NuvolGrix chez les Bretons

Clandestins d'Estiu

2011-08-04T16:40:00.000+02:00

Birthday cakes go postal!!

2011-03-20T21:45:00.000+01:00

I mean: I never though I could receive a birthday cake on the post... and coming all the way from Vienna, no less!! (and in one piece, of course). But here you have it!!

Thanks!!

Lindy Hop workshop with Kevin St.Laurent & Sharon Davis

2011-02-05T23:53:00.041+01:00

SwingManiacs a Badalona

2011-02-01T18:38:00.000+01:00

Reportatge de TV Badalona de la ballada de swing maníacs el dissabte 22 de gener:

http://tvbadalona.xiptv.cat/video/38851

Divinas: Sing, Sing, Sing!!

2010-11-04T16:34:00.000+01:00

Last evening we could enjoy another great show by Divinas, on the celebration of the 100th anniversary of "Some of These Days".

SWING!! Big Band Battle Crash

2010-09-27T20:40:00.001+02:00

Ivanow Jazz Group and La Locomotora Negra, in a classic Big Band crash battle, with plenty of extra shows and lots of swing and lindy hop!!

Many thanks to BCNswing and JazzClass for organising such a great event!!

Tastet Festes de la Merce: Jazz i Llum

2010-09-27T20:09:00.000+02:00

Concert de la BJO als jardins del Palauet Albeniz

I diversos espectacles de llum i imatges al Parc de la Ciutadella

Ignaci Terraza al Palau Robert

2010-07-23T08:01:00.001+02:00

Ignasi Terraza, piano Jesse Davis, saxo Damon Brown, trompeta Jean Pierre Derouard, bateria Dimitri Skidanov, contrabaix

"El trio d’Ignasi Terraza torna a sorprendre’ns després de guanyar el primer premi en el concurs de Jacksonville, als EUA, després de la seva participació en la banda sonora de la darrera pel·lícula de John Travolta, From Paris with love, i havent arribat de la seva nova gira al continent asiàtic, a Tailàndia. Ara, al Palau Robert, es presenta amb dos grans solistes de renom internacional: el saxofonista nord-americà Jesse Davis i el trompetista anglès Damon Brown"

Trio Chiquiboom Quintet!! (25/04/10)

2010-04-26T15:36:00.002+02:00

DIVINES presenten CHOCOLAT! al Club Capitol

2010-04-12T11:43:00.002+02:00

Celebracio Majoria d'Edat.

2010-03-13T21:18:00.000+01:00

Salutacions a tothom!

Em plau comunicar-vos que el proper cap de setmana (dissabte 20 de Marc per ser precisos) compleixo la meva Majoria d'Edat!! Si, si, COMPLEIXO vint-i-DIVUIT ANYS!!

I com que aquestes ocasions no es presenten tots els dies, em faria il.lusio poder celebrar-ho amb amics i amigues, aixi que, com ja fa uns quants anys que vaig fent proposare una serie d'activitats socio-ludico-culturals perque cadascu pugui triar el que mes li interessi per que ho poguem compartir tots plegats.

En comptes d'organitzar algun sopar multitudinari on no es pot xerrar amb la mitat de gent i despres anar a alguna discoteca abarrotada i plena de fum on tampoc es pugui parlar, us proposo aprofitar l'ocasio que ens brinda el Festival de Jazz de Terrassa i anar a fer un picnic diumenge 21/Marc. Es fa a un parc no massa lluny de les dues estacions de terrassa (FGC i RENFE) i hi haura concerts i activitats diverses. Degut a l'exit que acostuma a tenir, es recomana que hi anem aviadet. Aixi doncs ja podeu anar preparant les estovalles a quadres, la barra de pa, el camembert,l'ampolla de vi, i tot el que us vingui de gust menjar!! :-)

Resumint el programa complert:

Dijous 18/03 hi haura el Pub Quizz de cada setmana al Tapilla Sixtina.

Divendres 19/03 Cinema: "The men who stare at goats", Cinema Verdi, 20h25, i sopar rapid i cervecetes despres de la pel.li. Trobada davant del Cinema Verdi 20h.

Dissabte 20/03 Exposicio: Exploradors: Aventura i Biodiversitat, al Museu de Ciencies Naturals de Barcelona (Parc de la Ciutadella). Despres potser es pot anar a prendre alguna cosa pel born. Trobada davant del Museu 17h00.

Diumenge 21/03 Picnic Festival de Jazz de Terrassa. Trobada directament alla des de les 11h? (si no ens costara trobar gaire lloc, o inclus trobar-nos).

Per mes detalls, inclouré aquesta informacio al meu blog, aixi que qualsevol canvi de darrer moment l'aniré actualitzant alla mateix.

Be, espero que pogueu trobar alguna cosa que us interessi i que ens veiem algun d'aquests dies!!

A reveure!!

Daniel

Lindy Hop a Pl. Virreina (28Feb10)

2010-02-28T14:37:00.003+01:00

Dancing on a sunny winter day at the Pl. de la Virreina in Gracia (BCN).

Beautiful pictures by Adria' in here.

Sitges Carnival 2010 (videos 5-8)

2010-02-18T17:14:00.000+01:00

Sitges Carnival 2010 (videos 1-4)

2010-02-18T17:12:00.000+01:00

Sitges Carnival 2010 (videos 0)

2010-02-18T17:10:00.000+01:00

Sitges Carnival 2010 (pictures 2)

2010-02-18T17:08:00.001+01:00

And still more (and better) pictures at:

Fotos Elena

Fotos Toni

Sitges Carnival 2010 (pictures 1)

2010-02-18T17:06:00.000+01:00

Lindy Hop at the Parc Güell

2010-01-24T15:13:00.003+01:00

Lindy Hop at the Parc Güell (videos)

2010-01-24T15:01:00.000+01:00

(thanks to Danielle to take this video)

Magia Potagia, with Juan Tamariz

2010-01-17T23:02:00.003+01:00

Another busy weekend

2009-12-13T19:45:00.002+01:00

I can can see Christmas is coming because my usually already rather busy social agenda is about to burst. Last two weekends were already intense (one in Belgium, visiting good old friends, and last one with some several get-togethers, a dancing jam, a birthday party, even helping in the recording of a short film!!).

This Thursday I already had to choose between Pub Quiz and the Christmas dinner of the Lindy Hop people from the Orfeo de Gracia.

Friday evening was devoted to a Goblin Birthday celebration, with a horror dinner show at the Posada Maldita and a drawing contest.

Saturday things got hectic: laundry in the morning, quick lunch and then, in quick succession the presentation of a new (and free) Scientific Divulgation newspaper, Satelite, meeting an old friend to go to the cinema ("Cell 211") and to discuss the life of exilee Engineers, and finally another show dinner, cabaret this time, at KYVIC.

Today, Sunday, after sleeping (finally) 7h, the day has started with Lindy Hop dancing at the Placa de la Sedeta, and after having a late lunch, resting a bit and writing this entry, cinema again ("New York, I love you").

As I like to say, to be able to work hard you need to play (or party) hard as well!!

1st Ancient Egypt Banquet (5th promo)

2009-11-15T19:57:00.003+01:00

The first Ancient Egypt Banquet organised by people from the 5th promotion of Egyptology Studies in BCN was held today in Sabadell with outstanding success.

