oh SNAP!

I don't know if the most recent cover of the Economist is the same in North America as it is here...but damn, France got served:



Apart from the hilarity of this image, the 14-page special report is pretty interesting and I highly recomment you go out and buy this issue. You wouldn't be able to tell just by walking around Paris, but ask most people here and they'll paint you a pretty bleak picture of the current situation in France.

One year ago this week, two kids died in the suburbs when they were hiding from police who were alledgedly chasing them. This event set off 21 days of violence, not only in the Parisian suburbs, but in other major cities across France. When things finally calmed down, the government announced a bunch of initiatives meant to pour money into after-school programs and community centres. One year later, not much has changed and mayors of these "problem" cities in the north of Paris are warning that it's a powder keg waiting to explode. Now that campaigning for the presidential elections is in full swing, it's unlikely that the current government will do anything constructive to address the roots of the problem.

A week ago, a family member of mine was attacked in the middle of the afternoon by a 14-year-old kid who was trying to steal her bag. She was in St-Ouen, which is directly on the other side of the highway that separates Paris and the suburbs (I go there all the time on weekends for the huge flea market). When she tried to call the police from her cell phone, they would not come help her because the most recent trend in these areas is youth calling with fake emergencies, and then gathering by the hundreds to ambush and attack the cops that come to respond to the call. Since I've been back in France, this has been a daily occurence.

Needless to say, the extreme right-wing party, le Front National, is having a field day. I don't think it's exaggeration to say that something's gonna give, soon...

GET.OVER.IT

I'm getting a little tired of having the following conversation with guys:

Boy: Did I just hear you speaking in english?
Me: Yes you did.
Boy: So you're not French.
Me: Yes I am but I grew up in Canada.
Boy: Oh so you're from Quebec.
Me: Do I sound like I'm from Quebec? (ya idiot...)
Boy: Wait...let me hear you talk some more in French.
Me: Are you kidding me?
Boy: You're not really french, you have an accent.
Me: Did you seriously just walk over here to tell me my nationality?
Boy: Oh uhhh...can I bum a smoke off one of you ladies?

Here's a tip. Grab a brain, then come talk to me.

les sons sont platoniques

Institubes "Australian invasion" night at Le Tryptique. The crowd was a lot sparser than we expected given the solid lineup. We got there in time to catch most of Tacteel's set - who was very good - we even got an impromptu solo version of TTC's Girlfriend care of Cuizinier. The crowd ate it up...like ice cream. HA! oh lord...bad joke. (listen to the song you'll get it)

Then came a live concert from Melbourne's Midnight Juggernauts - one bassist/guitarist, drummer and keyboardist. Their music is very dancey, new New Wave kind of stuff, so they fit in perfectly amongst the all-DJ lineup. I won't rush out to get their album though, as they got a little bit monotonous near the end of their set. I think the crowd might have been getting a little bored too.

But thankfully Das Glow jumped behind the decks and proceeded to get everyone back on the dancefloor with an absolute killer set of pure German techno. About 30 minutes in I was getting ready to call it a night. I had had my birthday drinks and I was pretty much ready to eat my nutella crepe and crawl into bed. But Das Glow's set was so retarded that I got my second wind and we ended up staying until the end.

Sidebar: Teki Latex gets the award for best T-shirt of the night. Hands down.

After Das Glow came Riot in Belgium, another Australian. Makes sense, right? I was pretty into it. A lot less rave-party and more electro than Das Glow. But by that time, I could no longer ignore the fact that my body was aching for sleep, so we decided to call it a night. But not before eating the most massive nutella banana crepe I've ever had. It was so big I saved half for breakfast.

Three hours of sleep, and then class all day and an oral presentation in the afternoon. You know you overdid it when you're still nodding off in class after two espressos.

numbers.

38.5 - the number of hours that I have spent either studying or in class since Monday.
4 - the number of hours I will probably spend studying today.
15 - the number of hours I have slept in the past 3 days.
10 - the number of times I was tempted, this morning, to crawl back into my warm bed and pretend I don't have an oral presentation on Friday.
1 - the number of times I gave in to temptation.
1 - the number of bottles of wine I drank last night over birthday dinner.
2 - the number of remaining birthday dinners I get in the next week.
23 - the age I turn today.

Today is my birthday, and the following flyer explains why I've crammed in all the studying in 3.5 days:

Obviously tomorrow is going to be a write-off, except for that 2-hour period of time where I have to drag my sorry ass to school and talk about nationalist movements in spanish for 15 minutes.

