I’ve wanted to go to The Cannes Film Festival since before the 50^th anniversary – over 8 years. Gee, just imagine if I had been saving up all along I might have been able to go this year. Anyway, this week I saw some photos of a press conference and read an issue of the Variety Cannes free edition and it’s all just some big business convention that the public is invited to attend by proxy. The tradeshow booths are outside and are mostly permanent structures, although some vendors set up just for the festival. It’s just like a big opening night in Hollywood where you see a lot of actors (or thesps as the trade calls them) and watch a lot of movies. I like the watching movies part. That’s good. And seeing thesps is good too – especially if I can experience them as real people and not income streams. However, the latter is exactly what happens at The Cannes Film Festival. It’s a place for producers and directors to show their wares and make deals with distributors. Very boring. If I were young, buxom and so inclined (to mostly go topless) it could also be a way for me to get into movies as a thesp myself. Boring.

So, I no longer have any ambition to go there in person, except maybe just to see Cannes when the festival is not there (and to maybe go topless when no one is looking).

Another mostly dead dream is to go to NYC during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Instead of an outburst of creative expression, it’s a business convention for the NY theatre industry held in the public view. It’s a way to promote what’s new on Broadway this season.

Turns out my dreams are just contributions to the media circus that boosts someone else’s income, not visits to true festivals that actually celebrate something. That is what I really need: a reason to celebrate something.

My next vacation will most likely be a camping trip. I like sleeping outside. Really. I hate leaving my dog behind. He loves being outside with me.

I am putting money aside and saving a bit by not having a real (going somewhere exotic, or new-different-and-exciting) vacation. However, I am reminded by reading old journals that typically around the end of October my funds diminish so I need to put aside a cushion for that time which lasts until March. So, the whole idea of saving one year to have a really fabulous vacation the next has fallen to corporate greed and my inability to negotiate a decent salary or to find a job that’s worth the effort.

So, what I really need is a reason to celebrate.

Short List of Vacation Ideas:

1. Cannes (during the not festival time)


2. Mensa World Gathering 2006


3. Tahiti (during the not Billabong Pro competition)


4. Key West (anytime)


5. The Bahamas (anytime but especially in February)


6. Germany in the summer


7. Burning Man – a real festival (need a serious plan for this one; seems like a lot like work)


8. Canal boating in England and Wales


9. Horseback trail riding through the mountains


10. Backpacking in a wilderness area


11. Ocracoke for a long fly-in weekend