Oscar Noms 2011...

I can not cease to express my joy for Javier Bardem's Academy Award's Best Actor nomination for his role in "Biutiful," Alejandro González Iñárritu's movie.

Many might criticize the simple way I look at things, but I do believe in awards. I believe a great writer deserves a prize, so does an actor and, in general, us all when we work hard at what we do, be it bake a cake, restore a piece of furniture or what ever.

Awards push us to give the best of ourselves. 

I've been following Javier Bardem since 1993 when, watching Canal+ in Paris one late night, I was glued to the screen of my TV with a Spanish movie by Bigas Luna called "Los Huevos de Oro." Who was that guy with such presence and charisma?! After some research, I saw "Jamón, Jamón," also by Bigas Luna, were he had his first main role, next to who, many years later, would become his wife and mother of his son/daughter (the birth was actually today, but no comments yet as to the sex): Penelope Cruz.

And then I saw all the rest... "Antes que Anochezca,""Mar Adentro,""No Country for Old Men" (Academy Award Best Supporting Actor)... Till last September, a friend of mine in Paris took me to a private screening of "Biutiful." A tremendous movie, with an excellent performance of Javier, so real that you actually feel he is suffering, fighting, dying... I couldn't take him out of my mind for days...

And now, luckily, he is among the nominees, which for a Spanish-speaking actor is quite important.

There's only one tiny problem... I've also seen "The King's Speech" with Colin Firth, a fellow nominee and, I believe, a true competitor for Bardem's Oscar. I do not like Firth specially... but his work in this film is simply outstanding. The movie is so good it catches you and it has an amazing cast, with the likes of Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham-Carter.

We'll see who takes home the Oscar... Sure enough, the best one... as in all fairytales.

Visiting exhibits in Punta...

After some quiet days, spending time with friends, going to the movies (I strongly recommend you go see "The King's Speech"... Excellent and with performances to win all Academy Awards) and reading good books, I went out to see a couple of exhibits at La Barra.

In Le Club, by the beach of the Posta del Cangrejo, is that of Eduardo Pla, who is really a great contemporary artist. His exhibit is very interesting and worth going to visit it.

On Le Club's top floor I was taken to see a young artist, unknown to me, but not less talented: Maby Rod.

Maby is a professional photographer who, guided by her love for fashion, has achieved a truly personal technique, creating photo-paintings. Over pictures taken by herself, she paints using make-up instead of traditional materials. That is to say that blacks are achieved using eye-liners, reds with lipstick, beige with compact powder, and so on.

The result is really amazing, as you can tell by the picture of a work of hers that I publish here. She also creates truly original hand-painted dresses.

A nice discovery!!

(For those who will be asking... my dress is a Tibi).

Fiat's Party 2011

I swear it: this is the last time in this summer that I'll be posting on a party... Aren't you bored already?

And, although it's just January 16th, tonight's party was the last of the season. At least, the last of the many big parties that mark the season in Punta del Este.

And this one is my favorite for many reasons. A bit because, by this time now, you have befriended everyone... It's like being part of the ensemble cast of a theatre show... we are basically the same guests all the time and know how to perform. And another reason is that Fiat always organizes its parties in Tequila, Punta del Este's most famous disco and night club. I go to Tequila once a year: to this party! Of course I could go other nights, but I don't allow myself to do so... I do not frequent night clubs... But if Christiano Ratazzi, Fiat's President, cares to invite me... how can I refuse...? And less if the party is organized by my dear friends of + Mass Group: Wally, Facundo and Martín.

And so off we went, after the storm we had in Punta this afternoon. Obviously, everyone was there... but more than ever. Argentine friends and others form Italy and Uruguay. Powerful impresarios, politicians, ex-politicians, beautiful women. Many mini-skirts, as we've been seeing all summer long, and golden sequins. And heels and long blond hairs...

Excellent organization, with sushi to serve 600 guests, caipirihna, capiroska, capimaracujá... Music, jokes, stares... the usual, but more than usual.

And here we are... Time to go back to normal life, going to bed early, reading and visiting museums...

The summer will go on till March 21st, but social Punta del Este has ended today...

Till December...

Revista Gente's Pink Party 2011

As usual, the Party that defines the season in Punta del Este is that of Revista Gente, which is usually held in one of the grand terraces of Hotel Conrad. The color dress code for tonight was, once again, pink: we had to wear a pink ensamble or just a detail of that color. I wore a short Tibi mini-dress.

