02 février 2007
Daily show on France...
French riots
envoyé par deep
25 janvier 2007
Persepolis, Iran, and Marjan
Hey, I just realized that Marjane Satrapi's comic book (I hate this expression, "comic book"... Do you really call Art Spiegleman a "comic book author" ?) Persepolis does exist in English ! The best book I've read
It's her story in four books, from her childhood during the Islamic Revolution, to her leaving in 1995. It's the world seen through a child's and a teenager eyes, and consequently, a really refreshing view about Iran... and also about Europe !
I don't know where you could find it, but find it !
(5 minutes later)
Wait, I'm realizing that actually, she's already quite famous !
Mmh... A little disppointed to not be the first to have discovered it...
But really happy that she's well-known, because she's "worth to be known" (not sure of the translation...).
Hey, I just found an article in the Independant.
"I get the feeling that, for you, cigarettes represent some kind of revolt. Why do you think some people hate them so much?"
"I believe that's a sexual thing." She raises a lighted Winston to her lips and inhales. "I put it in my mouth. The smoke enters my body, through an orifice. It gives me pleasure. And it leaves..." She exhales. "By the same orifice. I think it reminds them of... something."
Recently, on a street in Los Angeles, she saw a woman glaring at her cigarette. "There were traffic fumes everywhere. I saw her staring, so I muttered: 'Fuck you.' She came over and said, 'Did you say something?' I said, 'Yes - fuck you.' She replied: 'But I am so sensitive to cigarette smoke.' I told her, 'OK - be sensitive - and die. Or give me a break.'"
And an interview on NPR !
And the her blog !
And...
(Oh shit !)
And she's preparing a movie from Persepolis !
And... and...
Sorry, I can't write, I've got too many things to read !
15 janvier 2007
You know that you’re French…
- When you think that French fries aren’t French at all, but from Belgium
- When you think that yogurt is from Bulgaria
- When you call a baguette sliced in two and filled with a steak and French fries « un sandwich américain »
- When the easiness of parking is on the top list of the pros when you buy a new car
- When you think that Coca Cola and Mac Donald’s are “just for kids”
- When you consider a Coke with whisky as a suitable drink for teenagers
- When a President becomes popular after it has been proven that he has several mistresses
- When you welcome immigrants… just as long they eat cheese, drink wine, and play pétanque
- When you can tell the political views of anybody by the cheese he / she prefers
- When you call an 80 miles drive “a journey”
- When you think that having a vacation in Paris during the summer is nonsense
- When you think that a 50 mph speed limit means that you can drive at 70
- When you’re able to guess the nationality of a tourist by his clothes
- When you consider the Champs Elysées the worst avenue in the world
- When you think that a good evening meal with friends must have at least one big argument
- When you can’t think of a translation in French of the sentence “That's you’re opinion, and I respect that”
- When you can't think of translation in French for TMI 'Too Much Information', because, I mean really, do you ever say too much?
- When you think that the French are “stupid sheep”
- When you can’t stand any foreigner saying that French are “stupid sheep”
- When you avoid French tourists in foreign countries
- When you think that a glass of white wine at 10 am is good for the health
- When you call "an affair" "un flirt"
- When you go on strike to preserve the right to go on strike
- When Lafayette means “big store with affordable sexy lingerie” to you
- When you think that Quebecois are “courageous and strong people with a funny accent”
- When you think the only food outside France that’s acceptable to eat is Italian
- When you say “That’s the worst haircut I’ve ever seen” when you meet somebody with a bad haircut
- When you only see a movie after having read ten different critics who liked it (and saying "two thumbs up" does not qualify)
- When you think that people interested in the American culture are dorks
- When you think that you know the USA when you have traveled one week to New York, one other week to San Francisco
- When you consider an air rifle as a lethal weapon
- When you think that “un libéral” is a neo-con and “un républicain” is a Democrat
- When you think that somebody giving you a compliment wants something from you… That he won't get !
- When you think that saying “You’re right” is a sign of weakness (you should say “You’re not wrong”).
- When you’re used to seeing pictures of naked, or halfnaked women on billboards
- And, above all, you know that you're French when you think that France is the most beautiful country in the world… sadly occupied by the French !
10 juin 2006
What's happening in France ?
Foreigners might be worried about what is going on in France. Riots in 2005, strikes, immoral politics, this country is in a really bad shape.
Well, from the inside, it's much calmer. I haven't seen any car burning. I work in a french suburb, and I have never been attacked. My wife is expecting a daughter, and the social security system is still very good to help us prepare the arrival (we received so much money from the state that I stopped counting). Still, we had a crapy month of may. Rain, cold, that was weird.
Maybe we don't realize, in our daily lives, how doomed we are because there would be a massive plot to put all of us on drugs. I did realize this when I saw this shop, in a very bourgeois district in Lyon (the 6th arrondissement).
Or I'm too paranoïd, and it's just a clue that french colonization was maybe really cool, after all...
PS : "tisane" is herbal tea. Strong effects on your mood, really...
23 mai 2006
I've seen the Da Vinci Code
I mean, I watched the movie.
I read the book when it came out, and I was impatient to see it on screen. Not that the "revelations" were that interesting (if you are in the "plot" thing, read "Foucault's Penduluum" by Umberto Ecco, and think that there's a link between the success of the litterature about this subject and the ever lasting truth "everyone loves a conspiracy"...), but because, well, it was a good book, with suspense, action, "coups de théâtre", etc.
