Hello Newfoundland Events and Kitchen Parties Calendar.

This nifty Calendar is another free Google application. If you have a Google Calendar set up loaded with Newfoundland event, let us know and I will add it to the Hello Newfoundland Events and Kitchen Parties Calendar.

You can also check the city of St. John’s Events Calendar.

The St. John’s International Film Festival is in the Air

It’s Saturday morning 9:45 AM and I am at Hava Java Coffee House and Espresso Bar downtown on Water Street awaiting Jenny Rocket who is late bringing in the morning’s supply of muffins.

Yeah I know - what?  Me up this early and out on the town? Get’s better. I’ve all ready been to the CBC building down near MUN campus where I did a live interview with Angela Antle on the CBC weekend morning radio show at 8:20AM, to talk about my film “This Hour Has Seven Decades” which will be screening at the Moving Stories Film Festival this Friday at the Majestic at 5pm. I’ve also all ready coffeed myself at Coffee and Company a few doors down but just moved to Hava’s because I couldn’t connect to the Internet there for some reason. I checked The Anchorage first but it wasn’t open yet.

All’s well though, because Hava Java’s staff have been super gracious helping me find an outlet for my laptop - I only get just over an hour of battery power due to my 17 inch screen and just general battery badness which I used up a quarter of at C&C trying to get connected to the wireless, and have allowed me to sit here in wait of the muffins with a glass of water. And the lighting and music is just right  for this morning.

I had planned to do bring my laptop with me last night knowing that I’d be up and about early, I figured it was a good time to indulge in another romantic writer’s fantasy of mine - the early morning cafe sip and write, where I leisurely reflect on the previous week’s events. ( I think  I may be too influenced by TV commercials with all these leisurely stress-free fantasies.)

But back to this week.  There’s a definite drop in temperature - and The St. John’s International Film Festival is definitely in the air. The festival’s posters and postcards are up all over town, the covers of this week’s arts weeklies, The Scope and The Current, are devoted to the festival, print ads are scattered throughout the pages of the newspapers and I heard an ad on the radio yesterday.

Oh geez. True story. The door just opened and in comes Ms. Kelly Davis, the Executive Director of the The St. John’s International Film Festival. She’s up and about with some special volunteers to go collect the vans that will be used to shuffle the crowds around. It’s a big weekend of setup for the crew.

Oh geez. Mark Bragg just walked in wearing his slippers. I was at his CD Release party last night for the soundtrack of Down To The Dirt - the latter film being screened Tuesday October 14 at the opening night gala for the Film Festival. And by the way, that was the first time I’ve ever seen him perform live and I was mesmerized. Bragg is a ridiculously terrific performer and it was a fun fun show.

Rachel Peters has not walked into the cafe. The Toronto based animator and my co-sufferer of PFD in the video is here in town holding animation workshops for kids as part of the festival. Hope to see her soon.

Egads. This hurts. Now I know why I am a night person, this early morning writing is killing me.

And the muffins didn’t come. I had a multigrain bagel instead.

Down to the Dirt CD Soundtrack Release Party

This Friday October 10th, 2008 - don’t miss the Down To The Dirt Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Release party featuring Mark Bragg and friends. “Down To The Dirt” was  produced by Anna Petras & Justin Simms, directed by Justin Simms, and based on the celebrated Joel Hynes novel of the same name.

The album is comprised of twenty tracks in total and features instrumental music, guest tracks from Blair Harvey, Lizband, and Persona, plus six new Mark Bragg songs written specifically for the film.

Details:

Down To The Dirt Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
St. John’s CD Release Party
Friday, October 10th, 11PM
The Rock House on George Street
Admission $10 at the door $20 with CD purchase
(Regular cd retail price $15)

Bragg will be joined by musicians Brad Power, Curtis Andrews, Victor Lewis, and Luke Power for a grand Ho-Down with guest appearances by the movies musical cast and artists featured on the album, including Liz Solo, Jill Porter, Blair Harvey, Phil Churchill, and more.

Warming up the night are the Pathological Lovers, featuring Jody Richardson whose performance as “Francey” in the movie will really creep you out.

If you can’t make it - go buy the CD - it’s available at Fred’s Records on Duckworth!

PS. The Down to the Dirt film just picked up a few awards from the Atlantic film festival. Bravo. The big St. John’s Premiere is next week - it’s the gala opening film for the St. John’s film festival.

PSS. ya gotta come. I feel so close to this since I built the Down to the Dirt web site. Just saying.