And then, as if one party wasn't enough, this is happening Friday night.

Happy birthday to me indeed.

holla back.

I heard about this a few weeks ago on the weekly NPR Pop Culture podcast I download. I thought it was a pretty hilarious idea.

I generally think catcalls are amusing. What is the logic behind it? Do these guys think the girl is going to drop everything, rush over and hand over her phone number? "Oh you think I have a nice ass. You're obviously a very perceptive and intelligent man. Let's do lunch." In Canada, catcalls are for the most part harmless. Over here, I've noticed that they fall into one of two categories. And these categories reside on opposite sides of the spectrum from each other.

You've got the harmelss guys who just wanted to let you know that you're "charmante". Then you've got the guys who say things that make you feel very uncomfortable - and unsafe if you're alone. I've had to supress my (very Canadian) reflex to defend myself and answer back because I've been told by many a parisian to just walk away. Don't risk it. And that really bothers me - what, I don't get to fight back?! I think that's what these websites are ultimately about. They may seem a little reactionary or ridiculous at first glance. But it's not about trying to change the guys that harass women...because that's unrealistic. It's about taking back a little bit of control over the situation.

On a lighter note, Jerry Seinfeld also has some outstanding things to say about men who honk at pretty girls. I wish I could remember what standup routine it's in...

On going out.

I'm not one to throw in the towel prematurely. I'm only into my second week of school. But it's becoming more and more apparent that the chances of me finding people amongst my classmates who like to go out to concerts and clubs are slim to none. In fact, I think we have very different definitions of "going out". I like to study until 10pm, grab a drink and then head to the club and dance until the first metro. They like to sit in a bar, have a few overpriced beers and head home with the last metro. This is not based on any real evidence, it's just the overwhelming impression that I get. Although I think my assumptions are correct:

Exhibit A: Last time I was here, there was a huge end-of-year gala to celebrate the end of another hellish year. We all got dressed up in our cocktail dresses/suits and headed to a palace along the river to dance the night away. Did I mention it was a champagne open bar? To see these students drink, it was like they were 15 year olds who had just been given the key to their parents' liquor cabinet. The party only lasted until around 2am because people were too damn drunk to keep dancing. Now, I'm not saying I was sober...but I held it together pretty well for someone who spent half the night with a stolen bottle of champagne in her hand. This leads me to infer that based on their inability to handle alcohol, they must not go out much.

Exhibit B: Two years ago I had a friend who shared my love of going out and dancing. She came back this year, like me, to do a Masters but in a different specialty than me. It's a task getting her to come out with me...so much so that she hasn't been out yet. She fully admits she's becoming one of "them". I convinced her to pony up for my birthday next week.

Today I went to pick up my reading packages from the photocopy centre. I have so many readings this semester that the lady at the admin desk gave me words of sympathy and wished me good luck with one of those "poor thing" looks as she handed me the 30 pounds of photocopied texts. Getting sympathy from the french administration, especially the french administration from a school like Sciences-Po, is about as rare as winning the jackpot.

Ummm...am I taking my studies too lightly?

Nah.

Time to go out. Busy P at la Fleche d'Or. Woot!

Lessons

Here are some things that I learned last night:

1. Wednesday nights are the new Friday nights. Primarily because I don't have class on Thursdays.
2. I bear a striking resemblance to Patricia Arquette...says the drunken bourgeois 18 year old sitting at the table next to us at the brasserie.
3. Starting off your night with a stiff glass of cognac is always a good idea...and it's classy-like.
4. Drinking cognac when all you've eaten in the past 3 days is raw veggies and salads is a surefire way to ensure rapid inebriation.
5. Le Paris Paris is a bitch to get into when you're not on the list. Even if you're a girl. Even if you're with two moderately well-known members of the Paris music scene. Even if it's a Wednesday night. I think it might also have something to do with the asshole coke-head bouncer. Pure speculation though...
6. A 30-minute wait to finally get in doesn't seem like such a big deal after you remember that you made friends with the bartender last time around.
7. Work it and you'll get results in the form of free triple rum and cokes. To quote Olivier: "pff, c'est ca les filles!"
8. Underage girls who get into clubs and drink too much are terribly annoying. Wait, I knew this before last night...
9. My new favourite crepe is nutella WITH banana.

And tonight I learned that blasting Rick Ross makes cleaning the appartment a lot more enjoyable.