(Still, I imagine that one day, the French President would come to the UNO and say : "Well, we actually discovered that indeed, Jesus bloodline was in France, but, *cough*, with the Revolution, you know, we were a little upset, and well... All of his descendants went to the guillotine... Sorry, you can put the blame on the French once again...")
The movie "Da Vinci Code" doesn't fit the expectations I had... That's an understatement.
Oh, I had a good time. The movie theatre was half English, half French, and there were some good laughs. There's a lot of French speaking in the movie, and the dialogues in French were sometimes over - dumb... I wonder who they hired for this part... Most of all, the final revelation, so great in the book, seems really silly in the movie... But Paris Office of Tourism is really gratefull. Not like the security of the Louvres, whose guards try to stop people praying to the glass pyramid...
Anyway : there was something that really disturbed me. It's technical.
The last scene in Scotland with Sophie Neveu does not sound good. I mean that the sound is not good. There's wind in Tom Hanks dialogues. As we can see the trees moving in the background, I guess that it was a windy day, and that the sound take was ruined because of it. They used a basic treatment, a noise gate, and broacast it just like that. Amateur.
The thing that I don't understand is that, generaly (and obviously in 150 M $ movies), the producer decides to re-take the sound later, in a studio (post - synchronization). I guess that Tom Hanks wanted too much for this one, but it gives a sad picture of movie production mowadays in Hollywood : it's not a movie but a simple product : let's not pass too much time and money in "details".
I wonder how long people will satisfy themselves with such philosophy.
About the sound engineer's dilemna, have a look at this manifesto.
29 novembre 2005
Polical considerations
It has been a long time since I have spoken outloud in the desert.
Funny, this need to have something to say in order to resolve the world's problems. I should use the quote "the world would work better if everybody was doing as I say". I don't remember who said this. Must be a quote from the universal intellectual heritage.
One of the greatest things in my shitty job is that I have plenty of time to think and to catch up on the news. I even read reports of the National Assembly. The last one I read was 500 pages long. I'm sure most deputies work less than I do. Most impressive, isn't it?
I impresse my wife too, when I use my "entertainement budget" (the one between "cigarettes budget" and "hairdresser budget", this one used mostly to compensate the first one) to buy "The great war for civilization" by Robert Fisk. A 1000 page book that you could read like a novel, with mystery, adventure, and knowledge. My wife is impressed by the fact that I don't have a single word to say about what's going on between 'Kevin' and 'Cynthia', when I could hold a two hour monologue about the need to use money from the European Common Agricultural Policy for organic agriculture, and to not fall into the trap of ethanol when we know the ecological and economical disaster of intensive production, and that the conclusion of it is that we should think about the necessity for industrial decrease as the Burtland report said back in 1987, which preceded the Rio summit in 1992, which has been nailed by the creation of WTO, I should stop, I'm hipped up again.
Meanwhile, nobody can say that this report was not premonitory, ok, sorry, I'll stop.
Titilated by my wife's admiration (man, it's goooood...), I often forget to tell her that a guy really involved in politics, who would really likes to do something for the world, doesn't simply read the news and write stuff that nobody reads...
Ok, I promise, I will work on it, but "hell is the others", and I can see them, hidding in the shadows, ready to make me change my mind with their much more developed points, with structure and conviction in comparison to mine. The bastards...
As I said, everything would be better if people were doing as I say. But people are mean, they think that they are right, and not me (how silly, isn't it ?).
Ok, what did I want to say ?
About the French suburbs, "banlieues", which have nothing comparable to US suburbs, my wife's thoughts:
She laughed outloud when she heard that some rioters threw pétanque balls at the police.
"And they say it's a problem of integration in the French culture, but they have fucking pétanque balls in their homes!"
Note : Pétanque is the most popular game in France. You can see it in every public square during summer.
It's true that they (politicians, media) miss the point with the "problem of integration", "republic deficit". Once again, immigration is the problem. I even read, in Le Figaro (conservative, yes, I read even conservative newspapers, just so that nobody will accuse me of unilateral ideology) that the rioters were mostly from "sub saharian Africa" (politicaly correct word to say "black"), where the education of the children is shared by the whole village, which is not the same here, cultural difference bla bla bla, and that this is why 'they' are so violent. Bullshit.
More disgusting, I heard the report of Jérémie's trial, the kid who burned a supermarket and who will have four years in prison (the highest sentence in these last two weeks). They insisted on the fact that his parents tried to stop him from going out, and mix with "those people" who influenced the little angel. Meaning : the little French rooted guy was a nice kid who was influenced by non-white kids who are left alone by their families because of a supposed "sub saharian" culture.
And some dare to say that our media is better, more objective, than foreign media like, say, Fox News. Everybody knows that every single american watches Fox News...
I agree with one of the definitions my wife has about the French (at least, the one she has when she has had a bad day) : they are arrogant and self centered sheep, quietly and innocently racist.
Surprised to agree with Jack Lang, a caricature of "caviar leftist" in France, former culture minister, I liked what he said on the BBC : he sees a proof in these riots that "these people" are fully integrated. They demonstrated their comprehension of the words "liberty, equality, fraternity". And they understood that these words are no longer respected by French elites. The problem is not integration. It's french racism, and deaf and hypocrital politicians.
Well, let's trust the police to bring the peace back...
(When I read such a sentence, it gives me the idea to fill up a bottle with gas and liquid soap, stuff the top with a handkerchief, and throw it on the police headquarters...)
(Too bad. I thought a molotov cocktail was vodka, Grand Marnier, strawberry sirup and ice)
(The other receipe is a "violent but circonstancial answer to an untolerable situation")