Newport Film Festival

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Newport Film Festival. One of my friends is doing PR for the event and got me VIP access to some amazing films....and one not so amazing film!  

Newport is a fun place to visit in Southern California...it's quite surreal and totally in-line with all the reality tv shows you see on TV. Amazing homes with unprecedented views of the water, high-fashion shopping, elaborate apparel worn for the most mundane tasks, and the home of the Newport Beach film festival! Shows were previewed at Fashion Island and at The Lido theater on Balboa Island. All sorts of celebrities were in attendance for the showings and the fabulous post parties.  

We drove up on Saturday and Sunday to check out the "scene" and see a few shows. It was quite entertaining! Two shows that I must recommend are "That's It, That's All" and "Rudo y Cursi". 

If you are a snow fan - skier or snowboarder, you'll appreciate "That's It, That's All" - the movie is a breathtaking documentary about snowboarding done with a fantastic soundtrack and the most amazing cinematography. I found myself grasping my seat and moving my feet as if I was riding the Alaskan glaciers and New Zealand terrain with these masters. Check out the trailers to see for yourself.  

For those who enjoy the Cuarón brother's (Carlos & Alfonso) films (i.e. "Y Tu Mama También", "Children of Men"), you'll love this new film with Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, "Rudo y Cursi".  This is Carlos's directorial debut and he couldn't have had a better pair of actors. The film is about two brother's plights to get out of the 'campo' and obtain fútbol stardom as professional soccer players in Mexico City. Gael and Diego are phenomenal together, as always, and the Argentine narrator and talent scout adds a soothing continuity to the movie. Even if you speak Spanish fluently, you still may need to defer to some of the subtitles as the Mexican slang is, as usual, quite prevalent! 

Now I better get on booking a flight for heli-skiing...where to go?! 

PS - the movie NOT to see.... "Made for Each Other". I wanted to poke both my eyes out!

My Favorite Things...ok, just a few

Since my blog so far has just been old e-mails from a few recent trips, I thought I'd add a list of some of my favorite things that I've visited in my travels over the last ten years or so...

Spain: This one deserves it's own chapter since I lived there for a year, but I'll just point out a few highlights....visit Toledo and see the only place where all 3 major religions have co-habitated peacefully...Tapas in San Sebastian...travel south to Ronda....skiing or riding at Baqueira Beret...stay in a Parador like this one in Granada...and don't forget the cradle of the wine region Haro.

Mammoth Lakes, California: Yes, I will drive 6 1/2 hours alone to go up there...I always feel so peaceful whether riding the mountain (snowboard or bike), sleeping outside in the summer, or

 just spending time with friends. The mountain stays open longer than most mountains in the West (11,000 ft peak) and spring skiing is the norm usually. The Summer is almost better than the winter as there are outdoor concerts, biking, hiking, ("wiking" for the less athletic), camping, picnics, etc. Yosemite is only an hour away as well!

Home: this is the view from my parent's house...it's hard not to appreciate the natural beauty. Windansea Beach....Fidel's...North Park / South Park...running the convention center steps....bike rides through the Elfin Forest....visiting Ready Room 6 on the Midway...cover bands at Surf N Saddle...Rock N Roll Marathon...my first exposure to Junior League....high school memories in LJ. Although I'm originally from Minnesota and will always appreciate my midwest roots, my formative years were here...wherever I am, this will still be"home". 

Snow sports: At age 3, my parents left me off with ski school at Deer Valley in Park City and, well, I loved it. I spent MANY cold days skiing in Minnesota and have been fortunate to take that sport around the world. The last 12 years have transitioned me into a snowboarder, but I still get a good ski in once in a while. Some of my favorite trips have been to Sun Valley, Idaho, Deer Valley/Alta/Snowbird in Utah, Telluride/Aspen/Beaver Creek/Snowmass/Vail, all in Colorado, The Pyrenees in Spain, Innsbruck, Austria (a MUST for the thrillseeker: Moonlight Toboganning!), and Mammoth Lakes, California. My list of places to "ride before I die" include the Chilean Andes, heli-skiing in Whistler, Chamonix/Mont-Blanc in France, and Gstaad in Switzerland.

