In Xanadu

Happy New Year!

I was truly fortunate to spend last week in sunny (if unseasonably chilly!) San Diego, CA, where my sister Gillian was part of a photoshoot for an upcoming issue of American Way, the inflight magazine of American Airlines. She won their annual "Road Warrior" contest, and so she and the other 4 finalists and their guests spent nearly a week being wined and dined, among other luxuries, at the Grand del Mar, a five-star resort. The good folks from American Airlines Publishing have my sincere gratitude for making my visit so full (literally - my pants are tight) and so much fun.

It was a good thing that I packed all my nicest clothes for this week, because everybody, everywhere, was impeccably dressed. Nonetheless, I often felt as though my wardrobe was completely inadequate: this place was an entirely different league than I'm used to, even with my Greenwich, CT birth and Seven Sisters education. Forget the so-called 1% - the guests there are more like the 1% of the 1%. But I did what I could to hold my own:

(Me, on 1/9/13, in our suite at the Grand del Mar, San Diego, CA.)

Secondhand: Kelly Cushing bat-sleeve silk jersey top, 

Trina Turk white pants, Anyi Lu peep-toe heels.

Much of this post was written when I was comfortably seated by a fire in the lobby listening to some industry folks discussing the pilot they were shooting for a remake of the Roger Moore TV series "The Saint." We guests were warned that the shoot would involve a helicopter crash and a gunfight, as well as a stuntman jumping from a 3rd story platform into a 5' pool. Over the course of two days, I watched a rehearsal for the gunfight scene, felt the explosion, heard the gunshots, and saw the stuntman, dressed as a waiter, yell and do a running jump that ended in a flip into the pool. (Everybody clapped, and some time later we saw the medical backboard being carried out, so it seems no one was hurt.)

I wasn't familiar with Adam Rayner before seeing him this past week, but it was immediately very clear that he was the star of this show. (The female lead was Eliza Dushku, who I never saw in person. Joss Whedon fans know who she is.) It wasn't just that Rayner was tall, ridiculously good-looking, and often wearing a perfectly tailored suit. It's more that I doubt that anyone who wasn't the star could get away with wearing a bathrobe in this lobby when he was out of costume. I mean, come on:

After a few nights at this place, all I could think was that I was staying in Xanadu. That's the name of Charles Foster Kane's mansion in Citizen Kane, and since that film was (loosely) based on the life of magnate William Randolph Hearst, it's no surprise that I'm not the first person to make the association. (That link, to a HuffPo review, has lots more photos.) 

But I was also thinking about Xanadu from the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem "Kubla Khan":

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree

It's a beautiful place, but unreal. (Just like what you see in movies and magazines - no wonder they use the resort for shoots.) And, truth be told, I found most of it sterile, although the food was universally outstanding. It's a place meant for show and status, not for love. It inspires awe, but not affection. So perhaps it's not surprising that the most genuine conversations I had - other than those with the other wonderful and warm finalists, guests, and AA Publishing people - were with the hotel staff. The most genuine moments were when I when I found out that the Assistant Director of Rooms loves the band Lucero as much as I do, and when I correctly identified one of the waiters as being from Bangladesh and was able to tell him about my trip there. 

So I'm glad to be home, back to my messy house and my family. But I enjoyed living the high life for awhile, because opportunities like this don't come along very often.

Me with Grand del Mar President Thomas Voss, 

in the owner's Shelby Cobra roadster.

Kelley