Jardin d'Arts

Our friend and neighbor, Eva, was one of a select group of artists on display in the gardens of the /th arrondissement town-hall.

Afterwards dinner at Mian Fan - our new "regular" restaurant for imaginative and delicious Asian Fusion.

Documentaries +

This afternoon I'm off to la Bourse de Commerce (photo on left) to attend the Read Digital event focused on e-books.

Then this early evening we'll meet at the Scam (La société civile des auteurs multimedia) to see "Gulliver a tout faux" - a series of documentaries.

Finally back to La Commedia to hear Dare-Dare (Alain Aithnard and Eric Joco) playing rock/pop tunes.

Danny le rouge ... le vert?

Paris 14ème :Grande Soirée Europe Ecologie Place Jacques Demy ( quartier de la mairie)

It's not quite everyday life here, but I needed to "park" this video somewhere.

"Immeubles en fête - la fête des voisins"

Twitter update

What do you mean that you are not following me on Twitter?!

Pauvre France

We're off to Dannemarie-les-Lys to see Odile's cousin in this "hoary chestnut" of a play.

"Un standard de la comédie de boulevard..." Dire que ce rôle est fait pour Bernard MENEZ n'est pas exagéré quand on connaît son jeu d'acteur.

Mais vous connaissez l'histoire : On sonne... C'est Victor le père de Michel qui débarque à l'improviste de Limoges pour lui annoncer que sa femme l'a quitté pour son propre frère! Mais une autre surprise l'attend : il ignore que son fils vit avec un homme. Victor va essayer par tous les moyens de lui faire entendre raison...

« Ciel et terre »

"The marriage of art and technology"

A surprising exposition by Eva Tourtoglou Bony, a sculptor with an international reputation, is opened to all in the Arts Center of la Laverie.

La Ferté-Bernard

A town of both art and tradition, the “Venice of the West” is the doorway to the Great West, located in the middle of the small valleys of la Perche.

V-E Day

A holiday today in France (May is the month we don't work ... much). It's also the full moon this evening... so a similar scene may be repeated tonight. Stay tuned for an update later.

Work flow

What's yours? (Click on the image to get a much larger view.)

Yves art show

Tonight we're off to our dear friend Yves' vernissage at Atelier 213 (at 213, rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine,
75011 Paris - M° Faidherbe-Chaligny). His show lasts until
May 10 ... so feel free to stop by.

I especially liked some new collage pieces he has done. That's a recent work (an auto-portrait) at left. You can visit his website here.

Luis strikes again ...

After the Nuit Blanche of October 4, 2008 when more than 700 people attended the installation of Vanity n°12, Visible Invisible (see a video here), the Théâtre de Verre is sponsoring a new audiovisual installation/expo conceived and directed by the visual artist Luis Pasina. Entitled Vanity n°13, Munificence, it will be shown in the City Hall of the 10th district of Paris from April 21st to May 15th.

We're invited to tonight's vernissage so I'll update this post after we return.

Rise again?

To those celebrating today ... Happy Easter!

We are at Odile's godmother's (Geneviève) place today at a party for Anna's (Geneviève's grand-daughter) baptism (took place yesterday). Many of her friends from Italy here and now all into a sort of hootenanny with a nice European mix of languages.

Ever onwards...

After a longish day of "clearing the decks" (joining Puerto Rico 2000 after reading the World Competitiveness Report, setting up PersonalBrain for a personal "wiki-like knowledge and project management" tool or, better said, to support being a "big thinker" and, finally, closure on some consultng and teaching interventions) ... I am ready for a good friday break.

Thanks to our buddy Alain, there is the perfect break tonight - close, cosy and cheap at La Commedia. The event is up on facebook - just click here, if you, dear Reader, want to come.

THIS blog is pre-posterous!

Thanks for visiting this, my "main" (before posterous) blog.

Now you can also take a look at my "sideline" blog - a place for random (or not so random) thoughts, ideas, articles and links of interest, etc:

It is at: http://josepietri.posterous.com/

I like it, in part, because of its dead-simple way to add posts ... you just email your post (text, images, videos) and posterous handles the rest. Way cool.

Señor elBulli

World-renowned chef Ferran Adrià was in Paris for a talk at the Centre Pompidou tonight (I got to meet him afterwards and share a quick handshake and question: "Has he been to Puerto Rico?" - the answer was a resounding "¡Sí, joder!"). There was a book-signing afterwards for the French edition of his book "A Day at elBulli".

He gave an interesting talk (in fractured French, but "cute") about his influences, approach and future. I'll add some posts with more info (videos, links) here soon as an update ... so come visit again.

Journée nationale du Fromage 2009

Today is the Annual (French) Cheese Day ... so go eat some cheese! Preferably, French and lait cru (unpasteurized or "raw" milk). Bon appétit !

Packing day

Not much time to visit Rome as we leave this evening. Packed up and then lunched with Tiéno (merci encore).

Mid-afternoon we were able to get out and around a bit - but never quite found that "special, popular, laid-back but lively, non-touristy" neighborhood! Maybe next time. We sort of stumbled upon Basilica de Santa Maria Maggiore and an interesting shop next to it called Casa del Rosario - their motto might be "if we can put the Pope's face on it, we WILL!" - medallions, rosaries, statues, etc. Far out!

Any ideas form you all, Dear Readers, will be added to my list of things to see and do next time in the Eternal City.

Today is Monday ...

Up, not too late today, but a bit stiff . We arranged to meet Gianni at the Piramide metro station then took a bus to Mercato di Testaccio, a fantastic covered market, which is a foodie's paradise.

We picked up some items (cheeses, local veggies, etc.) and then headed out to find a near-by bar I'd read about (nameless, I had only a numberless street name). The place had been described as an authentic Roman "old man bar" and, indeed, as we approached there were quite a few geezers out in front. Turns out the place is called "Sora Rosa" and we all truly enjoyed the couple of hours we ended up spending there. We started with red wine (sold at an amazing 1.50€ per half liter) which comes from the owner's own vineyards (see their website here). Then I noticed some old fellows drinking what looked like Coke and white wine. We tried out one half-liter (OK, we had TWO) of what turned out to be a refreshing mix of white wine with Chinotto Neri. Topped all this off with some excellent cheese there (and was tempted by the barkeep's sandwiches made on Rosetta bread).

Tottered on back to the apartment to have lunch (including the excellently well prepared - and presented -"barba di frate"- grazie Odile) with a couple of cold Moretti beers and some afumacato cheese with a wonderfully rustic loaf of bread. Then a short nap and out again towards the Trastevere.

Odile had spied out the Libreria del Cinema (where I bought a fun book entitled "Film Posters - Science Fiction") - the bookstore has an adjoining caffé where we waited for Francesca and Tiéno (each getting off from their respective jobs) while imbibing fine wine and listening to oldies, such as Fred Buscaglione (a childhood favorite of Gianni's).

Afterwards we headed out to a vegetarian restaurant nearby called Jaya Sai Ma (whose name in Sanskrit means "Victory of the Great Mother") run by followers of Guru Sai Baba.