The other weekend I traveled with my friend Andi to Austin, TX to visit our friend Jennifer. It was awesome. Here I am catching up on my reading at a spring fed swimming pool (as a side note I found Miranda July’s stories like reading candy, but not quiet so satisfying). I was also introduced to the wonders of Frito Pie and a city that has rivers clean enough to swim in inside city limits.
Category Archives: Travel
Posing on a Post-Bike
My last full day in Paris was May 1st and with a national holiday came a perfect day for a picnic. We took the RER into the 93 and walked along the Marne river until we came to this pratically empty lawn bordering an old hospital. It was the perfect place for a picnic away from the crowds and heat of the city. P. transported tons of good eats on his retirned from the post office bike, which seems like one of the more useful city bikes I have seen.
The day also included marches and rallies that were most definetly anti-Sarkozy in tone, so I would say that perhaps those are warm ups for what will and must come in the next 5 years. My condolences to France for being stuck with (as my sister said) “a little Napoleon,” I know how it feels…
For more pictures see my flickr page at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/killerfemme
Small Village in the 20eme
I never get sick of walking around Paris. In the past week and a half I can’t even tell you how many kilometers, much less miles, I trekked in shoes that were hardly made for standing, much less city walking. There’s always something new to see and I love learning about how cities unfold and fit together. This trip took me to some new neighborhoods, such as this small corner of the 20th arrondisement, which looks like a small village in the French countryside. Many thanks to G. to showing me this place and many others and putting up with me when I wanted to go back to some of my favorite places (like the Canal St. Martin).
Electrelane at La Cigale
and here’s the rest of the band…
Electrelane at La Cigale
We also got to see Electrelane at La Cigale, another incredible show. I’m looking forward to their show in NYC next week. This four lady band rocks, with each song building, ebbing and flowing in a really powerful way. As with the time I saw them 2 years ago, they are an extremely “togther” band, each song falls together perfectly. The crowd LOVED them and 2 gay dudes totaly started a mosh pit, something I was glad I was not a part of. I thought there might be a kind of riot when the club would not let Electrelane come on for a second encore. I was suprised that they didn’t play more songs from their new album “No Shouts, No Calls,” which is one of my favorite new albums of late.
Nouvelle Vague at the Rex
Seeing Nouvelle Vague was exciting and strange. They were not quite as bossa nova as we expected, but they did put on a fantastic show. Being the New Order and Joy Division fanatic that I am, of course I felt vindicated hearing their versions of “Blue Monday” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” I have noticed that cell phones have replaced lighters as lighted things to wave during rock ballads, which is pretty funny. I also found it strange that Nouvelle Vague has been covering super-mainstream 80’s songs and songs that are not at all from the 80’s (like Os Mutantes “Baby”). G. and I came up with a list of bands they could cover, like: Television, Orange Juice, Talking Heads, Ramones, Gang of Four, it could go on…
Outiside Mamie
Walking around Paris holds no end to small treasures, including this vintage store, Mamie. It is packed from basement to attic with vintage shoes, accessories and clothes. It is kind of like going through 10 pack-rat granmother’s attics all crammed into one tiny store.
Opera Garnier Ceiling
A highlight of my trip was seeing two operas, one at the classical opera house, and one at the newer Opera Bastille. Close to the ceiling we were able to observe the beautiful paintings on the ceiling. The opera itself, L’Allergro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, with choreography by Robyn Orlin, was a lot to take in at once (dancing, singing, music, subtitles and video), but was extremely powerful. Orlin’s use of video and technology in the set, modern costumes, and comments on the discrephancy between rich and poor nations and the gap between those who hold power and those who don’t, drew some boo’s from the audience. At first I was skeptical of her project, but I find myself still considering it and wish I could see it again.
April in Paris
So here I am, among the tourists gasping “just like the Da Vinci Code!’ dragging G. to see the Praxiteles exhibit at the Louvre on the first day of my recent visit to Paris. Leaving (at that point) cloudy, rainy, cold NYC for summer-like Paris was a much needed vacation. I found the Praxitele exhibit interesting, especially because only one of the sculptures might have been carved by him. So one could say that the show really examines his influence in classical sculpture. Knowing about nothing about classical art, I found this premise for a show quite interesting. However, my eyes soon became bleary from reading so much text and gave up simply to sketch a sculpture of a woman’s torso. I think that in this kind of closer examination of the artwork was where I was able to appreciate it as an art object as opposed to an idea, and I preferred the objects. Much more satisfying was our trip to the contemporary art museum in the suburbs, MAC/VAL later in the week.
Typewriter
I brought this typewriter home from Astoria, Oregon, bought the day after Thanksgiving with J. when it was pouring rain and howling, windy fog. Bringing back on the airplane the security screeners all laughed when they saw this beautiful blue chunk of metal I was hauling 3,000 miles home.
Killerfemme 