Fontaine- whoa

Disclaimer: This blog entry is not about boasting or trying to show off. My besties and I are not snobs. It's about sharing what good karma and lots of good luck can do for 3 girls, out on the town in Miami...


So us 3 gals, decided to head on down to Miami for a few days of R & R pre-wedding. Not quite my bachelorette per say, as I did that a few months back with all my ladies, but more of a fun in the sun kinda thing.

We took the 8pm flight Wednesday night and landed in a wall of delicious humidity.

Fortunately, we were able to spend a few days at the home of my future in laws and max and relax on the beach there.


I wore shorts. Epically important. See why here.


Thursday night we were treated to an incredible dinner at Joe's. See this blog post for more deets on this historic gem. We waited 3 minutes this time. Thank you Rho. Danielle's first time. Although allergic to shellfish, she did enjoy the world famous chicken and all the other incredible sides.


No trip to Miami is complete without a visit to Miami Juice. It was my first time. Yes, it too is all it is cracked up to be. Delicious freshness coupled with incredible people watching.


Friday night, Danielle selected Ceccone's for us. This is a restaurant located in the Soho Beach House, literally nestled just behind the Fontainebleau (pronounced Fontain-blo).



The restaurant itself was gorgeous. Outdoor terrasse style, sparkly lights and trees adorning every corner. The food was quite good. Not incredible but good. Beef tartare, meatballs, seared tuna salad, buffalo mozzarella pizza, a New York strip, and a spaghetti and cherry tomato pasta.

We were hungry. We were also chatted up by some lovely gentlemen from London, on a business trip entertaining clients, who, amazingly picked up our tab. No strings, swear. Cheers!

Then we spotted a crew of 3 other Canadians who looked very familiar! Martin Short, Paul Shaffer and Eugene Levy were dining next to us. It was Martin Short's birthday on the 26th, as well as mine. I was forced to go over and tell him we share a birthday and of course die from the humiliation of asking for a picture. You are always happy afterwards that you asked. And we were.


Quite a way to ring in my 25th birthday. But it got better. On our way out, the 3 amigos stopped in the lobby and Paul Shaffer sat down at the Baby Grand and Martin Short proceeded to regale us with 2 songs. There were about 6 people total watching. INCREDIBLE. Fly ME to the moon. Wow. We were blown away. What an incredible treat and what incredible luck. Free dinner and a show!

A little dark, as this was a covert op.



Saturday morning, we woke and packed up our Dodge Charger and headed south. My dear friends surprised me with a night at the Fontainebleau. I didn't think this trip could get any better. But better it did.

This looks like a pic taken from the website non? Non. MJS Photography in fact. (Melanie Joy Schwam)


If you haven't been, this is the way I feel that I can best describe this joint. To begin, you must know that there was a electronic music festival going on called 'Ultra'. This basically means that there were many more people than usual at this resort and they were all mostly on drugs and wearing a lot of 80's fluorescents. So the FB was a Vegas-esque ginormous rave for the 2 days that we were there.


The people watching was INSANE. I was in heaven.

Walking into one of the 12 lobby's to check in, I walked past Samantha Ronson who totally checked me out. (Lindsay Lohan's ex). I mean I was wearing my Spring Break 2011 t-shirt, sooooo I looked goooooooood ;)



The day unfolded at one of the many pools, people watching mania, and insanely gorgeous weather.

A perfect birthday. Coupled with a bottle of champagne and strawberries sent by my matrons of honour and a stunning bouquet of flowers from my love.


Timer!


Saturday night dinner at Hakkasan- haute Chinois/modern Cantonese cuisine. Yummmmmmm.

Followed by a rooftop photoshoot. Obv. Gotta take advantage of good lighting when you see it.



Unfortunately we paid for our own dinner. :)

Bottle of Sake from the in-laws and dessert from Adam and Lauren Bultz! Merci!


Then, Liv (the club in the Fontainebleau). We wanted in. We wanted to go clubbin. We called the concierge to ask what the situation was if we were guests of the hotel and wanted to get into Liv. They said that that it would cost us $250 a person IF there where tickets left. Ok! Crap.

We walked into the lobby of the FB and there were, no joke, over 500 people clamoring to get in.

As Montrealers, we don't wait in line. That's preposterous. But then how to get in?

At one point, I noticed a fella checking out Melanie 'Annie Lebowitz' Schwam. So, obviously I initiated the conversation and asked him directly if he liked what he saw.

