SBIFF 02.09.06

Pictures: Greg, Chris & Dave at the World Premier of “Into the Wind” at Victoria Hall. Kenny Loggins and Chris at the KTYD studio.

Hi All, Dave here – guest blogger for tonight’s update. It was a late night last night, an early morning this morning, then a long day today – and Chris is out like a light! Being the night owl that I am, I thought I would take over the blogging duties at east for tonight.

And what a busy day it was! It started early with a radio interview on KTYD – the choice Santa Barbara rock station. Chris had almost 9 minutes on the air plugging ITW and the sport of powered paragliding. Chris did a great job, and the results will soon be uploaded to the ITW web site. In fact, we already have the MP3 and it’s just a matter of finding the time to get it done.

Maybe the best part of the interview was that the next studio guest after Chris was the one and only Kenny Loggins. Kenny is a Santa Barbara resident, and just a regular guy here. But there was Chris snapping away with his camera! The radio guys were giving Chris a hard time about being star-struck – and they were right!

After the interview, Chris returned to our HQ here at the Sandman Inn before we all took off for the press office downtown. It’s always a good idea to stay in the face of the press agents so they know where you are and that you’re available for interviews – and the ITW crew has been handling this quite well.

Anyway... Our World Premiere was scheduled for 3:30 this afernoon, so we grabbed Jack in the Box burgers and headed over to the Vic to check the theater and make sure all was in order – and, of course, it was. Photographers were on hand to take our pictures and we hope to have some of these pictures posted soon. Also on hand were the guys from “Soul Fly” – a 30-minute short about the sport of kite surfing. SBIFF thought it wise to pair “Soul Fly” with ITW, but we were/are unsure: Our movie is 90 minutes, theirs 30; that’s a lot of movie watching. Plus, were the people in the audience there to see “Soul Fly” and would they get up and leave after the first movie? We just didn’t know. Turns out, we had a respectable showing, despite the mid/late afternoon weekday time slot. And only a few left after “Soul Fly”.

After ITW wrapped, we had only a few minutes before the next movie, so Chris took some Q&As then we headed to a party in the foothills. The party was for Santa Barbara (local) filmmakers but the ITW crew was invited to attend. The standout at the party was the band. These guys – and forgive me because I never got their name – were a 3-piece outfit from San Diego and they ROCKED! All three were incredibly talented – the drummer played a drum synthesizer and bass guitar at the same time, the guy on electric cello was incredible and the guitar player was hands-down one of the best I’ve seen in a club or party setting. And of course, what’s a party with a band without the fuzz? They told us to turn it down or turn it off, so the volume came down a nudge or two.

Hey – a couple of notes about last night: We started at the Heath Ledger award ceremony – we snuck out the back door in the early stages, in time for me to hear a teenage girl on her cell phone crying with utter joy to a friend, “He looked at me! He LOOKED at ME! Can you believe it?!” Geez – where do teenage girls get that kind of emotion?

Later last night we went to the US premiere of “Karla”. We’d been doing a lot of back-to-back radio and TV interviews with the movie’s director, Joel Bender, and so we made it a point to see his film. “Karla” is the true story of the Canadian husband/wife serial killers Karla and Paul Bernado. The film was incredibly brutal, tragic and just freaking FREAKY. Had it not been a true story, I would’ve walked out, but because it was true, I couldn’t turn away. Chris and I both looked at each other in shock over the events playing out on the screen. Perhaps you should read up a little on this infamous case before seeing the movie – which is likely months away from a national release. Check out their website at...

http://www.karlathemovie.net/

Tomorrow we have another busy day scheduled. We want to hit the UCSB campus with posters prior to our Saturday showing. Plus, we want to shoot some more of our motorcyle show near Ojai. Then, tomorrow evening, Chris's wife Patty and daughter Sammi arrive. They'll catch the Saturday screening, and enjoy a day of Santa Barbara, before heading home Sunday morning. We'll spend Sunday stowing the bikes and gear, while preparing for the final blow-out gala, and our Monday departure for my brother's house in Phoenix then our return to Texas for the Ride the Rio rally in Big Bend...

http://www.ridetherio.com

Thanks for reading this longer-than-usual blog.

For Chris, Greg, and "Into the Wind", I'm Dave Gorham.

Good night.