French Pop Art

Having moved on from a universal idiom of danger the skull and bone emblem have become quite trendy. Decorating many a person widely unaffiliated with piracy, at least piracy in it's older non digital form it's now very popular part of art in the pop and underground cultures. Here in Paris where this culture is on the rise one can see many creations like this in small art exhibits all around town.

Often these exhibits are free and and held at bars and they display mostly from small scale artist with barley a website to sell from (http://xxxprod.com/). Despite this cost are relatively low which may be something that prevents it from being a real source of income for these struggling artits. After all it's not real art if it's not expensive like one successful artist told me ;)

Either way it's still way more in my liking than heap of diffuse classical style oil painting adoring many well off homes and such. After all video game art and pop art does have another appeal to the kinds having grown up with Famicons, Amigas and what not's as their biggest sources of art and inspiration.

Something that is quite nice it that they are mostly free. So why not enjoy a day in Paris checking out the free art scene. There is plenty of street art to find around town and combined with these small scale pp culture exhibits a day or two could easily be spent taking in the flora of alternative coolness.
And don't miss the game art post it war as can be seen on many windows around Paris.

Uberkampf and Montparnasse are usually good streets to find this type of art.

One of my favorites which I would get if I could. You can find it here.

Down and Dirty

Over the last few years I've hear more and more about things like organically farmed, locally produced, farmers markets and such. So I figured I'd go check it out. Well at least a version of it. Here in France there are farmes letting you pick your own stuff and buy it by weight. It's a interesting take on it.

From a business perspective it does kind of customer source some of the picking work. After all letting the customers do some of the work has proved very successful for companies like Ikea. But relabeling it and selling the experience I have to say is quite brilliant. I don't think a lot of people want to muck around around in the dirt all day, every day. Every once in a while though, it's nice to get down and dirty, to feel good about yourself.  But what I'm thinking is if the concept is exportable and expandable. Will this work in a not so strong economy and wound it work in other places?

Either way I'd love to have a farm or a "ferme" like this back home. I think my home town of Täby, Sweden would be a perfect place to have it. After all we have some pasture, fields for horses and definitively enough farmland. 15 minutes away from Stockholm city center and being a habituational center of many a academic family it could prove to be very successful. I know that I for one would gladly pay a bit less than in the supermarkets and do the work of picking my own veggies. After all if you only spend a few minutes doing it every week it's way more of an added bonus and an indulgence in the slow, quaint pace of life.

Although our visit was quite short, this time I got to eat a bunch of delicious apples off the trees and came home with glorious spoils of conquest worth much more than the 9€ something I paid of my little playtime in the dirt. In fact it reminded me of this 4H camp I went to as a kid. Also of my own garden back home growing up.

Either way, if you have the opportunity try it out. Yeah the 4H camp too, oh and also my dads little back yard veggie and herb garden. Let me know if you're planning to visit first though ;)

The God, the Man and Chinatown

Finding out that a bladder thumps an alarm clock when you need to get up on a Sunday morning is truly no that interesting but hay it works. Either way things are slow on Saturday mornings in Paris. In fact I think things are slow almost everywhere on Saturday mornings. Since I misses the word stay in bed day by a week I figured it was time to get up and breakfasty. Well right after I discover the man the myth the legend wallpaper of our friends computer.

After finding only one rather expensive boulangerie we decided to only get a "tie me over snack" or a croissant (made of yeast dough layered with butter and shaped into it's crescent shape) and a pain au raisin (a variety of the coissant or the pain au chocolate with raisins instead) to last until our pick nick lunch.

Having a few hours to spend we figured it was time to get out of France, it was time to get Chineesified. After all it's definitively a place where there is less relaxing on Sundays. So off we went to Asia, where the bustling is on and the clutter and grit is king. Well actually we just went to the "13e arrondissement" or slight south of place d'Italy. We traveled far and wide and arrived at Tangs original supermarket. It was actually my intention to hit up the shoot off since it's closer but hay a nice stroll through china town ain't a bad thing. After all it might be the most Asian you get to experience in Europe anyway. Although it's quite Chinese and Vietnamese influenced. Partly because of the french Indochina history. In fact so much so that one of the workers had never even heard of Japanese curry...

Either way the 13th is filled with cool and gritty small shops and places which gives a good comparison to other china towns around the world. Maybe china tows are becoming what some people consider hard rock cafe's. A place to visit anywhere you go.

