JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Brian Austin Whitney Blog Wednesday, June 7th, 2006

Hi Folks,

Another long night last night. But I did manage to get 4 hours of sleep this time! We're working on an awards venue and wanted to move back to Hollywood. We loved the venue from 2004, but we're afraid it's too small considering the growth of the awards again. However the cost of doing the show in Hollywood has skyrocketed. The quotes we got in 2004 have gone up a whopping 6 times! For us to do the show under the same terms as our 2004 show, we've been quoted a needed ticket price of 200 dollars! ack! (We charged 60 dollars a head last time and unforunately lost some money on the deal.. ). We can return to the previous venue, but it only holds 550 people and we feel we need to accomodate 600-700 this time around. One option is to not have the Buffet Dinner and just charged about 50 dollars a ticket and let folks buy their own food. If we include the food again, we'll likely have the charge 75 dollars to break even. It sounds like a lot, but considering nearly everyone who entered entered an entire CD of music to the awards and all the other "awards" or "contests" charge 30 dollars per song or more just to enter and these would be people already nominated, it's not that much. But people still get sticker shock. They're happy to send another "contest" or "awards" 300-500 dollars in entry fees and never hear from them again.. we just need to them realize that since we don't charge for anything, the show has to pay for itself, the trophies and the other expenses around doing it. I hope folks will realize that when the show comes around.

We considered also doing it in Nashville. It's probably the only other city that would make sense. We have a gigantic number of members and previous nominess (and thus likely future nominees) in the So. Cal. area. No other area comes even close. NY, Boston and Nashville would be the next ones in line. NY and Boston in November would frankly suck because of the cold, so that leaves Nashville or LA. If we did Nashville, we'd want an historic venue. If anyone has suggestions to consider there, please let us know. Also, if you have a contact in Hollywood that can seat 600+ for dinner and work with our modest budget, we'd love to hear about it too.

On a sad note, Billy Preston died yesterday. He seemed universally liked in the music business and it's hard to believe he was still so young. He must have been barely over 20 years old when he was jamming with the Beatles and still in his early 20's when he did the classic disco tinged instrumental Outa Space. (You all know it by sound if not by name). All of the Beatles did amazing things at such young ages. Why is it that so often everyone stops their most productive years so early? Sure there are exceptions, but much of the greatest work from musicians (unlike other arts) happen early on. Is it something genetic? What are your thoughts?

Have a great day!

Brian