¡ vamos pa’lla !

Off to Puerto Rico in a few hours (the taxi comes at 5 a.m.) ... what a kick!

Heartwarming event: three friends showed up tonight (separately but we've all together right now). Carole (who showed up loaded down with champagne, salmon, blinis and roe for us all), Anne - our courtyard neighbor, and Florence. So, girls, I gave you all my blog address, now it's up to you to leave comments (même en français) - and thanks so much for stopping by.

So, a hop over the "charco" to New York then south to San Juan where we arrive around 6pm local time.

Stop by regularly, dear Friends, as we plan to update the blog more often. Odile will handle the photography!
Bisous les amis !

Gary/Ajar

Invited, by Myriam, to see this interesting play, about the life of Romain Gary (writer, film director, WWII pilot, diplomat and "ladies' man" - at one-time married to Jean Seberg) directed and acted by Christophe Malavoy.

Soirée Jazz-Blues Piano et chant au KAZ BAR

Tonight Jacques's "fac" buddy Jo Fall singing with Marc Homps on piano. Jo has a fine voice and delivery (and a perfect American accent).

"Des mélodies comme les aimaient Johnny Hartman et Ella Fitzgerald. Chansons d'humour et d'amour, de spleen et de blues pour ce rendez-vous dînatoire très jazzy."

KAZ BAR - 86, avenue Parmentier

"Pas de Prison pour le Vent"

We're off to Théâtre du Lucernaire to see our friend, Alain, who's acting in this piece about Angela Davis and a hurricane (well, that's what I've understood).

UPDATE: Actually only four characters: Angela Davis, Gerty Archimède (first woman lawyer in Guadeloupe), her sister Sister Suzanne (not a mis-type ... her sister was a nun) and the gardener, handyman, guitarist (played by our buddy Alain).

A really excellent play in all respects. I recommend it to you all (they run until March 15) .

Afterwards a nice stop at the Café Vavin with Alain's aunts and then dinner in trio at Mouton.

Happy Birthday JS

Birthday celebration tonight for our friend Jacqueline (and her 3 girlfriends) at Les Caves Saint Sabin. I've never been before, looks interesting, I'll give an update later.


UPDATE: Very nice light dinner at Cuba Compagnie Café near Bastille before heading down into the caves... where we ran into Elka (up from Marseille) and Héloise and their friends.

Run René, run!

Congratulations to my brother, René, for his participation in today's running of the World's Best 10K in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Thanks for upholding the family (running) honor ... Dorando would be proud.

Now let's start planning to do the marathon in Italy later this year!

Menie Grégoire, une voix sur les ondes

Off this morning to see the film "Menie Grégoire" directed by our friend Marie-Christine Gambart.
Mme Grégoire is a French journalist and writer.

Afterwards a stop at le Baron Rouge - if you, dear Reader, are in Paris and free later this afternoon then just come on by (for oysters and wine) .

Ramiro Musotto

Pining for a blast of sun, fun and electro in the midst of this Parisian winter? Go tonight to hear Ramio & his Orchestra Sudaka at le Nouveau Casino (11th arrondissement) starting at 7:30pm.

Put on by our good friends at hélico.

If you go I'd love to have your comments here on the blog. (I'm working in Lyon until late today so will have to pass on this event).

Saint Valentine

Have a day...

El cuerpo del arte

Good luck to our friend Aixa for her vernissage tonight in San Juan (galería Peroni - Condado).

If you are in Puerto Rico (or even near) think about dropping by (we wish we could be there tonight). ¡Buena suerte, mija!

Ateliers d'Art de France - Eva's expo

The French Federation for Craft Professionals (Ateliers d'Art de France) aims to support craftsworkers, artists and small businesses and help them to develop.

Our dear friend Eva is showing her work this month as part of a larger expo - tonight's vernissage, not far from the Picasso musuem, was great fun.

I urge you to stop by for the exhibition Les formes du vide which ends March 22 at their gallery at 4, rue de Thorigny - 75003 Paris - phone + 33 1 42 78 67 74.

Dinner chez Omez

d'ici et d'ailleurs

We drove down to Bures-sur-Yvette this afternoon with Myriam for the closing of the expo of the works of her friend Jean-François Guilland - some splendid photos from his world travels. The other photographer, Serge Equilbey, had various type of works - my favorites were his projections of textures onto female forms. See some of his photos on his website here.

The evening saw us over in Bruce's neighborhood to have dinner with his son, Jason and his friend Michelle. Very nice meal (and conversation) at Planet Sushi on Montorgueil.

