As it stands today, we will be leaving West Fargo, North Dakota Monday morning, 22 July 2002. We will be heading to Omaha, Nebraska on Interstate 29. We expect to arrive in Omaha Monday night.

After the tour of Strong International on Tuesday, we should be available to visit some of the theatres in the Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, as well as Council Bluffs, Iowa.

We will then depart that area, and head for the Topeka and Kansas City area, and our arrival will probably be Tuesday night. Starting Wednesday morning, we would like to visit some of the theatres in that area. From there, we will proceed to Wichita, Kansas via I-335, and will probably stay in that city Wednesday night. Thursday, We will have some time available to visit some theatres in that area before heading to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. We will use I-35 for that leg of the trip. Depending on the driving time, there may or may not be adequate time to visit theatres in Okalmoma City. However, it might be possible to stop and visit in that area on the return trip to North Dakota.

After clearing the Oklahoma City area, we will proceed to the Dallas/Fort Worth area in Texas. We expect to arrive late Thursday night, and remain in that area until Saturday morning. From there, we will depart the area, and begin our return journey to North Dakota.

If some of the Forum members live in the smaller cities along the Interstate highway, Josh and I will create a 25 or 30-mile shadow so we can come and see you. on the return trip.

We hope to see some of you soon. If you have any questions or need any more information, please feel free to email me at shuttershaft@aol.com, or email Josh at reelman84@hotmail.com

Hope to hear from you soon.

Paul

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Be sure and let these boys know if you are within reasonable detour from their route.

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Does Florida count?

If you make it to Austin stop by the Highland 10 M-F 5:30 till close or Sat Open to 6 and I will show you around.

Bobby, I didn't know Lawton was so far off the track. Bummer. We will make a decision about that when we arrive at the freeway cut-off.

Pat, we will certainly look forward to the visit at Strong International.

James Hammond, I hope you can make it to Dallas. If not, Josh and I will have to see if we can squeeze the trip a little. It will depend on how many stops we make.

I know this is going to be a fun trip. A special thanks goes to Brad, who will host us in Dallas. It will be great to be among friends. Ethan and Don, it will be a pleasure to meet both of you as well as other Film-Techer's that will be there.

I have some of your telephone numbers, so you might hear from us before we arrive in your area. Bobby, James, and Manuel, if you email your phone numbers to us, we will contact you as the trip progresses. Neither Josh or I have laptops to plug into the motels, so both of us will be in the black hole for that time we are on the road. We will be on the Cellular Phone, and that number is (360)929-3152. Please feel free to call us.

Again, thanks to all of you.

Paul

Bobby
When was the last time you were at a theatre in OKC? I have to admit our presentation wasn't much about a year and a half ago, the booth manager then didn't even know how to pull a trailer! I had to show him for crying out loud! It has picked up quite a bit. As far as the AMC goes, yes they do business but as I have stated before location plays a big role so they slack on quality a lot. One time one of their projectionist came by to pick up a print of Life or Something Like It that we had screened that week. We have different platters so bringing over a ring won't work and they came to get it about an hour before their screening so there wasn't time to break it down. So what was his idea, take the ring out and just carry it with clamps. Problem was his trunk was full of stuff so in order to move all of it we had to put down the print. And where did he put it. On the F*&$#@G GROUND! Yes, thats right, on a dirty concrete sidewalk. His response when I told him not to? I'll just run it through the film cleaner. I SHIT YOU NOT! I haven't been to many of their shows but from what I have seen their presentation is average. But with things like that happening I am scared to see their booth.
As far as the new Dickenson goes, one of my fellow managers worked for the Dickenson in Tulsa and is hearing from some old buddies as far as what is happening. So far he has only told me they are tearing out the ground level floor in order to build stadium seating.

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And yes, I would agree, the AMC complex sometimes lets their presentation quality fall in the "average" category. With SDDS on every screen, if I see a film there I usually try to do so withing the first week or two of the run otherwise the SDDS starts tripping out. My main gripe with this theater, regardless of whether the SDDS works or not, is those dumbass ceiling mounted surrounds. To make the surround array even worse, many of the Quail Springs 24 auditoriums have no back wall speakers at all. So basically you only get a big left-right stereo effect above your head for surround sound.

I haven't seen a movie at the OKC Tinseltown 20 in awhile. I don't have much against the theater, particularly since I usually choose one just like it in Colorado Springs when I visit my parents. One thing I think needs to be improved with the OKC Tinseltown 20 is its newspaper advertising. I'm under the impression your theater doesn't have digital surround on all screens. The Tinseltown directory ad isn't very clear on what shows are playing with or without digital sound. I'm spoiled to digital sound. I admit it. If the ads are unclear I usually don't gamble with my $7. I know the AMC complex has SDDS on every screen, so I know what I am getting. I've never set foot in Regal's recently built Crossroads Mall theater because their ads have never been clear, and I cannot get a straight answer on the phone from their staff either.

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The old State Theatre reopened last Friday showing "Spider-Man" in its second-run with a theater full of volunteers running the show. According to the Lawrence Journal World/AP, the State had been closed for two years before being purchased by a non-profit organization for $90,000.

The theater was recently renovated and its famous neon marquee is still being repaired with plans to reinstall it in the near future. The State is the only theater in this small town of 4,200 residents and originally opened in the late 1940s.
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