Columbia City Cinema at it again

Let me say that I like Columbia City Cinema.  It's a great little movie house, and I love the fact that it's local to our hood.  I hate going downtown to see movies in mini malls, as parking is expensive, the tickets are expensive, and often the ambiance is of smelly teenager.

But Columbia City Cinema is different.  It's small, local, they take requests of what movies to try and get, they (finally) have a decent website, they have a good sense of humor, and they recognize that the people of Columbia City deserve better then a faceless megaopolis with a pimply teenager at the door.

A couple of interesting developments recently from Columbia City Cinema:

Liquor Licenses

They have had to re-apply for their liquor license.  They got a liquor license a while ago (I didn't even know, how tragic!) but then it was revoked.  It turns out that the liquor control board had some complaints, saying that it was too hard to check ID's of people drinking in the movie theatre, and too hard to know if drinks were being passed to minors due to the lack of lighting. 

Silly nonsense in the Captain's opinion, I love the idea of having a beer with my movies.  I even suggested that I'd be willing to have a little booth at the back of the theatre that remains lit for the folks who drink.  You could even call it the "lit" booth - Get lit in a well lit area while watching a movie!

But instead they're applying for the general seating area they have across from the concession stand.  Good for parties you know.

Expansion

Secondly, the following just came across their email list:

Your local neighborhood cinema is on a roll. We've needed more screens since we opened so we can play more first run films and do more than keep our head above water. The first floor is now vacant and we're finally going to go for it. We have to.Two new screens. No money to do it. No banks who like movies. So we're going to have to do it ourselves--again. We need to raise $250,000 in three stages. Wanna be a hero? Wanna have a statue in your honor? We're looking for a volunteer, entirely devoid of sense, who wants to be a fundraising coordinator. Job would be part time, hopefully for about two months, would be compensated, and would involve targeting and calling on community-minded prospective investors and lenders and hosting investor meetings and cinema tours. Must be somewhat savvy. If you're not doing anything, and community action and helping the cinema are your idea of a good time, then get in touch right away. We need you.

Interesting times!  I guess you've got to spend money to make money!