And just for kicks, check out this sweet video. Get familiar with Kavinsky.

oh right...school

Classes started on monday and I hate to admit it but it's already put a bit of a damper on my social life. However, twenty hours of class a week, plus at least 3 hours a day at the library make Anne go a little stir crazy. So I gave in to peer pressure and went out Thursday night. C'mon, DJ Mehdi release party? Yeah right i'm gonna stay at home and study...

I just knew that going out on Thursday would push my nagging scratchy throat into a full-fledged cold. But then again, I've never been one to listen to my body's warning signs. So off I went to the show. By the time we got there around 1, Chromeo was into their DJ set. I'd heard a few of their songs before, and I liked them well enough, but after seeing them on Thursday, they hold a special place in my heart. Both their DJ set and their live set were badass. Plus there's something so endearing about a scrawny tall dude with nerd glasses and a beige blazer blasting Ludacris, T.I. and Rick Ross. A geek who loves gangsta rap...sigh. Apologies for the terrible quality of the photos, I have yet to figure out how to use my new camera:



Up next was the man of the hour, DJ Mehdi (you can subscribe to his podcast from his myspace page), the party being thrown in celebration of his upcoming release Lucky Boy. There was a constant flow of shirts and CDs being thrown into the crowd. By the end of the night it looked like we were at the DJ Mehdi summer camp...everyone was wearing his shirt. And look who jumped on stage for a couple...

Fun times at the Bus Palladium. Even more fun was getting up the next morning to make it to my 10am class. I'm pretty sure that nutella crepe I chowed down at 4am saved my life the next morning. Sadly, my voice was a different story. It's now Sunday and I still sound like I smoke 3 packs a day. Small price to pay for the good times.

Hey remember turntablism? Yeah...those were the days. A friend put me onto these guys. Check it out!

cadeau pour toi

I was going to do a post about Nuit Blanche 2006 (an all-night contemporary art festival that happens every year in Paris and that features art installations throughout the city)...but then i realised that i still haven't set up my digital camera on this computer, so i wouldn't be able to post any accompanying pictures.

Then i thought i'd post about a great movie i saw tonight - Dans Paris - by Christophe Honore and starring one of my favourite actors, Romain Duris. But as i was searching for the trailer on YouTube, i found the following little nugget of delightfulness. If you aren't obsessed with music, you probably won't find it that exciting. However, this clip solidifies in my mind Le Paris Paris as the most awesome club i've been to so far in this city. Enjoy!

Ipod Battle 2 @ Le Paris-Paris

beats, bling and booty shakin'

My weekend started a few days early this week...hence my staying in on a Friday night. Blast from the past on wednesday night when I was invited out to a 7th anniversary bash at one of the foremost electronic music clubs in Paris for a drum 'n bass night. Blast from the past because I'm pretty sure the last time I listened to drum 'n bass was when I was 15 and going to raves at the Plaza of Nations. Nevertheless, the place was packed, the beer was flowing and the party was still going at 5am when I decided I'd heard enough drum 'n bass to last me another 7 years.

Last night was equally epic, and much more enjoyable. We headed to Le Paris Paris (http://www.leparisparis.com) to check out Yelle, New Young Pony Club and a bunch of DJs. We had to get there ridiculously early (9:30) just to make sure we got in, despite being on the guestlist (said list was about 10 pages long). But we managed to secure a sweet spot on the couches near the stage ("what 'reserved seating' sign?"). The first band on is not even worth mentioning. They looked like they were 15 years old and sounded like every other garage rock band out there right now. Next!

New Young Pony Club (couple of songs available at http://www.myspace.com/newyoungponyclub) got the crowd moving. I loved them but I'm a little biased because they fit perfectly into the category of music that I'm into right now...dancey, limited substance, fun. Plus, what is it about bands with girl drummers that immediately makes them that much more awesome? After NYPC came Yelle...a better, wittier, more biting version of Uffie. She might not have Feadz or Mr. Oizo doing her beats but her lyrics and stage presence make up for it. And anyone who has the balls to write a song entirely dedicated to dissing Cuizinier (the C in TTC) gets extra points. (ie: Je Veux Te Voir --> http://www.myspace.com/iloveyelle)

Somewhere between NYPC and Yelle I (completely inadvertedly) made friends with a bartender and kept on getting served free triple rum 'n cokes. Have I so drastically changed in the year that I was back in Vancouver? Because this kind of stuff never happened to me last time I was in Paris...

The DJs were awesome, but because of my new friend, part of my night is a little foggy. I do remember someone taking a picture of my bling. I've gotta start sporting it out more often because it makes for a great conversation-starter...