Who we are, what we do, how we started

Comfort Doll Project was established in May of 2006 by two Vancouver women who came up with a crazy idea over a cup of coffee one rainy afternoon. The idea was to try and make a difference in the lives of people living in abject poverty in Africa.  My friend and I were both inspired by Bono’s T.E.D Award acceptance speech (see my first blog entry for a video of this speech) in 2005 just before U2 came to Vancouver. We met for coffee and brainstormed ideas on how to help those in Developing Countries, in particular Africa. After tossing one idea away after another, we figured out something that was crazy but do-able.

-photo courtesty of Icross Canada

I was knititng Comfort Dolls for ICross Canada – they use the dolls instead of packing foam when they send shipments of HIV/AIDs medicines to African clinics. Once the meds are unpacked, the dolls are given to the local children, many of whom are HIV positive and/or AIDs orphans. For some children, the dolls are the only thing that is truly ‘theirs’, and can bring some small measure of comfort to them.

We decided to use the dolls and go after celebrities - asking them into posing for photos holding the dolls. We’d then find the various fan clubs and set up an auction and auction off the photos; sending the money to World Vision or Icross Canada.

-photo courtesy of ICross Canada

So, we contacted William Willabond, ICross’ local founder, and asked for permission to use the dolls in this manner. As one of his lady volunteers was the lady behind the doll idea, he had to clear it with her first, but she said yes, and so did William.

All we had to do now was find a way to contact various celebs and ask if they’d be interested in helping out! Sounds easy right?

Come have a read and see how we’ve been doing so far. Because of the way WordPress is set up, if you want to read it chronologically, you have to start at the oldest blog entry first – not the blog entry at the top of this page. So…. I’ve added links to our ‘chapters’ in the blog roll to the right. —>

Also, look for links (up top) to other ‘pages’ for more info that isnt quite blogging material – and eventually a page about the ones that got away!

Rocko and the Devils

So, with two auctions under our belt, we decided to take a break, especially as we ran into holidays – Canada celebrates their Thanksgiving generally a month before the USA does, so that put a Statutory holiday smack in the middle of October, and then again in November. As well, Canada has Remembrance Day in November. (Equivalent to Veterans Day in the USA). We also weren’t sure who else to approach for a doll photo. We lucked out with the people who had helped us so far, but most of the people we had on our current ‘wish list’ were too popular and we didnt know how to find management contact info for them. (this is still an ongoing conundrum).

My husband and I were booked for a holiday in Hawaii in December – my reward for going through 4 months of chemo earlier in the year. U2 were playing their very last Vertigo tour in Hawaii on December 9th, and we were going! (there was also the Hawaii Marathon, the Surf Competitions, and a Dental convention the same weekend! They were expecting about 200,000 people/tourists that weekend). So… we came up with the idea to ask Rocko – he’s U2’s tour manager, and a musician and lead singer of Rocko and the Devils

Some background on my good friend Rocko. Rocko has worked in the music business for nigh on 30 years. Everyone who’s anyone knows who he is. He’s worked as tour manager, production manager, road manager and yes, they are all different jobs! He’s worked for Journey, Styx, Def Leppard, and U2 just to name a few, and it was while working with Journey that he put together his band, The Devils ( Larry O’Connor bass, Jeff Handley drums, Scott Appleton guitar, Brent Jeffers keys, and occasionally Terry Lawless also on keys and sax). Most of his bandmates are technicians (previously called roadies) for Journey or Styx and are fabulous musicians – they have to be as they’re in charge of all the instruments for the band, and testing them out before each show. While working for Journey, Rocko decided to ‘open’ for them with his band – apparently much of the audience was missing part of Journey’s set list due to still being out in the lobby getting beers and tour tshirts etc. So Rocko and his Devils opened, and enabled the people to come in and be ready when Journey came on. They were so good that they kept the band and practiced when they were home off the road, and began writing some of their own songs.