Burlesque le Paris

Burlesque has actually been around for a long long time. Early mentions in literature puts it roughly 350 years back or so. But this post is about Neo burlesque a remade romanticised upcomming of the glam and show days of the pre prehabition days of old America.

The feathers, the shoes and the glitter. It must be a titan of an upkeep. Was what I was thinking as I slipped away into darkness on the couch of one of the Burlesque dancers. But on the other hand that is kind of what makes the whole thing interesting. Like "Dita von Teese", famous burlesque dancer and former wife of Mr.Manson said. It's putting terse back into stip terse. To me its quite different from the stip teases or shows I've seen earlier. The version I enjoyed this night was more of a cabaret with tease elements. It was the show and the showmanship that the crowed enjoyed.

One thing that dawned upon me was something that was pre-shared to me by my girlfriend, was the mundanity of the girls physical, well health. While many premiere skilled strippers and pole dancers work hard on their physical attributes, often with the aid of artificial means these women where your very natural ordinary women. Well at least they looked like it.
Ranging from exotic, teasing to humorusly kitschy or uniquely inventive, they all put on a good show. Including the comedian/sexy hostess.

The crowd is in contrast to many other "sensual" shows around the world not all male and in fact there might have been more women occupying the plush seats of this illustriousness and elegantly simply little theater in the fancier districts of Paris. In Fact it was Stéphanie Portier who brought me here. Here is a clip with more info on French Neo Burlesque. Obs, it's in french.

Although the US was the birthplace of "Neo Burlesque" the French puts on a good show and shows some new and inventive styles too.  definitively recommend you to go see a show like this if your ever in Paris. Check out Burlesque Paris for more into.

Rise of the Nerds

"Nerd" might not be famous of being the most attractive social status. Specially not in the US. But nerds are defined climbing the ladder of popularity. I was thinking of this because when hearing the mention of games someone at HEC Paris  imminently comented with some stereotyping of elf dressing people in the woods (Clearly "live action role playing" LARP). I remember when I relieved that I did a few of those games. This was followed by my friends great surprise at my nerdiness. For this was back in San Francisco where nerds are nerds but LARP nerds are much greater nerds. But nerds are not the same internationally. For example it's kind of cool to be a nerd in Sweden. Well as long as one embraces it and goes with it all out.

There are also some preconceived ideas of what Nerdery is. Here are two examples.

This first one is a tad more fantasy LARPing with magical powers a la America. I remember when I was first shown this. I have to admit I did laugh quite a bit about the marshmallow lightning bolts. After all what a waste. Marshmallows are for eating.

Here is another example of LARP but the European version, or German to be exact. It tends to seem a little more interesting. Given that the prodigy playing does help. But also the seriousness of the nerdiness. I remember my brother Patrik going to the Czech Republic partly to get a hold of some authentic plate mail gloves for his LARP gear. I figure if you go for something do it properly, at least it's way cooler if your the best at it..

Maybe this is why Nerdery and specially computer games are so well un-nerdy or main stream back home in Sweden. Cause we're good at it? or is it cause everyone kinda play's, making the minority situation defunct?

Here in France it's a tad different though. Nerds are still Nerds and the cool peeps need to wear that trendy shirt or whatever. But it's definitively going our way (yeah the nerdy way). As popular culture gets more and more inspired by movies and video games the experts on these are the nerds. Thus they rise in popularity as they are seen as the originals and early adopters.

But it seems as in cultures where it's less accepted to be nerdy the nerds are nerdier and more well nerdy and well less hard core.. Why might this be?

Anyway here in Paris I tend to connect more with the gamers just like everywhere else. Last night we visited movie maker and game enthusiast Robin to drink wine, watch one of his films and discuss games. I have to say I'm a bit jealous. Seriously where else can you at least drink good wine while you nerd away (also jealous of his radio controlled Wall-E unit). Ok true. back home it's beer but it's just not the same. Although I do love beer it just doesn't seem as refined.

One of Robint's many gadgets of multimedia art. A light saber or shower head, old hand grenade, ancient  handheld flash mount and shower nob. Either way really cool or really nerdy, or Both!

More on games after the weekend as I have a board gaming date with a bunch of French gamers.

No more bread? Why don't you eat cake?

