Saturday, July 16, 2011

True Blood & Music for The Amanda Foundation

As featured on The Vault - TrueBlood-Online.com 

Thursday July 14, 2011, I went to Molly Malone’s in Los Angeles to join members of the cast of True Blood for a night of music, fun, door prizes all in support for the Amanda Foundation. The event was hosted by True Blood cast members Kristin Bauer van Straten (Pam), Tara Buck (Ginger) and Todd Lowe (Terry) with performances by Abri Van Straten, Chris Pierce and Todd Lowe’s “L.A Hootenanny.”


It was a great night, I had so much fun. I have said it before, but I’ll say it again the True Blood cast are the most generous and giving people I know. They love to raise funds for their favorite causes, and tonight it was the Amanda Foundation. The Amanda Foundation was founded in 1976, and has since placed thousands of homeless animals. It is a nonprofit organization that rescues dogs and cats who, through no fault of their own, are spending their last days at City and County Shelters. When I first arrived, the bar was fairly empty, but people were quickly arriving. I immediately saw Tara Buck who gave me a big hug and then her boyfriend and soon to be husband, Chris Pierce, who was one of the performers of the evening. I next saw Todd Lowe whom I had never met in person, so that was a thrill. I had brought a Season 3 DVD with me in order to get signatures of all the cast members attending so we could include it in a future charity auction. Todd and Tara were the first one to sign it.


Todd Lowe and Tara Buck

I sat down with some friends and we waited for the evening to begin, but I was so anxious, that I got up and walked around some more to see who else might arrive. I next saw Kristin Bauer van Straten and she immediately, said “Hi Lynn!”. She had just arrived and she and Abri were getting ready for the festivities. There was a silent auction set up and there was to be True Blood items among other great gifts raffled off during the night in-between each set of music. You could buy raffle tickets as you entered or during the evening. I then saw someone that I had met before, Ryan C. Burney. I had met him when I went to see Abri and Chris Pierce play at the Foundry a couple of months ago. Ryan a new cast member in Season 4 of True Blood and is first seen in Episode 4, which happens to air this week. We talked about his upcoming “debut” and how exciting it was. He had told me the night I met him that he is in one of the flashback scenes (I so love the flashback scenes). All I can tell you right now is that he plays a 16th Century Spanish Lord and is in two episodes, 4 and 6. I will be posting more about Ryan in a report on Monday, but I promised him I’d wait until after his first episode aired to post photos. Below is a photo I can share with you which is of Ryan with his girlfriend at the fundraiser on Thursday night:

I sat down with some friends and we waited for the evening to begin, but I was so anxious, that I got up and walked around some more to see who else might arrive. I next saw Kristin Bauer van Straten and she immediately, said "Hi Lynn!". She had just arrived and she and Abri were getting ready for the festivities. There was a silent auction set up and there was to be True Blood items among other great gifts raffled off during the night in-between each set of music. You could buy raffle tickets as you entered or during the evening. I then saw someone that I had met before, Ryan C. Burney.  I had met him when I went to see Abri and Chris Pierce play at the Foundry a couple of months ago. Ryan a new cast member in Season 4 of True Blood  and is first seen in Episode 4, which happens to air this week. We talked about his upcoming "debut" and how exciting it was.  He had told me the night I met him that he is in one of the flashback scenes (I so love the flashback scenes). All I can tell you right now is that he plays a 16th Century Spanish Lord and is in two episodes, 4 and 6. I will be posting more about Ryan in a report on Monday, but I promised him I'd wait until after his first episode aired to post photos. Below is a photo I can share with you which is of Ryan with his girlfriend at the fundraiser on Thursday night:

Ryan C. Burney with his girlfriend, Shannon Steckloff

I then went back to my seat since the night of music was about to begin. First on the stage was Kristin Bauer van Straten's husband, Abri van Straten.  I know Abri's music so I was sure that we would be treated to beautiful sounds.  The last time I heard Abri play, he played solo, but on Thursday night he had accompaniment.  This made his music even more lovely and he truly blossomed the more he played.  I loved his set of lilting music and he was very friendly with the audience.  Great job, I thought!  Find out more about Abri and his music by going to his web site.


Abri van Straten

Once Abri had completed his set, we were all treated to Kristin and Tara getting up on stage to start the fun of picking the winners of the raffles. We had all bought our raffle tickets by then, and had them in hand hoping one of our numbers would be chosen.

Kristin Bauer van Straten, Tara Buck on left

During this break, I could see that several other True Blood cast members had arrived either during Abri's set or just after. They were, Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica), with her boyfriend EJ Scott, Mariana Klaveno (Lorena), and Jim Parrack (Hoyt). I quickly ran to each of them with my DVD in hand, in order to get further signatures on it and to also take photos of them mingling with the many other True Blood fans who had also arrived and were quickly filling the bar to capacity. In fact, the staff at the bar were so overwhelmed, that they closed the kitchen because there were just too many orders coming it from the large crowd. It was truly a successful event so far!


Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica) with True Blood fan, Mariana Klaveno (Lorena) and Jim Parrack (Hoyt)

Next up after the first group of raffle prizes were given out and everyone had a chance to mingle, was Chris Pierce. Chris's music, I would describe as very bluesy and he was just plain "amazing!" He rocked the house with his set. I am a huge fan. If you live in the New York area on Saturday September 17, 2011, Chris will release his new album show at Rockwood Music Hall (Stage 2). 8pm.You won't regret it and IT'S FREE! rockwoodmusichall.c​om.

Chris also has samples of his music on his website which is here: http://chrispierce.com/.

Chris Pierce
By the end of  Chris's performance the audience was really getting going and many were dancing in front of the stage. Just like Abri, the first time I heard Chris was when he played alone at the Foundry; having backup musicians this time really helped him to shine brightly and he sure "let it all hang out." Everyone loved it!!  I know I sure did. After Chris finished his performance it was again time for more raffling. When all the prizes were given out, I was not one of the winners; I never win, LOL!  However, again we were all having a great time and enjoying ourselves immensely, so that didn't bother me at all. For the final set of the night we heard Todd Lowe and his "LA Hootenanny" band play. They really to the house rockin and they truly showed that the night was a night of all different tastes in music. I loved the fun loving way that Todd and his band played and got into the music.  Loved it!

Todd Lowe with the LA Hootenanny

Below is a short video that will give you all a small taste of what each performance was like:



There are more photos in the Photo Gallery:

For me, in addition to the great music, the highlight of the night was getting to meet Todd Lowe for the first time, as well as Mariana Klaveno. I loved Mariana's performance of Lorena in True Blood and will miss her so, but I'm thrilled that she will be on Dexter this season, so to see her all I have to do is change the channel. Then to have Jim Parrack come over to sit with me, that was a thrill and it was great to talk to him again.  Jim has just released his new film POST, which you all should try to see when it get distributed.


Lynnpd with Mariana Klaveno and Jim Parrack


Certainly, the night was all about raising money for a worthy cause, The Amanda Foundation.  It seems it was a success because Tara Buck reported on Twitter the next day saying: "Thank you to all the fans who came out last night to support The Amanda Foundation. We raised almost $5000 & we had a great time of it!" 

However, there is never enough I'm sure to help these poor homeless animals, so please go to the Amanda Foundation web site and make a donation now: http://www.amandafoundatio​n.org/

Thanks to Shadaliza for putting the video together for me.

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