Fast forward to U2 and their Vertigo tour a few years later, and Bono was given a demo tape of the Devils, and one day he asked if they would close out the tour by being the opening act for U2 in Hawaii! Rocko had met some of the U2 fans in person, and one of them, Hans44, developed a website for Rocko and the Devils, and before you knew it, everyone knew who the opening act was. Rocko is such a down to earth unpretentious sort of character that we all become friendly with him, and so I decided to ask if he’d do a doll photo and he said yes! (although he kept wondering who in the world would ever buy a picture of his mug   ) The plan was to meet him somewhere in Hawaii before the show and do it on-site. My husband and I were there for a week, U2 was there for 2 or 3 days, so I figured no big deal. right? haha. yeah.

Things seldom work the way you think they should, or hope they would. And this was no different. Again, I’ve come to learn by experience, that the music business is unpredictable and you have to just go with the flow. Most of our cell phones didnt work for some reason – our local Canadian carrier shifted our phones to voice mail, and many of my USA friends couldnt get through. Combine that with the fact we had rented a condo instead of staying in a hotel, and we were unable to get any messages from people that might have called (no front desk). The internet was our only method of communication with some people, but some people didnt have even that. It was a schmozzle. Then the whole thing about trying to get to the show venue – it was about a half hour drive out of the main tourist beach, and there were 60,000 people trying to get there! Needless to say, no matter how much Rocko wanted to help out, it was not meant to be. I was terribly disappointed, but I firmly believe things happen for a reason and everything in its right time so I shook it off and just enjoyed the show and being in Paradise.

Rocko photo courtesy of Gloria002

Rocko and the Devils were unbelieveable! They rocked the house down and were the perfect opener for U2. The entire night was amazing – the fans had been wearing white tshirts with ONE on them for most of the tour (to show support for the Make Poverty History and One Campaigns ) but this last show, they decided to turn the stadium (RED) - to show support for Bono’s new venture at that time – Product Red. Even Rocko wore RED!

Rocko photo courtesy of Gloria002

So, the tour was done, we went home, and within a few days I get an email from Rocko asking if he can still do a doll photo, do I still want one?  But of course!  So I mailed him a doll and autograph card, and a few weeks later, I get a whole series of wonderful photos back from him.

Rocko and comfort doll courtesy of Rocko

I chose a few, and put them aside for our next auction knowing that there were many new Rocko and the Devil fans amongst my U2 friends who would be bidding on them and bidding high   Rocko promised me he’d help, and although it didnt work out the way I thought it would, it did work out and he’s a man of his word. And wonderful too

This Youtube video is Rocko and the Devils performing I Dont Wanna as they opened for U2. Its fabulous!

Tom Griesgraber and Bert Lams – house concert

I met Tom Griesgraber through surfing Jerry Marotta’s page – he and Tom collaborate on music quite frequently and have formed a duo Marotta Griesgraber . Tom plays something called Chapman STick (seen the photo to the left). A stick is like a guitar neck only wider, and has up to 12 strings and you use it two handed.. one hand plays the bass line, the other plays melody. You can plunk it like a guitar, tap it like a piano or twang it like a harp.. its one of the most versatile and coolest instruments i’ve ever listened to and Tom is a phenominal player.

You can listen to them playing my favorite song, In a Step (live) in the video below:

 

Bert Lams - nightMair photography 06

 

So I met Tom through Myspace, and heard Tom was coming to Vancouver with a fellow named Bert Lams, a classically trained guitarist. Bert is 1/3 of the California Guitar Trio. Tom and Bert were coming up to play a concert in someone’s home. I was terribly intrigued, and Tom and I had already discussed the doll project somewhat, so of course I arranged to take a doll to the concert. I contacted Bert and asked if he’d be interested in participating as well, and he said yes, so we were set.

 

Tom Griesgraber - nightMair photography 06

The night of the concert was pretty unique. The show, as I said, was in someone’s home downtown Vancouver, and there were about 50 people in the audience which was mostly in the living room of this stunning old Victorian home, but spilled out to the staircase and into the hallway and kitchen as well. The two ladies that lived in the house had fresh baking for us, and coffee, tea and juice and Tom and Bert were set up in the bay window. Bert was amazing on the guitar, and Tom and he played as if they were of one mind – it was amazing. After the show, they wandered the room speaking to the guests and answering all sorts of questions, etc.. many of the listeners were old friends and musicians themselves.  Both Tom and Bert posed for doll photos and I had a great time that evening.

After shooting photos with Tom and Bert, we had enough photos for our second charity auction, and sent the proceeds this time to World Vision. The brainstorming began yet again – who would we try for next?