After pondering on the hard and life changing question, whether we should get another baguette for breakfast or not my girlfriend quickly ended my philosophic contemplating.
- oh we don't need another one we have this.
Whereas I reply isn't that cake?
And get a yeah as a response.
It all suddenly became clear to me. In this country of Marie Antoinette, breakfause and other meals can be sweet. It was until now my misconception that her quote might have been a tad disconnected from relity. In fact it would have been a very natural response, from a french person. After all if one does not have bread. Cake will certainly do.
-"nom nom nom"
Yeah that was me munching away at my cake here. it's a "Marbre" cake or a "Tigerkaka" (literally tiger cake) in Swedish. I'm not sure what it's called in English but I'm sure it's familiar to you as it's one of the easiest cakes to make.

Although I'm quite familiar with this type of cake I rarely eat it other than as desert or as a complement to a cup of coffee. Here it's breakfast. Breakfast is usually small and sweet here. Quite the contrast to a more hardy Swedish breakfast of crisp bread, cheese, porridge and serial. Mind you now that we're not talking about some über sweet serial from some candy company what I'm talking about are the equivalent to All Brans or hardier. Maybe a bowl of Musli. Oh I miss my Musli now. I even miss the beloved porridge. Maybe it does need a bit of jam in there to make it go down nicely but still..

 Then again food is always what you miss from home. And when In Rome do as the Romans so I should stop complaining. After all I do enjoy my freshly baked baguettes, croissant or even cakes in the morning. Maybe I'm just becoming Frenchified, thus the complaining...

Midnight in Paris

Some game at the Chiquito bar

And so it turns out. I go at it, the nightlife of Paris. An leisurely adventure filled with clubs and electronic beats? Well not quite this time. As I have my humble but not unappreciated place to recooperate a bit outside of Paris, it's not easy to get in and out just without further adue. Just a few stops away from Versilles is a whole bunch of stops too many to make it back after hitting up the bars. But the bars are bars, French bars. Bars packed with soul and character. In fact as the clock strickes 04 I get to see quite a few of these characters in and outside the bar I'm chilling out in. Although a coffee isen't available on the meny a plate of fries and a beer are. Not the worst of companions for writing a bit in the night. One of the worst for staying in shape though

=(

Mr.Goodseed (Bongrain) A very french young man in so many ways

After my coffee with Charles Bongrain (goodseed if you choose to translate names) so close to fountain st. Michael that we could almost have been sitting in it it was time for me to head on to the party. The locale of the party was conveniently located at the beginning of rue du Menilmontant, a cozy little place called "Chiquito" would hold most of my night. Beers for 2.50 Mojito for 5 and "Monaco" for 2 are not a bad deal going out. Well at least not coming from Sweden. For those of you that are wondering why I'm even mentioning a "Monaco" it's because this drink is new to me. So from what I heard from my friendly bar-counter neighbour is that it's a sweet beer for girls, her words not mine. In it is fruity sweet syrup, carbonated water or tonic and beer. I could be mistaken on the tonic water. It could have been soda of some sort as well. I'll just have to try it next time I have a bar at my disposal. I'm a bit too afraid to order one at a random bar.

Sabrina the birthday kid and fille extraordinaire (on the left) and Métte also a fille extraordinaire (on the right) two dear Parsisian friends of mine =) 

The Party was in tribute to my friend Sabrina who's 31^st birthday is was. One year wiser and maybe one year closer to death, of age as much as of the unlimited alcohol that was at her disposal tonight. Seriously though, It was a good gathering with plenty of open-minded and social people. And to my delight with varying English ability. Varying as it present to me the opportunity to try out some french. A gift gently wrapped with the boxing glove of unpreparedness my face made out with tonight. It was still fun though and the crowd was a bit from everywhere to even a few Spanish words came to use =)

Tour du France, the intoxicated night version

Walking from no26 rue du Melimontant to place du République is an interesting experience on a Saturday night. Not only because my newly acquired friend tried to talk me into sleeping at a random girls place as a over night solution with the argument that I don't have to sleep with them. After all girls do it all the time(this reminded me about one of those episodes from "how I met your mom"). But rather the social interaction that takes place on the streets in between. Streets like Oberkampf definitively shows a different french society than the touristy one. If you've ever head of french kickers and hudlums, this is one place they might hang out. But it's not that it's shady, only shady. It's also busseling with life and people from clubs and bars. As we three musketeers walked our way onward I received the general explanation of the places and I do have to say that a slightly drunken tour of the quarters of the night is way more entertaining than most tours I've ever been on. And I've been on a few (Yes I have Asian family, but this is not why).