Afterwards nitecaps (and dessert - why not?!) at Le Tambour where Monsieur André wished Jason "bonne chance" with his first wine bar/restaurant dell'uva (André is up to number 24).

If you find yourself in San Francisco be sure to stop by Jason's place - and help make André's wish come true!

Film, Food and ... Fun

Invited by Claudia to Le Balzac cinema house to see what turned out to be an interesting documentary about Vénus Khoury-Ghata. I had not heard of her before; she is a Lebanese poet and novelist, resident in France since 1973, author of many collections of poems and novels. She was there this morning and after the film she read a few of her poems. It has given me an interest to read her and also to visit Lebanon (especially the northern part).

Afterwards we walked down the Champs-Élysées to rue de Rivoli to visit a new culinary store called 13 à table then lunch at a quite nice tapas resto called Bodega 64. Later a stop by Izrael (for hard-to-find exotic food items) for some provisions (for an upcoming Mexican dinner).

All in all a very relaxing and pleasant "international" day.

Just parking this ...

In 2008 I'll also be throwing "stuff" into my blog about interesting items I come across ... today it is Tony Buzan (himself) who talks a bit about mind mapping so take a look if you don't know (use) it yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlabrWv25qQ&eurl=http://blog.menneveux.com/

Paris as I like it...

A rare day "off" during the week with a visit to the Courbet expo (all delightful: portraits, nudes, hunt scenes - I loved it all except for his seascapes). Followed with a late lunch at a nearby bistro, leWeekend and then a stop at Fauchon's.

20,000 feux sous Montmartre

Finally feeling a bit better after that nasty cold that got hold of me last week ... so heading up to Denis' place in Montmartre this evening - in the photos a view of rue des Abbesses which is nicely decorated for the holidays.

Révolution Corse

Vous pouvez regarder la vidéo du JT de TF1 sur la Révolution Corse, ici : http://videos. tf1.fr/infos/ media/jt/ 0,,3648367, 00-revolution- corse-consacre- pascal-paoli- .html

Death of French Culture?

Today I came across the TIME article (Europe Edition) and the various replies it has elicited.

The best insight I read was the following witty equation concerning USAmericans' (not all, of course) view of French culture ... "if it could be reduced to an algebraic formula, it would be: De Gaulle + Sartre + baguette + Sophie Marceau's breasts = the culture of France".

Me? I can't decide between going out for dinner (cheeseburger) or ordering in (pizza) ... in either case a nice glass of rouge!

Let me know what you think ... and if you come up with your own formulation.

Oh, if you need some insipiration here's a quick graphic I just put together:

Bob ... the ChangeMaster

Just a quick test (with my current work project) of one of hundreds of "generators", this one is the "Bob Dylan Message Generator". If you want to see more of them go to: generatorblog.blogspot.com or maheanuu.free.fr ... good generating!

Concierto y Practica ... Juanca

Tonight Juan Carlos, our dear friend, is playing at La Fonderie (15 rue Basfroi, 75011 - Métro Voltaire. We'll be there with Florence and Alain (but ¡Caramba! unfortunatley not Christine who filmed Juanca last time).
Come on by if superb superb music from Argentina is your cuppa.

UPDATE: Post-concert notes ... it was more than superb! Juanca was joined by Rudi Flores, a magnificent guitarist, and together they took us all on a musical voyage of La Plata.

¿Cuánto vale mi blog?

Dear Readers:

Below (per Technocrati ranking) is the value of this blog. Help! I am sure it is worth more to ME (not all can be reduced to money) and I want to know that it has some value for you (who stop here now and then). So ... please leave your comments to encourage me to continue (and tell me what else I should be adding). Thanks.

Este blog vale

€ 34.83

(US$ 24.53)

Ranking: 4446976

Tasar mi blog

and Cubo Rojo

My goatee...

I've had a fairly packed and busy November hence the lack of posts here. Seems like the only personal item I can, quickly, report here is my growing of a goatee ... I'll post a photo in a week or so since, for now, it looks a tad ratty.









For info the month has seen a heavy workload with the ChangeMasters project, the 10 days of transports strikes (which really made it difficult to get about), plus visits from near-family, friends and (future) clients from Puerto Rico, Washington DC, Seattle (ish) and southern France.

Juanca

Just like last September 21 ... more of us though (8 to 9) - we're reserved a table tonight so if any of you want to come just alert me.

