politics as usual

without getting into what my beliefs in the matter are, I have to say that I've been really enjoying all politics-related discussions lately. I've been with my extended family for a day now (for the annual xmas shebang) and every meal has featured at least one talk on the upcoming presidential election and the various themes that have been broached by the candidates.
As a true believer in the importance of voting (basically, if you don't do it, you're voiceless, however futile your vote might seem), I've enjoyed the act of voting since turning 18, but I guess it really took the 2007 presidential vote for me to get into all of the debates. What I enjoy most about these talks isn't necessarily getting my viewpoint across, though I do try to do that too, but mostly hearing the variety of opinions around the table. My family tends to be more on the intellectual side of things, so it's interesting to listen to what they've got to say about one candidate or the other. Even if the general prognosis isn't very good, the debates still tend to be pretty lively.
Living and traveling abroad, I've often had these discussions with locals, but it seems to me French people have a special talent when it comes to talking about the subject of politics by being both down on the idea and very into the ideas being exchanged. When I was younger I used to shun such talks, preferring to discourse about music or movies, but now I find I love to discuss politics or the economy with friends or family. One part of this change comes from having a job, paying taxes and generally considering myself a producing member of society, but another is definitely from having the right people to talk to. After all, if all you're able to discuss are the talking points you hear repeated ad nauseam on TV, the discussion probably won't go too far. Of course I'm still more inclined to want to talk about Terrence Malick's genius or how Midlake are the closest thing to Fleetwood Mac these days, but a little dollop of "grown-up" subjects is now an acquired taste for me.

long road

can't really believe it, but I'm on holiday as of tonight, until Jan. 3. Looking forward to spending xmas with the extended family, and New Year's in London at a friend's.
But for now the only objective is...sleep
nighty night

just breathe

according to a study published yesterday by Airparif (the official department in charge of monitoring air pollution in the Ile de France region), said pollution has decreased 32% in Paris since 2002. Combined with the launch of the much-ballyhooed tramway last weekend, this is another sign for backers of Paris' current mayoral team that their policies are starting to work and are the right way to go.
But it does not take more than a cursory analysis to realize that this impressive figure is actually the result of factors wholly different than local politics: broken down, this 32% figure is in fact composed of 26% due to car technological advances, and the rest, i.e. 6%, to the reduction of traffic in the city. Viewed thus, the evolution clearly doesn't seem that imposing, especially considering all the hullabaloo that was made around the introduction of bus corridors and how much they were supposed to reduce the number of cars driving around Paris, and thus, air pollution caused by the nitrogen oxide released by them. As the study points out, even though the amount of car traffic has decreased as hoped, the number of small vehicles like scooters, as well as delivery vans, has increased.
So overall, an effective 6% decline might not signal to a great policy, but I'm glad that this mayor and his team have been trying to change things (even if they have at times seemed a bit overeager on the roadwork aspect of things - see the horror that still is Boulevard Magenta, almost three years after work started). There's more and more talk of introducing a congestion tax in Paris, kind of like London has done, and that might be a good idea. But for now, I hope the city will stay the course on its current policy of trying to develop public transportation while still accommodating car owners who live in Paris (such as by providing cheap residential parking).

for more : Parisist

blogging is fun

wow, the Christmas break is just two weeks away, and I haven't blogged in a whiiile. Where does the time go, exactly ? And with a busy start of 2007 planned for me, I better start taking better blogging habits, like, right now.
Among the recent subjects of interest to me I'd like to address here:

• The Departed
• France 24
• The Waterboys
• proper apparel for running in the cold
• and of course, my year-end top 10 lists

let's see how many of these subjects I manage to post about. Not holding your breath ? Yeah, me neither

the name game

"what's in a name ?" asked that guy who wrote that movie starring LEO!. I believe there was some stuff after that too (something about a rose), but alas my Cliff Notes memory can't seem to unearth what that might be. Our name is our official label, something to be used by parents, teachers and customs officials alike. Not the most personalized feature for most of us, unless you have the unfortunate fortune of being named ESPN or some other idea that even a strung-out Bobby Brown would find ludicrious.

This is were nicknames come in. Whoever invented the concept was a true genius, a real mensch. Think about it, it probably goes back to some caveman, hanging out with his crew around a campfire, having a hard time pronouncing his buddy Harghjrusnf's name and proclaming "dude eff that, from now on I'm calling you Har". Thanks to that guy, we now have to deal with even more things to stuff in our incredibly-packed braincells. And that's not even counting the various "internet names" (rockchick84, pizzaisgood72...) that are now a part of our various identities, physical or virtual.

Nicknames are mostly a good thing. Even if it might sound a bit mean, like say, booger, it's something used by people out of love and affection. Sure, dictators have them too, but even for them it makes them sound better than their regular name. I mean, the Butcher of Baghdad isn't too cuddly, but it does sound pretty badass. So nicknames, generally a good thing.

Personally I never had too many of them. I've got a pretty organic one (matt, short for the longer version of matt) that has taken hold since living in the US, and a more recent one (lematt, you know, like Le Royal Cheese). But one thing that I've realized is that who uses that nickname is something I pay attention to. For some reason it sort of makes me feel weird when someone I don't consider a friend (or part of family) uses it. Sure, I don't mention it when it happens, but I've noticed that it kind of cools the familiarization process, as if it were too soon (?), as if they didn't have the right to do so. Which is completely and utterly stupid, I know, but apparently that's how my mind works. What makes it even more odd is that matt is pretty much my handle online, in one form or another. So I don't care if some stranger writing from Des Moines, Iowa calls me Matt, but if it's simply a real-world acquaintance, someone I don't have too much in common with and do not consider myself friends with I'll make a mental note of it. Granted this doesn't happen very often, since I tend to hang out with friends mostly, and become friends with theirs, but there's been a small number of occasions that have made me wonder about this phenomenon.

In a way I would sort of like to not care at all when it happens, because I'm generally very laid-back about most things in life. Actually i've been accused of being too laid-back at times, and definitely never of being too tense/stressed. But overall I don't really care about being that way. Each person's brain works in peculiar ways, and if this is the worst mine can come up with, I'll take it. Plus being called lematt by some random acquaintance sure beats being called the butcher of baghdad by pretty much the entire world.

shoe-in

apparently shoe sizes are now as random as celebrity baby names (fun fact of the year: Jason Lee's kid is named Pilot Inspektor. Yes, Pilot Inspektor. The fact that it is based in part on a Granddaddy song does not even begin to redeem this horrible decision, even in bizzaro hipster world). Usually a size 44 person, this weekend I went to the Alter Mundi store (Google maps), which sells environment-friendly and fair-trade products, to find a gift for some newly-wed friends, and ended up buying myself some Veja trainers, size 42. Never before had I bought shoes in a size below 43 1/2, but whatever works I guess. The funny thing is I recently bought another pair of trainers which are size 45 and both pairs are pretty much the same size, give or take half an inch.

If you haven't heard of them, Veja is a young French brand which makes its shoes in Brazil using local producers according to fair-trade principles. Their sneakers are beginning to be more and more popular on the streets of Paris, which is a good thing because it might mean that other brands will follow suit and design fashionable ethical apparel or shoes.

Their first models were textile-based, kind of like low-cut Converse, and they've just released a leather shoe, which felt so comfy and light that I decided to purchase a pair on the spot. Since my Onitsuka Tigers are about to give their last breath, I felt these would be a worthy successor.

But without a doubt, the real highlight of my weekend was watching the amazing Half Nelson. Featuring extraordinary performances by Ryan Gosling (best young actor working today) and Shareeka Epps, as well as the always-perfect music of Broken Social Scene, this movie definitely warrants itself a whole post. The director, Ryan Fleck, manages to look at a tough yet cliche-burdened subject like drug addiction in a refreshing and engaging manager, and the whole thing left me quite moved. Still not better than Children of Men, but I've definitely found my 2nd favorite movie this year. Two movies which I will probably own on DVD when they come out, something I hadn't done for recent flicks since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I guess that's why you should always wait until the very end of the year to make up your annual top 10 lists.

a real tragedy

when it comes to comedy, I'm a pretty basic guy. Being a child of the 80s, weaned on American pop culture, it was all about Eddie Murphy (remember when he used to be funny, nay hilarious ?), Bill Murray or Steve Martin. Some slapstick humore, a touch of witticism with funny faces and TA-DA, you've got comedy gold. Of course it's all about personal taste when it comes to humor, taste which is generally molded during one's childhood (it's probably why I don't find Les Bronzés that funny, although I did love Le Pere Noel Est Une Ordure), but those types of movies, like Caddyshack or The Jerk, are at the apex of the genre to me.

