Well well well, the competition is fierce for our DIVA OF THE YEAR 2007! The votes are literally pouring in, so check out the home page to review the candidates and cast your vote... if you haven't already ;) (And yeah, we're keeping track... so all you double-dipping voters, cut it out ;) hehe)
Anyway, one of our nominated Divas is Rachel Panay.
Two of Rachel's big singles ("Back to Love" and "The Real Thing") are currently featured in a short film that's making the national festival rounds: Signage.
Signage is a a great "quick flick." It covers territory that is probably familiar to a lot of clubbers out there: the dating scene. In particular, the lead character is a gay man who's concerned about his age in the youth and look-conscious world of gay dating (which is definitely the reality of the situation for a lot of my gay friends!)
One night, our 40-something lead guys meets a cutie at a bar. The only hang-up? Mr. cutie is deaf. In the end, even though the two of them connect, they can't pursue a relationship - not because one of them is deaf... but because the OTHER one CAN hear. (You have to watch the movie to understand ;))
The movie's got a great message... at least, the one I took out of it. To me, it basically seems to be saying this: sometimes our "assets" can be "flaws," and sometimes our "flaws" can be "assets." Since we never can tell, let's just be true to ourselves and stop sweating the superficial stuff!
Click HERE to see the movie for free, where it's currently featured on LOGO online.
We spoke to Rachel about Signage, what she thought of the movie, how her music ended up in the flick... and what her next music plans will be!
DIVA OF THE YEAR nominee Rachel Panay... workin' the dance floor!
DIVA DIVO: How did your music end up in the film?
RACHEL PANAY: Well, literally the day before I moved to NYC from DC, I did a photoshoot with a photographer acquaintance, Amery Moultry, who I knew from out and about in DC. He had always said we ought to get together and do some pics. So at the FINAL hour of my DC "residency" I did the shoot and Amery arranged for his makeup artist friend, Diron, to do makeup for the shoot. And as he's doing my face and we are chatting, I am loving his energy and sweetness and attitude.
Those pics wound up being the covers and insert of "The Real Thing" single (even though my label still owes a fee to Amery for it! Yes, its true, my label never paid the photographer for the job he did! I am over protecting people! Pay the bitch biatch!)
SOOOOO, Diron would later introduce me to Rick Hammerly, the writer, director, producer and star of "Signage". We met the night of my performance at 2007 DC Pride, again out and about. I just liked him right away and I already knew I loved Diron. So, he mentioned this project and talked about my music and its availability for his film hence the songs that wound up being used!
DD: What did you think about the movie?
RACHEL PANAY: I thought it was a great short. It is very realistic in that it discusses an early 40-something and how it is to continue to want to go out and be social (and possibly get laid! haha!) in a club scene that's filled with early 20-somethings! But in this case there's an added layer of distinction because his character encounters a 21 yr. old deaf boy. So in the end there are two things that are perhaps TOO different about their characters thus making them incompatible; age vs. youth and deaf vs. hearing. But the lead feels naturally that their failure to make a love connection is reflective of his age. So its very touching in that respect.
Of course, its fun to hear my songs played in the club scenes and see the guys grooving to them and watching the songs weave in and out of their dialogue and so on! I love that of course! haha!
DD: If your own life was a movie right now... what would it be?
RACHEL PANAY: Now that IS the toughest question you've ever asked! haha!
Hmm......OK I am just gonna do stream of consciousness here and you can come up with a cocktail combined of any portions of the following (preferably something not too sweet!)
ROCK-IT-OUT/DISCO-FABULOUS
(1) Flashdance
(2) Studio 54
(3) Blow... with hot Johnny Depp
meets
ARTISTIC SACRIFICE/INSANITY
(4) Shine (piano movie based on Glen Gould)
(5) Cotton Club (Harlem's golden era of music and dance)
(6) A CHORUS LINE
meets
GORGEOUS/FUN/FUNNY/BEAUTIFUL/MUSIC TO DIE FOR
(6) Gone with the Wind
(7) Hello Dolly
(9) Cabaret
DD: Any more upcoming music plans??
RACHEL PANAY: YES! We are looking at "Repeat Performance" to be the next single off of my full album which was released June 2007. I just performed it for the first time at a performance in Washington, D.C. and it was AMAZING to see and FEEL the crowd reaction to it!
For this song there IS going to be a video and we are coming up with concepts and ideas and so on. It's so great because I always either work with close friends OR become close friends with the people I work with so we are just having a great time brainstorming now!
We can't wait to see how it turns out!
There you have it, kids, straight from the DIVA's mouth.
Click here to listen to iTunes samples from Rachel's current album, and head to the home page if you want to give her your DIVA vote!
Finally, check out this MySpace page to see when "Signage" will screen near you :)
JADE
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