How much do you earn?

Today I came across this site http://probasis.ru/en_bablo that purports to show you how much you earn interactively and real-time "as you look at this page you have earned" (and also posts per day, per hour, per minute, and even per second ... I don't actually "earn anything per second ... or rather it must be fractional cents for me!)

Take a look and pst here what you think ... a nice way to get our focus off of money actually and on to results ;-)

La Toussaint

How far will you go to make your dreams come true?

Tonight we joined Denis, Hélios and Regina at Studio 28 for the avant-première of Woody Allen's latest film, Cassandra's Dream. If you don't have an answer to the question above then go see this movie ... and it's OK if you laugh ;-)

Incidentally, this was my first time to Studio 28 and it is quite a nice neighborhood cinema with very good champagne available at their bar. If you are in Paris and have never been I certainly suggest you stop by. Cheers!

Gui back in town ;-)

A nice surprise to see Gui back in town (and we're all having dinner together later). He was nice enough to gift us with another of his CDs, this one is "Live at Montreux" - one of his more ambitious outing ... and we love it!

You can listen to excepts here.

Paris ... jazzy

Some Paris strolling this afternoon and then joining Evelyne at the Jazz Cartoon cabaret to hear her new friend's warblings. Come on by if you're free ;-)

Lyon in music

I got a ride down to Lyon with Jean-Nöel yesterday since there is a massive, nationwide train strike since last night until mid-day tomorrow. I am teaching all day tomorrow at the IAE and, hopefully, my 8pm train back to Paris will be operating.

Tonight Bizet's "Les 8 mouvements de l'Arlésienne" (the music of the melodrama based on Daudet's short story in the book at left) performed by l'Orchestre de Lyon 3 right here on campus.

Wine Harvest Fireworks

I flew back from Toulouse tonight and then we went up to Montmartre to see our Brazilian friends and lucked out to see (up real close and personal) the annual fireworks for "la fête des vendanges" from Hélios' apartment (just below on the east side of Sacre Coeur - right side of the photo, just where you see the two lights).

Nuit Blanche N° 6

Tonight, from dusk until dawn tomorrow, the sixth annual "White Night" in Paris with over 150 artists with installations, performances, etc. all around town (new this year: a more "centralized" trajectory that follows the Métro line 14).

I know many friends will be out there wandering about all night - I, myself, will probably start around 8:30pm when they "set fire" to the Tuileries.

Let me know, dear Readers, if you plan to be there (for those far away you can participate, too ... via Second Life, just teleport your avatar to "Second Night"). So, see you there ... or there!

UPDATE: I went with Odile's sister to see the "2,000 points of lights" that were set along the central alley of the Tuileries Gardens. Really magique! Afterwards we walked to the Louvre, open free until almost midnight, and quite suprisingly fairly devoid of crowds, to admire the Mona Lisa and other works of the Italian artists of the period. Afterwards a nice dinner nearby at the Saint Honoré Café (with the French rugby win for dessert).

Juanca does his stuff!

Tonight our fine friend Juan Carlos Ross sings and plays guitar (Latin American music) from 9pm at « La Parrilla » located at 21 ter, rue Voltaire 75011 Paris. We'll be there early chowing down on the excellent Argentine steaks so, if you're free, think about joining us. Hasta pronto!

Couch-to-5K ... then 5K to ???

I've come to the end of my eight weeks of the Couch-to-5K Running Plan. I haven't lost a ton of weight (but my records show that since July 17, when I started, I have since shed about one and a half kilos or 3.3 lbs) but I do feel more energy and, overall, better and more positive (thank you endorphins).

Anyway, what I'm asking you, dear Reader, is to give me your advice, insights, ideas on how to continue! Just add your comments (plus links to useful info) and I will be grateful (and will think of YOU when I run). Thanks, Gracias, Merci.

100% Myriam

Unlike yesterday's expo tonight we have the vernissage of Myriam's retrospective at the FIAP in Paris with the opening in music tonight - Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 - around 7pm.

Paintings, drawings and stain-glass works - over 70 different items - so feel free to come if you are in town (even if we missed sending you an invite) ... just ask for me at the door ("José sent me").

UPDATE: A rollicking fun time post-expo at Raspail where a highly diverse group (French, Swiss, Brazilian, Argentine, American, German ... ane one Puerto Rican) shared a wonderful time together.

Salon des arts

Vernissage tonight for the annual 14th arrondissement's art fair with over 300 artists from this municipal borough showing.

