JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Brian Austin Whitney Blog Friday, July 10th, 2009

Hi Folks,

My poor abandoned blog. I always forget to post here because I am sending and receiving 100's of emails (over 1000 each day this week) and posting around on the boards and on the phone for hours every day and I never remember to come here.

We're still trying to get in contact with a lot of nominees that are MIA. We have so many non english speaking nominees this year it's nearly impossible to get the news to them. That's the downside to have nominees from 83 different countries.

We've locked down 3 performers for the show with 27 slots left. We've had over 300 requests for slots (it may be 400 by now). We have 40 slots on Friday night and 15 after the show in addition to the 30 at the show. So much talent! The Friday night BB Kings show may be even better than the Saturday night show due to the overflow of talent and the fact that we don't have to balance genres across 95. If we have 10 amazing Singer-Songwriters only 1 will get to play at the show and the rest will likely play Friday night for example.

Ticket sales are driving me nuts. We've had more than enough artists say they are coming to sell out, but they haven't actually bought tickets yet so we're a little nervous. Usually we're sold out by now. I hope they get in gear soon.

We have a great hotel rate $85 dollars per night at the Renaissance Hotel. Nearly half price.

I realized that I have a favorite category this year and it's so amazing that it nearly brings me to tears, not because it's sad but because nearly all the songs move me so much. I can't believe only 1 will win. I'd buy all of them if we didn't already have them in the judging system. (And I may buy them anyway just because I want to support them all).

I can't wait for you folks to get inside and hear the nominees and help out on judging. You're in for a treat!

Brian