dec 16

dec 2

"And the slightly amused, removed feeling always breaks down as you realize that you really don't want to be so lofty and Olympian--or rather, that being lofty and Olympian carries within it, by tradition and precedent, the habit of wishing you could be down there in the plain, taking sides. Even the gods, actually looking down from Olympus in amusement, kept hurtling down to get laid or slug somebody."

Merry

cyclope + cocteau

Today we experienced Californian-utopia weather in Ile de France, which was perfect, being that we took a two-car day trip to Milly La Foret, to see the Cyclope, an artistic project/living philosophy that took over ten years to make. We had a picnic on the side of the road and then headed into the monster (as they call it) for a guided tour of artistic ideals, art brut and sheer creativity. Later, we headed to the center of town to see the little chapel where Jean Cocteau was buried. Quite beautifully decorated in his singular drawing style, and surrounded by a botanical garden.

Spontaneity v Symmetry

2 September. Never a dull moment. Not from noon until midnight. I have been walking walking walking, all day long. It has been quite the philosophical adventure. Everything I had planned out ended up being canceled (registration is on the 3rd, not the 2nd, the girl who needed me to translate for her stumbled upon her commissioned translator as our lift lifted), but the fruitless appointments led me through new archways and doors into unplanned and very pleasant territories. In the first case, I ended up walking to the Palais Royal, enjoying some moments of tranquility. A bit of contemplation on symmetry and control bubbled in my membrane at this point (visualization provided in contrasted photographs above) as I related the buildings' and plants' symmetrical beauty to a need for control, and then linked that need for control to my own, using the example of appointments... I finally tied up my neat, symmetrical argument with the acknowledgment of the aforementioned magnificence of the loss of control that comes from all that is unplanned, that happens as we let it happen.

Praline vampires

Silently

When the world zigs, zag

Today has been sunny, today has been bright, I am going to see Hidden Cameras at Point Ephemère tonight!

Luxe Puppetry

View/2080

Surreal and speechless

I met a Lebanese turned Louisianan man on the plane from Philly to Paris. A real family man, a doctor, he excitedly showed me a picture of his kids (in school uniform) before we opened the overhead compartments and disappeared from each other's lives. I really liked this man, I liked his face, I like that he offered me Spearmint gum once we had nestled into our uncomfortable US Airways seats. It was another 7 hour moment that told me that this was a good start, just as a tear-free goodbye at SFO had told me, and a warm-lit and warm-hearted dinner the night before my departure had. This time around, after all, I was the one who was helping people get luggage on their pulleys, my taxi driver smiled and charged me half of what another of his counterparts had charged two years prior. To top it off, my new room is cuter than thou. I am already feeling the itch to get a job, sign up for classes, essentially to get a life. The tectonic plates inside are shifting slowly, but I feel better equipped to withstand them now.