All posts by VM Gautier

The 19th Century’s Most Infamous Party Girl is Having a Birthday, and You’re Invited to the Celebration!

(This is a review for the fantastic musical “cabaret” Songs of the Fallen, which will be in town for one week only, so get yer tickets NOW.)

Are you a tourist in New York who’s about to wait on line at TKTS? Are you having doubts about whether standing around for two hours in order to buy tickets that at 50% off will still be over your limited budget is the best way to spend your limited time in New York?

Continue reading The 19th Century’s Most Infamous Party Girl is Having a Birthday, and You’re Invited to the Celebration!

Shout Out: Songs for the Fallen is Coming to New York!

19th century Paris’ favorite party-girl is having a birthday party in Manhattan and you’re invited!

Songs for the Fallen will have a brief run at the New York Musical Theater Festival. What is it? And why should you absolutely get your tickets today? Here’s the description from the NYMT site:

Good girls don’t make history.

Paris, 1847. SONGS FOR THE FALLEN takes you through the extraordinary life of Marie Duplessis – courtesan, party girl, liar, and legend – from desperate poverty to her meteoric rise as the most notorious woman in France. Part vaudeville, part cabaret, part MTV-goes-Baroque, it is the wild and hilarious tale of a woman who knew one thing: good girls don’t make history. The unbelievable tale that inspired The Lady of the CamelliasLa traviata, and Moulin Rouge!, SONGS FOR THE FALLEN is an invitation to the decadent final party of the real-life woman.

Here’s a trailer:

(Dates and ticket prices from trailer NOT for NY production)

Ok, so in their version, Marie isn’t a vampire (like she is in Blood Diva), but she’s still a thoroughly post-modern superstar. If you’re obsessed with Ms Duplessis, and who isn’t? Then this is the show for you, so click a link and get your tickets. They’re under $30, and there are only five performances, so act now.

And if you’re with the show, and would like a free signed copy of Blood Diva, it can totally happen. Honest, I’m your advance person in New York, just ask me to do anything (no comps needed). Woo-hoo! And welcome to the Big Apple!

How You Can STILL Get Blood Diva Free (and Why You’d Bother)

blooddiva_pass2 (1)The never to be repeated five days of Blood Diva totally FREE on Kindle are over. Will this help boost sales of my well-reviewed but not exactly bestselling sexy, campy, vampire masterpiece for high-brow types who like a little smut with their serving of culture and deep philosophical musings? Aside from me, who cares?

This post is about you, gentle reader, and how you can still read Blood Diva for FREE, and why you might want to.

(Click here to read the rest of this life-altering offer.)

Vampy Book Review: The Hunger, Whitley Strieber

imgresBack in September, I wrote a review of the film version of, The Hunger a movie best remembered for a love scene between a vampy Catherine Deneuve, and a fetching Susan Sarandon. Good times!

imgres-1As I said then, the movie, which I first saw years ago, may have influenced the sensual and sensuous vampires I created in Blood Diva. But the movie is a mess. The ending made no sense whatsoever and was tacked on at the studio’s insistence in case there was a sequel. But taking that second look at it, made me curious about the book. There happened to be a cheap used hardcover over on the Amazon so I went for it. (Just checked today, and you probably won’t have such luck. The KINDLE VERSION IS $15.99!)

First off, the changes from book to film aren’t just about telling a story visually. They are substantial to the point where it’s not even a question of which was better. Each can be judged on its own terms. The film has much greater style, but in terms of substance and coherence, the book wins. Second, if you came here looking for a quick thumbs up or down, you might have come to the wrong place… (Please click here to read the rest!)

The Unexpected Ascendence of the Text Message

Watch an old movie from the 1920s and you’ll see the telephone was already fully integrated into people’s lives, but it was not yet in everyone’s home. Often there would be a coin operated phone in the corridor or a communal one in the parlor of a boarding house.

But by the end of World War II, certainly any aspiring middle class home had at least one telephone line. We had ideas about phone usage. Women loved to gossip on the phone. Teenagers were positively addicted to it. Remember this from Bye-Bye Birdie:

(To get to that video and read the rest of this possibly life-altering post, please head over to VM’s Blood Diva blog.