However recently I've noticed a noticeable dearth of good comedies. Hollywood still cranks them out faster than a cheetah on steroids, but mostly they're hit-and-miss : some chuckles here and there, but a lot of blanks in between. In the past few years I really enjoyed two comedies: Old School (which is genius) and Elf. The fact that both star comedy savant Will Ferrell is certainly no stranger to that. Good comedies aren't merely about good writing and wacky situations, though those certainly help, but principally great characters. The other so-called comedy blockbusters I've seen (40 Year Old Virgin, Wedding Crashers, The Break Up, have all failed to wow me, often because I'm tired of comedies trying to be romantic comedies at the same time. Last I checked girls enjoy laughing (a fact that represents 95% of my flirting "technique"), and do not need to have those cheesy romance elements to enjoy a comedy.

But this grim outlook on the state of comedies could very well change this week, all due to one heroic undertaking: the release of Borat, the movie (subtitle: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazhakstan). It tells the tale of the eponymous character, a Khazak journalist intent on traveling through the US of A to find out more about the country and teach them about his. Needless to say, hi-jinks WILL ensue. It's filmed as a documentary, and is based on the character created by Sacha Baron Cohen for his TV show. I'm just saying this in case my 5 daily readers are the ones that might've never heard of the guy, so incessant has been the hype. Which it should, based on stunts like this. I've enjoyed his TV skits for a while now, and I'm overjoyed to know that very soon (tonight, actually) I'll be enjoying 86 glorious minutes of the man who brought "sexy time explosion" into the common lexicon.

that's hot (c) Paris

because we can't always talk about politics, I give you....(LOUD MOVIE TRAILER GUY VOICE) a website about dogs dressed as bumblebees.
The internet just keeps getting awesomer every day. Matter of fact, if I have a son, I may have to name him that. And if it's a girl, Internette.

little thoughts

the Internet, it sure does move fast doesn't it ? One minute it's all about Brad and Jen, the next global warming. If you sleep too much, i.e. do not open your RSS newsreader often enough, you're bound to feel a little behind the times.

Music is one of the areas that's been at the forefront of Internet evolution, from the early-days FTP servers to the first incarnation of Napster (R.I.P.), then on to Wifi MP3 players and online personalized radio streams. One such development has been the leak of albums before their official release date. Nowadays it is very rare for an album to not appear online at least a few weeks before it's scheduled to hit stores (both virtual and physical). It's got to be maddening for artists and their labels, but it's not a trend I see slowing down anytime soon. Not to sound too USA Today-ish here, but this has some good sides and some bad ones. The bad thing is all the effort the bands/artists go through to record the best possible product, from the quality of the sound mix, to the selection of proper tracks, are sort of in vain when a copy that often isn't the final version pops up on the peer-to-peer networks. The good thing is this advance availability can increase awareness for this release and actually lead to more people buying the album when it comes out. The reason for that being that once prominent music blogs start talking about an upcoming record that people have heard and can comment on, it creates a publicity buzz that no ad campaign can truly generate.

Case in point: the second Bloc Party album. BP is part of the recent post-punk movement, that has seen tremendous success for bands such as Franz Ferdinand, Maximo Park and Arctic Monkeys. Bloc Party's released their first album, Silent Alarm, in 2005 and quickly established themselves at the forefront of this new subgenre. The urgent guitars and piercing drums that made you want to dance were there, but they also seemed to be interested in matters of the modern world. Sure, most of their songs could be contrived to be about that universal subject that is love, but from reading interviews and trying to decipher lyrics, it also sounded as if this band thought about weightier things (for instance one of the songs on FA is called Price of Gas) . Thus their second one, due for release in February 2007, was eagerly awaited by a lot of people, myself included.

Cue this past Sunday, when word got out on music message boards and other mp3 blogs (like Stereogum) that the new BP album had leaked. Of course I hopped on my favorite download train rightaway and added the album to my iTunes library. My principle when it comes to downloading albums is: if I like, I buy. Downloading an album, to me, is just a more elaborate way to sample it than hearing it in a record store or on the radio. When I don't like I trash it, and if I do, I'll buy it (more or less promptly, but I generally get around to it). Well, it looks like I'll have to set aside 10 pounds from my February budget, because this album is really good. Like, gets better after each listen good. By yesterday I had already raved about it to pretty much every friend I talked to. Out of 11 songs there's maybe 2 I don't enjoy too much, and even these I don't skip over. Bloc Party aren't one of my favorite bands, but they might join that ellusive status with this album.

Do I think it's normal that I can listen to an album that's only due to be commercialized in 2 months ? No, not really, but that's the way things have been for a while now, and as long as it stays out of the mainstream, I don't think it will change. For now it's still just something for music geeks like myself to get excited over on Internet message boards and blogs. It might affect sales in a small way, but I suspect most people that download instead of buying weren't necessarily going to buy the CD anyway. Of course in a world where there's such a dichotomy between laws (in some countries it's illegal to even rip your own CDs to your computer) and the common practices such as the one described in this post, there's bound to be a lot of gray areas. And I'm not a black and white person.

president ! president !

with all the burgeoning talk of the upcoming 2007 presidential election in France, I thought I'd ease myself into a political frame of mind by watching the recent France 2 documentary about Jacques Chirac. It was the talk of the town when it was shown in late October (seriously, I participated in multiple talks about it. in bars. on a Friday night), and I felt it would give me some insight into a very complex public figure. To people my age it might seem like the guy's been there forever, and this doc does nothing to dispel the notion. Presented in two parts, one focusing on the pre-1975 years (title: "the young wolf"), the other on the period since then ("the old lion"), the object of this program was to present a complete view on Chirac's accomplishments, bungles, and overall evolution. Chirac's been a part of French political life for so long (basically since the early 50s), it's quite fascinating to see how much his staying power has owed not only to his personal ambition but also to back-room wheeling and dealing on his part by different party elders.

The major impression I got after watching the whole thing was that although the current president of France has become somewhat of a caricature today, he has been one of the more impressive figures of the last 50 years in French politics. Apart from Francois Mitterand, who had his share of shady dealings, I don't know of anyone who has managed to adapt to ever-changing conditions yet remain true to his basic commitment to serving his country. I do not mean this particularly as a compliment, but simply because that's the feeling I get from everything I've read/hear/seen about him. You definitely get the impression that corruption was never far from the surface, especially during his years as mayor of Paris in the 80s and 90s, but looking at his entire work gives a more nuanced view. After all, he did do some good things like create the national unemployment agency ANPE (now the epitome of bureaucratic slowness, but a really good idea all the same), and apart from a single incident has always made it clear that he was completely against the extreme-right Front National party, something a few of his right-wing peers have not always been willing to do in tight election situations.

But since the last 20 years of his career have been marred by so many scandals and alleged corruption stories, the global view of his career has been marred, perhaps definitely. I don't particularly like him, but after watching this documentary I definitely kind of respect and understand what he's experienced a lot more than before. Yes he is stiff, yes he is a bit too loyal, but those character traits have mostly gotten worse as the years have gone on. I still would like him to face a real inquiry into what exactly his role was in those property scandals that happened while he was mayor of Paris, but I don't believe he was corrupted in the sense of increasing his personal wealth point of view, at least not more than anyone in that position would. While that doesn't make it excusable, that view is a bit more subdued than the ultra-shady and super-controlling figure that he has been portrayed as. Also, he gets criticized a lot for not doing much since becoming president, but if people agreed with the work of his prime ministers they wouldn't care about that. In France a president is mostly there for show, and the shaking of hands (of foreign dignitaries, old people and children), an activity at which Chirac seems to be especially good at, and fond of. So if you had to criticize him as president it would be mostly for picking his government heads too much based on his personal appreciation of them and not necessarily on their merits.

Of course it is quite probable that the real truth will never emerge, since that is the way things go when it comes to French politics. In that sense it was a pleasant surprise to see that this documentary was shown on a public channel, in prime-time. Programs like this are part of a healthy discourse on the role and work of our politicians, and though I wouldn't want to watch them too often (The Life and Times of Jack Lang, anyone ?), I'm glad they're made and not relegated to the late-night time slots.

oh my darling

as much as winter gets a bad rap for the -admittedly not that- cold climate it brings, one of the awesomely great things about it is being able to buy good clementines in pretty much any halfway decent grocery store. That fruit is like a gift from the gods, plus it only contains 30 calories per: everybody wins !
It's gotten to the point where I almost understand those people that gave some out at Halloween. Almost, I said.

recap

some of the highlights of the past week :
- put my current job tasks on hold for 5 days while I led a training session for new hires at my company. It was fun, tiring at first, but by the end of the week I'd got the hang of it, and I was almost sad to see it end
- saw Sufjan Stevens in concert at the Bataclan. Had my puny little mind blown away, and didn't even regret not bringing my camera, since I'm sure the memories will stay with me for a long long time. The first song of the encore, Concerning the UFO blabla, touched me to the very core. Those first few piano notes....aaaaahhhh
- went running and confirmed that yes, running in the cold ain't fun. But coming home after having run in the cold is one of the most satisfying feelings you can have
- had a great family dinner for my grandma. It was a surprise for her and it was awesome
- got back into communicating via Messenger. Boy it's been a while since I've heard that chime, it sure brings back memories. I know you can do video messenging nowadays, but for some reason it doesn't feel necessary
- spent a good 3 hours walking from Republique to the general vicinity of the Marais (rue des Francs Bourgeois et al). It's simply one of the only neighborhoods of Paris that's fun to walk around in on Sundays, especially if you're not set on going someplace in particular. It's also a great place to stop for a spot of tea, as you are wont to do on such days. Went past a Thai restaurant (Thai Spices ?) that looks great, I'm going to have to find an excuse to go there soon

