It's Official!!!

TIFF 2007

Well once again - it's come around (good thing) we know we're still HERE!!!

The Toronto International Film Festival is ONLY 43 DAYS AWAY!!!

The frenzy starts as the films are selected and so far BC has done pretty well.

From NORMAL (Whatever that means) Carl Besai's film shot in Victoria (again) to THEY WAIT - the Brightlights production, and many more to be announced over the next several days, always keeps us on our toes!!!

From the GALA's to the CHANEL suite, to the RED CARPETS, HOLT RENFREW AND HELLO! parties and events, and everything in between, makes TIFF the HOTTEST FILM FESTIVAL next to Cannes!

Stay tuned as commitments (and tears) come our way!!! See you on the RED CARPET!!!

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Peter Foldy's MY FIRST TIME!!!

NOT HIS AND MY FIRST TIME TOGETHER SILLY!!!





THE NY PLAY based on his web-site of the same name...

Recent NY Times article attached for your perusal...

How They Did It. The Show, That Is.
Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
From left, Bill Dawes, Cyndee Welburn, Josh Heine and Kathy Searle in the play “My First Time.”



By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Published: July 20, 2007
THE typical Off Broadway production these days involves great expectations, followed by unforeseen logistical difficulties and frustration, then eventual disappointment and an all-too-hasty conclusion.

None of that, of course, has anything to do with “My First Time,” a new Off Broadway play in which four actors recount stories about people’s first sexual experiences. Nothing, nothing at all. It’s been sold out so far.

Why, what were you thinking?

Anyway.

The play, which began previews last week at New World Stages and opens July 28, is simply set up: four actors take turns reciting stories, in whole or in part, that appear on myfirsttime.com, a Web site that invites people to post reminiscences of their first sexual encounters.

The site was started in 1996 by Peter Foldy, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, and his friend Craig, who does not want his full name used because he doesn’t want his conservative family to know about his involvement with the project (seriously).

Mr. Foldy had some success in the 1980s with a “Porky’s”-type movie he wrote called “Hot Moves.” So he and, um, Craig decided to make another movie, this one about a group of teenagers talking about their sexual initiations. Craig recommended starting a Web site to solicit story ideas.

The movie never materialized, but the Web site quickly took off, and in the 11 years since it has grown to include nearly 50,000 stories, some that seem to be mere fabricated pornography, but others that sound too humiliating, comical, bizarre or sad to have been made up. There are stories of rape and incest, and stories by frustrated virgins in their 40s and angry, betrayed women. Disappointment, both comic and poignant, is a pretty pervasive sentiment.

A few years ago Ken Davenport, a producer and creator of the Off Broadway shows “Altar Boyz” and “The Awesome 80s Prom,” became interested in creating a documentary play along the lines of “The Vagina Monologues.” The idea of a play about people’s first sexual encounters occurred to him and, not patient enough to go out and do interviews, he decided to start a Web site. He learned he was not the first with the idea.

After introducing himself to Mr. Foldy and Craig via e-mail, Mr. Davenport negotiated the rights to turn some of the stories into a play. (A 2003 series on Showtime was based on the Web site, though it involved steamy re-enactments.)

The play, which lacks the political ambitions of “The Vagina Monologues,” includes some of the more extraordinary stories from the site, but the lines that draw the strongest audience reactions are not in the script. Before each performance audience members are asked to fill out cards that pose various questions: “Are you a virgin?” “What was your partner’s first name?” “How would you describe your first time: Incredible, Good, Not Good, Awful.” The cards are collected (names are not asked) and read at points throughout the show.

The final question — “If your first sexual partner were here right now, what would you say to him/her?”— reliably elicits showstoppers, such as these actual audience responses at a recent performance: “How could you do that to your fiancée?” and “Are you still having sex with men now that you have a wife?”

Mr. Davenport’s “Altar Boyz” continues to be a lesson in the harsh economics of Off Broadway. It has an ardent fan base, good reviews and a relatively low running cost, and as of this weekend it will have played 1,000 performances. Yet given the high costs and uneven audiences of Off Broadway, it still has not made back all of its original $1 million investment.