He said yes.

Obviously.

Then Melanie proceeded to be harangued by this guy for about 30 or so minutes. He did promise that he was a VIP and that he could get us in no prob. So we didn't let Melanie tell him off. We needed this vile creature.

After he demanded to see Melanie's feet and hearing about her doctor boyfriend, we had had enough. We told 'Sebastian' that either we walk or he walks us in. First attempt- walks us into the club through some backdoor corridor and upon entry we were greeted by many unhappy looking bouncers who may or may not have been packing heat. They turned us right around.

We thought that was it.

Then he walked us around to the front, we somehow cut through the line and walked right in! For free! Actually free! He left us as soon as we walked in. Score!!!!

Then, y'know, clubbin stuff.


Then a surprise performance by Diddy and the other black guy from the Black Eyed Peas. Anyone know his name?



Fun night. Amazing birthday. Amazing.

Sunday- rough wake up.

Another sick day- weather wise. More crazy people watching.

This guy, we call him Miami Jeff, gave us his cabana when he and his friends left to hit rave #4. Niiiiiiiice.


Then Jamie Foxx. Then McLovin.






All in all, a sick trip. Thank you M & D. Love you so much. Shout out to all my other maids and matrons who we missed terribly. But our last Sobe trip friggin rocked too.


14 days till the wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM the luckiest girl in the world.

www.jeffandliana.com

:)

(Jeff says I need to mention him in every post. Jeff. Love you. Good enough dear?)

Pop Culture Junkie

I am a product of pop culture to the nth degree (To the utmost degree; without limit. Googled it.).

Not sure if it's a result of my parents being cool, or maybe that's just how I was born. What is cool anyway? Subjective no?

Anyhoooo, I am a product of many things and for the purpose of this entry, I will discuss the films that have helped mold me into the human being that I am today.


I will start with the Wizard of Oz because this is a movie that was a huge part of my childhood. It became a family tradition to watch it up north at my country house multiple times a year. It was usually on tv on new years and us kids would stay up late and watch it, eyelids drooping, fighting to stay up. This historic movie led to many many hours of us putting on W.O.O. performances. Stacey was always Toto. We were mean.

Then I aged a bit and turned my attention to Grease. LOVED the original (obv), imitated every dance move thousands of times and was changed, as an 8 year old.


Grease led me to Xanadu. We wished more than anything that we could be Greek muses reincarnating ourselves on Earth to help a struggling artist open a ROLLER DISCO!!!!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT??????? Gene Kelly was in it!


Then Grease 2 came along. And the original Grease disappeared for me. THIS was my new favourite movie. I know there are lots of you who think I'm nuts for loving Grease 2 more than 1, but what can I tell you, IT ROCKED MY WORLD. And I know EMD, TG and LS agree with me wholeheartedly. Cool Rider, Girl for All Seasons, Let's Bowl... the list goes on. The amount of times I pretended to climb that ladder and wrap my leg around it whilst singing cool rider are numerous. In elementary school, I was 'dating' someone named Johnny, and might have even said to him because of the movie, "What do you want from me Johnny? (Johnny was 9 at the time. Prolly looked at me super confused and continued playing dodgeball.)





I think Little darlings was right around this time too. Matt Dillon, I loved you. You were so hot.



Fame, Flashdance. Footloose. They just don't make movies like this anymore. How cool was welder Alex Owens???? So so cool. Chicken. What a great game!




The Princess Bride- As you wiiiiiiiiiiiish.......

Then I grew up a bit.

My obsession started with Corey Haim and Winona Ryder.

I mean, look at that punim.


I was so in love with Corey Haim in The Lost Boys it was not normal. Also, License to Drive killed it for me.

Winona Ryder neé Horowitz was the coolest person I 'knew' when I was 11. Heathers, Mermaids, and Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael ROCKED MY WORLD.




Heathers was just so edgy and incredible. The original mean girls. Watched it likely 35 times. And to this day still use the lines from the movie often.

I bought a pair of combat boots and put pink laces in them (true story) because of her character in Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael. I feel like 4 people saw that movie. Well, I LOVED it.


I even brought pictures of Winona to camp with me and stuck them up on the 'ceiling' of my bottom bunkbed. Seems a bit odd now that I think about it. I was 12.

Say Anything- It was this movie that instantly made us disappointed in our men for not having ever stood outside our windows holding a boombox over our heads blaring 'In Your Eyes'. Assholes.


