Archive for the 'Pictures' Category
Go South
Saturday, September 25th, 2004 
South is the way to go… good riddance Parisian clouds, Bonjour Mediterranean sun!
Getting there was something else…
Suffice it to say that, a close second behind French universities in terms of administrative bondage and institutionalized pointlessness, comes the French national railway company (SNCF).
Those who know both may start suspecting that I only do all this because I enjoy pain and suffering. Which might be true, though I’d rather it be mixed with a fair amount of sensuality, leather and eye-pleasing nakedness, certainly not inflicted by a bunch of middle aged counter zombies wearing faded green suits and stern faces. Or worse yet, involving getting whipped into submission by an army of cold faceless iron machines supposed to be spitting our tickets for a train departing exactly 4 minutes and 30 seconds later.
Quelques Photos du Luco
Saturday, June 26th, 2004
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One of the only real parks in Paris is Le Jardin du Luxembourg, located in the 6th arrondissement, about 5 minutes from Saint Germain des Prés. The name though, is usually shortened by locals to “Luco”. “Going to the Luco” was a key element of my studying years in Paris, since the park was less than a minute away from my school and part of my commute. During the three months of decent weather that Paris gets each year (somewhere between May and September), many a days was spent chilling and taking the sun with friends in the park, all the while supposedly preparing our finals. |
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The Luxembourg is the exact antithesis of Anglo-saxon parks such as Hyde Park or Central Park: here, you won’t find large lawns and semi-virgin bits of forrest inside the city. It’s all about symmetry, order and absolute control over every single element of nature. Archetype of Jardin à la Française (the technical gardening term for Control Freak Wet Dream), the Luxembourg features an appallingly low amount of grass for a “park”, and most of it is strictly off limits to pedestrians (numerous signs and whistle wielding security agents are all there to remind you that grass is too rare a commodity to be left for people to lay down on it: watch, but don’t touch). As a result, a sizable share of the park is made up of huge bare alleys planted with armies of meticulously aligned trees. Yea, it is about as exciting as it sounds. |
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Of course, there is some greenery too, though I challenge you to find one randomly placed item in this picture… There’s probably a guy responsible for measuring flower spacing and ensuring it never goes out of a predetermined variation margin. By the way, keep in mind that every single chair in that picture is strictly disposed outside of the grass area. |
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Depending on mood, weather and other factors, ideal spots can be: seated around the main basin, where one can check out at leisure cute tourists and young Parisian MILFs strolling their offsprings around, or in some corner of the park where that unforgivable law-breaching act of placing your derriere on a patch of grass will not catch the eye of park security… |
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Have you noticed how even the crappiest pictures taken with a substandard cheap piece of digital camera turn out nearly ok once you slather them with color filters? |
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Sometimes, standing in the middle of the park and looking around reminds you of a geometry class. |
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On one side of the park, is the French Senate. Apparently, they set up an outdoor opera in front of it during the Summer (la Boheme was playing this week). |
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And outside the park (the side that runs along Bd St Michel), the fence periodically hosts coffee-table style picture exhibits (this one dedicated to D-Day commemorations). When I came last year, stills from Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s awesome book Earth from Above were on display. |
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Of course, the park closes every evening (you wouldn’t want people roaming around in a park without close supervision, now would you?). I am told some particularly stupid people in their youth once hid inside and spent the night reenacting Giligan Island in the middle of Paris, but I’m sure you would never think of doing something that immature. |
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Beside it’s incredibly hard lighting up a small bonfire without getting busted right away by park security patrols (yea, they do patrol the inside of the park at night, no, they do not shoot at sight, as far as I know). |
Some More Pictures of our Furry Friends
Monday, June 21st, 2004
No, I’m not talking about ladyfriends, you sickos… beside, do not believe the wild rumours: every woman I ever met in Europe (save maybe for the most desperately rural areas where sheep and cattle outnumber humans) does attend to her feminine shaving routine at least as much as their non-European counterparts. Maybe even more, if you account for the unfair advantage held naturally by the feminine gent in other parts of the globe.
Ahem, anyway.
Let’s try not to taint such an innocent little entry, adorned by cute-to-puke pictures of softy kitties, with unnecessary reflections on the relation between culture and shaving habits of the modern woman.
5 Pounds of Hair and a Frown
Saturday, June 19th, 2004
US Picture Series: 3. Friends
Saturday, April 10th, 2004
I’ve been back and catching up with the last few falling sakura flowers for a few days now. But anyway, here are a few of the pics I managed to take during my chaotic stay in the US…
Though I’ve not caught nearly as many people on camera as I’d wanted to, I have at least sampled a bit of everything, since both family life, lesbian wedding reception and restaurant night out with friends are all covered. Can’t get more versatile than that.