(papyrus-billboard thanks to Rosalin)

The menu (in Catalan) included:

Starters:

TAHINA
HUMMUS
AMANIDA DE LLENTIES
TORRADETES AMB POUTARGUE
EMPANADES DE FORMATGE
CARBASSES A LA MODA D'ALEXANDRIA
OUS DAURATS

Main Courses:

PEIX FARCIT DE PANSES I PINYONS
PEIX AL FORN AMB PANSES I AMETLLES
EMPANADES DE CARN
POLLASTRE FARCIT

Desserts:

GALETES SHAYT
FRUITA DEL TEMPS

Drinks:

VI, CAVA, HENEKET, AIGUA

CAFÉ DE CATEGORIA SUPERIOR

The banquet was followed by a two team competition of an Egyptian board game (Senet).

Pictures will follow soon.

Swinging under the BCN sun!!

2009-10-04T13:45:00.000+02:00

MacCurdy Dinner at Corpus Christi College

2009-09-27T15:36:00.000+02:00

3rd Vietnamese Dinner

2009-03-13T23:00:00.000+01:00

Still planning to go to Vietnam some time (the sooner the better), Vietnamese (or just Asian) dinners are still on.

Maria pars chez les bretons!!

2009-02-27T23:34:00.004+01:00

While some people settle back in Barcelona, others leave Barcelona to go and live among the French in the city of lights, royal palaces and gardens and, of course, music!! (Paris reputedly having more Jazz Caves than NYC)

Have lots of fun!! (and lots of patience with 'greves', 'fonctionaires', and the interaction of the two)

Bon courage, et amuse-toi bien, Maria!!

Tuesday evening: Barley diet!

2008-11-14T18:31:00.000+01:00

Once in a while, it's good to have a meal based mostly on very healthy stuff, like barley juice of various sorts. And it's so much better in good friends' company! The fact that this time it was Tuesday evening, ment a slightly reduced efficiency next day, but... It was truly worth it!!

... Looking forward next time!!

Dublin fair city...

2008-10-20T18:19:00.003+02:00

Why not? One weekend in Dublin. It was about time to go, after 15 years since I visited this fair city (where the girls are so pretty, as the song goes). But mainly the chance to meet old friends and make new ones, attend two brilliant Spanish house parties, have lots of Guinness, meet Molly Malone again, and of course, stock myself of real tea (in authentic pyramidal bags) before catching the plain back!!

Jazz fusion at the Harlem Jazz Club

2008-10-16T18:13:00.000+02:00

Carles Benavent and Jordi Bonell at the Harlem Jazz Club in Barcelona. One of those concerts to remember. Thanks Jordi for suggesting it!!

Jazz at the Jamboree

2008-07-31T15:52:00.003+02:00

Back in Barcelona, and back in old traditions... starting with a Jazzy concert at the Jamboree, in the Plac,a Reial.

Bye Goblin King Tour

2008-05-17T15:13:00.006+02:00

Have you seen this guy? You better hurry up then, he is getting married on Friday (23rd of May). To try to cheer him up, and to brighten his last days as a single man (or as a single Goblin), we took him for a trip, and a party, and the journey and the party went on till he begged us to take him home again...

He was woken up at dawn, and toured in Barcelona. Then he was taken to Girona and and then to the UK!!

He was getting used to the Islands, and then we took him again on a train...

... onto another plane... and to Berlin!!

And here he was starting to feel a bit tired...

...and confused...

... but after some light snack, we were in the mood for travelling and partying again!!

So we travelled some more...

And had some more snacks...

... and some refreshments to go...

... and took a tram to explore the city!!

From the tram we could see everything in the city very quickly...

...and from the speed everything was getting blurry...

... but in any case, we all hope The Gobling King had a good time!!

Back in Cambridge!!

2008-04-05T15:51:00.003+02:00

I had been back in Cambridge several times since I finished my PhD here, but it had always been just to visit some friends (and attend some of those friends weddings!!), or do a bit of tourism, and even shopping. This time, I won't only be doing a bit of that, but I'm coming to stay for a few months, and best of all, during that time I'll be working in my old lab!!

It was a fantastic feeling to land in Dover on an incredibly sunny day of April, and drive back to this beautiful city again, listening to BBC on he car radio, etc. Today the weather is a bit more 'versatile', and we've had sunny but windy weather in the morning, sunny weather later on, and a few minutes ago there has been a thunderstorm.

In any case, Cambridge has, and has not changed at all. Obviously, Colleges are all there, as far as I can tell, as well as all of the sights, but I've found that a whole new shopping mall has just appeared in the very city center, and I am told that a new bridge has been built across the Cam.

Definitely, I need to keep exploring and rediscovering the city...

droit de greve???

2007-10-18T11:49:00.001+02:00

after almost a month abroad, his morning i was suposedto fly home, to barcelona, from paris.

but here i am... still... and i'll still be here for a while.... as expected there was no RER today, there was Orlyval to get to Orly, although it was not easy to get there... and once you get to-the airport you find that several flight have been cancelled, including the one to barcelona.

"fortunatelly", i've managed to get a seat for the same flight tomorrow, but who knows if that one will fly or not.

and all that, because of a strike to protect the excessive rihts and privileges of a few union members which are paid for by the rest of people working and living in france. a strike that is NOT supported by the majority of french people, according to the journal Metro.

great... and this is suposed to be a first world country? what a joke....

Concerts, cinema, promenades, departs...

2007-07-27T10:30:00.001+02:00

Salut a tous!!

Que'est-ce que on va faire avec cette temps d'été? Peut être organiser une grève pour demander du bon temps? Bon, on en parlera...

;-)

Cependant, on s'approche au weekend (on y est déjà!!), et on peut pas rester au devant la télé! Alors, je ne sais pas si il a des autres propositions, mais je vais en transmettre quelques unes pour commencer le debat... (SVP, confirmer votre intérêt a chaque activité, pour que tout le monde puisse savoir si il aura du monde intéressé ou pas)

Vendredi: Est-ce que quelqu'un veux aller aux concerts de Paris Plage? Ou alternativement on peut aller a diner et au Diablitho pour danser la Salsa :-)

http://www.blog-festivalfnac.com/index.php?programmation

Samedi: Mmmhh.... no, je vais proposer quelque chose diffèrent cette semaine... vraiment... Ok, vous avais raison: C'est le dernier weekend, et on doit en profiter: Festival de Jazz au Parc Floral!! Dernier weekend. A ne pas manquer. Après le festival, qu'est ce que vous en pensez d'aller a dîner et au Cinema en plein air au Parc de la Vilette? (prenez des habilles chauds!!). Un film de Roman Polanski nous y attends ("Tess").

http://www.parisjazzfestival2007.com/

http://www.villette.com/manif/manif.aspx?id=1052

Dimanche:

Oui, on peut continuer avec le jazz, mais pas sans avoir le plaisir d'une belle promenade pour y aller. RDV a les escaliers de la Opera Bastille a 12h00 :-)

Finalement:

Comme plusieurs d'entre vous savez, ça c'est un des derniers 'spams' culturel-festives que je vais envoyer depuis la France, car je vais partir dans deux ou trois semaines. En fait je n'aime pas de faire des soirées de départ ou des choses comme ça, et alors je n'en vais pas organiser aucune (entre d'autres raisons, parce il ne sera pas vraiment un départ, car je vais revenir plusieurs fois, même pour visiter, comme touriste, pour des concerts, et on va essayer de rester en contacte et organiser des rencontres a un coin du monde ou a un autre). ;-) De toute façon, il sera sympa de vous voire tous (tous qui soyez encore ici), en partageant une activité ou une autre, pendant ces dernières semaines que je serai encore 'officiellement' habitant d'île de France. :-)

Paris Jazz Festival 2007

2007-06-19T16:22:00.000+02:00

Another year, and as the summer starts (or should be starting, climate change permitting) and another Paris Jazz Festival at the Parc Floral also starts (the Parc Floral is the Botanic Garden in Paris).

