Videotaping a documentary about my life - and Valentine's Day related happenings.

The big event since the last blog post happened was when Fred Golding, an Academy Award nominated producer called me up about videotaping a documentary of me to be used for the match.com website. It will be posted soon on the site.

We agreed that for starters it would be a good thing to come to SCANDINAVIA HOUSE, a Scandinavian Cultural Center in NYC, to videotape me while I wore my “journalist hat” while attending a press preview of the opening of the Swedish Silver Exhibition which is going to be up until May 2007. They promised to be discreet, but how discreet can a television crew of 3 be trailing me around the showcases, causing quite a bit of stir and amusement from the president and vice president?. (I have worked there in the past). Fred, Alex, the video photographer, and Bruce, the co-producer, stayed with me about two hours.

The next day, the day before Valentine’s Day, they showed up as agreed at my apartment at 10 o’clock sharp. Here they followed me around as I pointed out my portraits, watercolors and the stories behind them. They took a good deal of time with me, interviewing me about my life, coming to this country, my previous life with my husband, who is now deceased, and about my children.

At about 11 o’clock they took a brief break. In a very short time, Fred was back, sprinting up the stairs, telling Alex to start up the camera again because someone was going to knock on the door. It turned out to be a messenger delivering a DOZEN LONG STEMMED BEAUTIFUL RED ROSES!!! I had no idea who could be behind that. It turned out to be from a nice gentleman who took me out the Saturday before! I was touched by this thoughtfulness needless to say, so the crew videotaped me putting the roses in a vase and also calling him up and thanking him for his thoughtfulness. I did not actually have a Valentine’s date, but he thoughtfully invited me out for a full day the following Saturday to enjoy the countryside of Cold Spring and Bear Mountains.

I took the train out and hiked the mountains for a couple of hours with him followed by lunch at a French restaurant in picturesque Cold Spring. We also visited the various cute little stores on Main Street and enjoyed the sight of the gorgeous mountains. The evening’s finale was a fireside cocktail hour and a cozy dinner at the Hudson House in Cold Spring. It was a most enjoyable day in the country and the weather was glorious!

The “winks” and emails come flying in fast and furious, but fortunately at a manageable pace. Before the campaign I had these visions of being hopelessly flooded with mail, but thank goodness I get about 5-6 a day, sometimes more, sometimes less…

Still it is the younger men that dominate the mail, and most of them are very far away and not suitable for dating. I even had a Danish man from Denmark email me. Still I get a fair amount of mail from other women, telling me how much they enjoy reading my blogs and my profile. I have apparently been very inspirational to them. I am thankful for that input. I keep receiving emails from an Asian woman in Singapore who updates me on the ways of Asian dating rituals. (Actually, they are not much different from those of New York). She mentioned having dates at the famous RAFFLES HOTEL, world renown hotel where my husband and I and our daughter were about 10 years ago. Fun to hear about that!

Also, a good number of people and friends have called me to let me know that they have seen my commercial on television or heard the radio commercial.

Match.com sent the tv commercial to me in a DVD which I have now gotten copied and mailed out to my modeling agencies. Hopefully, it should result in some more work for me!

Meetings and Greetings

Several interesting events happened this week:

My week was dominated by emails from Scotland, Texas and Chicago. A very sweet guy from Chicago offered to fly to New York to meet up with me and take me to the symphony. I don't know if this date is actually going to happen. The man from Scotland invited me to come and visit him on the way to Denmark, but I don't think that is very likely to happen either. A lovely man in Pennsylvania sent me samples of his love poetry which he writes for a card company (I think).

A very surprising email came from an Editor of an Osaka newspaper in Osaka, Japan. The gentleman was apparently used to the West, having lived 8 years here, and was eager to get an American wife or maybe he meant a westernized wife... He even called me from Japan, and suggested that I come to Japan to visit him. He would supply the ticket. It was pretty amazing to me, and I politely declined since I did not know him. He wanted to call me every Saturday, but I did not think that it was a good idea with this kind of long distance dating so I think that he finally got discouraged.

