Andrew Novick is an eclectic character. An electrical engineer and metrologist, one could argue that he controls time itself, as a manager at station WWV, which is the time signal broadcast from the National Time Standards Lab in Boulder, Colorado.
Andrew is also a documentary filmmaker, having produced the autobiographical film, JonBenet’s Tricycle, a reflection on how the mass media and the public process the news of tragedy and unsolved crimes.
In addition, and relevant to our story, Andrew produces quirky cultural and artistic events in the Denver area.
When Andrew was young, his parents would take him to the Organ Grinder. Andrew loved the place so much, that he begged his parents to take him there for his 11th birthday. Andrew and his brother, born two years apart, share the same birthday, and all the way through Year 10, they would share the same birthday cake.
But, on this particular trip to the Organ Grinder, Andrew finally received a symbol of his independent identity – a birthday cake with the writing, “Happy Birthday Andrew Only”.
The combination of having his own cake (and eating it, too), and having the party at the Organ Grinder, makes this event one of Andrew’s favorite memories.
We filmed Andrew’s interview at the former location of Organ Grinder Denver, which is now a corner strip-mall which includes the popular Vinh Xuong Bakery, known for its Bánh Mì sandwiches.
Andrew recently produced an art show that was also a sort of scavenger hunt and puzzle. Each photograph in the show was a puzzle piece representing a bit of Denver:
“I had an art show of photographs from all over, but it was a puzzle. Each photograph was cut in a puzzle piece shape. The show was at Alameda and Broadway, not too far from here, a couple miles. In the art show, if you could put the puzzle together and, by either imagining where the pieces go, or you could actually buy a little mini puzzle of the art show. If you solve the puzzle then you can actually come up with solving a word puzzle, with the 20 characters one character for each puzzle piece and the answer to that puzzle was Organ Grinder Pizza.”
“It was kind of my nod for like people who grew up here or people could look it up, but if you look up organ grinder you don’t necessarily find what the address was, so people would have to dig a little deeper. They would come here, and then I had a puzzle piece in the window, with a picture of the Organ Grinder in the puzzle piece, and a QR code and there were several more things to solve about different things that happened along Alameda. There’s kind of a lot of historical stuff that happened here including where Kerouac’s started writing On The Road. There’s a pretty famous cemetery on East Alameda where lots of famous people are buried, including the folks who started Elitch Gardens, our childhood amusement park, and Lakeside Amusement Park, and so it was kind of this historical puzzle hunt having to do with Alameda Avenue.”
Thanks, Andrew, for helping to keep the memories alive!
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