So far the weather has not great, but the music was amazing, and the concerts each weekend better than the previous ones!! (I'm starting to be afraid that the ones towards the end of July will be too good even to survive the pleasure of listening to them life!!)

;-)

Of course, we were not the only ones at the Parc Floral...

Activites, activites, activites... pas de pause jusqu'a Juliet

2007-06-15T14:34:00.001+02:00

Salut a tous/es!!

Voici qu'on va avoir mal a suivre toutes les activités possibles pour les prochains jours et semaines...

Alors, tout le monde est prêt?

On y va!!

Paris Jazz Festival 2007
Fête de la musique
Fêtes a CitéU
Cours de Danses
Fête Médiéval
Couleur Café
Diners cuisines internationales
Picnics
Rencontres
Voyages
Bière & Chocolat
...et beaucoup de plus!!

Ce weekend:

Le Paris Jazz Festival au Parc Floral continue ce weekend avec le thème: "Esprit Django". Probablement je vais y aller les deux jours (comme le w-e dernier), mais au moins on va y aller sure demain (Samedi). Les concerts sont de 15h a 18h, mais a 15h toutes les places sont déjà prises, alors est vraiment meilleur de se rencontrer au parc Floral vers 13h30 si on veux prendre de bonnes places. De toute façon il y a des animations, une expo sur le jazz, de cours d'initiation a la danse, et naturellement la beauté du parc a profiter pendant qu'on attends le concert.

http://www.parisjazzfestival2007.com/

On a aussi des propositions de complémenter le journée jazzistique avec un dîner a un resto Créole typiquement Louissianne pour continuer avec l'humeur du jazz, et pour ceux qui veulent faire de la fête jusqu'à tard, j'ai entendu quelques rumeurs sur une merveilleuse fête a la Fondation Hellénique (Maison de la Grece), a la Cite Universitaire aussi ce Samedi. Finalement, mémé si le temps peut n'être le meilleur pour faire des picnics, on a propose d'apporter quelque chose pour grignoter et du vin et autres boissons pour les concerts au Festival dimanche.

La semaine prochaine:

Fête de la musique: 21 Juin (Jeudi?)

http://fetedelamusique.culture.fr/

Des centaines des activités, concerts partout paris et la France (et mémé ailleurs!! :-o ) ;-) a profiter des le matin, jusqu'à le matin d'après...

Le w-e prochaine:

Oui, le festival de Jazz au Parc Floral continue... Vous ferez bien de vous faire la carte abonnement du Parc Floral cette année (20Euro + une photo, c'est tout, valide pour tout un année).

Mais il y a encore des choses en plus!!! Les festivités du w-e médiéval a Provins. Un w-e au moyen âge, avec des joutes, de la musique, de la nourriture, jongleries, histoires, animations... a ne pas manquer!!

http://www.provins-medieval.com/index.htm

Encore un autre w-e (29/06-01/07)

Ouip, le Festival de Jazz au Parc Floral...

Mais si vous voulez changer de type de musique ou voyager un peu, ou bien visiter le paradis de la bière (un d'eux), et la partie du meilleur chocolat du monde, ou bien tout ça dans le mémé w-e....

Voila: Le Festival Couleur Café a Bruxelles vous attends!!

http://www.couleurcafe.be

En cependant, on a des vieux amis qui reviennent a Paris, des soirées Latino au Diablitho, et tout que vous pouvais imaginer, suggérer, avez envie de faire... (peut être l'unique exception sera qu'on n'aura pas bcp de temps a se reposer, j'ai l'impression...)

On va bien s'amuser cet mois de Juin!!!

A tantôt!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Vous trouverez cette info aussi avec bcp des
autres choses a mon site: http://nuvol.sdf-eu.org/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Groove will get you thorugh times of no money,
but money won't get you though time of no groove"
Jazz musician's saying
------------------------------------------------------------------------

A busy week of spring

2007-05-22T17:19:00.001+02:00

It's finally spring in Paris, with its sunny and warm April days and its cold, grey, rainy and generally miserable May weekends. But spring brings more than mutable weather, but lots of cultural activities, several Jazz festivals, and plenty of long May weekends to travel a bit or enjoy the city while Parisians are in a traffic jam on the way to Normandy.

All last week was one of these busy weeks. Monday was the quiet evening, planning a trip to Brittany for the 4-day weekend ahead, and starting to pack. Unfortunately, neither the weather forecast nor the traffic previsions were very encouraging, so alternative plans were put in place. Tuesday, after deciding that spending half of the weekend in a traffic jam was not my dream of holidays, I went down to St. Germain des Pres, to get last minute tickets for one of the last concerts of the Jazz Festival. Marcel Solal, great piano improviser, playing in the church of St. Germain des Pres.

(a picture is coming here, eventually, and more info on the Festival elsewhere in this blog)

Wednesday was the day of our usual Salsa course. I had already danced salsa and other Afro-Caribbean rhythms while in the UK, but when I arrived to Paris I was surprised how seriously people take to have a 'good' style. You cannot just "dance", but you need to know the precise small routines that people get used to in the courses in the city, so, back to beginners courses. Which is lots of fun nevertheless, and good exercise in this otherwise sedentary urbanite life.

Thursday was still grey and rainy, so the perfect day to meet a friend for dinner and to go to the 'cinematheque' for an Antonioni film ("L'eclipse"). Friday I had a 'grosse matinee', and in the afternoon I drove to Chartres to visit the Cathedral in depth (I even took the audio-guide with the 'full tour'). A funny experience was that with the laberynth and possibly that "sheep gene" we all have. When I arrived, noone was paying much attention to the medieval laberynth drawn on the floor of the main nave of the Cathedral. Even though I knew I would not get lost (medieval labyrinths are some sort of initiatic symbol, not a puzzle), i decided to 'walk it' to the center. That was already interesting, as you don't realise the complexity of the path till you actually follow it and keep getting closer and farther away from the center till, all of a sudden yo find yourself in the last 'corridor' leading to it (more symbology there). Anyway, as I started asking people to move aside so that I could walk the labyrinth, more and more people started following it, and even a couple of hours later, when I finally left the Cathedral, half a dozen people were still at it. I guess many people felt like walking it, but noone dares to be the first one (or only one) to start behaving in a weird way, and only when people saw that someone else was already doing it, that they could make their minds.