Overall a pretty good week

never gone

wow, one week without posting, haven't had one of those in a while. Don't have anything worthwhile to write about for now, I'll have to try to get back into a more regular rhythm this coming week.
Although I will say this : Sufjan Stevens is a golden god

running on cloud nine

one of the biggest news in 2006 in the running consumer market has been the collaboration between Nike and Apple, two of the more effective companies in marketing new products, to release the Nike+ line of products. Representing a first in the marriage between sports and technology, this partnership is symbolized by the introduction of a series of Nike athletic wares (shoes, apparel...), as well as a special kit that can be linked to an iPod nano to enable runners to track their performance. With the nano thus set up, you can follow your progress in real time through your headphones, as you are running, and have it compared to certain objectives you've set up beforehand. For instance if your objective was to run 10Km and you run 11, a voice will come on over the music to let you know so. The really snazzy part of this apparatus is that you simply hook up the ipod to your computer to update your stats (through itunes) and view the results over time on the nike+ website.

When I started running seriously, around 4 months ago, this deal had just been announced, and I thought I'd be buying the kit as soon as it was released. I'd just bought a new nano, and back then could not envision running without my music (though I mostly used my old iPod mini to do so). But one day I tried running without music, to see how it felt, and I haven't looked back since. So when the kit was finally released in France in October, my interest had waned considerably.
Although I'd been running for 4 months, I hadn't invested in proper running shoes yet, so when I started feeling sore in one of my knees after the past few runs, I thought now was the time to do so. I scoured a few sports stores on Saturday but did not find a whole lot of models made specifically for running. Mostly they had the Nike Shox ones, in a whole slew of colors, which is great for fashion, but I've heard they're horrendous for running, so I finished my shopping trip empty-handed. Faced with the prospect of yet another run ending in discomfort today, I motivated after lunch and hit the Champs Elysees Nike store to try to find something there. Some "serious" runners have alleged that Nike is just a marketing company and that their shoes are not to par, but I've had a few in the past and haven't felt any different with the other brands I've had the opportunity to try, like Adidas or New Balance. Well except for the Shox, that is.
The first thing I saw when entering the store was a stand with all the Nike+ products. Since I'm not looking to run with my iPod, at least for the time being, I quickly headed to the basement floor where the men's section is. The Nike store on the Champs isn't as extensive as the other Niketown stores I've been to (in NYC and London), but it's got a decent selection. As I was looking at the different models I got to talking with a salesperson about how I was looking for a shoe that would feature maximum cushioning with a lightweight frame. To my surprise he recommended the zoom Moire, which are part of the afore-mentioned Nike+ line. I say surprise because they seemed so light and constraint-free that they would seem rather more suited to shorter runs. Of course it is possible that the guy was just trying to push one of his newer models, but considering that they had much more expensive shoes for sale, I'm guessing his advice was at least partly genuine. I tried them on and, lo and behold, they did feel mighty comfortable. Thus I quickly laid out the dough to buy them, almost giddy at the prospect of a pain-free run.
Later that afternoon, I took the shoes out for their first spin, and my initial feeling was completely confirmed. Not only are they light and very-well cushioned, they're very responsive. I throw in a few sets of stairs in my usual route, and every time I did one, I felt as if someone had added some mini-trampolines in my shoes. Quite a good surprise, I have to say.
Of course they weren't perfect, as I feel my feet weren't quite used to the shoes yet (or is it the other way round). But overall I'd say my initial run with these shoes was the equivalent of a good first date with no awkward silences. You don't find perfection on your first try, but getting some sort of familiarity so soon is a sign of great things to come. Now if you'll excuse me I've got to plan the second date, um run. I just have to figure out if I'm going to follow the two day rule or not or if I'm going to boldly wait for three.

home alone

rethorical question: is there a more underrated pleasure than working from home, wearing jeans and a comfy tee, while listening to some Johnny Cash ? I actually work much better when I'm at la casa, too bad it's still not too well accepted in the French corporate world.
The crazy thing is I did all my tasks for the day, and I actually feel relaxed ! I could definitely get used to this...

no respite

first thought of the day : wow, it is coooold. I haven't put on any heating in my room, since 2 days ago it was still Indian summer-like. But apparently now that's done for and the pseudo-Parisian winter is here. I say pseudo because the seasons aren't too well defined here, it really depends on the years (like the 14°C days we had in August). This brings me to a strange fact I've noticed: guys who dress with no regard for the weather. No matter what the conditions are like, frosty or balmy, you will see guys in Paris dressed as if these were totally irrelevant. For instance, this morning I saw at least two dudes wearing just a suit, when it was probably 2 or 3°C. That happens a lot in the winter : apparently some men have superhero suits that enable them from feeling the cold. And these guys do not wear a scarf, wool hat or anything that might shield them from the cold. Likewise, on the warmest days of the year, I always see some fellas still wearing a jacket. Never fails to amuse me, considering the temperature's generally above 30°C. Makes me wonder what the thought process for these dudes is in the morning. "Hey, it's August 4, I should really wear an extra layer, just in case there's a cold spell coming in from Russia". For some reason I see less women doing this, probably because women are more logical when it comes to clothes here (I said for clothes :) ).

awesome find of the day

yesterday I discovered this website, Runstoppable, that allows you to map your running routes through the use of Google maps. It serves as a jogging log, so whenever you go for a run, you just enter the date and the name of your -previously configured- route, and your run is recorded in your account.

Since I tend to run the same route every time, this site will make it pretty easy for me to quickly establish a running log for the coming months. One of the cool things about the mapping function is that it also gives you the elevation for your route, so you can see if you're running on flat terrain or not. Mine is definitely not flat, which is one reason I really like it.

This service is free, and is available in 23 countries, and really is the best online running tool I've seen for runners like me who don't want to invest in a fancy stopwatch and are pretty regular in their running itineraries. I've talked before of my interest in the Nike+ kit, but to be honest, it seems like a hassle since you need to have your ipod and sensor with you at all times. And now that i've got used to running without music, I'm not even sure I'll go back to running with my iPod on a regular basis. So I guess that means I'm not even sure I'll be buying the iPod Shuffle after all. Me changing my mind, what a novel concept !

mellow my man

don't know if this is considered "normal" or not, but I eat soup pretty much year round. Winter, Spring or Fall, and even Summer, it doesn't matter, soup is an unequivocal part of my major food groups (along with diet Pringles and kiwis). I started being a fan last year, and I've kept the habit since.

For some reason, people whom I tell this tidbit do not react well to it. Like they're part of the no-soup-when-it's-warm church and I've just committed the ultimate sin. I never got it, if you like eating something, why would you set boundaries as to when you can eat it ? Seriously, pizza for breakfast isn't that bad. Speaking of ridiculous, my Mom had this "rule" when we were kids that we were'nt supposed to drink water when we had soup. I don't know if it's something that's detailed in the handbook of good manners, which I've clearly not been handed yet, but it never failed to perplex me or my brothers. It's definitely entered the family lore now, just like the fact that we weren't allowed to wear black jeans because "those were for bad boys". Mind you I was about 8 at the time, so I clearly did not give a crap what color were the pants I wore as long as I could run around in them. When I was 15 I actually got a pair of black jeans, but Moms never said anything. Oh, the mysteries of Maternal rules.

Maybe laying out seemingly random and pointless rules is just a game parents play: set the most out-there principle for your kids and see if they'll buy it. In which case I say: I can't wait to be a dad. "Timmy, you know very well you're supposed to use your calculator upside down when doing your math homework in November !"

hurry up

preparing for work in the morning is all about efficiency for me. Since I take the bus from its starting point, I know what time it leaves and thus am able to reverse-engineer the time I need to get up so as to get on it. The goal for me is to do so, while taking care of my morning routine (shower, shave, dress...) with not a minute to spare.
Considering what time I want to be at work (around 8:30am), my bus is the one that leaves at 7:40am (ish, this is the RATP after all). Which means I leave home around 7:30-35am. In the past it took me a good 45 mins-1h to get ready in the morning, which would include a lot of moments when I'd just be taking my time. However, I've become less and less tolerant of this, and consequently I've now managed to do my whole routine in around 30 minutes. I don't feel like I'm rushing when I'm doing it, but I definitely look at the time to know where I'm at. Still, you'll be amazed at how much stuff you can do in 30 minutes when you're efficient. For me that includes :

• wake up
• shower+brush teeth
• shave+clean
• dress while watching news
• make sure i've got all my stuff before going to the kitchen (to avoid repeated trips to my room and thus potentially wake up my roommates)
• go to kitchen, prepare lunch
• depending on the time, have a "full" breakfast or, more likely, get my vitamins, juice and a yogurt, and grab a Kit Kat + some Krisprolls on the way out

All this might make it sound like I'm some sort of control freak, in actuality it's mostly the manifestation of my sleep-hungry slacker side trying to eke out a few minutes of sleep where I can. Trust me that if I find I can gain 2-3 minutes more I will push back that alarm.

disguised

no doubt when it comes to cultural matters (and women) France is a complex place. One such case is how most people have an instinctive negative view of all things American, yet American movies, TV shows and music are still dominant. I've got another, kind of baffling, example : the popularity of Halloween.