Myriam, my mother-in-law, is one of those on view (in the main hall). Drop by if you are in town as the expo runs until September 23 ... there is a "pot" around 8pm (usually the mayor springs for champagne so see you there mayhaps).

Slow Food

Lots to choose from today in Paris: Techno Parade, European Heritage Days, CinémAligre and Slow Food Day. I opted for the latter when I discovered that rather than having to get over to Bastille I could participate at the nearbyCharles-Victor restaurant (and go with Odile, Anna, Benjamin and Alison). It was great (potatoes served five ways) and we will probably join. You might want to see if there is a chapter near you ... and go slow!

Opening: Arestakes Art Gallery

Late this afternoon (after I drop by the Baron Rouge) a number of us are going to the opening cocktail of a new gallery (just next to Sylvie's place).

Come one, come all (map again) - there is also going to be a three artists' vernissage (including some interesting paintings of Tibet).

Harvest Party (grape-picking)

I'm off to the annual "vendange" at Melac in the 11th arrondissement (42 rue Léon Frot).

In the photo here you can make out the grape vines hanging off the front of the restaurant and ready to harvest.

Drop by this afternoon and join in the fun - here is a map, even!

UPDATE: I had a great time - music, socks (ask if you must) and a nice bottle of red wine (luckily Denis showed up to hel me drain it). See you next year for the 29th annual party (always the second Saturday of September).

Market Day

We popped up from our GHO (Garrigue HideOut) to Uzès in a nice (and shaky) CV2 convertible, not unlike the photo at left, for the big (and terribly crowded) Saturday market - called "the most beautiful market in France" by Jean-Pierre Coffe (click here to see more about it).

Off to Aix en Provence later today to spend a couple of days at our friend Franco's place at the Château Maigre (see map).

Calu !

In the Provençal language "calu" means "crazy, nuts" - see here for more. Ans with that as an introduction ...

Late start after yesterday's late night at Collias (rather "calu") but nonetheless a brisk mid-day hike into Uzès with Alain whence we did the round of bistros and bars in the town: Au Suisse d'Alger (rosé wine), Aux Amis (pastis x 2) then ending up at La Muscade (pastis x 3) where we ran into Tanguy (planning to pick grapes in Champagen next month) and where Jean-Yves joined us to drive us back to chez lui for lunch (with an excellent bottle of Les Garrigues 2005 from Domaine Richaud see here and here and here - and to boot Marcel is a buddy of Alain) and listening to the warbling of the 3-woman group Au Revoir Simone. Paradise!

We did an afternoon round-trip from Uzès up to Saint-André-de-Valborgne in Jean-Jacques' 1947 Dodge convertible with Jean-Yves at the wheel, Odile riding shotgun and Roden (formerly Chantal), Nicolas and myself jammed into the back seat at the mercy of the winds! This is the kind of thing (160 kilometers RT of winding mountain roads to pick up some suasage) that one does when on vacation - time is of less consequence and being together having a ball is a good enough reason to do wacky things.

The evening saw us stopping by Carole the bio-wine gal's place at Bourdic then all meeting again at J-Ys place for a nice (and late-ending - around 5am!) BBQ dinner and major "find my favorite tune" hijinks (via www.radioblogclub.fr, give it a try yourself!)

Nyons -> Uzès

After our sleep-over at Jean-Philippe and Virginie's wonderful place here in Nyons (more info here and here about the town) we are off to visit the local market then driving to Uzès.

UPDATE: After a very nice visit of the marché we stopped for beer/wine and pizza at Le Café du Centre then returned and packed up to depart.

We headed south-west from Nyons on the D94, which follows the valley of the Eygues. About 6 km from the town, the village of Vinsobres sits above the road. This is one of the the 16 villages that have earned the Côtes-du-Rhône Villages appellation, so its wines can be labelled ’Côtes du Rhône Vinsobres AOC’.

The Domaine du Coriançon is on the main road a couple of kilometres before you reach the left turn for Mirabel-aux-Baronnies (where Jean-Philipe has his atelier) and then the right turn for the village - there we picked up a cubit of red wine to share with our friends in Uzès.

We arrived in Uzès after a watrering hole stop ;-) at l'Authentique in the town of Saint Siffret. Then off to Jean-Yves where we off-loaded and almost immediately headed off to dinner at les Caves de Collias run by our friends Anne-Marie and Christian. We were joined by an old local friend, René, and 2 new (to me) friends, Michel (who runs Wattson) and Corinne. Great crêpes and a heated discussion (sparked by Michel) about "foreigners" ruining the towns of Provence.