Anyway, a short walk in Chartes, and drive back home, getting lost in the way (the road and highway network around Paris is worse that a plate of spaguetti). As I arrived home I met online a good friend who is coming back to Paris soon and we started planning a weekend in London.

Saturday was the day of the "Nuit des Musees", that evening a year when many museums and cultural societies open their doors for free and sometimes even organise special exhibitions that you can enjoy from mid afternoon till midnight. Of course the usual 'large' museums get really packed, and moreover, it's a good idea to take advantage of this 'soire' to discover those venues and exhibitions that you might not be able to visit some other time. In our case, while some friends went to the Louvre, Centre Pompidou or the Musee Picasso, we went to the small Espace Dali, in Montmatre, to the Museum and Association of French Franc-masons (Le Grand Orient), that included a visit to one of the oldest Franc-mason Temples in Paris, and finally, not being able to visit the Musee du Moyen Age (too many people queuing), we ended up in the Musee de la Police, where the guided visit took us through centuries of the history of Paris, of the police, with anecdotes from the times of the French Revolution, Napoleon times, and the start of the scientific police.

Finally, Sunday was the day to get up late, go to the market to get some fresh greens and fruit, read, watch some DVD, and basically try to recover from this extra active week and get ready for the coming one, which will include a new dance course, may be a trip to visit some of the Chateaus in the Val de Loire... who knows?.

Programme Siecleversaire -- Samedi 24

2007-03-23T16:17:00.001+01:00

Salut un autre fois!!

Les details de derniere minute pour demain.

*) Pour ceux qui vienent au Petit Palais a l'apres-midi, peut etre qu'on peut se rencontrer directement cela vers 15h45-16h, ou bien a l'interieur si on arrive plus tard (j'espere qu'il fera meilleur que maintenant). Apres le musee, on peut, si il fait bon, se promenet tranquilement vers le resto, ou si il y a de la pluie, on va aller a prendre quelque chose a proximite du resto.

*) Pour cex qui vienen directement au dinner. Rdv au resto a 19h15, ou bien si vous arrivez plus tot, vous pouvez m'appelller sur mon portable pour demander ou est qu'on se trouve. L'addresse du resto est:

10, rue Saint Agustin (Paris 2eme Arr.)

http://www.lintillac-paris.com/

*) Finalement, apres dinner on va aller au Jokomo, 41 rue St. Maur (Metro St. Maur), a deguster la biere belge et si on est chanceux, ecouter quelque petit concert de blues.

:-)

Merci a tous!!

A demain!!

Daniel

Activites culturelles pour le w-e: art religieux et musique laique

2007-03-01T13:43:00.001+01:00

Salut a tous et toutes!!

Voici le bulletin des activites socio-cultureles proposes pour ce weekend!!

Ce semaine la prevision meteo n'est pas precisement pour aller a se promener par des parcs et jardins, et alors on a bcp des activites 'indoors'. ;-)

Vendredi 2: ---- Soire Expo: Armenia Sacra au Louvre

Samedi 3: ------ Concert Chancon francaise avec "3 bouts de ficelle"

Dimanche 4: ----- Concert Klezmer avec "A Tickle in the Heart" & Shura Lipovsky

*****************************************************************

Vendredi 2: ---- Soire Expo: Armenia Sacra au Louvre

(Tres grand merci Seda!!)

Vendredi soir le Musee du Louvre ouvre ses portes jusqu'a 22h et il y a des interessantes reductions au prix des places (gratuit pour <26 et ~30% pour les "jeunes avec de la experience").

On peut visiter tout le musee, mais j'ai especial interes a la expo d'art sacre armenien. Cette eposition a ete especialement recomande par une bonne amie qui travaille au Institut Matenadaran a Yerevan, l'origin des objets a la exposition:

http://www.louvre.fr/llv/exposition/detail_exposition.jsp?CONTENT<>cnt_id=10134198673469645&CURRENT_LLV_EXPO<>cnt_id=10134198673469645&bmUID=1170841788389

Ma amie Seda m'a dit:

(...) I really want you to see the collection
from Matenadaran (name of institute i work at), as even in
Matenadaran it's impossible to see them. There are about 40-50
manuscript books from Matenadaran, and these are the best ones among
the 17.500 manuscript books we have in book-depository (best with
illustrations/quality/importance/being old and famous, etc, etc,
etc). (...) about 50
manuscripts are in Louvre now, 30 manuscripts will be taken to
Marseille and 30ish to another city (don't remember which one) in
April. So it's a big quantity of such treasure going out for
exhibition. (...) I keep my fingers crossed not to happen anything,
as i know what Matenadaran sent to Louvre.So it's really worth
seeing. (...) I cannot list all of them, just remember "Etchmiadzin
Gospel" (10th century, with ivory binding from 6th century) and
remember Toros Roslin's name (one of the best armenian illustrator of
13th-14th century, Sargis Pitsak and much more... (...)

A quelle heure est-ce que vous veulez q'on s'y rencontre? Peut etre on peut se rencontrer directement au RER?

**********************************************************************

Samedi 3: ------ Concert Chancon francaise avec "3 bouts de ficelle"

Pour lesquelles n'ont pas ete capables de les voir la semaine derniere, ou pour qui veut bien repeter ...

Sam 3 mars, 20h00              Jokomo Bar
41 rue St Maur, 11e              Bar Blues
M° St-Maur                          1ère partie surprise

Trois bouts de ficelle
Chanson franco-acoustique

le petit       Chant/Batterie
le moyen   Guitare/Choeurs
le grand     Piano/Choeurs

www.troisboutsdeficelle.com

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Dimanche 4: ----- Concert Klezmer avec "A Tickle in the Heart" & Shura Lipovsky

(Merci Christine pour ta proposition)

Dimanche 4 mars 2007

17h00

A Tickle in the Heart & Shura Lipovsky

« Yiddish Storyteller from NY »

Bernd Spehl (clarinette, chant) - Andreas Schmitges (guitare, danse, chant)Thomas Fritze (contrebasse, guitare, percussions, chant)

L'ère du swing des années 30 marque le dernier grand essor de la musique Klezmer aux Etats-Unis avant un silence qui devait durer presque une quarantaine d'années. Le tube Bay mir bistu sheyn, des « Andrew Sisters », reprise d'une chanson du théâtre juif, signe le début de toute une série de « Swing-meets-Klezmer-Arrangements ». Benny Goodman, Ziggy Elman, Artie Shaw et même Cab Calloway jouaient alors des « Yiddish Melodies in Swing ».

Shura Lipovsky (Pays-Bas) est une des interprètes les plus connues du chant yiddish. Après des études de chant à Rotterdam et de yiddish chez Mira Rafalowicz et à la Oxford Summer University, elle s'intéressa patriculièrement à la mystique juive et à la danse. En 2005/2006 l'artiste fréquenta l'Ecole Internationale de Theatre de Jacques Lecoq à Paris. Shura Lipovsky enseigne à des masterclasses pour le chant yiddish et organise des workshops sur le thème « danse, chant et histoire dans le chassidisme ». Elle chante et enseigne en Europe, en Russie, aux Etats-Unis et au Canada. Elle est membre actif de « Musiciens sans frontières » (Pays-Bas), une organisation qui travaille pour la paix dans des régions en crise. Shura vient de donner un concert avec un orchestre de Mostar et travailla à Sarajewo avec la chorale interréligieuse Pontamina. Elle donne régulièrement des cours à la Maison de la Culture Yiddish à Paris. Shura Lipovsky peut être considéré à juste titre comme la perle des chanteurs et chanteuses yiddish.

