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.

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