Video of Tom and Bert playing together:

Massari, Caedmon’s Call, Third Day

After shooting photos of Jerry Marotta at the Commodore, we needed more photos for our second auction. Again, we had no idea who, or how, to even find someone. I’m always under the impression that things will come when they’re supposed to, and sure enough: I was watching T.V. one night and Entertainment Canada had a blurb about this Hip-Hop artist named Massari, who spoke about supporting World Vision. I was mesmerized – and right away Googled him. I found his website and instead of writing a letter, sent an email to his manager at the time, Manny. I recieved a reply within days – yes, Massari would love to pose with a doll when he visited Vancouver for his current tour! We were estatic. It was so easy it seemed, and approaching the management and setting up appointments (rather than standing outside the stage door) seemed a much better idea

The day arrived, and off I went with no idea what to expect. I’m not much for hip-hop music, and I had visions of gangsta rap etc, but I was in good hands. The one thing I didnt know about the music industry at the time, which I do now, is that its very much a ‘hurry up and wait’ thing. Things are never done on time, there are always minor problems to sort out with sound and such, and thats just the nature of the business. This night was no different, but Massari’s manager offered me a soda and the best seat in the house and I got to watch Massari do a few songs as if he were doing a private concert for just me. It was pretty cool actually.

Massari - photo nightMair photography

Once he was done, we were introduced, and just as with Jerry Marotta in the photo session before this one, he allowed me as much time as I required to make sure I got a decent shot with adequate lighting etc. (Still shooting on ‘auto’ of course, and film)

I was quite struck by this young man - every inch the showman on stage – he ’owned’ the stage – at the tender age of only 23 or 24, but once off the stage very polite, quite soft spoken, and an air of respect for people in general that was very apparent. I very much enjoyed working with him for the short time I was there.

 Caedmon’s Call and Third Day came about through my Myspace forray. I have always liked both band’s music, Mac Powell has an incredible voice and ‘Mountain of God’ is one of my all time favorite Third Day songs. I contacted both bands through Myspace with the intention of sending Caedmon’s Call a doll and card in the mail and they’d email the photo back to us. Third Day was going to play in Calgary and we were going to Southern Alberta for our summer vacation so I was going to set up a meeting that way. Unfortunately for me, this didnt pan out, but my friend Rene was going to their concert in Salt Lake City, Utah, so we decided that she’d do the photos!

Caedmon's Call - photo nightMair photography

Caedmon’s Call said yes, so off the doll went in the mail, and shortly thereafter, I got the photo via email. They also mailed the autographed card back, as well as two 8×10 glossy autographed promo pictures of the band, for inclusion in the auction. Cool

 

My friend Rene did pretty good all things considered. It was an open air festival (which means really no ‘green room’ to meet with the band prior to the show. She ended up meeting them in a coat check room! There was no way to take a photo of all 5 of them in a row – no room to move – so she snapped one shot of each band member and kindly sent them off to me via email. Gotta love digital!

Brad Avery // David Carr // Mac Powell // Mark Lee // Tai Anderson – Third Day

My NY friends: Jerry Marotta and Pete Levin

So, with one auction under our belts so to speak, we figured we could continue our project and do better with the next auction. We met for coffee once a month and compared notes. At this point in the project, we still were wanting to concentrate on actors and our own ‘Hollywood North’ seemed to be suddenly teeming with A-list stars. My partner had a few contacts in the ‘biz’ and got a few contact addresses, and we formulated a letter to send. Gary Fjellgaard and Valdy, Roger Hodgson and Alexander Siddig all gave us permission to use their names in those letters, which we hoped would convince participation.

We didnt have any luck whatsoever with actors. Not one response back, not even a negative response. We were frustrated, so decided to try more musicians. A brand new band that had been on tour with U2 were coming to Vancouver to headline their own show and they supported Save the Children, so we sent off a request and recieved our first ‘no’ answer. We were crushed. Looking back on it, it makes sense though- their manager didnt want the band to be affiliated with our charity, but affiliated with Save the Children. At the time it was a bitter one to accept though.

