Well, John Freeman, the man behind the recently shut-down-by-the-city Sloppyworld, has some more news about his experimental DIY venue in Exposition Park:
"Basically, what the deal is," Freeman says, "is Sloppyworld is officially closed."
There are a number of factors behind Freeman's decision. Mainly, though, it centers around paperwork he needed to complete and a rent hike he didn't want to face.
In the aftermath of his venue's closing, Freeman learned that it would take him upwards of nine months to get the permits necessarily to re-open his venue prepared. Given both the fact that his lease runs out two months after that, and the fact that his rent costs were likely increase after the DART rail station across the street from his Parry Avenue location opens (the two dates quickly follow one another), the math just didn't add up for Freeman.
Plus, a man of his creativity has other options on his table.
When he lived in New York City, Freeman and his friend, musician Corn Mo, messed around with the idea of writing, ahem, rock operas. And now, believe it or not, some investors have come a-knocking their way. Talk about timing.
Later this year, in either August or September, Freeman will move back to NYC to see what he and Corn Mo can come up with. Their first project: to write a rock opera about the movie Face/Off. Seriously.
"Instead of trying to drag on and keep battling the crazy Dallas bureaucracy, I decided that it's better to get the ball rolling on this thing," Freeman says. "There's actually people who want to basically pay us to write it. And it's awesome. I was born to write rock operas."
In the meantime, Freeman expects to keep promoting local shows, like the April 20 Negativland show that has been moved to Sons of Hermann Hall (tickets should be available soon at Good Records). It's possible he might book and promote some future shows for The Amsterdam Bar as well.
Freeman admits that a lot of things--Sloppyworld and otherwise--are still up in the air. But, now, almost two weeks after he first announced his club's closing via Myspace, Freeman actually sounds at peace with the way things went down.
"I have no regrets," he says. "I loved doing it. It was something I had to try. But I'm not a businessman. I'm a performer, and I learned that the hard way. It was a pain in the ass, but I don't regret it at all." -- Pete Freedman