CDs de Shura Lipovsky : Moments of Jewish Life, Jews and Christians: Music in Mediaeval Spain, Heroes and Poets/Giboyrim un Poetn

Tarif spécial 10 € (plein tarif)/7 € (tarif réduit)

Lieu :

Maison Heinrich Heine, Fondation de l'Allemagne, Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris

27c, bd Jourdan, 75014 Paris

Tél. 01 44 16 13 00 – Fax 01 44 16 13 01

info@maison-heinrich-heine.org – www.maison-heinrich-heine.org

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Voila!

Ca c'est tout!! On va se contacter pour s'organiser, se retrouver etc?

A tantot!!

Daniel

Film: The Lives of Others

2007-02-14T13:34:00.000+01:00

No, I have not stopped going to the cinema... I just didn't have the time to write anything about the films I had seen, or not much to say about them, or didn't know what to think about them.

But for this film I'll make an effort, because I do want to recomend it. The film "Das Leben der Anderen" is not a spy film, as someone had told me before watching it. Although it is a film about a time and about a place where spying was the norm, and not the exception.

The action takes place in Eastern Germany a few years before the fall of the Iron Courtain. It is the life of a playwriter and of the Stasi officer in charge of surveying him. The film is not an action film, all the contrary. It explores the relationship between the observer and the unaware observed one. This relationship becomes more complex when the officer in charge of the surveillance starts covering for the activities of his target. It is also about the different types of people and their reactions and attitudes towards a police state like that one.

An excellent film. If you like it, or if you are interested in that place, that time, the Stasi, etc, I would also recommend you a book. "The Man without a Face" are the memoires of Marcus Wolf, who was the director of the Stasi in its most active years. Very enlightening... ;-)

Back to our 'Caveau'

2007-01-21T12:16:00.000+01:00

That is, the 'Caveau des Oubliettes', in the Latin Quarter of Paris. This used to be our usual haunt for Friday and Saturday evenings, but as sometimes happens, at some point we had stopped going and now it was may be over half a year since last time.

So we decided to go again, we met to go for dinner to an excellent Mexican restaurant (Fajitas), and then to the 'Caveau', to enjoy the night's concert. On this occasion, the organisers surprised us with a funky concert. After this return to old good habits, I guess we'll be back on th etrack to continue exploring this and other legendary jazz venues in Paris! :-)

"Apocablunder"

2007-01-17T13:43:00.000+01:00

Or "Apocalypto", as Mr. Mel Gibson probably thinks it should be called. At least that's what's written on the posters of the film. I was a bit hesitant to go to the cinema see this film, but I swallowed by skepticism and went to see it. According to the publicity and some critics, it was "Mel Gibson looking into the end of the Aztec civilisation, analysing the reasons that had corrupted their society from the inside, making it prone to crumble at the arrival of the Spanish 'conquistadores'". Just in case some of the people that go to the cinema to watch it had not heard that description of the film, an introductory quote reminds you that that is the aim of the film. Or that is the pretension. On top of that, the film had been filmed in some (would be) indigenous language.

After all that you mostly expect a profound socio-historical analysis, may be almost documentary-like, about the last years of the Aztec Empire. Instead, you find yourself in front of the silliest story, where a bunch of merry tribespeople are massacred by another more violent tribe, and the survivors taken to be sold as slaves or to be used as human sacrifices to the gods. By the most abused of reasons (an infinitely opportune eclipse, no less), our hero and a few of his chums are spared from dieing at the sacrifice altar, but become game for their captors violent games. Predictably, our hero manages to escape, and although he has nos been fed in days and he is badly wounded, he manages to kill almost a dozen of the same warriors that he didn't manage to defeat on a one-to-one fight when he was fully rested and fed at the beginning of the film. And he does so, just in time to see the 'conquistadores' landing on the beach and to rescue his wife, who has just had a baby while she was hidden/trapped in a pit in the jungle.

The film is in my opinion: shallow, predictable, topic and on top of all that, pretentious. Don't waste your time. I'm sure there's some other film you will enjoy more, or even you could watch telie and you would waste your time less.

"Castanyada" in Barcelona (I)

2006-11-01T13:24:00.000+01:00

Finally, this year I've managed to be in Barcelona for the "Castanyada", "Tots Sants", etc. For a week, I'm enjoying meeting many of my old friends and even being this time of the year, even having the chance of going to the beach and getting all the good weather I can before going back to Paris to weather the long and cold winter there.

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A book: "A year in the merde"

2006-10-19T13:40:00.000+02:00

You start a new book at around midnight on a Saturday evening, and you don't notice the hours pass by till you only have a few pages left and it's 6AM and you've barely stopped a few times to change the music and to get some more nibbles or sthg to drink. All the while you are concerned that you are often laughing so loud that you are going to wake up your neighbours. That was at least my experience of "A year in the merde", by Stephen Clarke.

The story is about this young and ambitious British manager who accepts a job in Paris to launch a chain of tea-rooms, but not only that. The book is a description of all aspects of the culture shock of a Briton (any foreigner, really) arriving in France: language problems, work etiquette and attitudes, body language even, food, restaurants, the housing market in Paris, the continuous strikes, political ethics, the French health service...

A terrific book, and indispensable reading if you have lived or are going to live in Paris for a while, and although you might think sometimes it is borderline psychedelia (if you have not experienced living in Paris yet, that is), it's all true (probably). And best of all, it's a book with very little concessions to political correctness.

Just one last warning: if you are French, you might not like it.

Exhibition: "Venice & l'Orient" at the IMArabe

2006-10-15T15:21:00.000+02:00

Work in progress.... but here you have a picture... (a bit moved, but...) ;-)

http://www.imarabe.org/temp/expo.html

Musee Quai Branly: D'un regard l'Autre

2006-10-13T12:20:00.000+02:00

This week I've had the pleasure to go to the Musee Quai Branly in Paris and visit the temporal exhibition "D’un regard l’Autre" (http://www.quaibranly.fr/). Although it was late and we had to rush through the different rooms containing a very heterogeneous collection of exhibits, and at first I was a bit puzzled by the organisation of the exhibition, I have to admit that once I've had time to reflect on it I've found it very original and informative.

The exhibition shows the evolution of the image of the 'exotic' places seen from european/western eyes along the ages, from the middle ages to the present time. starting with the scary images of salvage men and women, who would only be covered with their own fur (!!) and who would enjoy tearing apart and eat any lost explorer, as depicted in many medieval books, to the present assimilation of african, asian and native american art in contemporanean art, passing by the treasuring of exotic materials and items and later the catalogation and detailed description of animals, plants, buildings, cultures and customs with the birth of the scientiffic method and ethnographic disciplines.

