Thank you!

Thank you for a job well done.

We don’t usually cross-post full Facebook posts to the website, but we’re making an exception for this one. Thanks again Jim for helping to chronicle that last five years and helping to spread the word about the Pajama Factory. Best of luck in all your future endeavors. We’ll see you around the campus.

Today is the last day of 2016, a fitting time to pair a goodbye with a hello, I suppose. My name is Jim O’Connell and I’m the person who’s been the “Facebook Voice” of the Pajama Factory for the past five years or so. (Nice to meet you all. :-)). But as I mentioned, this is a goodbye of sorts, as this will be my last day posting for the Pajama Factory.

I hope you’ve enjoyed what I’ve been doing here. I’ve had a lot of fun both writing about what goes on here, taking pictures and hoping to present an upbeat and accurate representation of an absolutely amazing group of people: the tenants and artists, craftspeople and businesses here at the Pajama Factory.

A Creative Community like the Pajama Factory really is an amazing thing to have here in Williamsport. Let me explain why it’s important, as I see it. I grew up here, but left in 1984, returning a couple of times a year at most. By 2010, I’d been living in Tokyo for a decade, but my mother now needed more help and it was time for me to come back to a town I’d thought I’d seen the last of.

I wasn’t happy to be back at first, but I soon learned that Williamsport had changed a great deal over the past 30 years. There was no appreciable art scene in Williamsport in the 1980s. Downtown was a grim place back then and “Millionaires’ Row” seemed beyond hope of ever revitalizing.

I explored town again and was pleased to find it full of life and hope—good shops and restaurants and a modern coffee shop alongside old friends like Otto’s and Plankenhorn. Millionaires’ Row was looking better than it ever had, I’d wager.

People kept telling me that I “should check out the Pajama Factory” and I eventually did, reluctantly riding my bike into the courtyard in May of 2010 and meeting Chad Andrews, who, within minutes, had me convinced that something worthwhile was happening here. (He has that effect on most people who meet him.)

For me, the draw of big cities has always been to be around creative thinkers – to be able to talk to people who think about things and get excited about Ideas. It becomes a very tangible thing, a “Currency of Ideas,” if you will, the lifeblood of creativity. This old factory somehow has it, in abundance. Ideas and creativity bounce through the long, maple-floored halls, held in by the bricks, warmed by the perfect light captured by our remarkable windows.

I could go on waxing poetic about the place, but, if I’ve done my work over the past five years, you already know all of that. Let’s look forward to 2017, shall we?

I’ll be staying at the factory, of course. In the new year, I hope to expand the work I’ve been doing with my students, young and old, to share my love of technology. I’ll still be getting my orders of parts from Shēnzhèn delivered to Way Cool Beans, from which I’ll continue to build my crazy gadgets.

Thank you all and Happy New Year!

Season’s Greetings

Growing up, you probably remember the very official radio and television reports from NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, tracking Santa’s progress around the world. Now, of course, kids can track him on their smartphones by visiting http://www.noradsanta.org with realtime updates of his precise location, but did you ever hear the story of how it all began? Well, grab a plate of cookies and pour yourself an eggnog and give this heartwarming Christmas story a listen.

Here at the Pajama Factory, we’d like to wish all of you a joyous and safe Christmas. Again this year, thank you for making us a part of your creative life!

(Shared post from NPR)

It all started in 1955, with a misprint in a Colorado Springs newspaper and a call to Col. Harry Shoup’s secret hotline at the Continental Air Defense Command, now known as NORAD.

Congratulations to Lisa and the Williamsport Community Kitchen

(Shared Facebook post from Williamsport Community Kitchen)

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!
WE ARE NOW A CERTIFIED KITCHEN!!!!!

Ready to join the kitchen? Go to our webpage at http://www.andrushospitality.com/williamsportcommunitykitchen/ for details on how to join.

Check out the EVENTS page for the next ServSafe Manager Certification Class too!

Taco Bill’s Taco Madness

It’s Mexican Monday at the Pajama Factory!

Good News!

Now here’s some truly exciting news: Just got word that Real Taste Catering will be setting up at the Pajama Factory every Saturday!

Many of us got our first taste of Real Taste Catering at the 7th Annual Holiday Market last weekend and there were some great dishes—this will truly be a welcome addition to weekends at the Pajama Factory, so come down and show your support!

“It’s official Real Tacos Real Taste has a Regular Saturday Spot YEAH @Pajama Factory Hope to see you all on Saturdays!!”

Happy Thanksgiving

All of us folks over here at the Pajama Factory would like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

We hope you had not only a great day, but a great year as well.

We have a lot to be thankful for here at the Pajama Factory: another year of great art, another year of great events, new friends and new businesses born right here in the shadow of our smokestack.

We’re happy to be here, happy to have you all as friends and proud to be your neighbor. Thank you for welcoming us into your community again this year!

(The picture above is, of course, the banner for our upcoming Holiday Market. I chose it mainly because it’s really a great looking image, designed by our own Kyle Huggins (Thanks, Kyle!) The Holiday Market is coming up very soon and you should definitely come, both Friday and all day Saturday!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Artist Residency program in Japan

(Shared Facebook post from Sawako Nakayasu)

U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Exchange Fellowships

The Japan U.S. Friendship Commission offers leading contemporary and traditional artists from the United States the opportunity to spend three to five months in Japan through the U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Program. (more)

Wake and smell the coffee…

Welcome news from Way Cool Beans.

(Shared Facebook post from Way Cool Beans)

WE ARE ROASTING
LIFE IS GOOD

Election Night Excitement

We had a little bit of election night excitement tonight at Way Cool Beans when the coffee roaster overheated and filled the area with smoke.

The Williamsport Bureau of Fire were called as a precaution and did a great job of making sure everyone and everything was safe.

Way Cool Beans will be closed early tomorrow until they get the all-clear to open from the Codes Department.