the ten day campaign shoot in the south island of new zealand with director
michael haussman was just the beginning of the sleep deprived million mile fortnight ahead.
for a starter, it snowed in auckland. it never snows in auckland. well, not never exactly. the last time was 1930 something.
the shoot wrapped after midnight on the thursday. we were compelled to celebrate with liquor and general raucousness.
with 3 hours sleep under my belt i departed next morning for sydney to hair direct the redken team for 3 shows at the australian fashion festival. the shows were awesome. my demeanour was less than...
then the hurricane hit new york. flights were cancelled. and with them, my hopes of arriving in time for my first ever italian vogue shoot...
bugger that!
so, after another luscious night of four hours sleep i boarded the plane in sydney for los angeles.
i had to make a pit stop in auckland, run out of the airport into a hotel, do a quick interview for the telly, run back into the airport and board the plane again...
i reckon i slept 4 hours. four broken hours...
anyway i'm in l.a.
it's saturday.
and all the flights to new york are cancelled until at least thursday.
the italian vogue shoot is in two days. with or without me...
like i said, bugger that!
i spent the next 3 hours hustling on the interwebs to find a flight as far east as i could get.
found one.
to cleveland, ohio.
and it's leaving in 12 hours. 11.30pm saturday night from l.a.
and here we go again, another 2 or 3 hours sleep sitting up in cattle class...
i arrive in cleveland, rent a car from a very slow moving but kindly (and portly) gentleman named ric and proceed to drive the 12 hours to manhattan.
the first couple of hours were ecstatic.
driving cross country on interstate 70 with the warm wind blowing in the open window and a mug of warm brown liquid that smelled like road tar and tobacco that someone sold me as coffee, singing along at the top of my lungs to the radio blasting classic rock that rocks.
the next 10 hours or so were not so much fun. more like a relentless marathon of keeping my mind awake while my body fell asleep from sitting in the same spot for so long...
after crossing through 5 states the manhattan skyline finally came into view as i entered the holland tunnel.
i hadn't thought about driving in manhattan. shit!
the gps took me round in circles until i turned it off and followed my nose to the garage in midtown to drop the car off.
hop in a cab and head downtown.
now, here's the thing, i was meant to be giving a 25 minute presentation to the
rodney wayne salon owner's group via skype. and i only had 20 minutes to get set up.
i was going to use my htc sensation to video skype into the meeting in auckland from manhattan, but i saved that for christchurch from the set of the vogue shoot.
i ran into my buddy's apartment, waved hello, opened my laptop, pressed connect and started my presentation.
the group in auckland not knowing of the ordeal that preceeded...
the talk went well, considering the fact that my daughter had wiped all my notes from my ipad and i had to go from memory...
finally i got to stop.
for 4 hours. because i had to do the same talk again to another group four hours later...
then i got to stop.
for 6 hours. because then i had to get up and go to work on set at my first ever italian vogue fashion editorial shoot.
was it worth it?
look at the pictures and tell me...
photographer - gianluca santoro
stylist - cliff hoppus
makeup - ingeborg
hair - kavanagh