....more favorite things and places to come....

March 10, 2009: The Great Wall to Deep Fried...??

Well, the day has come....we are en route from The Peninsula Hotel to the Beijing airport. I can't believe this amazing adventure has come to and end. Here's a recap of the last few days.... We left Shanghai on Sunday taking the Maklev bullet train to the airport. The train travels the 35 km in 7min 20 seconds reaching speeds of up to 421 km/hr! It was crazy! 

We arrived in Beijing and met Joe, our guide, and Mister 2, our driver...2nd best driver in China - 1st best is in the hospital (apparently). A side note - things are all referred to in numerical order....#1 road, #2 road or #1 university, #2 university...we asked why and they said it was simpler than naming them all. Guess that makes sense especially for foreigners to maneuver easily. Our hotel here was The Peninsula - one of the nicest in terms of amenities and accommodations I have ever stayed at. While at the gym this morning, 3 people were there to assist me with water, towels, etc. Service is paramount...almost overwhelmingly. 

On Monday we went to see the Forbidden City where the Emperors lived. It is 240 acres big and we were there for 2 hours and only saw about 1/10th of all there was to see. For those that remember the movie "The Last Emperor", the story of Puyi, many of the scenes we visited while there. This was an amazing place to visit - the main Hall of Supreme Harmony, Middle Harmony, Preserving Harmony, the living quarters where the concubines lived and the gardens. Quite an experience. 

From there we went to the Temple of the Heaven, the Daoist temple, surrounded by great gardens, which was 3 times bigger than the Forbidden City. As Joe said, everything in Beijing is big. He wasn't kidding. It was also very cold...about 35-45 while we were here with some good winds. We did see blue sky and a bright sun our first day, which was a nice change from Shanghai. 

We tried to visit Tiananmen Square three times during the trip, but the National People's Congress was in session while we were here so we could only drive by as it was blocked off. 

Our lunch was at a very chic restaurant, My Humble House, from Singapore. The food was fantastic - a little too much, but a very innovative take on traditional Chinese food. One of the "celebrity" news casters was eating next to us and of course Bob went to chat him up. My mom and I escaped out the door before the typical Bob introduction! 

Monday evening we went out for dinner....for pizza. You can tell we were a little Chinese fooded out. After dinner, we visited the night market...my email subject above is in reference to what we saw. We had visited a night market in Taiwan and had seen some gruesome things. This market was much cleaner and the food looked very attractively presented. There was fruit on sticks that had been dipped in crystallized sugar, meat, fish, squid, etc. Many westerners were eating the food...I'm not sure how they managed as our guide said do NOT eat anything. Maybe they didn't make it out of their hotels the next day. 

As we continued through the food carts, I encountered a man shaking a stick at my with some rubbery white flesh wrapped around it. I couldn't understand what he was saying....Sheep something? I looked up at the "menu" and was shocked to read "Sheep Penis"! Holy moly! That same stand had chicken testicles, scorpions, star fish (yup!), cicadas, silk worms, caterpillars, ...I can go one but won't. It was quite a sight! I'll send pictures soon.... 

Yesterday we went to the Summer Palace where the Emperor and Empress spent their summers. It was on a huge lake with beautiful walk ways and amazing sites. It was freezing but well worth it. From there we traveled to the Great Wall. What an amazing site...I hiked up the steep steps and was awed by how this 4,100 mile long wall was built and then guarded with garrison towers by the soldiers from the Mongolians and Siberians. 

Our wall visit was followed by lunch at a very modern Kampinski hotel in the hills adjacent to the wall - another unique and amazing place. 

