parting shots

after spending 5 years in Paris as the bureau chief for the New York Times, Elaine Sciolino is about to move to a new post and last week filed her leaving piece, called A Guide to the French, about things she learned in the City of Lights. Even though she seems appreciative of her time there, the article doesn't exude too much warmth warm, toward the country or its inhabitants. From harping on France's obsession with history, to underscoring French women's evergreen sexiness, the list reads more like a jumble of slightly amusing observations than a true attempt at describing what makes the French so, well, French.
Where New Yorker correspondent Adam Gopnik had managed to make light of the tons of small annoyances one encounters when living in France in such a breezy and enjoyable way in his book Paris To The Moon, Mrs Sciolino sounds mostly like an outsider who never really figured out how to adapt to the charms and frustrations of this old country. It's far from bad, and she actually nails some of the details about life in France that generally take some time to understand (for instance the air-kiss thing, one of the big mysteries to Americans when they move to France), but there is unfortunately no sense that she understood the country beyond those details. Not to say it's an easy thing, in fact it's not one I'd necessarily try to describe myself even after spending nearly 10 years there, but if you're going to try, moving beyond the cliches might be a good start. Stating that no one says "bon appetit" before a meal make me wonder what type of French people she encountered during her stay. Methinks a lot of Varenne-St Germain-Montorgueil types and perhaps not too many of the 99.5% of those she's trying to describe. I might be incredibly dismissive here, but that's the feeling I got from reading her article.
In the end the reader's response to this piece will depend on their initial opinion of the French. Which means that publishing it will have had no positive impact whatsoever. And that, unfortunately, is fast becoming the norm when it comes to the traditional news media's cultural relevance.

chug chug chug

so travel/hustle-blog gridskipper asked Brooklyn wunderkind Zach Condon from Beirut and his buddies from mp3 blog La Blogotheque to come up with a list of the best watering hole for indie types in Paris, which resulted in this interesting post. The thing is, all of the spots they came up with are located in the northeast corner of town. Which makes total sense considering it contains the hipper-than ever 11e, 19e and 20e, which is where I'm guessing most of those compadres live. To be fair, it is also what I would consider to be the epicenter of indie Paris these days, what with the great concert venues (le Nouveau Casino, la Maroquinerie), record shops (Ground Zero) and afore-mentioned bars. But since the list is supposed to be about the entire city, it would have been nice to branch out beyond the Bastille-Republique-Belleville triangle. For instance the rue Mouffetard area has a few interesting bars, including the decidedly-indie Shebeen. And not too far from that there are a few cool bars near St Michel with the kind of music and atmosphere that would not seem out of place in the backstreets of the 11e.

But hey, at least the list doesn't have le Truskel, le Pop-In or le Point Ephemere (who are like the Bloc Party of the Paris indie bar scene) on it, you gotta give credit for that. And really, if La Blogotheque really wants to keep things edgy and cool, they should try to come up with a list of taverns in the barren landscapes of the 14e-15e, now that would be an interesting read.

two days of bliss

one of the reasons I wanted to get away from Paris was that I felt I might grow to resent being there. I never reached that state, but I felt it might not be far off. So it was very cool to feel excited about my return there this weekend, seeing friends again and generally enjoying the city for how great it is. Skype is cool, but it just doesn't compare to catching up with a buddy during a 20-minute bus ride on the way to your favorite bar. Plus you don't even have to wear a ridiculous bluetooth headset, that's always a plus.

Two random highlights from the weekend:
- during one family lunch we had asparagus as appetizers. One of them was particularly massive, which prompted me to utter this brilliant morsel of punnery: "man, that's a MEGASPARGUS". I really should copyright that one. And make t-shirts or something. And definitely not post about it on the Internet.
- at the Bensimon store I wanted to know where the fitting rooms were, so I walked to a salesperson, asked her my question as she was looking at me...except she didn't say anything, just lingered there like I'd just uttered the most boring thing in the universe (which wasn't that far from the truth, but still), then went away a few seconds later. I guess she just didn't want to deal with my pathetic questions. Aaaahh, Parisian girls, sometimes you just warm my heart (except not really, but some of you are really hot in that aloof attitude of yours)

St Cloud-stock

the initial lineup for this year's Rock En Seine festival was recently released, and unfortunately it looks like I won't be making the trip back to attend. Having been two years running, I'm a big fan of the concept: major rock bands as well as smaller acts playing in a nice park on the outskirts of Paris, enabling you to experience a rock festival without that funky tent smell. This year ReS is scheduled over three days, as opposed to two, meaning more bands will be there, but there really aren't any that pass my personal test: would I pay the full ticket price just to see this one group? Of course I didn't go before just for one band, but each time I found one of the days where there was a band I loved and a few I was interested in, and was very happy overall. Like Broken Social Scene last year, which played a great , life-affirming show, under light rain which actually made the experience more memorable.
Among the acts programmed so far are Arcade Fire, The Hives, Jesus And Mary Chain, Klaxons, Tool, Bjork and Craig Armstrong. Out of these I guess Arcade Fire would narrowly pass my test, because I have tremendous love for their songs, but I saw them two years ago (at ReS) and do not feel the need to see them again. Seeing JAMC live is an intriguing prospect at best, and out of the other announced bands (with more to come) there's none that really blow my mind. The 3 day pass goes for 98 euros, so I'm guessing a day pass will be around 40 ducats. Not that outrageous if I was seriously into 2-3 acts, but as it stands I'd just rather go to some indie shows in London here and then. Like Loney, dear on April 25 at a venue 5 mins from my place (I am so wearing shorts and flip-flops to that one), or Grizzly Bear and Band of Horses in May at Scala. Music is one of the rare artforms where smaller often means better, so until I get tired of overpriced beer and generally feeling old at these things, I will do my best to keep my indie-yuppie cred alive.

quibbling

one of the advantages of having lived in Paris means that you get to see "your" city on the big screen a lot. Countless films have been shot there, and to the knowing eye there's always a small detail waiting to be recognized (mostly so you can bore other viewers with your stories about how you once bought a poulet-croudités from that boulangerie). Recently I watched Paris Je T'aime, a collection of 18 shorts about Paris made by 18 different directors in so many neighborhoords. While the movie itself is more of a novelty project than a truly interesting oeuvre, some of the segments are decent enough for this to be a pleasant viewing. However, in the part with Nathalie Portman, which takes place in my old stomping grounds of the 10e, she goes to the Conservatoire du 10e for some acting classes. You see her boyfriend drop her off a few times in front of the place...except it really isn't. It's actually the town hall building, which is located just in front of the street where the Conservatoire is truly found. I should know, I partied at the Cons' after-hours, which to those in the know holds as much indie cred as saying you once shared a banana-split with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (you decide). I wonder how and why such a mistake could be made in a film where location, admittedly, is everything. It's not major, but it's the stuff you notice when you "know". Of course what I'm really mad at is that apparently Nathalie Portman filmed scenes all over my neighborhood (including pre-renovation Gare de l'Est, O how I miss thee) and nobody bothered to tell me. Just another classic example of Parisian rudeness, hmph.

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