Around this time, my friends all migrated from Livejournal to various other blogs including Facebook. I never could get the hang of Facebook, and ended up at Myspace. I didnt know much about HTML but tried to put together a profile and all of a sudden I had bands ‘friend requesting’ me like crazy! At first, it was the unsigned bands who wanted me to ‘join their street teams’ or ‘vote for me in this crazy poll’, or ‘buy our merchandise’, and it was strange and a bit disconcerting until I began to find my way around and figure things out.

I started finding A-list bands but also realized: there were 10 ‘Bono’s’ and probably not one of them was the ‘real’ Bono. Same for many other bands – lots of Myspaces claiming to be the official band, but not really. I think it all started by me finding Tony Levin. He’s Peter Gabriel’s bass player when Pete goes on tour, and I”ve always thought he was an amazing musician. I ‘friended’ him when I realized the profile was indeed his, that he himself looked after it, and blogged about his touring (not blogged by an assistant.) I started looking at his friends list, and found his brother Pete Levin. Pete’s a jazz musician, not rock and roll, but he looked like a very nice man, and his profile had a really cool blurb on it:
————————————————————————————————–
It’s great making new friends here on MySpace and catching up with many old friends. Making the world smaller is what the Internet does best. But I’m not here to just “collect” friends. So here’s the deal:

I’m going to deny your add request if I don’t know you and …

your profile is blocked, or
you show only a screen name and hide your real name, or
there’s profanity on your page (posted by you or your Myspace ‘friends’), or
your page glorifies drugs, drinking, scantily clad babes, etc.

I’m not being judgmental about your page, but I need to be comfortable with it to post a comment there. If you need any of that qualified, we’re not going to be friends anyway, so save your energy. I’m just telling you.

Pete
Woodstock, NY January ‘08
———————————————————————————————————–
I love that blurb!  I thought ‘this man has a great sense of humor and I must know him’, so I sent him a friend request but forgot that I had written on my profile that I didnt like jazz music at all. I got quite an interesting response back from Pete, but it was tongue in cheek and superbly funny, and he accepted, and I started listening to his jazz. (which I now absolutely love btw). From Tony and Pete, I found Jerry Marotta (drummer for Peter Gabriel as well as session drummer, producer, writer, and singer), and it just kept growing – but I’m getting ahead of myself

I found that Jerry was coming to town to play with Todd Rundgren (along with Tony Levin), so I sent Jerry a message and he responded and said ‘yes, he’d love to do a photo.’ He was so unpretentious about the whole thing – told me what hotel he was at, told me to call him when he got to town and we’d set up the meeting at the venue, etc… and it helped tremendously to have someone so down to earth and approachable for my first Myspace request/encounter.

me pretending i know what i'm doing

 

The day I did the photo, I was able to watch him tune his drum kit and do a sound check ,and I was like a kid in a candy store – I’m a closet wannabe drummer

 

After his soundcheck, he posed with the doll in various locations in the club to ensure I had enough light to get the shot (I still didnt know how to use the camera on anything but ‘Auto’ and I was still using a film camera). I took a few shots; by the tables, by the windows, sitting at his drum kit etc, and it was unhurried and unstressful and I really appreciated it, and still do.

Jerry Marotta - photo nightMair Photography

 

Working with Jerry enabled me to have hope this project could work and that most musicians were going to be very much just regular real people.

Welcome to my blog

So, where to begin? i suppose at the beginning. Grab a cup of coffee, tea, what-have-you and take a load off. I’ll try to not ramble on, but sometimes I get excited about things so we’ll see

I met my friend ‘M’ online through U2’s website and it turned out we lived in the same city. Other than having an interest in U2 we both had been inspired by Bono’s TED Awards Speech (see youtube video)

We had both signed up for the ONE Campaign and wanted to ‘do’ something but didnt know what. We met for coffee and talked and came up with a wild idea! The idea was to use the Comfort Dolls I had been knitting for ICross and get celebrities to hold them, then take a photo of them, and auction it off, sending the proceeds to an African charity.

We had an idea, but no idea how to make it work! How to contact celebrities? And how to get a photo? Most actors are based out of Los Angeles and we’re in Canada – although at the time we did have a film studio here. And how to auction the photos? Who would actually want them, and how would we find those who did want them? Despite all the unknowns, we decided to go ahead. We came up with the name, thinking that we’d change it if we thought of something more catchy or clever (we never did ). And we planned our first photo. A friend of a friend was going to a Star Trek Convention in a few weeks so we decided to send a doll with her and see what she could do.