It all started about 10 years ago when, so goes the urban legend, some costume manufacturers (there were probably some candy makers involved too, they're quite evil, especially that Willy Wonka fella) decided to promote the event as a way to increase their declining sales. Pretty soon every mass-market brand was joining in, and now Halloween is a pretty mainstream event.

Not to sound all Johnny McCranky, but that's ridiculous. I grew up in a place where we celebrated Halloween as kids, and the whole thing seemed pretty organic. Sure, it was also a hugely commercial event, as pretty much all these things are nowadays, but at heart it was still kids going door-to-door asking for candy. To me that day carries many memories of my brothers and I running around our building with friends, dressed in our best getups. I specifically remember going as Axel Foley one year, basing my costume mostly on the fact that I carried a toy gun and could imitate his -unmistakeable- laugh. If you'd seen me that night, there would've been absolutely no way for you to convince me my costume wasn't convincing (FYI since my pic isn't on here: he's black, I'm not). I just thought it was the coolest and I reckon that's all that matters when you're 8. Plus I think my brother went as Daniel-san, so we were like a gang of little tough guys that day, no one would've dared mess with us.

This whole kids looking for candy is the basis of Halloween. It's not about Coca-Cola putting out a special orange bottle, or clubs hosting costumed parties, or even people coming to work with fake teeth, although that's part of it too. Therefore the tradition at the centre of that day doesn't really exist in France, even if I have in recent years spotted more and more random kids walking around with candy bags. But since I'm guessing 90% of people don't stock on sugary sweets, how can they honestly do the trick-or-treating thing ? Unless they've got a North Korean-size stockpile of stink bombs, in which case I should be buying some emergency M&Ms myself.

But even if trick or treating does become a national occurence, it still will feel weird to be, because of how the whole thing started. I've read a bunch of articles explaining how Halloween really was a Celtic (read non-American) tradition, and that that was the custom we had adopted in France, not the crass mass-market US kind. Like I said, this whole thing started very recently, quite probably due to some savvy entrepreneurs who recognized a marketing opportunity. If that's not typically American, I don't know what is.

By now you'll probably understand that I won't be going to a costumed party next Tuesday. If you feel the same way I do, I've got just the thing for you : a gig by the soon to be world famous The Goodfellas (best.name.evaaar). They mostly play a bunch of classic rock/R&B covers, in fact I've got an idea for a tee-shirt for them that would say "If you haven't heard G.L.O.R.I.A played live, you haven't been to a Goodfellas concert". Or something to that effect.

The concert is at my favorite bar, Le Reflet (Google Maps; Metro: Odeon or St Michel), right next to the Boulevard St Michel and Rue des Ecoles intersection. The official start time is 7pm, but I know they'll be playing till late, so come in anytime. I know that my stats say on average only 4 people read this blog, but to them I say "screw you, I'm an optimist". So join me on the crabby express and say yes to good live music, and no to fake traditions !

l is for

as I was walking home last night from dropping off an important piece of mail at the rue du Louvre post office (open 23/7), it occured to me this was definitely a drinking occasion. Not that I do that sort of thing too often (once a week, on average), but this seemed like a fitting occasion. As the saying goes, "on big days, have yourself a shot of whiskey". Or maybe I just made that up, I forget.

Problem was, after spending a few minutes on the cell, I couldn't rally any of the troops to join me for a drink and a half. Recruiting people for the Friday Night Drinking Club (FNDC ?) is never too hard, but Wednesday nights don't have the same cachet, apparently. Walking aimlessly around the half-empty Etienne Marcel neighborhood, I knew that going home at that point was not an option. That would mean defeat on many levels, including possibly running into my roommates and their newfound bougie lifestyle, and though I can deal with it 99% of the time, this was not such a day. The only resort I had was to just pop in some random bar and have drinks on my own damn self.

Because I've seen way too many movies, the way I envisionned it was I'd enter the place, find a cosy spot at the bar, and order a Jack on the rocks, with my customary suaveness. By then the Zooey-lookalike sitting on her own at the other end of the joint would have noticed me and I'd have noticed her noticing me, so I'd swoosh (yes, swoosh) over to her side of the bar to introduce myself. Or, plan B, I'd start talking to the entertaining/funny/thoughtful bartender with whom I'd discuss the subjects men discuss, and he'd quote Kierkegaard when giving his opinion, all the while punctuating his phrases with "brother" like that guy from Lost.

So of course, none of this happened. I ordered my first drink, looked around the place and saw that things might not turn out the way I thought they could. No stunners forlornly waiting for me to approach them. A less than cooperative bartender (okay well I'll be less than cooperative on your tip then, brother) and generally not the type of vibe I was looking for. Mostly loud rap/R&B instead of soft lounge music, although i did enjoy hearing Wreckx n Effect when entering the bar. And the joint was filled with more thirty-something couples than an Ikea on Saturday morning.

Still, I ordered a second Jack, waiting to see if things would change. Strangely, they did not, and as I pondered the mischevious vagaries of life while making my exit, I realized that this was all very fitting. If your evening's gonna be crap, it might as well be from the beginning. That way you head home early and have none of that nasty hangover you would've got otherwise. That I'm keeping for Saturday morning, if things go as planned.Expectations: they're a bitch

cousin of death

had to go to my home office today for some administrative stuff (I work out of my client's office, so I rarely venture back to the corporate mothership). The meeting was at 10am, so instead of heading there straight from home, I went into work a bit earlier than usual, worked for a bit, then headed to the HQ.

On the way back, it was only about 10:45am by then, I'd barely got into my seat when I started to feel the all-too familiar strains of fatigue set in. Probably because I went for a run last night. Or maybe I'm just a weakling, either one. Anyway after I allowed myself a 10-minute power-siesta, rocked by the mellow rythm of Explosions In The Sky's A Slow Dance, I realized I was strangely refreshed. I know this sort of behavior is common in Tokyo, where some salarymen are still subject to insane working hours, but you don't see it happen too often in Paris. Which is unfortunate because I know a bunch of people who could use the rest. I think people should just slump down and doze for their sleeping rights.

Say it with me : We want more comfortable bus/metro seats ! Higher headrests ! More mellow tracks from Explosions In The Sky !

brewster's millions

although I've been working out of college for 3+ years now, and despite my financial background, I don' have a particular financial and/or investment strategy. Mostly because I don't try to save up as much as I could/should. You know, life is short/par-tay/woo-hoo and all of that. Still last month I had some spare cash lying around, and as an experiment of sorts, I decided to buy some Apple shares with it. The price back then was 72.87, so I didn't go too wild on my purchase order, but I thought the company had good prospects for the coming months, and I would see where the stock would be at at the end of the year.

Well, it's now about a month later, and the stock is sitting pretty at 81.46, on the basis of a strong Q3 (that's 3rd quarter for you non-boring, non-financial types) earnings report . Basically a 11.7% return in 4 weeks (a bit less if you count transaction costs). Of course nothing is sure when it comes to the stock market, but this whole deal has got me interested in learning more, especially when it comes to long-term stock-buying strategies. Managing money is generally tedious, unless you try to understand the forces at play. Then it becomes much more interesting proposition, although still not as enthralling as blogging, especially about money.

huh ?

last week, while grocery shopping at the Réaumur Monoprix, I noticed stacks of boxes piled up along the exit stairs. A closer look led me to realize these were in fact chocolate boxes for Christmas (you know, Mon Cheri, Ferrero Rocher and their heinie-fattening brethren). I even took a craptastic cameraphone pic of them, but lack of internet access at la casa prevents me from sharing this highly essential piece of pictorial evidence witht the world.

This sort of thing I've come to expect in the US, where I once saw a xmas tree in a store in late September, but I thought France would be immune to the phenomenon. Is it too much to ask to wait till at least November 15 ? As Rob Cordry would say, "I mean come on" . To recap we're still having 20° temperature on most days, and retailers have already started to crank up the xmas machine. I know the Galeries Lafayette have started to put up their decorations and window dressings, so guys in full Santa attire (and your local boulangère wearing a Santa hat) can't be too far behind.