Saturday Night Music

2006-09-15T14:27:00.000+02:00

What could be a better plan for a relaxed Saturday evening, after having spent the afternoon walking around in Paris than going to some bar with a friendly atmosphere where a good band is playing? Well, that was exactly our plan last Saturday. I had met Ainhoa in the early afternoon and Hans a bit later and after having an early dinner at our favourite creperie in the Quartier Latin, we headed for some concert that was supposed to start at 20h in a bar that is actually on a boat moored in the Seine.

Unfortunately, when we arrived there, nothing was happening, the place was empty, dark, abandoned even... We got a beer from a 'terrace' outside, and waited for about half an hour, and nothing was happening. A few people walked in and asked us about the concert, to which we could only reply that we were also waiting for that. After a while we decided to go elsewhere and we found this small 'bistro' close to 'Grands Boulevards' where a band called 'feeBidou' was about to start playing. The style and sympathy of the band easily got everybody in a very good mood and cheering and following the tunes. The type of music reminded me of the music of the old silent films, where a piano was giving the rhythm to the action. In this case, the three musicians were playing double bass, accordion and banjo, and you could really visualise the story they had told before starting each piece. So with them we followed the Tour de France, and some memories of the accordion player in his favourite bar, playing table football, the adventures of Batman in Rumania, and finally even one of their pieces was an homage to Melies.

I'll be looking for their next concert, and for their third CD that should come out any time soon. You can find more about them at www.freebidou.com

On the real cost of things and services

2006-09-06T13:52:00.000+02:00

Spending some wonderful weeks in Thailand during my summer holidays this year, I've had the chance to reflect on many things, and I've come to confirm some concerns I had about the real cost of certain items and services and what we end up paying for them.

When you make your first acquaintance with economic theory, you are told about equilibrium points between offer and demand, with some obvious concessions to product cost. But of course, that implies a few very hard conditions which include perfect competition, no barriers of entry into the market and all parties involved having perfect information. Obviously, none of those conditions apply fully (sometimes not even remotely) in the real economy, and therefore, the pricing of many things are severely distorted.

Before the last ones of you fall asleep, an example. Where should a bottle of French wine cost more, in a restaurant in Bangkok or in an equivalent one in Paris? Of course, you've guessed that it was a trick question, and you've got it right: The equivalent wine, in a similar restaurant, costs about 20% less in Bangkok than in Paris. And that is only an example, the same meal in each of those restaurants will probably cost double or more in Paris that in Bangkok. Anything you buy in a department store, from clothing to electronics will present the same difference in price.

Some of the arguments people will use to justify that difference will involve that the items involved are manufactured in the region (well, somewhere in the continent, which might not be just around the corner) so the difference includes the transport costs. However, as much as that argument *might* (I don't use *do*) explain the difference in the price of electronics and clothing, it does not explain the bottle of French wine being cheaper in Thailand than in France. So that argument *might* explain some small variations in specific items, but it cannot be accepted as *the* general explanation.

Another argument will run in the line of comparing the average salaries, cost of living and tax pressure of each country, and say that as the wages and the cost of running the restaurant (shop, department store, ...) are lower, then the product offered can be sold at a lower price and still make the same margin (economists might start talking of purchase power parities here...). Well, that *could* have more chances to explain the difference, even for our bottle of French wine, but there are other examples that are more difficult to explain.

As I was on holidays, and I was making the trip I had been planning for a few years, and being a very mean person myself, I wanted to make everybody very jealous, so I decided to send a few dozens of postcards to friends and family. You will agree with me that the distance between Paris and Bangkok is the same that between Bangkok and Paris, and that sending a letter (or a postcard), should incur in, basically, the same costs no matter in which sense it was sent, as the distance is the same, and assuming that the amount of people incurred in classification at origin are probably similar to the amount involved in delivery at destination. So, if the costs are the same in both directions, I would be very obliged to anyone that could explain me why sending my postcards from Bangkok to Paris (or Europe in general) coasted me less that half of what it costs me to post a postcard within Paris!! ;-)

At this point is when I would like to introduce one point. May be there are many things that are priced by *how much people are willing to pay*, instead of by *how much does it cost*, even in the case where demand is not that high. A clear example could be any small plastic item that is cheap and more or less widely used but not essential: Take the nylon loop people use to hang their mobile phones or MP3 players or keys from their necks, or any other item like that. It is an industrial product that is probably produced by the millions, with a cost of about a couple of Euros for a thousand units. How much does it cost in a shop? Probably if you buy it with your MP3-player it will cost you at least 10-15 Euro (but it will come in a nice branded blister). If you buy it in one of those wonderful 'bazaar'-shops you have in any town and city, run usually by old ladies or sometimes by people belonging to visible minorities, and stocking all sorts of different stuff, it will probably cost you only 1-3 Euro (and it will come without the packaging). You can find the same phenomenon with hardstore items like plug adaptors and extension cords, can openers, etc. Probably it is the same for many drugstore products and for some services as well, like posting a letter or sending an SMS. I would say that it's just a matter of there being a price that people are willing to pay without considering looking for a lower price. One could say that below a certain fraction of the purchase capacity (i.e. income) of the individual, the price of an item looses its comparative meaning.

One of the corollaries of that is that because we don't care about the price of some things as long as they are below a certain price threshold, this part of the consumer economy where we live becomes inefficient, and we pay the costs (as usual), and someone else gets rich because of our indifference.

Another example, the cost of sending an SMS from your mobile: you might have noticed that all mobile phone operators in your country (and I don't mind which country do you read this from) charge the same price for each SMS you send, and from time to time they offer some free SMSs as special promotions. In fact, and trying not to go into too much technical detail, the mobile phone network and your phone need to be in more or less continuous communication, to assess the level of signal, and to know when to switch your connection from one area of the network to the next as you move (from one "aerial" to the next one, if you wish). That communication is just a stream of data, and it does not matter if it's more or less random data or if it includes a few SMSs, so the real cost of sending an SMS is naught (zero), because the communication has to be done anyway. But everyone is happy paying a few cents of an euro for each message sent, without realising that at the end of the year, the phone company is getting most of their profit from your SMSs. (for me, with an average of a couple of SMSs per day, amounts to about a 100 Euro a year).

Anyway, just in case there's anyone still reading, and to finally stop rambling: the thing I wanted to share was my disappointment on realising how little criticism we apply sometimes when purchasing items and services, which lead to big inefficiencies (meaning that we have to pay dear for things that are actually very cheap), only because we are sometimes too lazy to look around and punish those who overcharge us by the simple method of shopping elsewhere.

'Voila'. That's all folks. I've finished.

14th of July in Paris

2006-07-14T16:42:00.001+02:00

It's the middle of the summer... The quicksilver in the thermometer only climbs and climbs, and of course when a three day weekend shows up to celebrate some French national day or something like that ( ;-) ) people leave Paris like if the plague had broken loose in the city.

Surprisingly though, when we headed to the Champs de Mars, to enjoy the firework display that was about to be launched from the Eiffel Tower, we found out that everybody had come back to the city and was standing there, all 20 millions of them (and a few tourists as well, filling the spaces). In any case, the fireworks were really astonishing (as you can see in the picture), and the crowd not too annoying (Big thanks to Alexey for the excellent picture of he fireworks).

