Tackling The Impossible: Let’s throw back to February of 2020.  In preparation for our next goals at musclematt.com I decided we needed a bigger, better more productive office space and for sure a more private and secure one.  We committed to new office space and began renovations, we got as far as the demolition by mid March 2020 and then shit hit the fan, lock downs happened.  All construction ceased, building management wasn’t allowing ANY construction workers in the building.  Elevators were off limits.  The space was untouched until this May.  When we could find a contractor that would work materials were hard to find.  Movers and moving vans were almost non-existent and anyone (not many) willing to work were not available until October.  When the actual move in was attempted there was not a rental car or van anywhere, nothing on 4 wheels in the Tri-state area.  Have any of you tried to do construction, buy materials, hire anyone or try to get a rental car? Almost impossible this summer.  We had to problem solve.

The Crew In Hard Hats: What was suppose to take 4 weeks took 8 weeks plus.  Materials you could normally get in 5 days took 3 weeks and were twice the price.  So what to do?  Problem solve, Matt, Myself and other friends and other crew you know put on hard hats picked up hammers and saws and got to work.  Sheet rock, spackle, paint, move, cleaning etc etc until professionals were able to actually show up and resume work.  

More Quid-Pro_quo: One big help though it was Evan from (VIP Only #193 Construction Quid-Pro-Quo Boss and Evan) as you know he is in construction and was a big help to keeping things moving.  Let’s say he did us a favor we did him a favor, see the movie I made the same deal.

Ready to Resume, Not So Fast: Ok so August comes, things seem to be back to normal.  Contractors are banging out the new offices, The Muscle Mafia crew can take off the hard hats and start getting back to hard-ons; all is looking good we thought…

August 20th, Hurricane Henri causes crazy rain and flooding, power outages and major delays; ok minor set back.  

Sept 2, Ida blows through the New York area dropping 12 inches of rain in a hour in some parts.  Roads flooded, subways were like Niagara falls, power out for days in Long Island people killed, houses and businesses flooded and wiped out.

The Clean Up: So for me and the crew the hard hats go back on helping friends, neighbors and people we know clean up a mess.  Ripping out walls and doing what ever was necessary to help who ever needed help.  Ida did some major damage in the area, luckily nothing major for any of us however roads to the new almost complete office were blocked, closed or flooded and when they were open power and internet were spotty.  

Saving The Films:  Our biggest priority through all of this was protecting and preserving the unreleased films.  Several hard drives needed to be protected from dust and water and we certainly weren’t going to have them in a space where major construction was being preformed. It was a strategic move and a savvy one to put those in a very safe place until all this nonsense “and dust settled”.   So like everything else that was interrupted so was our release schedule.  

So why not say anything during the summer?  Because the real answer is every time I thought I had something to announce, something else threw a monkey wrench into my plans.  I rather say nothing until I am certain rather than to keep making announcements that have to be pushed off which was exactly what would have happened if I announced new releases in late July early August.

Now, September 21: We are making the best of the situation, we are still under construction and finalizing some details but we are at least seeing progress to the point where we expect some delays but we can start focusing on business as usual.  As I type this to you, in the next room contractors are working, that means myself and the crew can get back to normal so bare with us as we get our sea legs back.

Also see Returning From Summer Break 2021, The Legacy Continues for more details on summer 2021 and hiatus.