Thus in the spirit of the "if ya can't beat em, join em" strategy, I will be partaking in one of my personal traditions, the annual viewing of Elf, a bit earlier than usual. And to really feel festive, I'll probably pull out my Rat Pack and Sufjan Xmas albums. In the words of Buddy: SANTA! OH MY GOD! SANTA'S COMING! I KNOW HIM! I KNOW HIM!

hope and despair

after talking about my anticipation toward Children of Men, I owed it to this fascinating blog to post a follow-up. I did see the movie this weekend, and, without giving away any sort of spoilers as I hate those, and you should too, I loved it. Nay, I blooooody loved it (I need to get used to using words like bloody more often). The film is a bleak and somber tale about a future that does not seem so far-fetched, and Alfonso Cuaron does wonders with the script. His directing was some of the best I've seen in ages. There's one tracking shot in particular that still resonates with me now, as if I'd just exited the movie theater.

The acting is top-notch, with Clive Owen affirming his weight throughout the whole film, but really, no actor here does not do a good job in my mind (Michael Caine in particular is impeccable). The thing about Owen is he's a smooth man, like movie actors are wont to be, but he's also got that edge that other suave types like George Clooney or Brad Pitt seem to lack. Therefore he comes off as highly believable in roles that need him to be world-weary, such as this one.

The movie actually was pretty different from what I initially thought it would be, but in fact that made in even more powerful and I was completely caught up in the action and progression of the story. The last 45 minutes or so were unbelievably tense, and I have to congratulate Cuaron for that. If he keeps on making movies as brilliant as this one, he can definitely make as many Harry Potter ones as far as I'm concerned.

Unfortunately the movie isn't showing in that many theaters, even though it came out just last Wednesday, so I hope it can still achieve some sort of word-to-mouth success. I know I might go see it again with a friend, I hope the second viewing will confirm my first impression.

Lastly, since loud statements tend to be the only thing that matter anymore, let me end this by proclaiming: best movie of 2006 so far. Bring it on, Clint.

don't you know pump it up, you gotta pump it up

feeling kinda tired this morning. I woke up last night at 2am-ish to watch some beisbol (this is a rule on my blog : baseball is beisbol, and football/soccer is futbol. I think it just sounds cooler that way), specifically my NY Mets play the final game their playoff series against the St Louis Cardinals. Waking up at night to catch a game is something I did often back when I was a student and 3 hours of sleep on a weeknight sounded not only completely normal, but actually pretty cool. Nowadays I'm a boring so-called yuppie, so I tend to value my sleeping time more. It's pretty sad, but I actually get kind of excited when I manage to get to bed early enough to get 8 hours of sleep. Moving on... It was a very close and exciting game, but alas the Cards pulled away with the W thanks to a 9th inning 2-run homerun (if you have no idea what that last sentence means, the translation would be : "nooooooooooooooo").

The game ended at around 5:45 am, so needless to say when about an hour later my trusty Casio alarm clock let me know I should get my ass up, I wasn't feeling too refreshed. You kow those Herbal Essence shampoo commercial ? Picture the exact opposite. Fortunately, this being a Friday, putting on my sloppy casual outfit of jeans and a polo (black of course; no I'm not being melodramatic) helped me start the day on the right note. When I started working I used to think that dressing different on Fridays was pointless, but now I totally get the point.

But my real super-duper-secret weapon to actually getting that much-needed jolt of energy to kick-start my day (besides listening to some angry teenager music) was a cold, cold, oh-so on point, make-you-want-to-wrestle-a-tiger can of Red Bull. Nothing will get you in gear better when you need to act like you're actually paid to do something at work. Plus it's actually illegal in France, ooh how exciting.

Red Bull in the morning: try it, love it, live it

boring post

- came home from work
- went running (1h)
- met up with a friend near his place
- bought some candy from a street stand
- chose a bar to watch the second half of the game
- ordered a croque monsieur and a beer
- watched some footy while discussing, um, footy, and also the finer points of the Socialist Party primaries (kidding, one of these two topics wasn't really discussed)
- ordered another beer
- watched some more footy while discussing girl karma (this subject definitely needs its own post)
- suddenly remembered I had a bag of candy in my jacket pocket ("DESSERT !")
- ate delicious candy and suddenly understood the meaning of the word serendipity
- left the bar, went home

all in all, a good night I'd say

we're all looking for rosebud

as the holder of a subscription to Gaumont/MK2 cinemas, going to the movies is a fairly regular activity for me. On average I probably go around 3-4 times a month, which considering my movie card costs 18 euros per month, makes it a pretty sweet deal for me (normal ticket prices are now at or above 10 euros). Without calling myself a true movie buff, I'd say I'm fairly knowledgeable on the subject, and I try to follow up on the main movie news : who's making what movie, who's the big star, which movie will probably flop... All this to say that I'm pretty aware of the movies coming out in any given month, especially in cases when I've seen the trailer for a flick before and it's given me hope that it might be a good one.

Today such a movie comes out, and though I won't be able to see it before this weekend, at the earliest, I sincerely hope I'll have this in my year-end best of list. The movie is Children of Men, starring uber-suave Clive Owen and Julianne Moore (what's she been up to recently ?), and directed by Alfonso Cuaron, who made the brilliant Y Tu Mama Tambien, but is generally presented as the guy who directed a Harry Potter movie (don't ask me which one, I read a couple of the books which were fine, but that's that). It's based on a novel by PD James, and since I'm pretty bad at describing movie plots, I'll give you the IMDB version (spoilers below):

In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind

I don't like sci-fiction movies that takes place in a far-away future or in space, but this sort of plot sounds highly appealing to me (kinda like Gattaca). What really sold me on the film was the egregiously manipulative trailer, which I've probably seen 6 or 7 times. In it you get the basic set-up, with admittedly nice visuals (Cuaron has proven to be quite good in that department), and a few scenes between Owen and Moore (who plays his ex and recruits him to take care of the pregnant girl). The manipulative aspect comes in toward the middle of the thing, when the first few bars of Sigur Ros' Hoppipolla start rising, and the song plays through the end of the trailer. That song, with those images, and Chiwetel Ejiofor saying "now you know what's at stake"... resistance is futile. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for that sort of cinematographic experience. After all, Spielberg is one of my favorite directors. Essentially that hope I feel before seeing such a movie is what keeps me interested in films. After all, if that didn't happen, I'd just rewatch old classics all the time, like one of those sore critics who think nothing made after 1976 has any significance. And there's definitely enough of them already.

fanfare for the common man

Choosing what music to listen to is often highly dependent on the context. Some tunes go great with night driving (see: Dramamine by Modest Mouse), others are awesome for parties (see: pretty much anything produced by Pharell or Timbaland). In that respect, there are certain artists whose work goes very well with the urban landscape, others not so much.

I was thinking about this on the bus this morning as I listened to my favorite Razorlight tracks. Razorlight isn't one of my all-time favorite bands per se, if I had to rank them they'd probably be at the end of my top 20. Yet for times like these there's probably no other artist, save for the Strokes perhaps, that I'd rather listen to. The taut guitar riffs, urgent singing and bouncy drums are the perfect accompaniment to my morning commute through Paris. In the grand scheme of things I might prefer Neil Young or some Skynyrd, but since one of the things I like in music is to have a soundtrack to what I'm doing, these wouldn't do the trick. The city has a fast and irregular heartbeat, and just being along for the ride ain't enough, you need a voice to kind of make sense of it all.

To me this style of music is just perfect for an 8am bus ride while observing all the little moments that compose city life: shop-keepers setting up their stores, girls wearing skinny jeans smoking one last ciggy before entering the subway station, little kids skipping along while their weary parents take them to school, or just simply some guy wearing a suit and listening to his iPod, while taking it all in.

from weefee to deeveedee

Although I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable in the computer field, the extent of my know-how is limited to problems I've encountered and have had to solve over the years. Therefore when I'm faced with a new issue, I'm generally at a loss as to what the correct solution might be. But if there's one thing I've learned it's that a lot of computer problems can be solutionned with a small screwdriver and some patience.

For instance, yesterday evening, just as I was preparing to go running, I decided to reinstall Mac OS X to see if it would get rid of the Wifi woes I'd been having on my mac mini for a few days. I thus inserted an installation DVD that came with my Macbook and promptly confirmed that I wanted to start the installation process, which initiated a restart. That's when I got a kinda scary looking error message telling me I was having a kernel panic (or something) and that I should manually restart the computer. Unfortunately two such occurences happened again before I understood that using that particular installation DVD was a BIG mistake. I was now stuck with a DVD that I couldn't eject, yet which caused a fatal error preventing me from even getting past the startup stage. My pseudo-DYI instincts kicked in: I was gonna have to go in the belly of the beast and retrieve the dang DVD myself. After much exertion I managed to open up the mini, unset a few screws and somehow recover the disk, but not without a hint of possible damage to the optical drive (or worse).

