In a sure sign that another High Season is approaching, Coconut Coast Studios has resumed its free, weekly sunset cocktail receptions, complete with live music from St. John Flutes, with Katha Riccardi and Rich Greengold, every Wednesday afternoon.
“Our first party went great with over 50 people, and if consumption is an indication of fun, we went through four bottles of champaign and three bottles of rum,” artist Elane Estern tells us.
She also says she’s sold more than 500 copies of her 2010 calendar so far.
A production crew spent three days this summer in the US Virgin Islands shooting scenes for a series of Campbell’s Soup commercials now airing. While we couldn’t get the Film Office folks to tell us exactly what beaches were featured, Steve Bornn, development manager for FilmUSVI, confirms much of the shooting took place on St. John.
St. John is used as a backdrop for commercials and catalogs more often than you might think.
“St. John is a location for many productions. It’s hard to do a beach scenario and not use a St. John beach,” says Steve. “You probably don’t know it, but many of the original Corona beer beach commercials were shot on St. John and St. Thomas.”
The soup shoot, and another for “a major software brand” last month created a combined total of 40 jobs to local crew and services, filled 100 hotel rooms and brought $240,000 in revenue to the Territory, according to the USVI Department of Tourism.
Cruzan Rum, Eddie Bauer, Lands’ End and Ralph Lauren Chaps are among other companies that used the Virgin Islands as advertising backdrops this year. Lots of that work went to local production companies.
Here’s a short version from the new series of Campbell’s Soup commercials. Recognize anything?
If you’ve got the bucks, there are a couple of fine building lots on this stretch of road that winds its way up the mountainside above Rendezvous Bay. No construction that we’ve noticed yet.
They are million dollar lots, but they’re also big… about 2 acres. Jeep Cam, Upper Monte Bay, below!
What’s a date with an eligble St. John man worth? What if the money goes to help a longtime St. John resident pay her medical bills?
On November 7th, Crazy Crackers will stage its first “Men of St. John Male Review and Auction” to raise money for Sharon “Puppy” Lees.
“I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called inflammatory breast cancer in March. I underwent chemotherapy, had a mastectomy and just finished my radiation treatments on St. Thomas last week,” says Sharon, who has lived on St. John for 25 years. “The prognosis looks good and I am so grateful for them thinking of me because I have no insurance.”
The auction starts at 9:30 pm “with St. John’s most eligible bachelors adding their own personality on stage to the auction,” Crazy Cracker’s manager Ashley tells us. They all come with gift certificates from restaurants and bars. There is also a silent auction.
We don’t know if Jose and Dustin (seen here last November getting Crazy Cracker’s ready to open) will be putting themselves up for bids, but they seem like a nice pair of catches. For a good cause and all.
The famous Cruz Bay Grill Rub created by St. John Spice co-owner Ruth Ernst just walked away with a prestigious international award.
The Grill Rub placed third in its category “Cook-it-up” in the 2010 Scovie Awards, named after Wilbur Scoville, inventor of the Scoville Scale, which measures the hotness of peppers. It’s a competition for rubs, marinades, pepper sauces and the like – about 800 entries – judged every year in New Mexico.
Ruth says she invented Cruz Bay Grill Rub in 1998.
“I experimented for a while with different ingredients. It features Caribbean flavors, it isn’t too spicy hot and it is very versatile.”
She says it continues to be the store’s best-selling item and its top mail order item as well.
The former Pickle’s in Coral Bay is back again. After a brief, but apparently unsuccessful run as a retail store, the owners, who also run the Love City Mini Mart have re-opened it as the “St. John Bar and Restaurant.”
As an added bonus, it is being managed by the bush tea man, Victor Hall, of the famous The Kite many years ago on the North Shore.
“We will have open mic, jam sessions and live bands,” Victor tells us. “And there will be happy hour prices every night.”
There’s patio seating out back.
Will it fly like The Kite? Coral Bay loves live music and a 6 dollar cheeseburger is a good start.
On-StJohn.com villa advertiser Monkey No Climb wants us to show off its view. No problem, since that means we got to go enjoy it in person.
Monkey No Climb is a is a brand new two-bedroom cottage near the top of the mountain looking down on Coral Bay. The views are fantastic. See for yourself!