The other traditional event that marks the festivity is the usual military parade in the Champs Elisees on the morning of that same day. Of course I missed it, I had much more exciting and intellectually satisfying things to do, like helping a friend to move out from her flat, than waste my time watching a few infantry companies, tanks and jet fighters pass by, but I could not avoid hearing about it on the radio. And it made me start wondering...

I do sort of understand that in the middle ages, as may be a century ago, the influence and power of a nation was defined almost exclusively by its diplomatic influence, backed of course by military power, and therefore those parades were the perfect occasion to show (off) to everyone who would care to watch, how disciplined, powerful, and frightening, the armed forces of that country were. In fact, most of the times, the aim of the exercise would not only be to fill with pride the citizens of that proud and powerful nation, but also to fill with awe and respect (call it fear), the representatives, ambassadors and other visitors of foreign countries.

But nowadays, after two world wars and the cold war period, someone with a naive mind like mine would think that for most cases, in this globalised world of today, the influence that our nations are able to exert would not be a reflection of such imperialist and primitive ways, but based instead on economic prowess and human, technological and scientific development.

After reflecting on that, and on the obsolescence of those military parades for a few days, I can only think that the only reason to keep those parades is to justify the expenditure on defense but specially because they have become a tradition the logic of which no one has yet seriously dared to contest.

On the other hand, I do have to admit that a bunch of soldiers parading in their 'Sunday' uniforms, some rumbling tanks that are too heavy for the pavement of the city, and a few noisy jet fighters and helicopters, are surely more colorful to watch than the equivalent amount of scientists, businessmen and engineers.

Again at the Paris Jazz Festival

2006-07-14T16:42:00.000+02:00

Again and again we keep going to the Paris Jazz Festival, but we cannot help it. Music is usually brilliant, and the surroundings gorgeous, and even if you are not interested at all in the music, you can always sit on the grass and enjoy the sunny and hot weather.

Highly enjoyable was the blues weekend, with the concerts of Patrick Verbeke Quintet and Jean Jacques Milteau Quintet, that included one of the best guitar players I've listened to recently. But not only that, at first all of us had the impression that the singer in the band of Jean Jacques Milteau had a rather soft voice for a blues singer.... until she stopped holding herself, stepped aside from the microphone and started singing with her full voice!! (and probably a few people at the end of the open concert hall were projected into the lake behind!!). Another CD to order from Amazon...

On the following weekend the concerts might not have been that interesting, but the weather and the park was, so... we had a nice picnic with pleasant jazz background music.

B-)

"Paris, je t'aime"...

2006-07-10T10:40:00.000+02:00

"... le film evenement de la saison". Or, the film-event of the season, as the publicity of the film descrives it. And at least in terms of the people that have colaborated to the realisation of the film, it does seem to be a big event, or the cinematographic version of a jam session at least.

Over 20 directors and scriptwriters and scores of well known actors and actresses have colaborated to create this great jamboree of short stories, of all different sorts, shapes and colors. Well, not all shapes, they all had to fit in the two hours of film, which in the end made that some of the stories were overtly simple, a bit of a cliche. But well done cliches can still be very enjoyable, and many of these stories are. There are all sorts of situations, always revolving around love and Paris. Sometimes classic romantic love, sometimes the sadness of a lost chance, the longing for a deceased loved one, the pain of breaking, the memories of a past love, misunderstandings in the metro of paris, or even the lust for blood and ethernal love.

Not all the short films are of the same quality, or may be it will more accurate to say that not all short films will appeal equally to all audiences (I do personaly reckon that some of the stories could have been dropped and allow some others to be developed in more depth; but of course, i never liked mimes... ;-)). It would be very hard to choose one of the stories, but I specially enjoyed the situation devised by the Coen brothers in 'Tuileries', the interpretation of Juliette Binochein 'Place des Victoires', the story 'Faubourg Saint-Denis' with Nicole Portman and Melchior Beslon, and the story that closes the film, '14eme arrondissement'. I would say, that may be I might not have liked some of the stories on their own, but i did enjoy the film as a whole (even as I was a bit sceptic about it beforehand), and specially I found some of the stories specially moving, or hilarious, or sad... From my point of view, a good film.

2006-06-26T22:28:00.000+02:00

Having lunch with four charming tourists from Spain...

Paris Jazz Festival 2006

2006-06-12T18:20:00.000+02:00

Paris has a very special relationship with Jazz. It was here, in the quartier of Saint Germain des Pres, after the Second World War, that Jazz music landed in the continent. Jazz not only stayed here, but over the years completely new styles have been created in these caveaus.

In any case, it's not going to be me who starts rambling about the history of Jazz in Europe, so I'll get to the point and introduce a couple of pictures taken las Sunday in the Parc Floral (the botanic garden), where the jazz festival is held during the months of June and July.

These are Mina Agossi and Curtis Stigers & his trio, all of them excellent artists, but my favourite band so far is definitely the one composed by Petra Magoni and Ferrucio Spinetti, that played on Saturday the 10th.

Good friends visiting Paris

2006-06-08T18:10:00.000+02:00

Summer weather has finally arrived to Paris (well, more or less), and with it, the long days that are so suitable for a pleasant stroll in the city.

And how could it not be pleasant with my good old friends coming to visit and to wander together in this nice city?

Thanks Florence, Evelina, Marc, Didier and Daniel for your visit, and to help me to explore and discover Paris!!

:-)

2006-05-05T21:06:00.000+02:00

Easter visit to Belgium, meeting many friends from LLN. In the pictures having coffee in Brussels with Marc, Didier, Boriss and Sebas, and beer and crepes in LLN with Marc and Didier (again) and Arnaud. :-)

2006-05-05T21:04:00.000+02:00

Remember, remember, the 5th of November...

2006-04-20T11:57:00.000+02:00

"V for vendetta": The graphic novel (1982-1985) and film (2005):

The last film produced by the Wachowski brothers is again a piece of work worth of the authors of Matrix (as opposed to the two improvised sequels of such film). It has to be said that much of the merit should undoubtedly go to the graphic novel by Allan Moore in which the film is based. However, the screenplay is a faithful adaptation of the story, and the film is excellently directed. The action occurs without leaving time to wander off. Obviously, there are parts of the graphic novel missing (the film is already over two hours long), but the main aspects of the story are there, although it might sometimes require a bit of extra attention to get some details.

"V for vendetta" was written by Allan Moore after the shift to the right of British opinion that brought to the power the Tories and Margaret Thatcher. In the graphic novel, Moore presents a British society subjugated by a extreme-right-wing government, oppressing and controlling its citizens in the process of 'protecting' them from the disastrous state of chaos that ravages the rest of the world (there are continuous references to the civil war and famine in what had been the US, not to speak of other countries). Television offers the usual share of totalitarian state propaganda and hatred against foreigners, 'deviants', and 'terrorists; there are night curfews, the state-police are free to harass and take advantage of citizens... Until someone dressed like a Shakespeare contemporary and wearing a smiling mask, starts getting the attention of the government and the population by performing daring terrorist attacks. The story shows the progress of the vengeance of such character and his terror campaign to bring down the government, and his attempts to wake up the rest of the citizenship from their sheepish compliance.