Thankfully when I turned on the thing, it started up fine (although still no Internet). I then did what any semi-logical person would've in the first place and inserted the installation DVD that came with the computer. By then it was 10pm and going running was, frustratingly, out of the equation. Still the install process seemed to go fine, and after 40+ minutes, I had the computer back to the state I'd bought it in. Well, save for a few scratches on the top from my screwdriver artistry.

The moral of the story ? Well, I'm still having Wifi issues (could it be any other way ?), but at least I know what to do if some CD or DVD decides to spend some quality time in my DVD drive. That Macguyver fella was right: you can do a whole lot with a screwdriver, and most of them are awesome.

tuning a run

One of the more surprising aspects of my newfound jogging (or yogging. it might be a soft j, I don't know) habit is that I don't mind running without any music. Spending 1h of my personal time without any tunes is pretty rare for me, outside of work. But when I run I don't really think about it as a hassle to "just" have to think about stuff.
However, when the new ipod shuffle is released (supposedly sometime in October), I will acquire it faster than a Cobra snake trained in the ancient ways of the ninja. The incorporated clip, the small size and the (relatively) affordable price make this one a can't miss for my next buy.
Materialistic fool ? Yes, hopelessly. But I'm also an Apple shareholder. So in a way all I'm doing is supporting my stock price. Right ?

pop du jour

my current top 40 obsession is Rihanna's Unfaithful. For some reason I've always preferred sad and bitter breakup songs to fluffy joyful love songs, and this is another great addition to my collection of said tracks.
One of the major rules of pop is that a song should reach its apex during the chorus, and this one is no exception. When Ms Rihanna sings about not wanting to be a murderer, I get it. Which means that I've got at least the same poprehension level than that of a 13-year old girl, what a relief.

food for thought

when it comes to choosing a restaurant (at least when I'm relied on to make that choice), I tend to not plan things in advance and pretty much decide on the spot. Reservations ? Not my bag baby. Such a situation arose last night when I was out with a friend near Opera (more specifically the Galeries, where I bought a pair of jeans, unfortunately not on sale) and we were both beginning to feel the pangs of hunger.

After walking for a few minutes toward rue de Rivoli (my friend had to take the RER at Chatelet to go home, so we walked in that direction), I remembered that we were in the vicinity of one of my favorite small bistrots in Paris, le Bar de l'Entracte. Located on rue de Montpensier, just behind the Palais Royal gardens, it should be overrun by tourists, but for some reason isn't. One of its main selling points is the great terrace. I'm not a big fan of Parisian terraces, as too often they're too close to a pedestrian-filled pavement, or they're just a people-watching HQ for jaded Parisians. But this is the real deal. The place is on a small street, so there's nary a car in sight, and the only time there's a crowd on the street is when the Theatre du Palais Royal lets out its audience (and even then it's nothing major).

But it's not just location, location, location when it comes to this bistrot, as the menu is quite cheap (for that neighborhood). One of their specialties is the bowl of macaroni and light cream which they couple with various ingredients: swiss cheese, chicken, lardoon... They've got at least 10 different recipes and all those I've tried were delicious. They've got plenty of other items on the menu as well, although I can't say I've tried those. The service is good and the way the tables are set up mean you can even -yes, I know this might be shocking in Paris- make small talk with people around you. There's also an Italian restaurant right next to it, with the same sort of terrace, so I might have to try that one of these days (although I've pretty much given up on finding pizza as good as that I used to have in NYC).

I'm not a big fan of dressed-up eating, where a meal can take up 2h (when I was a kid I always had a problem with long meals, and I've barely gotten better since), my thing is more the small "unremarkable" places that end up knocking your socks off because of their great combination of relaxed setting, laid-back people and good food. What's funny is once you get there, good conversations start flowing, a feeling of well-being takes over, and you end up staying 2 hours+. Le Bar de l'Entracte is one of those places, and I hope it won't be two years before I go there again.

picture taken by Nokier

dub-dub-dub

when computers work, they're the best thing ever invented, but when they're acting up, you feel as though you'd rather be back in the stone age. Right now my Apple laptop has been suffering from the stupendous Random Shutdown Syndrome. And by random, I mean really random. Sometimes it'll work fine for a couple of days, then start shutting down for no reason. Since it's not an issue that's going to go away magically, as it stems from hardware and not software, I've finally managed to back up my precious data (okay, mostly 50 GB of music) to an external HD, and this weekend I'll be dropping it off for repairs.

In the meantime I've set up my other computer, a Mac Mini, in my room so I could listen to my music and surf the Web. But for some reason its wifi connection is spotty. Unless I can fix that, I won't have access to the Internet (not to sound like a geek, but: oh nooooo) once the laptop is in the shop.

Apple computers are still the best thing I've ever tried in the area, compared to PCs I've tried, when it comes to reliability. But when something like this happens, it almost makes one pine for the good old days of pre-Internet. Or not.

de Nîmes

I need to get some new jeans. Even if I tend to prefer a loose fit when it comes to denim (slim fit is evil), I have to admit that out of my three pairs, two are too big for me. So it came as a nice surprise to me this morning to see a poster (no, not that one) informing everyone of the start of the Galeries Lafayette's 3J. The Galeries, as people call them here, is one of the oldest and most well-known department stores in Paris (there's also a chain of them all around France). And it just so happens they have a Lucky Brand Jeans "area". Thus I'll be heading there before this weekend to try and see whether they have something for me, preferably with a delicious -30% symbol attached to the price tag.

black is the new black

there's this poster for a Hugo Boss ad campaign I've been seeing everywhere recently. In particular, there's one at the bus stop where I catch my bus after work, and it's become a favorite of mine. Not only is the girl used in the ad stunning (probably some famous model, I think I've already seen her somewhere), but the composition of the shot is perfect, illustrating the kind of classy urban environment that I'm thinking Hugo Boss would like to be associated with, and that's with a plain gray background. Photographs can be effective that way.

I couldn't find an actual pic of the poster, but here's a screen print I took on the HB site:

Don't know how long ad campaigns usually last, but I'm guessing not more than a few weeks. If so, it seems I should be bracing myself for the inevitable replacement of this new fave by a Gap one, or worse, Herta Knacki. Ain't nothing worse than seeing a food ad when you're about to start your treck home.

early bird does the worm

I've just booked my train tickets to spend New Year's Eve (or weekend, actually) in merry London. This is definitely the earliest I've ever made plans for New Year's. In fact it's generally a last minute decision for me, like last year's shindig at some Swedish embassy official's palatial appartment. But this time I had an opportunity to get a cheaper ticket. Even though those stingy people from SNCF did not let me use it, I called up a good friend from b-school and decided to get a ticket anyway.
Now we have almost three months to plan a most excellent night of partying. Yummy.

up in smoke

so apparently, the full ban on smoking in public places is set to come into effect on January 1, 2007. Great news for non-smokers like me, for sure, but not just them. I understand people that smoke who feel that this is an infringement on their personal freedoms, but really in such a situation where two sides cannot coexist without one's behavior impacting negatively the other, it is the only way.

After living in Paris for close to ten years, I'm not going to say I don't mind cigarette smoke, because I do, but I have sort of gotten used to it. Still as someone who is moderately allergic to smoke, I definitely notice when i stay in a smokey environment. You eyes and throat sting, and you feel a bit dizzy if you stay too long. Some (mostly smokers in my personal experience) have been saying that separate sections for smokers and non-smokers were an acceptable solution. But truthfully, if there are people smoking in a closed environment like a restaurant or a bar, you're going to notice it sooner or later. And the same goes for terrasses, which tend to be static-air environments. Nowadays in Paris it's impossible to go out to proper bars and not come out smelling like a stale Gauloise. Getting soaked by a spillt beer happens, but having to clean your jeans every single time you go out because of cigarettes tends to get tedious after a while. Bar and restaurant owners fear many people will stop going out and prefer to stay in their homes so they can keep lighting up. But man is by essence a social being, and I'd be surprised if revenues for cafes and restaurants drop significantly once the law is actually applied.

And this is only from a lifestyle POV, without getting into the argument of health-care costs. One of the issues in France on that aspect is that the government actually makes money on both ends, since it taxes-dearly- a product it is also involved in selling (through Altadis). Yet the costs of caring for all the people suffering from tobacco-related illnesses has to be a staggering amount, and if I weren't so lazy I might try to search around for some information on that. But since I am I'll believe what I've read in recent articles on the subject, in The Economist and other publications.