We are at the airport now...before I send this, a few notes: 

1. Toddlers go around with exposed derrieres...this is because they don't wear diapers and the exposure facilitates a quick "release". 

2. Wine in China is exorbitant. Beer is definitely not their forte either. 

3. The Chinese do not believe in heat during the winter. I had to sit on my mom's feet to unthaw them. 

4. Beijing was a very western looking city with huge avenues and much more organized and intuitive than Shanghai. While we drove around in circles in Shanghai, our travels were much more straight forward here. 

5. People believe in the People's party, think Taiwan is theirs and the Dalai Lama is bad. They "aren't sure" what happened with Tiananmen in 1989. 

So many more thoughts but I'll give you a break...

March 8, 2009: Hu...or Shanghai

Last Thursday (Wednesday for most of you), we started up the river that led to Shanghai. I can't describe the scene well enough...intense fog and about 45 degree weather, boats passing us on all sides with all sorts of cargo and all sizes. We eventually got in further and could see a vague outline of the coastline, which appeared to be all shipping yards. We pulled into Shanghai port at 2pm and out my balcony I could see through the fog the famous Pearl Tower in Pudong and the Global Financial Center, the 2nd tallest tower in Asia (2nd to tower 101 in Taiwan, which we visited a few yrs ago). Customs was interesting....2 hours for the officials to review every passport and then we all lined up and they had us present our passports personally one by one. 4 hrs after arriving we cleared customs (in all other ports it was a 30 minute process max). 

Thursday night we went to the Shanghai Center at the Portman Ritz-Carlton to see a Chinese acrobatic show. It was an amazing program...like Cirque du Soleil times 50. Friday morning we departed the ship...we encountered some of my favorite ship crew men coming back from a night on the town...they'd gone big and looked like some hair of the dog was in order! Our guide and driver collected us and we spent the day visiting sites. Contemporary art is very big in Shanghai right now and we started at M-50, an art complex filled with a large variety of galleries with all sorts of contemporary media - really interesting. 

We visited the Yuan garden for lunch and had a LOT of dumplings (maxed out!). Tried some Tsingtao beer...kind of like a Miller in my opinion. After lunch we visited an antique market en route to the Shanghai museum where we saw the history of Jade, pottery, pottery and other artifacts. Quite interesting. The area where the museum was is the People's Square which used to be a race track back in the 20's. With the introduction of Communism gambling was outlawed so the racetrack was replaced with the square which has a beautiful theater, the museum, the urban development center and open parks. 

   

Saturday morning we headed to The Bund, which runs along the river and was part of the British Concession during the foreign occupation. All of the architecture is very western and if it weren't for being the only blonde person in a sea of Chinese I might have thought I was in England or Paris. We went next to the Urban Development Center which showed where Shanghai has come since its inception and with a HUGE model of the projected landscape for 2020 in Shanghai. It was amazing.     

Lunch was in the French Concession and we walked around touring a traditional Shikuman house. These homes that still exist house 5 Chinese families whereas in the French Concession one family would occupy the entire home. We enjoyed an amazing Shanghainese lunch at a fabulous restaurant there and then continued on to Pudong where we visited the Pearl Tower and the Shanghai History Museum. The rest of the afternoon we spent walking on Nanjing road looking at all the stores. One amazing store opened while we were there...a flagship Barbie store! Imagine 6 stories of Barbie with hundreds of Chinese children running around exploring all the Barbie paraphernalia - even a full size Vera Wang gown to match the Vera Wang Barbie! We enjoyed a brief tour and quickly escaped the excited swarms of children!     

A brief comment on the weather...it was about 45-50 degrees with some winds. The "sun" came out and looked like a dull light bulb in a smoky room. Even in winter the pollution is still quite evident. At days end my eyes were burning some so we toured mostly in the car especially because of dad's eye.   Yesterday we flew to Beijing. I am signing off now as we are in a trolley just arriving at the Forbidden City!!!