Given the appalling outcome of previous attempts to adapt Allan Moore novels into the big screen, I was pleasantly surprised that finally this time the film contains all the grim view from the original novel and not only the fancy characters or the surface story. It is specially refreshing in these times of ultra-mild Hollywood cinema, where the most anti-social activity of villains is to smoke, that the script keeps the original darkness, sometimes pessimism, and specially that it is uninhibited by political correctness conventions. "V" is a hero, but in more ways than one is an evil hero. He pretends to save British society from its apathy in front of a tyrannic government, and any mean is acceptable to gain that end. During the process he also takes revenge on those who wrong-did him and many others in the covert chemical and bacteriological research centers of the government. Quoting from the film "What they did was monstrous, (...) and they created a monster".

The story contains some weak points, specially how a lone man could build single-handedly the infrastructure to perform those daring terror attacks, but that could be taken as a literary licence (this being a story originally addressed to teenagers and young adults), being that the important message is not the 'how', but the 'what' and 'why' and more important still, the 'to what end'. I guess another quote that would summarise the moral of the story comes from close to the end of the film "(...) because behind this mask there's an Idea, and Ideas are bullet-proof".

Game review: "Niagara"

2006-04-14T13:41:00.000+02:00

Niagara is a board game that is easy to play, and really fast to start, but can be lots of fun. The board is assembled on top of the box of the game, and it is shaped as a river, with, surprise, surprise, a waterfall at one end.

Each player has a couple of canoes and the aim of the game is to row up and down the river collecting a number of gems from various locations (or steal them from other players canoes). Players move their boats by playing some cards with movement scores on them.

The quirk of the game is that, once all the players have done their moves, the natural flow of the river occurs by shifting the different places along the river a number of positions downriver, taking the canoes with them. Of course, if a canoe is pushed beyond the edge of the waterfall... well, the player will have to pay one of his/her hard earned gems get a new one.

Have fun!!

Reception at the Hôtel de Ville, Paris

2006-03-30T09:14:00.000+02:00

Last evening I had the pleasure to attend the reception organised by the Mairie de Paris and the BACE (Bureau d'Accueil des Chercheurs Etrangers) that was held at the Hôtel de Ville.

This type of event has surelly the political intention to show the effort that the City of Paris is doing to attract good foreign researchers in all fields (this is a time when everybody, and all administrations specially, agree that the support for research in very much needed, but unfortunatelly, not all the agents involved are actually doing all they could do about it). At least in this case, they seem to be doing their bit, and at least, they are showing it in style.

Hence, I found nicelly rewarding to be invited to a reception in such a luxurious environtment as the Hôtel de Ville, with champaign and canapes, life background music and have the chance to meet other people in the same professional situation, from all over the world, and by chance, even from a neighbouring village to my own!!

I'll be looking forward coming events like this one... ;-)

Film: "Renaissance" (2006)

2006-03-17T16:32:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I went to see the last film by Christian Volckman, "Renaissance". I didn't know anything about the film beforehand. Let's say I like sci-fi and animation films, and I was appealed by the poster of the film and the little bit of information you get in the magazine of the cinema where it was shown.

I have to say that I was very impressed by the look and general design of the film. Everything is done in black and white (not just as opposite to *color*, but pure and plain *black and *white*). The image and design of Paris in mid 21st Century is amazing, combining the magic of the city,
with its characteristic architectural style, with a *future-retro* athmosphere mixing structures on the style of the Eiffel tower, and ultra-modern buildings, with some influences from even "Metropolis".

The story itself has a promising beginning, but after a while it becomes rather topical of this genre of films, and although it's still enjoyable to watch it becomes a bit dull and previsible at some points.

In a nutshell, I'd say that it's a film with brilliant image design, (and special effects), but the story it tells, without being bad, could have been much better.

Visit to Chartres Cathedral

2006-03-06T21:58:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, and in spite of the cold and snowy weather, we decided to go to Chartres (about a 100km south of Paris) and visit one of the greatest gothic-(and Romanesque) cathedrals in France.

The present cathedral was finished in the early 13th century (1223) after a fire had partly destroyed the previous Romanesque one (the south tower and the faÃÂ§ade are what remains of thRomanesqueee cathedral). During the Revolution it was decided that such a monument should be not only vandalised, but demolished, but of course, such enterprise had to be carefully planned and a commission was set to see to it. Fortunately, the discussions of the commission took so long that they never managed to finish the demolition plans, and the cathedral survived.

Our visit started by a short walk around the medieval quarters of Chartres, and by checking the schedule of guided tours to the cathedral. As it was freezing, we had almost two hours to the guided tour, and it was about the right time, we decided to go for lunch to one of the 'bistro' recommended in out tourist-guide. What we didn't know was that that precise weekend Chartres was celebrating the anniversary of the crowning of Henry the 4th (the only French King crowned here... the other ones were crowned at Reims), and all restaurants were very busy, serving the same menu (it seems that Henry the 4th was known to like a type of chicken soup). The problem with that was that it took about 3 hours to have the four courses (skipping coffee), so we missed by about 1 hour the guided tour we wanted to take. Anyway, it was fun, and the food was really excellent (I should include the menu on the blog).

Anyway, finally we made it to the cathedral, and we were astonished by it. We were late to take the guided tour to the cathedral, but just in time to the one of its crypt, which contains some of the most interesting aspects of the visit. To start with, the hill where the cathedral stands was considered by the druids to be a site of great power, and it had been used for a long time for their rituals. It is possible to see on the side of thcryptpt a round well with a square bottom, with its wallperfectlyty oriented to the cardinal points, that was used in those times for some rituals. Thcryptpt holds the Sancta Camisia, a tunic that was supposed to belong to the Virgin Mary, brought back from thcrusadeses, and donated to the Cathedral by Charlemagne. In the same chapel of the crypt there is the reproduction (the original was lost in a fire), of the Virgin of the Underworld (named like that in the Spanish and French versions of the brochure of the visit, but not in the English translation), a famous Black Virgin. The term Black Virgin refers to those images of a woman with child, that although nowadays are revered as images of the Virgin, they were possibly images of early goddesses previous to Christian influence.

The crypt itself was the last stage of the pilgrimage to Chartres. Pilgrims entered it by the South Tower (the old one, symbolising the Old Testament), and walked all the circa 130m of the corridor that is the crypt, raising into the main nave of the church, and into the light, by the North Tower, which symbolises the New Testament.

On the floor of the nave of the upper church there's a labyrinth (unfortunately mostly hidden by chairs and benches), which was also a symbolic representation of the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Hoping for beginner's luck...

2006-03-02T18:32:00.000+01:00

OK, this is a first try to build a blog, and this is the first post. :-P

Well, let's get to it: The aim of this blog is to tell friends, family and acquaintances about the weekend activities, and the experience in general of living in the banlieue of Paris. There will be a lot about touristy outings, visits to museums, jazz concerts and parties, but also about the culture shock of moving to and settling in France.

Of course it has taken a loooong time till I've made my mind (and found the time) to start writing this blog, so there's a huge backlog of events and ideas that I'll eventually include on it. One of the main issues was in which language should it be written. I don't discard that I might be swapping between English, Spanish, Catalan and (rather poor) French, may be totally at random, but at the moment the thing will start in English.

Anyway... I should stop rambling now, and let you explore the rest of the blog (as soon as there's sthg to explore!!). Enjoy!!