TIME.com: Cannes Diary V: Blog blog blog

TIME.com: Cannes Diary V: Blog blog blog.

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Cannes Diary V: Blog blog blog
Notes on the drudgery of spending two weeks in a Riviera paradise

By RICHARD CORLISS, Posted Sunday, May. 15, 2005

When my mother first visited Paris, as a teenager in 1927, she was heartsick that no hamburgers were available. Those inconsiderate French, she thought — they served their own food, not ours. Today, much to the chagrin of the protectors of French cuisine, there are McDonald's franchises everywhere, but my mother's spirit seems to have been channeled into some of the American journalists writing blogs at Cannes. They may think they're Henry James, writing with knowing eloquence of European mores, but they're in danger of sounding like Daisy Miller, James' most famous American innocent abroad, finding fault with everything that's not familiar.

The diaries that Mary Corliss and I have sent home have been been mostly about the movies — this is, after all, the Cannes Film Festival, not the International Whining Bee — but reading a few of the more "personal" American blogs convinces me that we may be taking the wrong tack. It's a challenge to get into their mindset, because we love Cannes — love what's different about a French festival, which has become familiar and endearing to us after 32 annual visits. But here is the impression I get, of the innocent, or ugly, American journalist abroad: ... [visit site to read the excerpts]

Oh, not so innocent American bloggers abroad, in Cannes.. if this is the sampling, yikes.. perhaps too young, too American only view of things, too self-absorbed to see or smell the roses of difference? One wonders...