Again this week, a good number of women emailed me to thank me for my example and for being an inspiration to them to conquer bad fortunate and make a whole new life for myself, and one particularly lovely girl who also happened to live here on Manhattan sent me such an inspirational email that I gave her my telephone number and asked her to call me. We met in the East Village to talk about Brazil, she is the Anchor Woman for Mayor Bloomberg's Portuguese broadcast to Brazil about financial news. She was charming, fun and very adorable and we resolved right then and there to meet from time to time to discuss our dates and learn from each other's mistakes. That was a fun evening!

The week ended on a very lovely note. I met a charming gentleman on a date with whom I feel that I made a very good connection, and I am rather excited about the possibilities of new beginnings, but caution is the watch word. Proceed slowly and cautiously. So far, so good. Keep tuned in ....

My name in stars!

I am relying heavily on my friends, family and acquaintances, and most of all the people that read my blog to help me spot and report on the various appearances of my television commercial, print ads and radio commercial as it is hard to find time to check it all out. This week my television commercial is airing on Saturday night Feb. 3rd at 8pmEST on Dateline on NBC. Let me know what you think.

I had a wonderful report from my son who reported proudly that he had seen my ad on the Comedy channel, and heard from a previous date in Philadelphia with whom I had three lovely dates last year I received an email telling me that he had seen a front article in the Wall Street Journal, by Sara Silver, where my user name Danishbeauty22 was prominently displayed. The article was particularly interesting in that its headline was surprising to me and probably also to many others:

HOW MATCH.COM FOUND LOVE AMONG BOOMERS
Dating Site Prospers Targeting Older Singles: The Body Art Question.

According to this article, Match.com is the worlds' second-to-largest dating site with 4.3 million members all over the world and it has particularly become popular among the older singles, divorced and widowed.
A good reason to choose this internet dating vehicle!!

I have now also seen the commercial myself and I was very amused to see myself portrayed quite differently than I thought: "I walk out into the spotlight and start singing a couple of bars, giving the impression that I am some sort of entertainer (which I am certainly not). I sing a couple of scales and then I walk out again in my glamorous beautiful champagne colored satin evening gown. On the way out I trip in the hem of the gown and mumble a couple of (inaudible) words and hobble out in my evening shoes.

The effect is one of a glamorous lady (of a certain age) who somehow comically does not quite make it to perfection, and it is quite humorous to me as I never thought that Peggy, the miracle photographer would use that part of the many, many attempts to get it right. I guess the idea is that the people that are portrayed on the commercial are as imperfect as the next person and that the people that put their profile on match.com are also not perfect. (but fun to be with!)

I was very flattered by an interview by Mark Brooks, Online Personals Watch, with MATCH.COM CEO, Jim Safka. You can find it under Match.com, Site Search & Archives:

In a long interview, he outlines the brilliant future for Match.com as one of the World's largest internet dating sites. He gave the interview on December 27, shortly before the match.com campaign was launched.

Mr. Safka says: "In terms of a favorite, my favorite just might be the woman with user name Danishbeauty22, and she is a widow who is on Match.com today.She's 71 years old and has to be one of the better looking 71-year old on the planet. She's is very full of life with many diverse interests. In the TV ad of her singing, she trips up a little bit and you will see that we're not just trying to capture people's perfections, but we're capturing their imperfections. The part where she messes up a bit makes the whole spot just adorable. and captures the human element that is representative of the whole campaign."

I must also report about the many lovely emails that I have received from women who somehow see me as inspiration for their struggle to succeed and who salute me as their hero and the idol and who gives much consolation in difficult times. I have corresponded with a considerable number of them and feel humbled and awed by their feelings. It is difficult for myself to see myself in this new role, but it certainly also made me very happy.

I have a new, exciting date planned for the week before Valentine's Day. I think that the idea is to be comfortable with having a nice date and spend a lovely evening eating a nice dinner with a gentleman in a romantic, intimate restaurant in New York City and not have too great expectations. Otherwise, it is easy to be disappointed.

Till next week ..... good luck and profound thanks for the lovely compliments and inspirational words I have received.