the bar of destiny where all stragglers show up in the dead of night

Reaching my bar of destiny a hounded meeters from the place du République I get to witness a range of interesting characters. Each one most certainly having a untold story of adventure, rise and decline. Well for some mostly decline I guess. One of the more noteworthy "dudes" grabbing my attention is this man in his mid 40's slightly drunk and trying to talk to women walking up and down the street. With slightly drunk I mean the type of drunk where hard balancing acts like walking all the way on a big rode which one has to all himself would be considered a pass. So stumbling up and down the road then. The maybe best part might be that he could't really utter any coherent words. Although it be so that my french is preposterously inadequate to determine this. Either way the shower of saliva would with no doubt plug the targeted ear and effectively block all attempted communication. After a second though the funniest part was probably when the repeatedly pretended to talk to someone on his phone after a failed attempt. And believe you me, they all failed.

All characters here are not remarked by excessive drunkenness, but this one was.

Fellow commuters waiting for the first train out to the burbs

Overdose

While the french love of pleasure is quite a bit more obvious than the Asian or american one (at least if you exclude the love for fatty food), When does it become too much? In the US there is a expression PDA or public display of affection. Here in Paris, France there is no such term. It's completely natural to display such feeling openly. Also it's not against the law to drink in public like many other western countries. heck in many a western country a brown hobo lock alike paper bag is required to carry your preferred liquid poison pleasure. But does this poster intrude on the over the top?
Would it be OK in your country to Do a commercial like this? I know the heroin chic style of fashion was quite in for a while. is this pointing towards a come back?
In my opinion quite a few narcotics laws are outdated and misplaced. I mean weed is way more healthy than both alcohol and tobacco. An overdose still indicates an unhealthy over-usage, an dependency issue. Has the french love of pleasure become so blatantly routine that only an overdose would give rise to interest?

Punished for pleasure

One of the things one is punished for in the Islamic region of South East Asia is alcohol. Quite natural as there are abominations in the face of Islam. Hence they are taxed with a vengeance. Flying from Kuala Lumpur to Paris I now get to enjoy the satisfaction of good wine for a small buck. My first taste was a Beaujolais. I bought it mainly based on the visual presentation but it is kind of a special wine. Every year there is a new version and on the first day of the release major gatherings around the stores are common. It's trying the new Beaujolais day! The 2009 edition by Jean-Paul Brun which I bought in a small supermarket was balanced and sweet to my satisfaction.
In comparison to my experience in food (mainly eating it) I know noting about wine. This should be changed. But how to I go about getting to know wine?

Urban Survivor

One of the last things I did before I left Kuala Lumpur was to watch Robinson (The Swedish precursor  to Survivor). Here in Paris I'm overwhelmed with the changes that comes with the continent swap. The age of buildings, the blue sky and flaky weather, the clean streets and the good quality food. Yes yes, some might object and say that there is good quality food in Malaysia too. But they are wrong. When I'm talking about food I'm not talking about the extremes that one might find after large about of energy and/or money spent. I'm talking about the readily available options every day people choose and value. Here the food culture if much more focused on the simple, organic and quality of basic stuff. Although I have to say the Italians might be the best at this concept of complexity and simplicity in one. The french are definitively up there and has it's own angle to it.  But! this is not what I wanted to talk about. It seems that whatever I start thinking of it's an inevitability that the topic will change to food. There are other things with the same symptom of inevitability. On e is the fact that all free forums will eventually turn into a mating forum. Yes meeting people with the end result of pairing up or mating. This is especially true for online forums. That is also a side topic I'll deal with later. What hit me after the initial chock of coming over here was the homeless people in the streets. I'm not sure what I was expecting but there are a whole bunch of em here and many are surprisingly young. My awareness of this problem seem to have taken a dip as the surge of things dirty in Asia seemed to have washed away the shadier parts of my European memories.

Well that or that I've once again forgot how few homeless people we have in Stockholm.  But when I think back upon the number of encounters with people needing money in Asia the homeless seemed to make less of an impression on me way out east. True, the pure numbers I've seen over there easily triumph the ones here but these ones seem to stick out more. Over there it fitted in in the surroundings of dirty and ghetto rigged as a way of life. Here they stick out like sore thumbs in the midst of historical buildings and "bobo" cafés.