Not much need for legend here, except to state that the fact two of the friends I used to go party with (Suraj and David) are now proud fathers of daughters aged respectively 1 year (Riya) and 1 month (Saskia), does not make me feel any younger… What is it with that trend to have kids these days? How irresponsible, when you could be just as happy getting shitfaced drunk and abusing pharmaceutical drugs on a daily basis…
Don’t you realize what a fucked up world it is they’ll be living in?
Anyway, they are both awfully cute and if they inherit all the qualities exhibited by their parents, they’ll probably have to fight for the presidency over what will be left of the US, 30 years from now…
On a different note, it’s refreshing to see Oliver still wears his difference high and proud. Though his boyfriend was allegedly less than happy when he decided to purchase this awesome Pink Carebear Backpack… And you better believe he’s wearing it everywhere (including in the trendiest bar and restaurants of the city: only him could ever get away with this).
US Picture Series: 2. Pets
Sunday, April 4th, 2004
The cat (probably the most über-zen cat in the world) and the snake live in the same house and are part of the typical california-family yearly round of exotic pets that gets replaced when the kids get tired with them, or, as the case might rather be here, when they get to become a 6-foot long constrictor snake and you feel a bit uneasy letting him share the bed with your kid.
No: the cat doesn’t get replaced every year, he’s part of the furniture… works pretty well as a living trophy-rug.
The dogs just happened to be sitting outside some grocery store and they looked cool like that.
US Picture Series: 1. California Views
Saturday, April 3rd, 2004
Posting pictures of clubs and parties would get old really quick. So I probably won’t be putting any, save maybe for a few highlights at the end.
Instead, here is a bunch of miscellaneous pictures, arbitrarily sorted by categories rather than chronological order.
This first batch seems to illustrate the fact that all my friends suddenly decided to move into places with breathtaking views: it’s really hard to tell who’s got the most amazing shot of the City, but here are a few serious contenders.
On the pics, respectively:
SF, View From Will’s Place
Thursday, March 25th, 2004
Will’s new place is completely awesome.
Being just a few blocks over the Castro, it’s got a view on most of the city all the way to the bay. And to top it all: a huge deck.
It’s nice to be back here…
Kusama Yayoi at the Mori Museum
Sunday, February 15th, 2004
Spent the afternoon with Sarah in Harajuku, then took her to Roppong Hills, in order to get a glimpse of the city from up-above.
We were not particularly planning on going for the museum, but, as chance would have it, one of the temporary exhibition featured my favorite Japanese artist.
I first got a glimpse at Kusama Yayoi’s obsessive and beautiful patterns in New York, a few years ago and saw more in Tokyo (the Hara-san Museum had a few great pieces). This new exhibition, though quite in the same vein as all her previous work, was definitely an amazing experience.
Unlike a lot of other contemporary artists who, at best, cannot manage to rouse any more than a certain kind of intellectual curiosity toward their art, Kusama Yayoi’s structures are just pure emotions put into shape: they do not require subtitles or lengthy comments to be appreciated, visual stimulation and subconscious imagery are immediate with most of her pieces. And if putting them into the perspective of her complicated life and long history of mental illness certainly brings another dimension, one just need to walk through her arrangements of mirrors, lights and dots in endless patterns to get an idea of what mind vertigo can be, for better or for worse.
So, if you’ve not done it yet, go check out her exhibit at the Mori Art Museum in Roppogi Hills. The other temporary exhibit (People’s Artist) is also very much worth your time…
PS: for those of you not familiar with Tokyo’s skyline, this building that looks like a cross between the Eiffel Tower and a christmas tree is “Tokyo Tower”… and no, to the best of my knowledge, Gustave Eiffel’s estate has not considered suing for copyright infringement yet… though I do suspect the “parody” argument might be protecting the Japanese version.
Kyoto
Saturday, December 27th, 2003
The view from Kyomizuderai
Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion)
Ryoanji
Zuiho-in
花火
Monday, August 11th, 2003
If you have any interest in recent Japanese movies in general and Takeshi Kitano’s in particular, then you might already know that Japanese for fireworks is Hana-bi (花火)…
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Had an ice-cream, overlooking Paris…
Sunday, June 29th, 2003
Sarah came back from Madrid for the week-end and dragged us around for shopping. we compromised for an ice-cream break on top of BHV (a huge department store located in the first arrondissement) with a nice view of the city. The top-floor “tea salon” of BHV is nothing too threatening to tiffany’s or even neiman marcus’, more like a big patch of astroturf and a few benches with an ice-cream stand in the middle. But at least it was way above car exhaust level, which is always appreciable in Paris.
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