I'm On A Boat (Part 2)

We worked arrivals (kind of) for the second party on the boat. Soooo sleepy now, but I got a nice little video of the submarine. So cute!

Random Shots

1) The owner of Papa Ninos 2, Pierre, is very excited we came back this year.

2) Us girls outside one of the many adorable restaurants we've visited.

3) Me holding Allison's giant bottle of vodka. Yeah, it's real.

4) Our hotel's LAME 30 euro breakfast buffet.

5) The desk in my room. I am working on 3 simultaneous projects and need to stay organized!!

Le Mesclun

Le Mesclun is a fantastic little french restaurant in Old Town, just a couple minutes off the west end of the Croisette. It's up a windy little street that's lined with adorable restaurants. Those are the tough tables to grab, as each place has only 6-10 tables and dinners last 2-3 hours. We went as a group and had one of the more amazing meals of our stay. I ended up with a celeraic soup with some kind of mushroom garnish, cod with vegetable "paint" (basically puree of beets, celery and carrot, each mixed with butter, that the chef smudged on the plate) and a chocolate lava cake with pistachio gelato. We sipped a white burgundy and thoroughly enjoyed our 2+ hour dinner.

Cannes Cannes!

This year is pretty cool, but EMPTY. Way less people, fewer parties, less money spent overall. The studios who are doing things have scaled back, though there are still the requisite ads at the Carlton Hotel. TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN has a giant Bumblebee statue. UP had a replica of the (cartoon) house and a giant billboard (the space is now covered in fake snow for A CHRISTMAS CAROL). Still just as tacky as ever.... But this year's poster is pretty cool!!!

YAY, check-in!!

So this was my home for 7 hours last night. MUCH more comfortable than last year, this time we had nice weather AND a tent. And some funky floral arrangement... still not sure about that one. It was just sitting there, minding its own business, until Hayden Panetierre showed up and all hell broke loose. A gaggle of paparazzi swarmed her as she walked up the red carpet to check in and one (or more) of the dumba**es managed to completely take out the plant. Completely knocked it over -- roses flying. C'est la vie!

Party crashers

Last night was AWESOME. Had a pretty smooth check-in, nothing too exciting. As usual, a few people who couldn't understand why they weren't on the list because

A) Do you know who I am?!

B) Do you know who my father/brother/agent/bff is?!

C) party host e-mailed me and told me to come (P.S. doesn't happen. ever.)

D) I've been to other parties on this boat.

E) I saw party host at X party and he invited me personally (P.S. he didn't go to that party)

F) All the other parties have let me in.

G) party host said to just show up and call from the dock (P.S. doesn't happen. ever.)

It's ridiculous how hard these "grown-ups" work - and all the lies they tell - just to get into a party. One gal used a friend's legitimate e-mail invite to forge one to herself to look as though it came from us. She spent 20 minutes trying to convince us to let her in, stood around pouting for another 20 minutes, then came back at us threatening that she'd have one of us fired when she spoke to the host tomorrow. My co-worker happily turned over his business card. Oddly, he still has a job.

Some people are stupid enough to try to use other people's names to check in. We require a photo ID from anyone we don't know by sight. It's one thing to try to use random names (agents, managers, etc.) but one dude actually tried to check in under the name of a semi-known race car driver. We knew who the legitimate one was - we looked his photo up the day before online and he had already checked in - but this new dude SWORE that it was him and who the hell had we already let in and how dare we question his legitimacy. We asked him for photo ID, but he said he must have left his wallet at home, but would we accept a business card?

F**k land, I'm on a boat.....

We have all been so obsessed with the SNL digital short, "I'm on a Boat", and have been singing/humming/quoting it for the past week. I don't care if you've already seen it, you must watch it immediately, if not sooner.

Par-tay

Tonight I am working check-in for a yacht party in Cannes. Just like last year, we sit at a little table at Gare Maritime and smile, check people in from a list and tell the losers to GO AWAY. Those lucky enough to be on the list board a tender that cruises them out to the party boat, which is anchored somewhere out in the middle of the water. It's already looking better than last year. Last year it was cold and rainy and we all froze our butts off as we sat from 10 pm til 4 am. This year we planned better, and have a little tent, heaters, etc... so of course it's sunny, beautiful and NOT RAINING. More proof that fortune favors the prepared.

