graduated MBA holder. Yes, I agree with you, switching over to the lite plan was the final kicker that suddenly got everything moving; but I believe that I needed that year and a half with the full plan as well, that it wasn't a waste of time at all. I don't think people would be getting nearly as excited about the lite plan right now otherwise, because I wouldn't have my shit together nearly as much otherwise.

So speaking of people getting excited and starting to offer their services, I thought I'd at least put up a simple list of all the things CCLaP still needs to put together, before we'll be ready to open in September. If you possess one of the following specific skills or goods, won't you please maybe consider donating it to a good cause?

1) First, I need some advice on the tech equipment we're going to own. Basically, with us sponsoring live events at different venues around the city, we're going to need a portable system, one that can be easily erected, dismantled, and taken on the go. None of the venues are that big, so we only need one speaker of medium size; and to save on money, I want the speaker to have its own amp, as well as mixing controls built-in for four inputs (and of course an output jack, for a recorder). And then we need four mics, of course: three only of decent quality, for additional voices/instruments at live events; then one of high quality, as not only our main mic at live events, but for studio-style recording sessions. And this is maybe where you audiophiles could really come in handy, by recommending one of those weirdo obscure mics that only sound engineers know about, that's really high in quality but quite cheap in price. Or hell, if you've got a couple of halfway-decent mics just sitting on a basement shelf collecting dust, why not donate them? Oh, and then four mic stands, of course. So, any tips, any recommendations, on cheap stuff of this type that's sneakily very good equipment, please let me know.

2) I need some computer-programming help as well, very very specific stuff that you either know like the back of your hand, or don't know at all. Regular readers know that the CCLaP website will mostly be run off Movable Type, just like this personal site, and work the same way; all new content entered as blog entries, categorized and subcategorized, with each category having its own RSS feed and summary page, so that anyone who wants can follow along with just that type of content and nothing else. But, like I said, we'll also need a way for people to register with the site, and sign in if they want to leave comments, etc. And I don't know how to do this, but I'm sure it's pretty simple, because a billion sites have them now. So if someone wants to whip up the Javascript or Perl or AJAX or whatever's needed to have such a registration/sign-in system, in return for a free membership, please let me know.

3) And speaking of registrations, I would love to offer registered users a simple "Clipping" option at the site, like you see at a place like Bloglines (also known as a "Favorites" page at a place like Flickr). That way members could easily save items for later recall, for whatever reason: they didn't finish reading a story, or we just announced a show they're interested in attending, etc. (And of course we'll have public "Email this" and "Send this to del.icio.us" links at the bottom of each entry too, just like all the other cool kids have, as well as "Send this event to your Upcoming.org or Firefox calendar.") So if someone knows how to do this as well, please let me know.

4) We need a Sony Minidisc Recorder. I've gotten to play with a number of them over the years, I've gotten to listen to a number of them over the years, and I'm simply convinced that this will be the cheapest, most effective way for CCLaP to capture high-quality sound on the go, in a variety of different ways. With a Minidisc, see, we'll be able to just plug it right into the speaker to record the entire event; then I can simply plug it into my Mac at home to retrieve the audio, run it through Soundtrack Pro or GarageBand or whatever, clean it up and convert it into an MP3. But then when the show isn't going on, the Minidisc can be unplugged and our high-quality mic attached to it; that way we can interview people while out, run around after an event recording funny drunk audience members, etc. And once the audio is finalized, we can even run a copy of it back onto the disc, and keep an archived version of it on file that way. This is a big one, of course; but if any of you just happen to have an old one you're no longer using, you'd literally save us something like $300 or $400, or more than a third of CCLaP's entire startup costs.

5) I'd like a couple of "staff photographers." Nothing fancy; just someone who was planning on coming to a lot of events anyway, who owns a fancy digital camera, who will agree to bring the camera with them and take a crapload of photos, then email them to me later that night or the next morning. Would love to have four or five people who say, "Sure, I'll do something like that," so that we hopefully don't miss documenting a single event, and also so we'll have plenty of funny stuff to share with our online audience at the website (and at our Flickr account, which is where most such photos will appear, along with any audience member who adds the tag "cclap" to their own photo). Also, it'd be great if these photographers would take interesting, unusual portraits of people involved with the center as well, for our brochures and what little advertising we'll be doing. So if you're a photographer, have time to donate and a good eye, but not any money, please bring yourself to my attention as well; such a thing would also earn you a free membership.

Okay, so am I finally done today? Jesus, I think I finally am. Um, um, let's see, anything cool I need to tell you about, coming up soon? Ugh, no, nothing at all, actually, other than that I'm hoping to start getting out to Dollop Coffeehouse more, and interacting with my fellow human beings again, now that I'm very slowly starting to get caught up with the insurmountable backload of internet stuff I've been needing to get done. So if you're a Chicago friend and want to hang out soon, please just let me know. Oh, and that article in the Chicago RedEye still hasn't come out yet, two or three weeks after I was led to believe it was originally going to appear, so I don't know what the hell's going on there. Oh, and I have such a great story for you, too - about how I came to their attention, what the interview was like, what the photoshoot was like, getting a tour of the actual RedEye offices themselves, having a big fuckin' argument with one of their columnists over how shitty I think their paper is...oh man, just such a great entertaining story, which of course is why I agreed to the interview in the first place. So that'll be coming, maybe, on whatever day the article itself appears, if it ever does.

That's it! See you later...sssssccchhmmmucks!