Rock 'n' Roll!

PLANNED

Fêt Nat'

A French holiday that falls on a Saturday? Guess we'll just have to party twice as hard!
Come back for a post-midnight update.

Hump-Day Dining

Denis joins us tonight for first-time visit to Aux cercles bleus for dinner. The location was formerly Ciel & Sable a suposedly excellent, but excrutiatinly slow, Japanese restaurant - we actually went once but they were out of eel and we skipped out once we noticed the cobwebs on the other diners. In any case, I noticed the changement de propriétaire sign as I was out for a noonish run (yes, I am back to running ... AND keeping it up). An update on our expereince tonight in a bit.

UPDATE: Pleasant outdoor seating in the traffic-free Place Flora Tristan (try the following, fairly cool, mapping application to see this area in 3-D at http://v3d.pagesjaunes.fr - go to 56 rue de la Sablière) and a tasty, well-presented meal by Michel - one of the two owners of this friendly, uncomplicated and new (one month old) restaurant that we recommend for an inexpensive mid-week outing.

Brighton-bound

I'm off to facilitate a workshop today at the Centre for Research in Innovation Management (CENTRIM) a research center at the University of Brighton.

Monumenta - under the wire

Location: Nef du Grand Palais - Paris
Dates : du 30 Mai 2007 au 08 Juillet 2007

As you can calculate from the dates above we *just* got over to see this magnificant expo on the last (and rainy) afternoon of its run in the impressive domed space of the Grand Palais. In a word: mind-boggling. See more about Kiefer's work here.

I liked the deconstruction, appropriation and sheer intellectuality of his work here.

Paris Cinéma

Now that work has slowed a bit I'm hoping to take advantage of this annual film festival.

UPDATE: Sylvie tipped me to Antony and the Johnsons-You Are My Sister

Cheers!

After a successful "green light" EC review (whew!) we stopped for a Trappist beer (and my first taste of Kriek) at the outdoor terrace of Le Roy d'Espagne right on the Baroque square called the Grand-Place or Grote Markt.

Sidelines:
Why the cherries in Kriek?
36 Hours in Brussels

Festival Django Reinhardt

Marie has come up from the south of France hailing the talents of Josele - so we're off to see him today at the annual Django Reinhardt Festival at Samois-sur-Seine.

UPDATE: We were underwhelmed by Niño Josele - a fine,even superb, flamenco musician, but somewhat mis-programmed for this festival - but, overall, a very good time as there were all sorts of "pick up" groups playing in the "off" areas near the stands. We plan to come back for next year's 27th annual festival!

North to South...

Late start this morning after having slept over at Denis' Montmartre apartment. Major decompression day as it took over 5 hours to get home - due to: strolling down rue des Abbesses for my Canard Enchaîné; then a bus to Montparnasse for a quick visit to the remodeled Inno and Go Sport for new running togs - yes! I am going start running again ...and boring you all with my training; then stopped by to whistle up to Alison and invite her out from a café on rue Daguerre where we were joined by Benjamin and ran into Pascale.

Off to an art expo tonight for our friend and neighbor Eva - see her work here. More on that later.

Sans Sucre S'il Vous Plaît ...

After a very nice dinner with our friends Jacques & Dominique (at Vanves) we were walking back in the rain when, a couple of blocks from home, at Le Laurier we heard a young woman singing inside and, of course, decided to get a night cap. What a wonderful voice and attitude - her name is Pauline Paris, her CD was sold out and she's playing again soon (I'll add an update here when I know exactly where). You can hear her singing some of her songs here ... and there's a short video at the title link above. Enjoy - we did!

French Parliamentary Elections (round 1)

Today is the first round of the French legislative elections to elect the 13th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic - 7639 candidates are standing for 577 seats, including overseas possesions of France.

We voted mid-afternoon and then ambled over to the flea-market on avenue Edgar Quinet where Odile picked up a nice chair and a necklace. I only wanted to have some churros (you can see the stand in the distance).

La fête des voisins

Nice turnout of our neighbors in both buildings for this year's (hastily organized) party in the courtyard for the 8th annual Fête des Voisins (formerly called " Immeubles en fête").

Old friends, "annual" friends, new neighbors ... lots of wine, snacks and talk. Our Chinese restaurant neighbor brought over piled-up plates of delicious nems. As usual the oft-repeated phrase of "we should do this more often!"