Happy Thanksgiving

Sorry the update was late; we've been setting up video email so I can talk to you instead of you having to read all that happened. However, you're still reading as we're about a week away from perfecting it. I can't wait.

First a few announcements:

You guys remember Shawn from Ponder (They were one of Siren's Competitors in the Battle of the Bands), he'll be playing at the Crown and Anchor this Saturday night. The Siren team and I will be there to listen to some of his great vocals and would love to have you guys join us. Start time is 10:00pm. Here's the address: 1350 E. Tropicana around the corner from UNLV.

Screenwriting class is coming up; we haven't pinpointed a date yet. We have 7 openings left. Call me to sign up 702-210-4349.

We'll be in Miami, Florida December 3rd. I'll give you an exact location next week. I know it'll be at 6pm. We're planning another private screening here in Las Vegas so if you're getting this email, you're invited.

Now let me give you the juice on what has been going on.

Gene, Misty, myself and my two beautiful daughters Sheena and Savanah headed for New York Wednesday November 10th on the red eye flight with one stop in Detroit and landed in NY Thursday Morning Nov 11th. Spirit airlines left our luggage in Detroit and they said we couldn't have it until maybe midnight that night. After gently demanding that our luggage come by that afternoon we did receive our luggage at 5:30pm, 8 hours later and very damaged. Thank you Spirit. We spent the whole day in the airport instead of what was on our agenda, which was Gene & I taking the girls and Misty ice-skating at Rockefeller Center. We'll just have to go back. It gets a lot better with this airline as we go. Just wait...

We drove to the Marriott in Tarrytown and got checked into our room. It was a lovely room. Friday came and we got prepared for our private screening. The tech guys set everything up for us and left. The film was to begin at 11pm. We were showing it to the Weissman Teen tour which is 50 teenagers and maybe 20 adults. This was my daughter's teen tour group that was meeting in NY for a reunion. She went on a five week tour this summer to six different countries that was her sweet 16 birthday present from her dad and I. So this was our first teen audience and it was great. The kids really liked the film and the adults that were there loved it as well. Here is the challenge we faced with this screening. The tech guys gave us a rigged audio box so our audio dropped out four times, I ran and jiggled the electrically taped wire and retrieved the sound back quickly but still it was a little challenge. Again, it was a total success by the end.

Saturday morning November 12, Paul Folger arrived. We drove to NYC to privately screen the film at Cantor Film Center at NYU and we had another great audience. NYC was beautiful and busy. We had pizza and argued with a typical loud mouth New Yorker. We got the true experience. I can say that since I was raised in Brooklyn.

After that showing, we headed up to Rhode Island. It's a beautiful place. We stayed in Newport, then drove to Providence on Sunday afternoon and toured the town. It was beautiful. We were able to book the Columbus Theater owned by renowned opera singers John Berberian and his wife. This theater was built in 1926 and it held over 700 people. It was so lovely. That must have been the greatest audience because they were all very skeptical about viewing an Indie film and they were there to support Al Gomes because we were testing one of his songs for background music. It is a song by Mark Cutler and John Cafferty. They were very warm and just fell in love with the film. They would like us to come back. The East Coast was an incredible success.

Then we had to fly back on Spirit Airlines. We got to the counter nice and early and I got a counter girl with a horrible attitude. One word lead to another and I said the F word first and she said it right back. It was a beautiful Spirit Airline Customer Service experience. Then it took 45 minutes to get a manager over to chat and basically do nothing but advise me to report the incident to Spiritairlines.com. We landed in Vegas and on the up side of Spirit Airlines they managed to get all our luggage to Vegas with us. We must have had too much success with the film and the universe wanted to balance us out and give us some chaos with the travel. We made it and it was great. I wouldn't change any of the experiences because then I'd have less to share with you guys.

We finally made it to LA and had a screening there. Raleigh Studios was an incredible venue and we appreciate them. Erin Gray was present and as beautiful as ever. She brought her family and a couple of friends with her. We had a couple of distributor friends show up and fall in love with the film as well. The LA Private screening was a smash hit.

Now it's time to get back to work.

We rented a condominium in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival in anticipation of being accepted into the film festival. Details to follow at a later date.

See you soon.

-Michele

Previous Journal Entries:
Las Vegas 11-01-05
Denver 10-10-05

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