October 25, 2002
Rainy Day Bleues, Quarante-cinq
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| Webcam. October 25. |
October 23, 2002
Paris at Rush Hour
Two observations from Line 1 of the Paris Metro at 6.25pm, the real heart of rush hour. The French don't really start at 9 on the nose. They seem to work 9.30ish to 6ish.
First observation: there are more women in Paris than men. This is subject to a demographer's correction of course, but the rush hour traffic is more representative than my off-hour travels, probably. I'd imagine women are less likely to travel solo in the evening than men, and that alone would skew the results of such observation. But at rush hour: I counted 15 of the 24 people in my "box" of the train car were women. The count, though not overwhelming, merely "confirmed" my overall impression that the subway car was just packed with women.
Second observation: where are the working-class? Okay, so getting on the 1 at the Champs-Elysees at office quitting time is not the place to make this observation. Of course, on that train, it was all office casual, some tourists, and a few old-ladies in Chanel. But this is an interesting point more generally. On the NY subway, you will see construction workers get on, or security guards riding to work, or shabby looking people who are wearing suits but reporting to truly miserable jobs. I'd have difficulty saying there are many such Parisians. Surely there are jobs like this to be done -- but maybe these people live in the suburbs or elsewhere? They're just not on the Metro, commuting from downtown apartments to jobs on the Champs. The poor areas in French cities are generally at the outskirts (the "banlieue"), not in the "inner city". So that could be part of it. Also, it could be an issue of the industries in Paris and the average cost of office space: upscale and expensive, respectively. Compare that to the huge white-collar labyrinths filled with innumerable tiny firms and boiler rooms in the heart of Manhattan.
October 19, 2002
Paris Roller
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| Paris Roller. Oct 18. |
It was a little much for me, but I kept up. Though as we swerved down the huge hill from Trocadero to Invalides, the racing backwards-riding teens gave me a fright. Well, that wasn't the only time either. When a chain of 4 kids leapt off a staircase and practically over my head, that was rather exciting too.
Drizzly, the start point was at Gare Montparnasse, in the plaze in front of Tour Montparnasse. We raced down the middle of car-filled street along the boulevards to Invalides, up to the Seine, down to the Tour Eiffel, across the bridge to Trocadero. There, we hustled up the steep ascent, dodged tourists, set off down an enormous hill when we were probably rolling around 45 km/h. All along the Seine through the Tuilleries to the Pyramid at the Louvre. There our charming tough guy homo leader ("Allez! Allez tout le monde!") did one-foot spirals around the fountains in the plaza of the Louvre, in the moonlight. From there, we headed back East along Rue de Rivoli, mixing it up with the street traffic. I took my leave around midnight, as we passed Les Halles towards Pompidou.
October 14, 2002
Jacques Tati
Tati is a man you must get into. One of the great French filmmakers, he is master of a drolly, wordless and choreographed style of visual unfolding and synchronicity that calls to mind the comic heights of the most brilliant silent films (Busby Berkeley meets Hitchcock?). Last night I saw Playtime, and a month ago Mr. Hulot's Holiday. They share the principal character, M. Hulot played by Tati himself, a bumbling homme moyen that bounces through absurdly contrived situations of social comedy, playing critic to institutions of contemporary French life. In the former film, lighter in subject matter, Hulot takes on the lemmings of summer and their days at the beach. In Playtime he tackles modernity in the urbanscapes of the great capitals -- walking into glass doors, slipping on super-glossy floors, walking long distances down Mies-style hallways, discumbobulated in grid-like repeating labyrinths of office cube farms, and smashing through the shoddily-crafted plasterboard of it all. Tati blasts away at Bauhaus architecture, repeatedly gagging on the huge boxlike concrete blocks called office buildings (in one scene, Hulot passes some travel posters advertising London's Bobbies and a huge box, Cairo's palm trees and a huge box, Germany's fraus and a huge box, etc. before stepping into the street before an identical Parisian huge box).
