...and more goodies

Need some tunes for your New Year's party? Check out DJ Kodh's mix from the Clark Magazine USR party last month.

Bye bye 2006!

goodies

If you have iTunes, you should hit up the Justice podcast. They don't update very much but they just posted a 30 minute video clip of their set at I Love Techno in Belgium a few months ago. Also featuring some stellar hand-dancing and arm-waving by Kavinsky. It's exponentially better than their mix at Alors les filles..., so definitely worth checking out. They also have the video from their Waters of Nazareth release party, in case you didn't spend half of last summer drooling over it.

tout le monde vient habillé, mais tout le monde part à poil.

Alright, this post is long overdue. I would like to mention, in my defense, that it took me a few days to recover from Saturday night. And then Christmas break happened and I hopped on a plane to Toronto and have been spending my days watching TV, sleeping and eating.

On saturday the 16th, I wrote an excruciating exam. Thankfully I wasn't the only one who walked out of there after three hours of frantic essay-writing looking less than thrilled with what I had managed to spit out onto the paper. But all of that was soon forgotten.

My friends and I were kind of dumb and didn't get advance tickets before they sold out, so we had to show up when the doors opened to try to get in. Doors opened at 9, we got in at midnight. Turns out it was as much of a gong-show in the VIP/presales lineup, since a couple of our buddies had to wait an hour despite being on the list.

Speaking of lineup, the DJ list for this show was epic. We missed out on Tacteel, Mehdi (with Dave1), Busy P and Das Glow. We did get there on time to hear that Uffie is still as mediocre as ever, even when she tries to rap over her own tracks played in the background. I was too distracted by the goodie bags handed to us in the VIP section to pay attention.

After saying hello to everyone, I grabbed a drink and started watching the show. Surkin was the first set I saw. How old is this guy? I think he might be about 18. He's absolutely awesome though. There are a couple of YouTube clips of his set that night.



After that, Para One was up. I was incredibly excited for this set...although the consensus around the dinner table the next night was that he definitely wasn't at his best. This was the first time I saw him live, so no complaints here! Especially when TTC jumped on stage and performed Musclor and Dans le club. Amazing!





Up next was Justice. Theirs was the set I was most looking forward to, and I have to admit I was not that impressed. However, their new single (EP to be released in February) sounded huge blasting out of the sound system. You could feel the bass vibrating in your stomach.



Sebastian followed Justice and he pretty much blew them out of the water. The dinner table was in agreement. Not only did he trick us into thinking he was doing a live mix (certain dinner guests informed me that he had prepared it earlier) but his set was ace. Check out his EP Ross Ross Ross and get familiar Vancouver, he's coming to your town in March!



I think around this time I found out that Romain Duris (my favourite french actor) had shown up and was hanging around the VIP section. I went on a frantic search but couldn't find him. Maybe it's better I didn't find him because I had been drinking and probably would have blurted out some embarassingly unoriginal compliment or stared creepily. But next time he's in the same place as me, I'll be ready with the line of the century! Feadz was on afterwards, but I decided to be social instead of listening to what turned out to be the most boring set of the night. It was 6am anyways, so we decided to stumble home.

Of course I cannot forget to mention the surprise guest, none other than Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, who jumped behind the decks around the same time that I arrived. And while I don't remember seeing him with my own eyes, I checked out the YouTube clips afterwards and remembered hearing his set. Unfortunately after 3 hours spent in line and half a bottle of wine to myself I had to bee-line it to the bathroom and face the massive lineup. First time he has played in Paris in 8 years, by the way!!

Sunday was a writeoff. We woke up at 2pm, grabbed falaffels downtown, then met up with some people from the night before around burgers and wine. We were a sorry bunch. I was still feeling the exhaustion well into Tuesday...

alors les filles...

Tomorrow i have a huge exam. Then i have this to go to:


This will make all the studying and stressing and stomach problems worth it.

