Without Wi-fi

This morning I woke up bright and early, grabbed a cup of fresh coffee, sat down at my coffee table, and opened my laptop to find that my Internet service wasn't working. At all.

I disconnected everything; reconnected everything. I counted to 10 Mississippi. Nothing. I let Windows try and find the problem. It didn't. I thought maybe my wi-fi card got surged in the last storm. I booted. I re-installed drivers. I gave up but held on to hope that the Internet connection would be restored. I thought of a hundred things I would have done if I had Internet connection - blog, check email, look up whether or not there has ever been a study to show women have better memories than men - I needed to check ingredients for marinara sauce but couldn't, so I made another type of red sauce altogether not suitable for these warmer months. I couldn't make cookies because I forgot how much sugar I needed to use. IT WAS A DISASTER.

So at about 1 am I decided before going to bed I'd give it one last shot. Success! Then I needed to make certain it was working...by blogging.

It terrifies me that the Internet is such an important part of my life and the reality is I didn't miss much. Sure there were emails and Facebook status updates, but they could have waited a day or two.

My goal is to not spend tomorrow on Facebook. I have a recipe for green beans to think of, laundry, house cleaning, and well in lieu of the Internet I did seriously get my old school geek on. I've been playing Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, a PC game that probably came out in 1999 that I loved and might be one of my favourite PC games of all time. Sid Meier/Firaxis Games are (some) of the brains behind Civilization, which is another one of my favourite PC games. (I just want to state for the record despite my geekiness I don't play Warcraft anymore and I have never played Second Life for example. I'm determined to beat my old high score. I can't let this get in the way of getting the house a bit cleaned up and preparing a yummy dinner (which will include an Oreo cheesecake) for Donald who is coming to visit while he's in France before heading off to China to trek around for the rest of the summer.

I've been in this flat awhile now, but it does still have its glitches where it sorts of ruins the idyllic setting. I can deal with the hiccups and have been for the past few years, but there's also another sort of odd thing I realised today about the rhythm of living in a place you care about and plan on sticking around in for a bit. When spring came I prepared the house for spring. Not just putting away my winter threads and the usual ménage de printemps (spring cleaning), but I planted and started using the terrace almost as an extra room. I started organising more and wanting to fix little things. Now that I'm thinking about the fall and winter I already have about a hundred household chores I have planned to make the house as cosy and warm as possible (thus avoiding all the mistakes I made last year like not putting curtains up!) in case it's another oddly freezing winter Mother Nature has in store for us.

So that's what this week is going to be about. Home improvement. I'll be posting pictures so show you what I manage to accomplish - especially since the big Emmaus sale is this weekend.

I think I might even turn the Internet off. God only knows what I'd manage to get done!

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I think my dog can spell...

I think my dog can spell. I already cancelled a v-e-t appointment because we had a massive thunderstorm the morning of and La Chienne isn't so fond of thunder, but now there is no excuse to delay (other than the fact I can't find the folder with all her papers in it). She has to go to the v-e-t.

La Chienne is the first dog ever in my life and learning how to care for one's pet is a continually process. Since the "cancer scare" that turned out to be nothing more than just her thyroid needing some help, I'm now extra cautious about making sure I have a good v-e-t who knows what the hell they're doing. Last time around it took 2 v-e-ts and 1 specialist (costing about 800 euros for fancy scans) to realise what she had was actually nothing more serious than what any dog over 7 years old can get, which is thyroid defiency. It caused paralysis on one side of her face so the symptoms seemed very severe and worrying. Now, almost a year later on thyroid replacement pills she's not only her old self, but maybe a slightly more energetic version. The v-e-t warned me that the thyroid replacement would make her like a puppy again, but honestly after the scare that I might lose her she can act like a puppy all she wants.

People laugh when before they meet the "Hound" as many refer to her that I'm obviously so in love with her, but then those are the same people that end up traveling from across the world (or from Paris) just to see the "Hound". She has a long list of people who would gladly throw me under a train in order to inherit her too. My neighbour's son and his friends knock on my door just to play with her and even her v-e-t didn't want to give her back to me after her last check-up.

So this morning I spell out the v-e-t and she starts making grunting noises of disapproval almost immediately. This is why I now think she can spell. Ever since the word has been mentioned I can't get her to come anywhere near me. I'll be spending the rest of my afternoon coaxing her out for a little walk, at the end of which we will arrive at the v-e-t.

But even though she can spell, she still doesn't seem to understand once she's gone she's off the hook for another 6 months and plus I have lots of treats...



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Thank You Mayor Bloomberg!

In light of recent claims that Bloomberg bought the votes of New York Senators who would support gay marriage - something I have mixed feelings about because I support marriage equality for everyone, but I don't support political kickbacks or corruption - Mayor Bloomberg has made me rather happy today by working with the NYPL system to find $83 million to keep the libraries running in New York City.

In light of the economy there are plenty of things one could spend $83 million on, but in light of a underfunded and flailing education system, unemployment, and the community I think the library is a better choice than most people realise. Thankfully Mayor Bloomberg saw the light.

So one thumb up for rescuing the NYPL and well, let's see what comes out about the other thing because perhaps sadly today is not a two thumbs up day for the Mayor, though considering the amount of money spent by other individuals and organisations (all claiming non-profit status despite making insane amounts of money off their followers) to stop marriage equality (the Church of Latter Day Saints spent apparently $40 million fighting Prop 8 in California), a couple thousand doesn't seem so bad (and that in itself should be enough to revoke their non-profit status).

The big winner today of course are the people of New York and it's not so often that the people win anything, is it?