One truly remarkable feature of this film, which I can't quite connect to the charming-everyman-meets-modern-edifice, is the incredibly rich image. The camera looks through glass windows at the people inside, and you see both the sheen of the glass plate and the sparkle of the office floor. The color and crispness make all other films look out of focus. And Tati uses the whole screen marvelously; if you attend to the left corner, you will that fellow from two scenes ago marching through, checking his watch, even while a whole other gag unfolds on the right corner. I think this film would not possibly work on a small screen -- neither wide enough nor visually crisp enough to reflect the original.
And so I ask you New York, when was the last time Tati's Playtime ran in a 200 seat theater for the public, twice a day, for a week?
October 11, 2002
French Revolution, American Revolution
French Revolution: absolute, behead the Bourbons, redraw the counties, re-define measurement. Then the Terror, Napoleon, and return of the Kings, but also the Century of Revolutions, and ultimately the Second Republic in mid-19th Century.
American Revolution: partial, cast off the English and install democracy, but compromise with traditions, leave slavery intact for 100 years and continue genocide against the Natives. Then Civil War, then 100 more years of institutional racism. Then full ranging freedom in last decades of the 20th Century.
Faut-il avoir peur de l'Amerique / Should we fear America?
[I'm going to write this in french, then translate it into english using Google or something. Why? Oh leave it alone.]
Hier soir précédent, j'ai été présent à une parole par Hubert Védrine, l'ancien gauchiste ministre des affaires étrangères sous Jospin. Le titre de la conversation? <<Faut-il avoir peur de l'Amerique?>> Un journalist de L'Express, un homme plutôt comique mais provocateur et evidemment gauchiste, a animé la discussion qui a eu lieu à la Bibliothèque National de France - François Mitterand (ma bibliothèque!). C'est une chose surprenant, en fait, que l'auditorium n'était pas du tout plein. Si Kissinger ou Brezinski ou Albright a donné une discussion à New York, qu'est-ce qu'il y aurait eu lieu? Mais ici, il m'a paru completement ordinaire, pas hors de commun. Il y avait deux cents personnes là.
Il a peine commencé que Védrine a lancé par renoncer de le titre. <<Je n'ai pas choisi ce titre! Mais, en fin, ce n'est pas mal comme une point de départ. >> Il a senti, surement, que la question était dessiné presque comme un piège pour des critiques reflexives de l'Amerique.
Védrine est l'homme qui a introduit le mot "simplisme" dans le debat sur la politique Americaine, de Bush junior, est l'homme de qui les ecrivains comme Krauthammer se moquent. Il, lui, m'a frappé très fortement -- il était très bien elevé, mais plus, subtile et expert de les questions internationales. On peut l'attendre, bien sûr, mais c'était plus que j'attend de Bush junior.
Rien a changé, le onze septembre. Avant et aprés, M. Bush et son équipe ont prévu la même stratégie. L'unilatèralisme, la politique idiot, le contre-Wilsonism de la Ligue des Nations. Irak n'est pas nouvelle. L'Amerique était très arrogant toujours -- même sous Clinton. Mais Clinton, et le très acéré Kissinger, savaient que l'apparence de la multilateralisme était importante. Pas Bush.
Irak, ce n'est pas même parmi les premiers 10 crises mondial. Irak était sur la liste de Bush la premiere journée de son tenure. Mais personne ne disait avant ou aujourd'hui que Irak est la premiere priorité dans la Monde. Le SIDA, Kyoto, il y en a beaucoup. Mais il faut dire que la politique pétroliere, la influence de la Likud israelienne, et toute ça joue une rôle.
Le monde multipolar? C'est Washington. Presque comme une blague, le monde de Wilson existe. Colin Powell n'est pas du tout d'accord avec l'équipe de Bush comme Mme. Rice et M. Rumsfeld. Les generaux de la Pentagone, ils savent que la guerre est dur et hasardeux. Mais les dirigeants civile, ils sont en pouvoir. Et si vous êtes chargé de maintenir des relations avec Washington, il faut savoir que le comité des chefs joints, le Department d'État, la Maison Blanche, le CIA, la Pentagone, et tous sont très diferentes. Donc, oui, le monde n'est pas sous un seul president du monde entier. Mais Bush, comment est qu'il a faire brûler le feu de la guerre? Parce qu'il est le president, et il donne les discours du jour après jour, il joue la presse.