I knitted a larger version of the Doll Pattern and sent it off, along with an index card I formulated on my home printer, and we waited. A week later, the lady came back with our first digital photo – actor Alexander Siddig from Star Trek Deep Space Nine.

 We had to decide, should we auction the photo by itself, or should we get a few more under our belt first? Both of us were so new to it all, my partner had some limited experience with eBay – I had none. I had experience with graphics and a digital camera, and she didnt – so between us we fumbled and were able to get a write-up on eBay. Thinking back on it, it’s amazing to me that we actually figured out what we were doing.

We decided to get a few more items before our first auction, so scoured the newspaper looking for ideas – The Black Crowes were coming to town in a month, and my partner was a huge fan. She couldnt afford to buy a ticket, but she knew about them; knew that often they’d come out before the show and sign autographs for the fans. We figured – l’ets go down to the venue the day of the show, take a doll and card, and see what happens.’

Steve Gorman Black Crowes - nightMair photography 06

The day of the show, off we went. We waited for hours before anyone came out – but the consilation was that at least there were other fans waiting so we didnt feel so weird . The first person out was the keyboard player, and we nervously approached him. He said ’sure, but when I come back I’ll do it.. I’m off to the store.’  Sigh. Next came a roadie, who was an incredibly nice man, and who figured the drummer would be interested. Out comes the drummer, Steve Gorman, and we fumble nervously through our ’speal’ and show him the doll. He lights up, says ’sure thing’, and poses for a photo. By this time, the light was almost gone, and I had no idea how to change the settings on my camera to compensate, so just tried my best.

After photographing Steve, the roadie came back out to talk to us, and we had a great conversation with him. I think his name was Dan. He really wanted to know about the dolls, about how Icross used them, and about our fledgling project, and we stood and talked to him for about half an hour. At the end of that time, he had to go back into the venue as the concert was about to start, and my partner and I decided on the spot, with basically no discussion between us, to give ‘Dan’ the doll. He was tickled pink, and it tickled me pink to see his face when I gave it to him.

me——> self portrait taken in the grill of the Black Crowes tour semi-truck.

The keyboard player never did pose for us but we were happy enough to have Steve say yes - we really didnt think we could convince anyone to do this with us!

A month or so later, building on the confidence of that encounter, I contacted Canadian Folk icon Valdy and asked if he’d be willing to participate. He was going to be at the Nakusp Music Fest (as I was), and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity. I also found that Roger Hodgson (Supertramp) was headlining that show, so sent an email to his manager and was shocked to actually get a response back from both of them – yes, we’d love to help out, contact us once you get there.

Valdy was so down to earth; after his show he invited ‘fans’ to come to the media tent and say ‘hi’, so I approached him over there, and he was pretty cool. At the same time, he suggested I ask his friend and co-performer, Gary Fjellgaard, so I got some practice explaining on the spot what our project was all about. Gary agreed to pose.

Valdy - nightMair photography 06

Gary Fjellgaard - nightMair photography 06

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later that afternoon, just as it was turning from daylight to dusk, I had a meeting with Roger at his hotel (there’s really only two hotels in Nakusp ) His assistant was a wonderful lady, easy to talk to – put me at ease which was great – I was sooo nervous. Roger was a sweetheart. He wanted a really good shot so led me off the hotel balcony and out to the street where there was a white picket fence and trees in the church yard (right beside the hotel). He was so patient with me; waiting for me to get the perfect shot, and posing in different ways. The shots all came out well, but I chose the one with the best facial expression – there’s just something about that shot, something kind in his eyes.

Roger Hodgson - nightMair photography 06

By August we figured it was time to take the bull by the horns and actually do something with the photos, so looked to learn how to use eBay.

Once we figured out the eBay thing, we added a few magazines to the auction, and had our first auction. When I think back on that first auction – it was so… amateur But we raised some money, and we sent the first proceeds to Save the Children Fund Canada.

We felt great. We felt like we accomplished something more than just sitting and talking about the poverty issues, and so it was on to our next set of ‘celebs’ and our next auction!