There was plenty of people trying to get inside and a numerous security crew to control. At the entrance we were given the bracelet to get inside: pink for everyone, blue for the V.I.P.s. Everything looked charming, with stalls for food, ice-creams and beverages. The show began with a mini-concert of Ambulancia, actor Mike Amigorena's rock band. Very post-modern and, to me, truly talented. I loved Mike's voice, his histrionic ways and found him quite good-looking. The rest of the band proved very talented too...

Then Cacho Castaña performed three or four songs, which made everyone dance.

And as a finishing number, a runway show with all the beauties you can possibly imagine... All the famous women in Argentina were there. To illuminate the night... fire works... fantastic. 

Of course, I came across most of the people I know... from Valeria Mazza and Graciela Alfano, to Gabriel Corrado... You'll see the pictures in the next issue of Gente.

Something to regret? The wind drove us mad, ruining our hair-dos and making us chill with cold... But of course, no one's to blame...

Discovering a new Punta del Este...

Still going out in Punta del Este... There's so many events!!

However I was not invited to the dinner in honor to Mario Vargas Llosa at La Bourgogne... I would have loved to go... Just to think about sharing a dinner with that talented and recent Nobel Prize winner... A pity.

Anyway, I did lots of interesting things, as getting to know a new Punta del Este, more cosmopolitan and luxurious. For instance, I was invited to dine at the restaurant "Las Piedras" at the Hotel Resort Fasano: a marvelous place, on the road to San Carlos, in the middle of the woods and a breathtaking landscape. The resort is the work of the famous Fasano family, grand hoteliers from Brazil. Everything is very refined, respecting local materials, such as rock and unpolished wood... An original architecture in the middle of a garden of cactus. 

Last night I went to the party that every year the Para Ti magazine organizes for a group of selected guests.

This time we were invited to "Casa Suaya," which is a Hotel plus restaurant, also on a privileged spot: the sand dunes on the road between José Ignacio and the lagoon. Another landscape with a rustic look, very "á la José Ignacio," which is what fits with the surrounding environment. I hadn't been in it before and it was a nice surprise. 

In total we were around 50 people, with Lola Ponce, Carolina Ardohain and Dolores Barreiro among others, and with the editors of the magazine all looking after us. 

To eat, black hake (merluza), which is "the" fish to order in Punta, always fresh and, due to the great demand, tasty and native.

I wore one of my Lanvin for H&M dresses...

I think I've already said this, but tonight I'm staying home... Need to rest!!

Visiting Ménage à Trois' boutique...

After two days of semi-reclusion at home, enjoying the pool, some yoga and gym and watching old movies on TV (I saw "The Maltese Falcon," by John Houston with Humphrey Bogart... a jewel, a true masterpiece...), tonight I went out again with some friends.

We went to a cocktail at La Barra and then we had dinner at Sipán, in Manantiales. The cocktail was at "Ménage à Trois," Amelia Chaban's boutique, owner of the brand also in Buenos Aires, but here in Punta del Este, she has more looks for the beach.

I was impressed by such a charming store and the amount of high-quality, mostly-imported, clothes! Definitely the dollar must be low because "imports" are back. I haven't seen any in Argentina since 2001. Amelia explained to me that due to the high cost of production, is cheaper to buy abroad and import.

The collection had clothes you could find also in Ibiza, Capri, St. Tropez, Sardegna... and everything of great taste. White shirts with lace appliqués by Ermanno Scervino, Alberta Ferrettti's dresses, silk chemisiers in various colors with sequins (divine!), beach totes and straw hats straight from Florence... I liked it all!!

Had I not had a well-stocked wardrobe or had I been a shop-aholic (which I'm not), I would certainly have taken quite some things... I'm glad Punta del Este has a boutique of European standards.

From La Barra we went to Manantiales, which this year is "the" place to be in Punta, to the peruvian-japanese restaurant Sipán. We had octopus in olive oil, salmon sashimi, maracuyá tiraditos, suspiros limeños and an excellent Chevalier de los Andes, an Argentine wine, a malbec of superior level...

The joy of the night, however, was shadowed by the news of the sudden death of Ninawa Daher, a young and talented journalist from C5N channel, who I use to follow every day in the midnight news... It made me really sad...

Life's like this... joy, frivolity and vanity blend in with tragedies, pain and loss...

Tomorrow I'm staying at home...

And before you ask... Roberto Cavalli's dress and bag by Bottega Veneta.

Another night of parties... and hitting the road...

Going to José Ignacio two nights in a row it's just too much... Specially for someone like me who, in Punta del Este, lives downtown! 38 km to go and 38 to return home... But for some time now all parties and social events have moved north... In fact, in ten more years we'll be attending parties in the border with Brazil...

