I have a personal interest in the "Saving" of "Blue Like Jazz" the Movie....I was in a grocery store in Denver in 2007 and the title caught my interest. I'm a musician, specifically a professional Sax player so when I saw the book "Blue Like Jazz" in the table by the sodas and chips I grabbed it. It didn't hurt that it was also on sale...
And like millions of others that read the book, it captivated me. The whole story of Don and his christian college cohorts plotting how they were going to "reach out" to their peers at a very liberal college was intriguing.
Just the audacity of putting a "Confession Booth" in the middle of a pagan festival at their college was brilliant, but then reading on that they (the christians) would be doing the confessing was fascinating. I was caught up.
About a year later I was chatting with my longtime friend Steve Taylor who lives in Nashville and whom I used to travel around the country playing christian rock and roll with, and he was talking about writing a screen play for a book called "Blue Like Jazz". I was floored... My ex classmate from Northglenn High School, whom I used to ditch theory class with was going to direct and write the screenplay for a book I and millions of other people loved!
So, about every few months Steve would call me just to see how things were going because I was going through some serious life changes and "stuff", and I would usually ask..."Uh, how's the "Blue like Jazz" Movie coming along? and for months, which turned into years, Steve would say, "we're still raising the money", to which I would say, "how much do you need to raise?" and He would say..."about 1.5 million". "Oh, O.K. I'll pray about it" would be my reply, and then we wouldn't talk for another few weeks.
In the summer of '09 (No, not a remake) Steve called me and asked if I wanted to run a video camera for a cool fund raising event in Denver for some well to do really nice people that loved the book too, and I said "Ya, that sounds fun!" so I set up my little vid cam and shot video of some Denver Bronco type people, the ex Governor of Colorado, and Don Miller whom I got to meet! Wow! how cool was that! I got to meet the author of BLJ and film him, Steve, the lead Actor guy that would play Don in the movie! and some pool tables....
Fast forward to Sept. 2010 and I chatted with Steve and asked my usual "So how's the movie funding going?" and Steve said "Well, we're going to use this thing called Kick Starter to raise funds, and as usual I asked"How much?". "$125,000 in about 25 days" said He, To which I replied, "Where are the t-shirts?, I would have bought a t-shirt a year ago" I said in exasperation.
Now, on October 5th, 2010, Fans of "Blue Like Jazz the Movie", (including myself) have donated over $100,000 in about 9 days...
I, along with millions of generous BLJ fans are "Jazzed". Sorry, couldn't resist.
Remember, I'm just the Sax Player
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