Breaking Dawn Concert – Los Angeles – 080708

Last night – August 7, 2008 – I had the absolute PLEASURE of attending the BREAKING DAWN Concert Series at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

Featuring a spoiler prevalent Q&A session with TWILIGHT sage author, Stephenie Meyer, herself as well as a HOST (yes, pun intended) of great “inspiration” music from BLUE OCTOBER performed by lead singer/songwriter Justin Furstenfeld, the event was a non-traditional forum for reaching out to die-hard fans who want to share in the community that is now known collectively as “Twilighters.” A phenomenon known by journalists as the “FANPIRE.”

Fanpire Minions

Fellow Twilighters were anxious to hear from Stephenie directly any tid-bits of backstory or unspoken truths inside of TWILIGHT, NEW MOON, ECLIPSE, BREAKING DAWN, the unreleased FOREVER DAWN and upcoming MIDNIGHT SUN…and we were not disappointed!

The BLUE OCTOBER tunes were beautiful (Justin Furstenfeld is a freakin’ genius!) and became even more poignant when Stephenie joined Justin on stage and commented on which pages in the books could be associated with the powerful lyrics in the songs, identifying both “Edward” and “Jacob” points of views at various stages in the saga.

Justin Furstenfeld of Blue October

I’ll admit it. I got teary-eyed. And I wasn’t alone! I was surrounded by screaming teenagers (and 30 somethings like me) who became instant BLUE OCTOBER followers.

Furstenfeld certainly hit the big time with this collaboration – reaching the powerful young FANGIRLS (ooooh, that one kind of works too – get it, FANG-girls??? Oh wait, no fangs in this vampire tale. Oh well…) with an powerful association to this phenomenon. Getting the opportunity to sing from the perspective of beloved characters like Edward and Jacob is without a doubt an amazingly powerful marketing ploy!

The event was sponsored by TIGI Bed Head products – another great partner for the typical Twilighter demographic. My only fear in all of this cross-promotion and marketing buzz is that the magic will be lost somewhere along the way. But alas, no way of knowing at this point…

Anyway, another highlight of the evening was that every guest was able to have their book signed by Stephenie Meyer!

In addition, I ran into the director of the upcoming TWILIGHT movie, Catherine Hardwicke, in the lobby of the hall and she also signed my book (see proof below – excuse the camerphone quality):