Bottom line is this is a trend that's been unavoidable in recent years, and which is not borne by freedom-hating puritans, as some would have you believe, but mostly by logical interests of public health. And the result of such a ban can only be a good thing for society at large.

what's old is new

Paul Simon => Joshua Radin

Nick Drake => Rivulets

Fleetwood Mac => Midlake

the first time

before the glorious days of high-speed internet and Napster at work (r.i.p.), and way before myspace or bittorrent ever existed, finding and listening to new music was pretty low-tech. For me it generally involved scouring amazon.com looking for listmanias based on some albums I liked and reading the user comments to get an idea of how that CD was. Listening to song snippets (snippet, what a wonderful word) was useful too, but back then amazon only had the first five songs available for listening to, and the quality wasn't that great. So often i'd have a pretty good idea of whether I'd like an artist or band I'd newly discovered, but I still had to take a leap of faith in buying and actually liking the CD.
That's exactly what happened with Red House Painters. I was looking for some slow indie rock music back in the late 90s, when I first got into that genre (aka shoegaze, slowcore...). I saw a bunch of great comments on amazon about their album Songs for a Blue Guitar, just before leaving for NYC to go spend Xmas with the folks. So when I went present shopping at the 34th St HMV, I made sure to look for it, and, even though it was priced ridiculously high ($17.99+ tax I think it was), I had a hunch it would be good. That night we left for 3-4 days of skiing in Vermont, and I was presented with my first opportunity to listen to it. The road was half-empty, the car silent, thus the mood perfect for me to enter the world of Mr Mark Kozelek. To this day I will remember the melancholy and simultaneous joy I felt at hearing such perfect music. The first track Have You Forgotten, about a man who reminisces about his life, immediately entered my personal top ten after, oh... 21 seconds. The voice, the instrumentation, the lyrics; it was all there. And the rest of the album was just as life-affirming (as much life-affirming as sad-sack music can get, anyway), varying between slow, mournful numbers (Have You Forgotten, Song For A Blue Guitar, Trailways) and more enthusiastic mid-tempo rockers (All Mixed Up, Long Distance Runaround). I'd consider the Red House Painters to be my favorite band of all-time, and that first taste of their music will definitely stick with me for a long time. I've got a couple of other personal moments in which RHP music was prominently featured, and it is my hope that many others have felt the same bond to a band's music, through a specific moment in their lives, as I have. If I were part of a Cameron Crowe movie, this is where I'd say it is how music becomes part of the fabric of our lives. Cheesy, but true

oh no

as I've been taking the bus to work for a while now, I've started to notice some behavior patterns that one might not see when riding the subway. One is people not doing anything: they don't listen to music, don't read the paper or a book, they don't even look out the window, which is frankly one of the more underrated things in life. They just kinda stare into the void, as if they had undergone hypnotic therapy or a lobotomy. To be honest these people kinda freak me out, and there's a bunch of them. It's not about them doing something (and believe me, there's tons of stuff you can do on the bus), as much as it is about these people sometimes appearing to be very tired about life, like doing something has no point. When you sit next to them it's like they don't even register you're there. Although I guess it's still better than having them stare at you or, worse, some little kids.
Another thing I've seen often is people working. Now I have a pretty busy day myself. I'm no air traffic controller, but I do my share (on average from 8:30am to 8pm with few breaks). Yet I can't fathom how "working" 10-15 mins on the bus is going to help you out. There's this one guy who takes the same bus as me who does this every single time I see him. He's probably on the bus for 15-20 mins and invariably he'll get out his laptop and start typing away. He doesn't seem agitated, like if he were under a deadline. And this morning as he sat not too far from me on the crowded bus, he actually did the staring thing for 5 mins before getting his lappy out and starting his workday (double whammo). If I knew the dude, I'd probably ask him what he thinks doing that is going to accomplish, instead of trying to relax during his commute. I'm not saying this is a general rule, as in "you should only work when you're at the office", but when all you're going to accomplish is write an email or review 3 slides, it seems pretty pointless to me (and is another missed step on the slippery slope to not making a distinction between worklife and personal life). Basically, if you need to finish something up, stay at work 10-15 mins later and then go. If you have something to do in the morning, wake up earlier and do it at work.

Of course, there aren't things that really annoy me. Just things that I've noticed and which puzzle me a bit. If you really want me to get angry about something, ask me about people who clip their nails on the bus (true story). Then I'll have a topic to get riled up about.

open letter

amends need to be made: I had listened to Justin Timberlake's new CD, Futuresex/lovesounds a few weeks ago, and did not enjoy it at all. Most of the stuff sounded robotic and cold, most notably the lead single, Sexyback.
Well, after reading what esteemed blogger Donnie Jeter had to say about this release I gave it another shot this weekend, and my views on this album have definitely made a 180. The things that annoyed me after my first listen, I now find brilliant. For instance the two-part, two-beat songs, of which Lovestoned-I Think She Knows is a brilliant example. Seriously, that second part might be the best 2 mins of dance pop I've ever heard (MJ excluded, of course). Or what I thought was cold and distant, I now see as a great throwback to the R&B sounds of the 80s, like Freddie Jackson (you've heard of Freddie Jack, right ?).
And as so often happens in times like these, Sexyback was played in a bar I was hanging out in on Saturday night, so that I could really understand the true power of that song. It's a pretty good song when you listen to it at home or during your commute. But on a Saturday night, in a bar/club, that song is baaaad.
So Justin, consider this a formal apology for not trusting you more the first time around. I can't promise that I won't do it again, but at least I will definitely give your next album a few listens before forming my opinion.

life's a playground

My voice got hoarse after staying out late on Friday night and thanks to another dose of going-out on Saturday has stayed that way since (leading to the inevitable "hey, you know you're supposed to get some sleep on the weekends" wisecracks at work), and I have to admit, I sound way much cooler than usual. I almost wish I always had this voice. Who cares about credibility toward bosses and coworkers when you sound like Benicio Del Toro.

collectionitis

As I was choosing a movie to watch yesterday night, I wondered how many DVDs I would keep if I had to choose. Glancing quickly at my collection, I realized that the justification I had for a DVD purchase a few years back ("I want to have this in my collection") was vastly different from the one I hold today ("I want to have the movies I love, admire, and that I can watch anytime"). I currently own around 90 DVDs, and most of them were bought when I first got into the format, in 2000-2003. Now I only buy 4-5 a year, max, and I tend to go for rentals or downloads to watch supposedly good movies I haven't seen, instead of trying to find a steal on amazon.com or a local secondhand store.
Thus I decided to see how many movies I would keep if I had to make radical cuts in my collection, to say 20-25 items. After all, these are proven films for me, not simply movies I feel I should have because they're "good" and I "might get into them". Sure, that boxset of the Godfather trilogy was cheap, but knowing I don't like Mafia movies that much, why did I feel the need to own it instead of trying to borrow it from a friend ?
The movie I ended up watching that night, The Graduate, would definitely be number one on my list of desert island DVDs. Now all I need to do is find its 20 brethren and I'll be set for a while.

fresh baked

this morning before work I stopped by a bakery to get some croissants and chocolatines (chocolate croissants). Initially I wanted to get a couple of each, so i could share some with my co-office dwellers. Once I made my order the lady at the counter started telling me something, but I couldn't understand the words coming out of her mouth. I think it was about a special they were having where you buy x items you get 1 free. I say I think because the combination of my sleepyhead-ness and her fast talking+semi-accent made things a little hairy for the few braincells that were already awake. So I just mumbled "yeah, sure" and she asked me for 3€50 and I got a bunch of croissants and chocolatines back. Overall not a bad deal, but I gotta say that speaking fast to the customer in a foreign accent (honestly I have no idea where the woman was from, maybe Romania ?) is a top-notch sales technique. I mean, maybe 5% of people will throw a hissy fit if this happens, but I'm guessing most people feel too sheepish at 8am to do so and will just have the same reaction I had.
Of course this sales method is not universally applicable. Try this at a bar with drunken patrons and you're bound to be met with more hostility than Mel Gibson at a Bar Mitzvah. Then again, when drunk people get into a fight, there's a 64% chance they're gonna end up hurting themselves and not you, so you might have a good strategy after all, if you're into that sort of thing.

brown bag it

As part of my continuing search for financial improvements (subtext: it’s all small stuff), I’ve recently started bringing my own lunch to work. Nothing fancy, as I prepare it in the morning, which isn’t my favourite time to operate, just enough so I don’t feel hungry 14 mins after having eaten it. My usual fare consists of some sort of salad (carrots, tomatoes, parmesan…), a sandwich (turkey and swiss on whole wheat, how I love thee) and a fruit. A few months back I used to not eat lunch at all, so this is almost like an all you can eat buffet compared to then, but still much more rationed than the big portions you get when you buy lunch at a take-out place. And of course, it costs much less to do so. One such trip to the sandwich place costs me around 8-10 euros, whereas here I spend 2 euros (at most). Ka-ching !
Now I only have to find a way to stop spending so much dough on the other “frivolous” expenses, like CDs and magazines, and pretty soon I’ll be able to buy myself a house. Or a DVD, whichever comes first.