Running

I have the Camp Pendleton Mud Run on June 6/7 and the Seattle Rock-and-Roll Half Marathon on my birthday, June 27th. Anyhow, I have to get some runs in so I will be ready and Cannes is a BEAUTIFUL place to do it. My hotel is 2 blocks off the Croisette, which is the street that lines the beach and has all the hotels and Film Festival stuff. They shut down the street for the festival, so it's like the Vegas strip with people everywhere - smoking, drinking, being annoying. After about 8 am there are too many people out there and it's impossible to even walk, much less run, so I try to get out by 6 or 7. End to end, the Croisette is almost a mile. We walk it a few times each day, but the morning runs are my favorites. I run past the Palais (the festival HQ), past the famous La Pizza, and curve along the water on the sidewalk. Then it starts to get busier on the Croisette, so I hop up to the rue de Antibes (the big shopping street) and head back to the hotel). I wear a Garmin 305 to track my runs and stats... Here's a little map.....

More Cannes

Transformers had a pretty cool life-sized Bumblebee outside the Carlton Hotel.

Cannes

More Cannes

This year we're doing a couple of yacht parties. Sound glamorous? Okay. We went yesterday to a site visit at the dock and on the boat. Unfortunately I don't have any pics/vids from the tour to share.... but the ride on the tender was still pretty cool. The tender picked us up from Port Pierre Canto and took us out to the yacht. Takes about 10 minutes, depending on where the boat's sitting (floating?). The weather is MUCH nicer this year - high 70s and sunny compared to last year's low 70s and drizzle - and it's absolutely gorgeous outside. This was an amazing chance to escape the lobby and get some fresh air.

Who wants to see some Cannes?

From Boston (4 days) to Miami (5 days), then to Cannes. All in all, not a bad trip. The east coast start knocked a few hours off the flight, so from MIA-LHR was about 8.5 hours. Then LHR-NCE was another 2 hours. I hadn't gotten more than 5 hours of sleep a night for the last couple weeks, so I took advantage of the downtime and slept for most of both flights. Unfortunately, by the time we landed, my cold was kickin' and I was not doing well. Congestion + air pressure = misery. I somehow got through the descent (thank you jack daniels!), found my bags, stumbled through customs (really just an exit - I don't even think it was manned) and caught a car into Cannes.

This year we are at the Residence All Suites Hotel. It's a perfect location - a block and a half off the Croisette (the main drag) keeps us close to the action, but not quite squashed in the crowds. The hotel itself is relatively new, so I hear. And true to Cannes-form, the lobby and pool are pretty sharp, in order to impress the passerbys. The rooms aren't too bad. They're modern in an American hotel chain way, like a Sheraton, which is to say that they are totally fine and clean, but don't have any personality. Lobby has wireless, but it won't reach to the room. Ugh. They also seem to hate electrical outlets. I had to buy an extension cord and a power strip to power the Airport Express, MacBook, phone, blackberry, iPod, Garmin.... (and that doesn't include the USB-powered gizmos). But check out my view!!

Gaga

Easily the best performance so far... Lady Gaga!!! In between putting out fires, I managed to catch a couple songs in the best seat in the house - balcony house right, in videoland (where our video guys were set up). Unfortunately my little Flip video camera doesn't do bass very well. Or at all. Turn off your speakers. You'll thank me.

T-Mobile

Had great fun on the first 4 stops. LA and San Fran flew by pretty quickly, then Boston and Miami. All had amazing performances, but there were definite stand-outs - Lady Gaga, N.E.R.D., Natasha Bedingfield & Wyclef. Now looking forward to Estelle & LL Cool J on May 28th in NYC!

Here are a few pics from the shows...

1 - Pharrell signed this square on the meet and greet wall... don't know if you can quite see it, but it reads, "N.E.R.D. should win a...." with an arrow pointing to the Grammy.

2 - N.E.R.D. on stage.

3 - San Francisco stage.

4 - LA stage.