So tonight we went to the Chivas party, at the La Coronilla Resort, 3.5 km from the center of José Ignacio. When we finally made it there, we were taken in a van to the place were the cocktail-dinner was going to be held, together with a much-awaited concert by Crystal Waters, the African-American singer from the 90s. Her hit song was "Gipsy Woman" (which everyone knows). Everything was well organized, with a fewer crowd and much more intimate. As usual, many pretty girls and all the men after them. They wore miniskirts, of course. As we waited for the concert to begin, I watched them from afar and realized that most of them pick the wrong shoes. They go for weird looking boots or too heavy sandals... a real problem...

As for me, I'm all about feathers right now... I wore white ones in my dress to the Chandon Party (a Marchesa) and black ones tonight (Lanvin)... I don't know why... Maybe I'm trying to channel the new movie "Black Swan"?

Going to the party

Waiting for the concert with some friends and my sister

Everything was great, but I'm not going to José Ignacio again tonight... I'm staying home! 

Chandon's White Party...

Regulars in Punta del Este cherish traditions...

I mean, they like to have every year the same rituals, such as the La Huella party, Giordano's or Di Domenico's runway shows, Chandon's White Party...

That desire of perpetuity help us believe that time does not go by...

Last night, always on January 5th, as it's been in the past years, we had the Chandon party at The Setai, a new hotel in José Ignacio. Of course, we wore white, with the mandatory bracelet to get inside, and this year we were requested to use a "GOA" detail, that is something reminding the style of the famous city of India, so well-known among Jet-setters, as it is Punta del Este.

I had Indian earrings, very beautiful, and a white dress, of course. Almost everyone respected the dress code and wore white, except for a few who had saris or tunics in other colors.

The party was originally intended for 2000 guests!!! But one of the managers at + Mass Group (to who I must thank all the attentions they always show towards me) told me they cut the number to 600...

I don't know if they were 600 or not, but I can say there was a lot of people. Many famous and of course, beautiful girls, as usual in Punta del Este, with miniskirts and sky-high heels or gladiators. Also an enormous amount of paparazzis (that was the aim, right?). Everything was impeccable, specially the security, in charge of organizing the traffic jam at the entrance and stopping the usual "crashers."

We got back early... Till next year, Chandon...

Time flies in Punta del Este...

Days go by in Punta and my agenda is so intense I don't even notice!!!

Because other than going to one or two parties, I do a lot of sports (it's the right place), read as many newspapers as I can, try to predict how the economy will turn out in 2011 in Argentina and the rest of the world, I look after my house and my guests, I'm finishing Umberto Eco's last book ("Il Cimitero di Praga"), which is quite complex, and I go often to the hair salon. Not to mention my morning shopping for groceries at the Tienda Inglesa, which is always crowded, so much so that I have learned to slalom between carts.

Party invitations, mainly in the form of bracelets, start to pile in my desk... there's never been so many...

Yesterday I went to the opening of the new "La Dolfina" boutique, by Adolfito Cambiaso and Ernesto Gutiérrez. Very charming. I was stunned by the many new and shinny stores around 20th street in la Punta.  They made me feel like being in Miami's Lincoln Road.

The more sought-after meetings are the private ones. In the previous days I had one organized by an Italian friend. Lots of fun. There were many Italians, of course, and a group of Brazilian and Swedish models of incredible beauty (Italian men go nuts over tall women, even more than them, exotic, young and, if possible, models), all dressed with miniskirts and high heels, very à la Balmain.

To eat, pasta... Tasty as only the Italians can cook it. Among the guests, were many socialites from Milano and Venice.

Punta del Este has become so cosmopolitan lately... I sometimes feel like in St. Moritz in Winter or in St. Tropez in Summer.

Tonight there's another private party, this one organized by a Lebanese impresario. They say it's going to be spectacular.

And days just go by...

New Year's resolutions...

1. Read the great Italian jewel maker Fulco de Verdura's biography.

2. Begin Chinese lessons (opportunists, beware).

3. Read three newspapers in different languages, or with different ideas, a day.

4. Prepare a grand trip to India.

5. Never again speak wrongly of others...

6. Try to sleep 8-hours-a-night.

7. Buy glasses to see life in pink...

8. Fix my wardrobe and give away all those clothes and shoes that have not been used in the past three years.

9. Never forget to say "Please" and "Thank you."

10. Smile at least 12 times a day.

11. Watch again all Stanley Kubrick's movies.