creepy

every morning while going to work, i go past a building which has bright pink neon lights in its lobby. Gives me a very Kubrick circa-Clockwork Orange vibe, even though the overall neighborhood is as bland and -probably- safe as a butter knife. Some people just have the weirdest tastes, not that there's anything wrong with that. Or maybe that the neon thing is going to come back in style soon, and this is just a harbinger of things to come, in which case, I gotta find those tennis compression shorts (influence Agassi '91 baby) I used to rock oh so proudly on the courts.

liquid confidence

had a nice little weekend for myself. Highlights include drinks on Friday (Le Reflet, a bar near la Sorbonne), drinks on Saturday (around Duroc), and then drinks on Sunday (Great Canadian Pub at Saint Michel). So yeah, drinks all around. Not a bender or anything of the sort mind you, just enough lubricant to add a little fun to an otherwise normal weekend. I don't like drinking to the point of having a hungover the following morning, but a few beers and shots of Jack with good friends can be the perfect relief after a tough workweek. Although I will say this : happy hour sucks in Paris.

drop it like it's hot

remember the nano I bought, oh, one week ago ? This morning I was in a bit of a hurry, and while taking it out of my pocket to choose a track, I dropped the thing on the pavement. Then as I was picking it up to inspect the damage, I dropped it again. As the saying goes, "d'oh!".
Fortunately the thing has a flash-drive, so it's meant to be pretty resistant to such accidents. It does have a few scratches on the corners, but nothing major. Since it's so small I was meaning to buy a sillicon-cover, like an iskin, to protect it against such events, but the new models aren't out yet. Until that happens I'll try to tone down on the crash testing.

lost

in three short years the TV show Lost has become a global phenomenon. I've watched all the episodes thanks to the wonders of the internet since the very first one, and I'm hooked to its great mix of mystery, drama and action.
Season 3 is set to start in the US on Oct. 4, and to prepare myself for the event, I decided to catch up on the previous seasons. I already own the season 1 DVD boxset, and ordered season 2 (which should arrive anyday now), so my goal is to watch a bunch of "relevant" episodes to remind myself of the main plot points in time for the first ep. Last night I watched the first episode from season 1, and it's funny how many details I'd forgotten. Guess that's what these DVDs are for.
Since this is one of my top current TV shows (with The Office (US) and The Wire), I'm even considering watching it live via the Internet. Which means getting up at 4am, something I haven't done since I used to regularly do it for NBA games back when I had the energy to do so.
To paraphrase the one and only Barenaked Ladies, "sleep, who needs it ?"

good and the bad

mea culpa: I'm usually pretty good at containing my junk-food cravings, but today was one for the loss column in that area. Two packs of Mentos, a (small) bag of chips... Guess now I have to go running, which isn't my preferred motivation. Well, I'm sort of exaggerating. I was planning on going running tomorrow, so I'm just adding one insurance run (giving me two for the week), in case I'm unable to go later on this week.
Which makes me wonder: Could it be that...I actually like running ?

covers

I recently found two great Boys Don't Cry covers, thanks to the iTunes store :
Grant Lee Phillips (of Grant Lee Buffalo "fame")
Victor Malloy (of "just randomly found his song on iTunes" fame)

Check them out if you enjoy indie pop/softronica aesthetics

cry me a river

This past weekend we noticed a leak in our toilet (located on the second floor). Yet, since me and my roomies are a bunch of lacadaisical 20-something guys, we thought nothing of it, put a rag on the floor and kept on living ("You just gotta keep on livin', man. L-I-V-I-N"). So last night I got back from a typical 12-hour day, and I found both of my roommates upstairs, trying to figure out how to cut off the water. Apparently the leak had gotten pretty bad, with a bucket full of water underneath the toilet, and we had to actually do something about it. After a few minutes of searching we concluded that the culprit was a broken joint on the toilet's main pipe. Took us geniuses a while to figure out where the faucet to cut off the water to that was, but we did, and so had no more water on the second floor (where the bathroom and toilets are), with water still on on the first floor.
Anyway this morning I get up, and in my infinite 7am-wisdom, decide I'm going to turn on the water "just for a couple of minutes", so I can take a shower and shave. Needless to say as soon as I turned the water back on I heard a weird noise, turned it off immediately, and saw that the toilet floor was drenched. I'll tell ya, ain't a better sight in the morning than a -thankfully clean- water-drenched toilet floor. It's either that or finding out that the girl you brought back home from that wild party the night before is actually Chewbacca's sister. Thus twas back to the old old school this morning at la casa, like 1912-style, having to use the kitchen sink, where I somehow managed to "clean" myself and shave (having the reflection of the faucet as only mirror).
The moral of the story ? There's fun, there's buckets of fun, and then there's dealing with water leaks in the morning before work.

GQ

I've recently noticed that my clothes are very mono-branded. What I mean is that for a specific item, when I find a brand/model that I like, I'm not hesitant to get a bunch of it. That is all the more true ever since I had to renew almost my entire wardrobe, after having lost a lot of weight. Since I didn't want to wait to wait to buy more expensive/trendy items, I tried to find cheaper solutions that I could buy in "bulk" while still retaining some modicum of cool. It's fun to wear your old too-marge clothes at first, but after a while you feel like you don't have to dress like you got hand-me-downs from your big brother.
Therefore I now have mostly all American Apparel tees, all my suits are from H&M and my jeans come from Topman. Funny I'd never noticed this before.

currents

music: Alexi Murdoch - Time Without Consequence
movies: Little Miss Sunshine
TV: The Office season 2

healthy

though I'm not following a diet in the strictest sense of the word, there are some things I look out for (like eating enough fruit/veggies and not too much refined sugars), but also the occasional "lapse", which almost always happens on weekends. For instance this Sunday I went to Mickey Ds at 4 pm to get some lunch/dinner/afternoon delight. I knew I was going to go running in the evening, so in a way those Big Mac and chicken nuggets were a form of pre-compensation.
Yet I still try to limit those events, because for one junk food ain't that great. Honestly, it feels good to have some on occasion, but eat it too often and you'll get bored with it pretty fast. And mostly, I want to go running because I want to, not because I have to.

temptation

just like I predicted, I bought the iPod nano 8 GB yesterday. Initially I went to the Fnac (Champs-Elysees, which is open late) to get some RAM for my macbook, but as soon as I saw they had some of the nanos in stock I didn't think about it too much.
This thing is amazingly small, and with the color screen, looks very spiffy. It's actually almost too small: once it's in your pocket, you even forget you have it with you !
My iPod mini has served me well for those 18 months, but it's about time for it to retire. Although I'm sure he'll be of use from time to time.

little things

there's this gas station that I go by everyday just before arriving at work, that's on the side of the road. It has a sign on the way in saying "thank you and please drive safely", and another on the way out with "treat yourself" (with a picture of a young woman eating some sort of chocolate bar). Seems pretty logical to me that it should be the other way round, yet it's been that way for at least a year. Maybe one day I should go in and tell them about it.

nanopod

well, well, well, just like I thought, Apple has unveiled a new iPod nano. The product line is expanded with more colors, and the player itself will now come in a iPod mini-like aluminum body, which is great because I tend to drop mine kinda often.
The nano now comes in 3 capacities : 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB. Currently owning a 6 GB mini, I'm highly tempted by the 8 GB one, which comes in black (the 2 GB coming in silver and the 4 GB in a variety of colors). One of the reasons is the player itself is very snazzy, but another is that it can be used with the iPod+Nike kit, which enables you to track your running stats online.
I was semi-anticipating this release, so in a way I was already considering whether to purchase it or not, but having it official means I'm faced with the choice of buying it now or in a few months. Something tells me it's gonna be sooner rather than later...

the way we were

Most of the stuff I've written on this blog so far has been pretty frivolous. Not necessarily because I'm that way, but also because my writing is already shaky enough for those posts, let alone trying to tackle serious subjects.
However, as you probably know, yesterday was the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York City, and a lot of the news was dedicated to that fateful day. Many bloggers are reminiscing too, and some of them have written very well about it.
Anyway, I didn't really think about all of this yesterday, in part because that day, though clearly discussed in the media here, hasn't been the focal point of discussions around town as much as before. But on the bus back from work I finished the extraordinary book by Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, about a small boy living in New York who goes looking for the solution to a mystery left by his dad, who died in the attacks. The writing is funny and inventive (like the little boy himself) and never grating, which can happen when it comes to young "hip" writers. And most importantly it made me realize that to me the real story of 9/11 wasn't about all of the politics and stuff that came afterward, but simply about thousands of heartbreaking (and sometimes miraculous) personal stories, iilustrating the connections that people build with others while going through their lives. When I got home I pulled out my copy of Here is New York, an incredible book of amateur 9/11 photographs and browsed some of the pictures, reminiscing about my time in the great city of NY. Though we can't turn back the clocks of tim and go back to those relative carefree days, I hope there are still enough people that will remember some of the good that came out of that day: courage, solidarity, friendship and a common bond. Please set aside discussions about war and terrorism to another day, because Sept 11 is about the people that were there, through their stories, pictures, and our memories.