What Cannes I Say?

Except perhaps: je m'appelle fromage, je voudrais un croissant!

I don't know how these things happen...but it seems that I'm going to the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival this May for two weeks.

That's right: this Old Style-swilling, America-loving, Hawaiian shirt-wearing, 3rd generation Polak from Chicago will be Foux Da Fa Fa-ing among all the glitz and glamor that Europe and Hollywood have to offer. Cubs Win!

Yeah, so here's the scoop: a really, really awesome friend of mine who's out here knows a guy who runs this program called Creative Minds in Cannes based in LA that gets film students internships with companies at the Cannes Film Festival.

So, yeah, apparently I'll have an internship with a distribution or production company. What happens at Cannes (or so I'm told) is that in addition to the screenings and red carpet it is also a tremendous marketplace for the buying and selling of films. And all these big companies need help with promotional stuff and paperwork and I'm not really sure. But, obviously its a great way to learn a bit more about this crazy business of show.

In addition to working these internships, they also give groups of people in the program a video camera and shit and we get to go make a movie.

Plus we have access to a number of workshops, networking events, and parties.

Plus I hear there's this thing called the Mediterranean that can be fun.

Lot of action there, a lot of action. And I need to be in France by May 12 and my classes at USC end on May 8, which would be fine, except that I had this crazy idea to swing into New York for two days. So I get to finish classes, go LA to New York, and then New York to Cannes.

Why the small stop in the big apple? Firstly its a good way to break up the would-be 13 hour flight from the Pacific Coast to the Cote de Azur. Secondly it gives me a chance to gloat in person to Hupp about my baseball fantasy team (the Fightin' Fukudomes!!) sitting nicely at 3rd in the league standings. And at the end of the day I just had to ask myself a question that gets me through the tough decisions:

What Would Jay-Z Do?

I think that the man who talks big about success and welcomes us to Hollywood should be an inspiration to us all. I know that I am constantly trying to make myself in his image. And I think he'd stop in New York.

And so to complete the tour de force of these cities of some note and culture I will return to the states on Memorial Day to a place that offers more than LA., New York, and Cannes put together.

My sweet home Chicago.

My wheels should be hitting the O'Hare tarmac on May 26 just as the Dietzler Beef hits the sizzling Weber at good old 156 N. Montclair. I plan to spend about a week in Chicago, no doubt to detox from meeting too many big, fat, Hollywood phonies.

More on everything later. That's all for now.

Or as the French say au revoir

BTW: I think I need to brush up on the ole' francais considering that the only sentences I know I said at the top and they mean "my name is cheese, I would like a croissant"

-"Parlez vous le francais?"

-"Uhhhh.......no."