People often express surprise that I try to answer every tweet and Facebook message I get, but for me, it’s a no brainer. I am a fan just like everyone else so I know how it feels when someone you’re a fan of answers back. I realize the more famous celebrities have difficulties answering millions of tweets but I just tweet them constantly in case I get lucky. That’s how this story begins.
I’m not as big of a fan of Dia Frampton as others, since I didn’t know of her “Meg and Dia” days, but ever since I heard her sing on the first season of the Voice, I became one. She turned heads with her versions of “Heartless” and “Losing My Religion” and I knew then that I would buy anything she would sell. Her voice had a certain character and earnestness that I am drawn to and more importantly, she never took things (or herself) too seriously and on screen, she seemed kind-hearted. It may be pretentious for me to say, but I felt like her whole take on music and life seemed to mirror mine about cooking and life.
After watching the Voice, I immediately followed Dia on twitter (@diaframps) and after reading her tweets, I was delighted to learn that, aside from all that I stated above, she was whip smart too. I did tweet her a couple of times, and as I do with all foreign celebrities I admire, invited her to come to the Philippines and guest on Curiosity Got the Chef. I repeated my invitation last December when I found out that Dia was dropping by South East Asia, thinking that “next year” meant mid-year, when my planned 3rd season would begin filming. Imagine my surpise last December 19 when she replied, “Yes! Need some background music while making me a cake!?!?” Then, a few days later, she tweeted that she was indeed coming to the Philippines from January 5-7 and as she was looking for a place to do a show. I offered to look into that and I also offered to cook for her at home. While her show at the Hard Rock Cafe would later be handled by an events company, Dia and her manager, Mike Kaminsky, stayed in touch to arrange the dinner.
We decided the best thing to do was to finalize plans after her show at Hard Rock. Mike got me on the guest list (Thanks Mike!) and we would talk after the show. As I had never even seen a picture of Mike, tracking him on the day itself was harder than I thought (apparently, none of the show handlers watch Curiosity Got the Chef so I looked like a bluffing fan. Hmm. I should get them some Sky Cable). The best thing I could think of was to have my “Red” CD signed by Dia so I could at least introduce myself, but then I wasn’t putting much hope into her remembering me. To my surprise (even if it shouldn’t) Dia not only remembered me but mentioned that she was looking forward to the dinner. All we had to do was find Mike. Staying until most people had already left, I finally saw Mike as their entire party left the Hard Rock Cafe. Mustering courage (and athleticism) I don’t always have, I ran down the Glorietta escalators to finally catch Mike as they were leaving. Dinner was a go! (to be concluded)
Interesting Notes:
- Dia sang “Don’t Kick the Chair” and she also rapped Kid Cudi’s lines. Yeah. I know. Awesomeness.
- Dia brought along Scars on 45 lead vocalist Danny Bemrose and his first question to me was about Soup No. 5. Yeah. How about that.
- Mike’s twitter display picture is of James Van der Beek. I never got to ask him why.