So Mr. Davenport is trying new things with “My First Time,” for which he raised only $175,000 to capitalize. He’s running the show just three nights a week and doing all the advertising, marketing and group ticket sales out of his production office.

The economical go-it-alone approach was shaped from lessons learned on and off Broadway, said Mr. Davenport, a former company and general manager. “I don’t think I ever worked on a Broadway show that recouped,” he said.

Already somewhat of an Off Broadway P. T. Barnum, Mr. Davenport is also cooking up publicity stunts like the recent virgins-get-in-free night, which received attention from news outlets worldwide. It’s no accident, he acknowledged, that he chose to open the show in the slow-news month of July.

Who’s in the audience? At a recent Saturday-night performance, which was packed, three grandmothers from Dix Hills, N.Y., sat together in row F. One of them, who would not give her name out of fear that her grandchildren would read this, said that the show was fun, if a little juvenile for her tastes.

So what did she expect?

She said she thought the performers would actually be acting out some of the stories.

LAST DAY...

NO PICS - As CG and I strategized ALL day about her upcoming JAZZ FESTIVAL participation, Music Video and OTHER THINGS....I'm pooped!!! The hair just wasn't co-operating!!!

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Another Point of View!!!

THE QUEEN...

ON ELLIS ISLAND!!!

A truly magnificent visual (hardly depicted here...)



BUT - YES IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT...Yet ANOTHER FERRY RIDE!!! Didn't I say that I was REDUCING THE FERRY TRIPS??? Well - apparently I LIED!!!

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GRAND ENTRANCE!!!

On the way to Duchess (upstate NY)...

DUCHESSES OF NEW YORK!!!

Well when in ROME - TAKE THE TRAIN!!!









FABULOUS FOOD at GRAND CENTRAL TRAIN STATION...(where else would that happen???)...

DONE!!!

IT's DONE - Now we're off to take to train to the northern parts of NY!!!

CG and Paul went to dinner and had a fabulous time!!!

Check out CG's Blog - at www.christiegracemusic.com

TONS of pics by yours truly!!!

A good time was had by all!!!

ET CANADA

dada dut dut da....Well you know you can't stop singing that little ditty (just think of the royalties!!!)....

The ever capable Erin Cebula and crew interviewed CG at her studio on Bowen Island and had CG entertain us with her newest (sure to be a hit) WEST COAST GIRL with Michael Creber on the keys.

Air date This coming Wednesday on Global!!! Check your local listings for air times.

And we'll be departing Vancouver for New York - this coming Tuesday afternoon on AIR CANADA!!!

FABULOUS PAUL SHAFFER!!!

We're on our way!!! CG AND ME!!! Heading to NY to record a song or two with non-other than Mr. Paul SHAFFER of David Letterman FAME!!!

A fellow Thunder Bay Canadian, the two will duet til they get it right!!! (NO DOUBT they'll be done in a minute!!!)...

Although on hiatus from the show until next week - MR. S has ably pulled together the studio/engineers ET AL for our arrival next TUESDAY - and it will be SWEET!!!

Stay tuned for Christie Grace's NEW BLOG on her new Web-site:



If we can keep the weather at bay in NEW YORK (it's thunder and lightening - and we haven't even arrived YET!!!) we should have A GREAT time!!!

PIC's and interviews to follow in later posts!!!

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NEW YORK, NEEEWWW YOOORRRRK!!!

Here we come - that's CG and ME, hitting the lights fantastic to record her upcoming CD!!!

Stay tuned - for FUN, PICS, and GOSSIP - as we head to the most beloved city since 911!!! THE DAY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD FOREVER!!!

Although many years ago - you can't really forget something of that magnitude. When attending the Tribeca Film Fest walking right next to where it all happened nearly SIX YEARS AGO, it is hard to imagine the two towers and the thousands of people that they accommodated. AND to think that Manhattan is the SAME SIZE AS BOWEN ISLAND - and it does make you go - HMMMM!!! (Recently learned in our travels with the SHAW HIT - THE TRAVEL GUYS a few weeks back)!!!

STAY TUNED!!!

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