Tinsel & Tine's Dreams and Schemes

Tinsel & Tine's facebook fan page had reached 99 Likes! With the plethora of blogs out there, this was no easy feat. Upon reaching 93, I had started thinking about putting together some kind of dinner and a movie give-away for the person that was my 100th Like.

The pros of writing a blog is that you don't have to answer to, or collaborate with, anyone. The cons being you must do everything yourself: attend events, gather and write content, market/promote and figure out long-term goals and strategy.

So before I had the chance to contact restaurants and distributors and sell them on the idea of giving me a gift certificate and movie passes, respectively; I was already at my 99th Like. That's when I decided this would be a good opportunity to both reward someone following my food and film exploits, and at the same time roll out my new aim and format. Therefore, the prize became a promotional interview on Tinsel & Tine.

Just about everyone you meet anymore is working on something creative; a book, memoir, blog, small business, a cause or charity. I know how hard it is to get your thing out there, cause I'm constantly working on promoting this blog, which is why I really like the idea of trying to help someone in their endeavors.

On facebook, I said I would promote anything as long as it wasn't x-rated or something I found offensive.  I got lucky -  my 100th Like turned out to be somebody in the Philly film arena - Eric Bresler, former TLA store manager and former Managing Director for The Philadelphia Film Festival. He now runs Cinedelphia, a guide to Philadelphia's repertory film and festival communities. Look for my interview/promotional post on Eric and Cinedelphia in the next day or two.

I enjoy writing my opinions of movies and restaurants and I don't intend to stop doing it; but I never pretended to be a film school trained reviewer or hard to please critic. Nor am I a foodie who likes to study the food channel or have people over to sample my dishes. Going to the movies and dining out are two of my very favorite things to do, but on my own terms, not in comparison to others who delve deeply into each industry.

In re-assessing my passion for Tinsel & Tine, I realized I prefer the posts that promote other people's opinions and highlight what they are working on in terms of film and food. If you've been following T &T you may have already seen the new page I posted last month advertising Dinner and an Interview.  I hadn't started promoting it yet because I'm not sure if the entire concept will fly, but I'd like to give it a try:

Tinsel and Tine plans to interview new and emerging filmmakers, producers, actors, restaurateurs and chefs, at the location of a chosen restaurant or featured restaurant. 

The bulk of the post will highlight the person and/or project being interviewed, but interspersed will be comments about the restaurant, our meal, the decor, the service, etc... 

Here's the catch - the bill's on you!  In exchange for the marketable, in-depth, promotional interview post. The interviewee picks up the tab. (entree pricing and caps to be discussed).


Any and all thoughts are welcomed!