Summit in Tehran

Question: Where would you go this week if you wanted to hang out with Holocaust deniers? Answer: Tehran.

Ahmadinejad is nothing more than a demagogue, not worth me wasting a post on him. However, I came upon this article on the BBC website, about a group of rabbis who made an appearance at the conference. Unlikely guests? Read on.

is it christmas break yet?

If you want to see some of the saddest-looking people in the world, all you have to do is stand outside Sciences-Po, 27 rue Saint-Guillaume, any day of the week. Every two hours, the same tragi-comic scene unfolds. We all pour out of our two-hour lectures looking haggard, desperately searching for our smokes at the bottom of our bags, shivering from lack of sleep and malnutrition. We then sprint to the nearest coffee machine, or to the loyal Basile (where everybody knows your name) to slam back a shot of espresso before shuffling off to our next lecture/library marathon. In these 15 minutes between classes, the current favourite topic of discussion is when we think we might snap. We are truly a sight for sore eyes.

Speaking of sad stories, this is a picture of the contents of my fridge. I can't remember the last time I had time to go grocery shopping. Not that it would matter, since stress has made it nearly impossible for me to handle solid foods.

Isn't it fitting that in the land of perpetual "social movements" as the French unions like to call them, my stomach has gone on strike and is refusing to properly digest anything I try to eat. And in true French fashion, I have raised the white flag of surrender. So I'm trying to stick to a liquid diet, since the only other alternative is to endure stomach pain all day.

On a completely unrelated note, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and favourite target of Israeli satyrists Shimon Peres gave a conference at Sciences-Po today. I signed up as soon as I heard about it...not because I'm convinced he still has anything truly relevant to say, but because these kinds of conferences always end with question periods. And that's when the magic happens.

Mr. Peres talked for only 20 minutes in order to be able to field as many questions as possible. His speech was a series of generalities that I didn't even bother to remember. I was really hoping that the typical angry anti-Israel student would stand up to the mic and start spouting off statistics and dates, and I got my wish. This guy was particularly huffy, his voice all a-quiver with rage and indignation. His huffiness was even more comical when he finally ineloquently spat out some half-assed question having to do with Israel's criminal behaviour, and Mr. Peres simply replied "When Hamas stops shooting rockets at us every day, then we can talk. Next question?" SNAP.

But angry anti-Israel student was not at all satisfied with that answer, and he tried to get back on the microphone. He was gently led back to his seat by one of the organizer. Actually, he had to be gently led back to his seat several times. He was finally allowed to return to the microphone, where he started on another rant full of uninspired accusations. Mr. Peres curtly told him to get his facts straight.

Now I'm not saying that all of the things this guy had to say were necessarily irrelevant, since crimes have been committed on both sides of the conflict. However, recognize who you're up against and adjust your question accordingly. C'mon guy, Shimon Peres been accused of being a murderer by Palestinians and Israelis alike, and he's considered a moderate. He's seen and hear it all and he was probably bored to tears by your 10 minute tirade.

So...is it time to go on vacation yet?

tranquille...

Not many new posts these days. This is entirely due to the fact my life currently consists of studying, drinking too much coffee and stress...not exactly exciting blog material. I don't even have the energy to go out anymore. Usually when I'd rather be curled up in bed than dancing, it's a sign I need a break. So that's what I'm doing.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from my trip to London a few weekends ago:

My weekend in London was a lot of fun. These pictures are from my Saturday night. Bitsy, Zoe and I went to 333 Old St. for what had to be the most haggard party I've ever been to. The club was trash, the trannies had 5 o'clock shadow and literally everyone was strung out. Zoe's pals were on the decks for the last part of the night, so we stayed until the bitter end. On my bus ride back to Kentish Town, I got to listen to a highly entertaining sass-fest between two slutty north London girls. Good night all around.

Of course, I can't mention London without expressing my hatred of its public transportation. Maybe I've just become too accustomed to Paris' amazing metro, but is it too much to ask to keep the tube up and running on weekends? C'mon!