As it happens, I have also read this wonderfully candid and courageous memoir, by Naturi Thomas:
HOW TO DIE IN PARIS
Have a great day!
dimanche 26 février 2012
A Book Review
My friend and fellow blogger of Foreign Tongues and Chocolate Tarts, asked me to share with you her most recent book review.
As it happens, I have also read this wonderfully candid and courageous memoir, by Naturi Thomas:
HOW TO DIE IN PARIS
As it happens, I have also read this wonderfully candid and courageous memoir, by Naturi Thomas:
HOW TO DIE IN PARIS
mercredi 22 février 2012
Blaxpat Quote for February
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| author, artist, Barbara Chase Ribaud “ too muh love like too much rain begets large and bloody pools of discontent. I see my winter marked in your eyes. Whoever told you I was perfection?” excerpt from Valide, by Barbara Chase Ribaud |
lundi 13 février 2012
Who's Who in da 'Hood?
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| us |
Let's get away from European Union austerity concepts, histrionics and hard luck tales. I feel like being frivolous today.
Thirteen years ago my husband and I moved to this area. La Côte d’Azur. The decision was actually made about a decade before that, but needless to say, preparations were necessary, you know?
Anyway, it appears that this kind of view and Mediterranean ambiance attracts an astrologically inordinate number of Air and Fire signs as residents.
No kidding.
I’d never given it much thought that my husband, who is a Gemini and I, a Sagittarius, both fell in love with the area almost simultaneously. There was no question that we were meant to live here.
Here are some of the “homies” in our ‘Hood:
Ms. Turner, a Sagitarius, has her secondary home down here.
Brad is a Sag and and Ms. Joli is a Gemini
Yup...Keith Richards, another Sagittarius
Johnny Depp is a Gemini. Okay..okay, his wife, Ms Paradis is actually a Capricorn, but it's only because she arrived a day late! She's French, you know.
Prince is a Gemini. I don't believe he actually lives on La Côte d'Azur but I've had quite a number of sightings over the years, here, which to me implies L-O-V-E. His movie, Under the Cherry Moon takes place here.
Elton John is an Aries and David Furnish is a Scorpio.
Woops...Fire and water, this time. But then...well...you know...
Have a great day!
mercredi 8 février 2012
"P.C." and the Global Community
It's kind of a cloudy day down here in the South, today. I'm not feeling too productive, so I've just been lazing around, surfing the net.
I just came across the most amusing images of "mappying sterotypes".
I’ve always considered my self a bit of an ethnic connoisseur. Any person who has had the privilege of living among others in foreign countries should find it quite easy to distinguish between an ethnic connoisseur and a racist clod.
An ethnic connoisseur is merely a keen and well informed social observer.
A clod is the one who hides behind pretentions of “political correctness” while rancid bones of negativity issue from his lips landing in everyone’s plate at the dinner party
You all know who I’m talking about, I’m sure.
Anyway, check these out. For a clearer view go to alphadesigner.com/mapping stereotypes.
Europe according to the French
Europe according to the Greeks
Europe According to the Americans
The World according to the Americans
and my all time favorite...
Europe according to the Vatican!
Fun, right?
On target, you think?
Nevertheless, let me offer you a piece of diplomatic advice on stereotyping: Don’t dish it if you can’t take it!
lundi 6 février 2012
The Fresh Prince, Sammi and Election 2012!
We tend to rent or buy our French movies because we find it rather penible to sit through a French movie in the theater. When one considers the various regional accents, dialects and all, I usually use the hearing impaired mode as well, to help me along.
Sometimes a French movie plot line vaguely echoes a popular American movie or television series. When this happens, it is an absolute guarantee that I will see the movie. I am never disappointed by the fact that there is always a wildly divergent approach to what on initial impact would seem a similar issue. One such movie is Agathe Clery, which most Americans could assume is a take on American filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles' Watermelon Man.
Another example of this Gallic wink towards American issues is the film I saw recently, Neuilly Sa Mère.
Years ago there was a popular television series, called Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Actor,Will Smith, starred as a teenager growing up in the "hood" of Philadelphia. After a scary gang rumble, his mother sends him off to live with his aunt and uncle who live in the wealthy town of Bel Air in California.
In Neuilly Sa Mère, adorable young actor, Samy Saghir, stars in this hilarious film about the pretentions and dysfunctions of the bourgeoisie...or the upper classes...I still have trouble with the distinctions, here in this Socialist country. After all, I'm from a Capitalist one, where the classes, these days are ironically rather...flou...in comparison.
Fourteen-year-old Sami, lives with his father and mother in a housing project in a working class and immigrant neighborhood in Chalon-sur-Saône in the Burgundy region of France. Unlike the American Fresh Prince, whose old neighborhood is ruled by gang violence, through Sammi's eyes, his "hood" is a vertitable multi-cultural and ethnic paradise...Kumbaya and such... you see.