St. Elmo's Fire- Who didn't want to change their name to Jules after that?


When Harry Met Sally- classic amazingness.



Then John Hughes.

Oh John, do you know what you did to me? (RIP) You CHANGED MY LIFE.

Breakfast Club- Anyone else write out every single line in that movie on a single side of looseleaf? Ya, LZ and I did. Have it framed somewhere. Don't watch that movie with me. I'm super duper annoying.



16 candles- 2 words. Jake. Ryan. Thank you. He was also in Mermaids. Yummmmmmmm.

Pretty in Pink- Blaine? That's not a name, it's a major appliance. James Spader in his prime.



Weird Science- Gimme the keys Lisa, I drive. (still say this allllll the time)



Some Kind of Wonderful- Because of this movie, wanted to transition into a tomboy and learn how to play the drums. Neither happened. I was sad.

Less Than Zero- Not a John Hughes production but a film that began my love affair with RDJ. Sick movie and WOW was I too young to have seen it at 13 or 14.



Afterall these flics, I was tight with RDJ, Molly, Andrew McCarthy, James Spader, Judd, Anthony Michael Hall (who morphed into the weirdest looking adult- see: Edward Scissorhands).

Dirty Dancing- not sure how to stress what this one did to me. I carried a watermelon? Nobody puts baby in a corner. Sylvia? Yes Mickey..........


Pretty Woman- If I could count the times a year that I say: It corners like it's on rails or Big mistake. Big. Huge. I have to go shopping now or What's your dream? Or I spent $10 000 in therapy to say I'm very angry with my father...too many times to count.

So, these are some of the movies from my childhood that have scarred/molded me. I'm sure I left some out, but I think you get the picture.

Where would I be today without them? I guess that will remain a mystery....But I think I turned out ok :)

Tweet

I did it.

I joined the Twitter. Said I would never and a very wise tweeter said #neversaynever. Touché EMD.

As in the case of many things, my pre-twitter tude stemmed from lack of understanding. Not that I'm anywhere close to getting what twitter actually is. What I do on twitter and what I get from it is most likely not what its creators intended. Oh well.

As I was perusing some celebs tweets (you can peer into Twitter even if you're not signed up) a few weeks ago, I realized that this was something I wanted to be involved in! This underground community of communicators. Really just to voyeur into the lives of celebs, y'know, candid and off the record. And no, not underground at all.

I think it was Charlie Sheen who made me do it. #nowthebiggestloserever. Because that's when my interest was peaked.

I have no clue what to Tweet and what to Facebook. Someone help. I do find I can tweet more often and more random things. Feel like it's less annoying than seeing Liana nonsense all over your FB news feed. Correct or not?

Twittiquette (twitter etiquette)- Do I have to follow people who follow me? Is it rude if I don't?

Hashtags? FF? RT? Yaaaaaaaaa, #nocluereally. Something about Friday and retweeting but if you can just click on retweet why tweet with an RT? I know. Exactly.

Some celebs are very candid with their tweets and that's very cool.

@conanobrien- VERY funny.


@charliesheen- well, was funny but in a car accident kinda morbid curiosity kinda way. And now, not funny at all. #notfollowinghimanymore


@sarahsilverman- obv hysterical.


@rainwilson- funny.
@theellenshow- hysterical.
@denisleary- amazing.
@heylolo- funny sh*t.

I wish @nottinafey and @galifinakisz would tweet more. Or at all.

@andydick- super annoying. Has since been removed. Same goes for @perezhilton.

There are the celebs you want to hear candidly from (or I want to) who you never will. @leodicaprio for example. Maybe he's not funny. The horrors. His tweets are all environmental and about saving the planet and Japan and tsunamis and sh*t. BORING!!!!!! (But I do respect him for all that. He does have an image to protect after all, oh and I love him.)


Some have someone else doing their tweeting and that's not so cool.

I feel like most celebs use it to promote. I guess that's a big part of the Twitter. I prefer reading their random babblings.

James Franco does his own. Maybe someone should do his. He constantly tweets pics that make no sense at all. I'd like to think he's just f*cking with us or getting paid to do it.


So I tweet but for me, it's more to keep up with pop culture @tmz @laineygossip @fuggirls, some actual news @andersoncooper, fashion @rzrachelzoe @harpersbazzarus, but mostly, I do it for the laughs.

I told you my reasonings for signing up were crap. I do feel like there are many of me out there. Or possibly smarter me's.

So, follow me. @liwirose



Or don't.