Il faut avoir une Europe puissante. La francophobie existe aux Etats-unis. Fin, quatre-vingts-cinq pourcent des Americains ne savent rien sur la France. Mais, les très grands journaux -- pas les petits minables journaux -- ont donné de la place à les avis très francophobe. L'Europe doit être plus unifié, mais il y aura les difficultés avec le Quinze, voire le Vingt-Cinq. Mais ça, c'est la plus importante politique en ce moment.
//
Yesterday evening preceding, I was present at a word by Hubert Védrine, the former gauchist Foreign Minister under Jospin. The title of the conversation? < < Is necessary it to be afraid of America? > > A journalist of the Express train, a rather comic but provocative man and obviously gauchist, animated the discussion which took place National with the Library of France - François Mitterand (my library!).
It is a thing surprising, in fact, that the auditorium was not at all full. If Kissinger or Brezinski or Albright gave a discussion in New York, what there would have been? But here, it appeared completely ordinary to to me, not out of commun run. There were two hundred people there.
It hardly started that Védrine launched by giving up of the title. < < I did not choose this title! But, in end, it is not badly like a starting point > > It felt, surely, that the question was drawn almost like a trap for criticisms reflexives of America.
Védrine is the man who introduced the word "over-simplification" into the debate on the Americaine policy, of Bush junior, is the man of which them writers as Krauthammer makes fun. It, it, struck I very strongly -- it was very well raised, but more, subtle and expert of the international questions. One can await it, of course, but it was more than I waits of Bush junior.
Nothing changed, September eleven. Before and aprés, Mr. Bush and his team envisaged the same strategy. Unilateralism, the idiotic policy, it against-Wilsonism League of the Nations. Iraq is not new. America was very arrogant always -- even under Clinton. But Clinton, and very sharp-edged Kissinger, knew that the appearance of the multilateralism was significant. Not Bush.
Iraq, it is not even among the first 10 world-wide crises. Iraq was on the list of Bush the premiere day of its tenure. But nobody said before or today that Iraq is the premiere priority in the World. The AIDS, Kyoto, there is much of it. But it should be said that the policy pétroliere, the influence of Likud israelienne, and all that plays a role.
The world multipolar? It is Washington. Almost like a joke, the world of Wilson exists. Colin Powell does not agree at all with the team of Bush like Mrs. Rice and Mr. Rumsfeld. The general ones of the Pentagon, they know that the war is hard and hazardous. But the leaders civil, they are in being able. And if you are charged to maintain relations with Washington, it should be known that the committee of the joined heads, Department of State, White House, the CIA, the Pentagon, and all are very diferentes. Therefore, yes, the world is not under only one president of the whole world. But is Bush, how that it has to make burn the fire of the war? Because he is the president, and he gives the speeches of the day after day, he plays the press.
It is necessary to have powerful Europe. Francophobia exists in the United States. End, quatre-vingts-cinq percent of Americains does not know anything about France. But, the very large newspapers -- not small minables newspapers -- gave place to the very francophobe opinions. Europe must be unified more, but there will be the difficulties with the Fifteen, even the Twenty-five. But that, it is the most significant policy in this moment.
October 06, 2002
La Nuit Blanche, and the Chaos Computer Club
Last night was the first Nuit Blanche (Sleepless Night) festival in Paris, where the city put on art spectacles all over town and all night long. They flung open the splendid Hotel de Ville to the general public, piping in "Lounge Music" and giving out champagne. Around 2.30am, the Mayor, socialist Bertrand Delanoë, was stabbed in the stomach by an attacker. As he was taken to the hospital, he said "the night should continue".
After the stabber, the night surely belonged to the Germans that put on Blinkenlights in Berlin, who were invited to put up an even bigger screen on the BNF in Paris. The world's largest computer screen, a project called arcade:
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| La BNF. Oct 5. |
You can't fully appreciate it from stills, since it is a computer screen, not a mere image. You can play Tetris on it, or Pong [click for video].