His father drops dead of a heart attack as a result of over-identifying with and over-reacting to a Soccer game. His mother is forced to take a job on a boat, so she sends Sammi to her sister and husband who live in the affluent Paris suburb of Neuilly.
Hence the title.
Oh, by the way, Sami and his family are Beur...North African Moslims.
I'm not quite clear whether both Sammi's aunt and uncle are both Beur or in an intercultural/ racial marriage. Perhaps I missed it in my translation, since it is obvious that his aunt is North African, but his uncle, you see, is a Pork distributor.
The most amusing aspect of this tale, when I compare it to The Fresh Prince, is that while Will Smith's character arrogantly flaunts his ghetto savvy and lords over the naive, marerialistic and self-centered members of his extended family, Sammi encounters bullys and thugs of proportions previously unimaginable in the exclusive enclave of some of France's future leaders. His young cousin,Charles, with whom he must share a bedroom, is Right Wing, has political ambions and aspires to become President of the Republic.
Get it?
If you should choose to accept the challenge of watching French political satire, I'm sure you'll agree that the political references in this story are not exactly all that nuanced. Even an Anglophone foreigner like myself would get the joke...I mean...message.
It'll make you look up the backgrounds of our 2012 Presidential candidates, which is never...ever a bad idea.
This is why I read "Dreams From My Father" before I decided to cast my vote for President Obama.
No surprises. No regrets.
Sometimes a French movie plot line vaguely echoes a popular American movie or television series. When this happens, it is an absolute guarantee that I will see the movie. I am never disappointed by the fact that there is always a wildly divergent approach to what on initial impact would seem a similar issue. One such movie is Agathe Clery, which most Americans could assume is a take on American filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles' Watermelon Man.
Another example of this Gallic wink towards American issues is the film I saw recently, Neuilly Sa Mère.
Years ago there was a popular television series, called Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Actor,Will Smith, starred as a teenager growing up in the "hood" of Philadelphia. After a scary gang rumble, his mother sends him off to live with his aunt and uncle who live in the wealthy town of Bel Air in California.
In Neuilly Sa Mère, adorable young actor, Samy Saghir, stars in this hilarious film about the pretentions and dysfunctions of the bourgeoisie...or the upper classes...I still have trouble with the distinctions, here in this Socialist country. After all, I'm from a Capitalist one, where the classes, these days are ironically rather...flou...in comparison.
Fourteen-year-old Sami, lives with his father and mother in a housing project in a working class and immigrant neighborhood in Chalon-sur-Saône in the Burgundy region of France. Unlike the American Fresh Prince, whose old neighborhood is ruled by gang violence, through Sammi's eyes, his "hood" is a vertitable multi-cultural and ethnic paradise...Kumbaya and such... you see.
His father drops dead of a heart attack as a result of over-identifying with and over-reacting to a Soccer game. His mother is forced to take a job on a boat, so she sends Sammi to her sister and husband who live in the affluent Paris suburb of Neuilly.
Hence the title.
Oh, by the way, Sami and his family are Beur...North African Moslims.
I'm not quite clear whether both Sammi's aunt and uncle are both Beur or in an intercultural/ racial marriage. Perhaps I missed it in my translation, since it is obvious that his aunt is North African, but his uncle, you see, is a Pork distributor.
The most amusing aspect of this tale, when I compare it to The Fresh Prince, is that while Will Smith's character arrogantly flaunts his ghetto savvy and lords over the naive, marerialistic and self-centered members of his extended family, Sammi encounters bullys and thugs of proportions previously unimaginable in the exclusive enclave of some of France's future leaders. His young cousin,Charles, with whom he must share a bedroom, is Right Wing, has political ambions and aspires to become President of the Republic.
Get it?
If you should choose to accept the challenge of watching French political satire, I'm sure you'll agree that the political references in this story are not exactly all that nuanced. Even an Anglophone foreigner like myself would get the joke...I mean...message.
It'll make you look up the backgrounds of our 2012 Presidential candidates, which is never...ever a bad idea.
This is why I read "Dreams From My Father" before I decided to cast my vote for President Obama.
No surprises. No regrets.
dimanche 29 janvier 2012
ELECTION 2012: France
Sometimes, I feel a little queezie. Especially on days when I allow my self to contemplate too profoundly on my life, here, in France. I start wondering what will become of us (my husband and I) since we have placed our destiny in the hands of these people:
"But I'm telling you that I'm worried and very, very concerned today when a mother, speaking about her son being in jail, says, 'I'm happy he's in a safe place.' You cannot take that casually!"
~Bill Cosby
in an interview with the newspaper, The Root
Maybe I’ll just call it day and watch a French movie. I’ll tell you all about it later.
What movie, you ask?
Filmmaker, Gabiel Jullien-Laferrière's, Neuilly Sa Mère.
A bientôt!
vendredi 13 janvier 2012
GAZON MAUDIT
~W.Sumerset Maugham
"When anythig is this beautiful, beware, beacuse almost everything will be attracted to it."
~Delorys Welch-Tyson
(photos of Villefranche Sur Mer)
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