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14 of My Favourite French Books (pour le 14 juillet)

1. Le Comte de Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas (Pere)

I am not embarassed to say it's my favourite book in any language and one of the books I've read most often. Yes I know how it ends, but my fascination with Edmund Dantes that started with reading Dumas' masterpiece under the covers with a flashlight continues. It's a powerful book disguised as a sort of adventure story. The count is one of the greatest characters to ever grace the printed page.

2. La Dame aux Camélias, Alexandre Dumas (Fils)
Written by the son of the writer Alexandre Dumas (see above), it was good enough of a story that Verdi turned it into an opera the world now knows as La Traviata (the second most performed opera in the world). Based on that information it's obviously a drama and quite a romantic one. Dumas (Fils) really knew how to write about love. Marguerite was based on Dumas' real life lover Marie Duplessis, a famous courtesan who hosted a popular salon. Dumas was dumped for Franz Liszt, and Duplessis died young of tuberculosis with two counts at her side (one from Sweden, the other French). La Dame aux Camélias is widely considered Dumas' best work and has been turned not only into an opera, but there are nearly a dozen films as well.

3. Quatrevingt-treize, Victor Hugo
I am a massive fan of Victor Hugo. He is the only writer that I went so far as to acquire a portrait of (I have his funeral announcement from the newspaper that has been in the frame since the day he died) and I have a massive multi-volume collection of everything he ever did (he was much more than just a writer). Still after all of that Quatrevingt-treize remains my favourite of his works. It was the last book Hugo wrote and in it many of his prior convictions have obviously changed. He is no longer a Royalist. He is obviously on the side of he people and he showed this change in politics by writing a brilliant book. If you want to know the facts about France during this time you can read plenty of books, but if you want to know the heart and soul of the people then you read this book.

4. Les liasons dangereuses, Pierre-Ambroise Francois Choderlos Laclos
Someone I know and who's opinion I trust once told me he thought this was the best example of French literature for its style and form. I didn't have the heart to tell him I loved this book because it was scandalous and quite easy to read even those it's a book of "letters". I've since given it a look and agree the writing alone is reason to read the book, but I prefer my reasons for adoring this masterpiece of French literature.

5. Le Rouge et le Noir, Stendhal
The first volume's epigraph "La vérité, l’âpre vérité" is in itself fiction. Julian Sorel enters into the Church after realising that under the Bourbon Restoration one can't advance one's prospects by pursuing a career in the military. He doesn't care much for religion beyond appearances and eventually through a few protectors he meets along the way does almost get what he most desires, but of course it ends badly.

6. Chéri, Colette
Any one who knows me Colette is in my eyes, perhaps the greatest female writer France has ever known. Not only did she write beautifully, but she achieved what any writer should strive for - to write simply but with great detail. This is in my opinion her real masterpiece. Colette wrote for men about women really and there is no better example than Chéri.

7. - 10. The Poets

Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire
Romances sans paroles, Paul Verlaine
Le bateau ivre, Arthur Rimbaud

If you want to read the best poetry France has to offer, you wouldn't be remiss in starting with Baudelaire, Verlaine, and Rimbaud. I would have included Mallarmé on my list, but he is notoriously difficult to translate and is best read in French (although poetry and its translation are subjects well worth debating). I could have as easily swapped Le bateau ivre for Une Saison en Enfer and Verlaine's Romances sans paroles is a must read for any fan of Rimbaud's - but for me personally Les Fleurs du Mal is the great volume of poems ever published. The first poem I remember falling in love with was by Mallarmé, but even he was inspired by Baudelaire. When I told my father of this new poet he immediately pulled down some Baudelaire and from that day no other poet has ousted Baudelaire from his lofty perch in my esteem.

11. Les Fables de la Fontaine
If you want to understand a lot of French jokes and perhaps the soul of the French people, you have to read Les Fables de la Fontaine. As a child I knew it before I barely remember anything else. Read it in poetic form though, Fontaine was a genius.

Now you know that part in the feux d'artifices (fireworks) where the sky lits up like crazy, the finale? Well because I can no longer list books and separate the ones I most love from the ones I truly love here is a finale en livres:

L'etranger/The Stranger, Albert Camus
La vie de Gargantua et Pantagruel/The Life of Gargantua and Pantragruel, Rabelais
Moravagine, Blaise Cendrars (a favourite of Henry Miller & Borges')
La vie de mode emploi/Life a User's Manual, George Perec
Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
La Ventre de Paris/The Belly of Paris, Zola
L'amant/The Lover, Marguerite Duras
A la recherche du temps perdu/In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust
Voyage au bout de la nuit/Journey to the End of the Night, Celine
Fin du Chéri, Colette
Les Enfants terribles, Jean Cocteau
Rene, Chateaubriand
Les Contes de Charles Perrault
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
Contes du jour et de la nuit, Guy de Maupassant

I could keep going, but I have to prepare a nice meal to celebrate le 14 juillet. I've decided to go with some country cooking to keep with the spirit of the day so I'll be preparing a simple feast of crispy skinned roasted chicken rubbed with thyme, old bread stuffing, and some courgettes au gratin with good white wine from Alsace and fondant au chocolat.

Thanks to the brave Frenchmen and Frenchwomen who stormed the Bastille the rights of every French person were born. Joyeux quatorze juillet a tous!

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Lush Cosmetics Week 2

So for months I've been walking past the Lush store on rue du Renard (Paris 4e, Hotel de Ville) and been bombarded by the scent coming out of the boutique. I live in France where people go to buy perfume and walking into a Sephora after 11 am means subjecting your nose to an olfactory torture, so I tend to avoid any stores with a particular smell. But after many days of seeing the girls that came out of Lush with nice skin, I decided to buckle.

Now I've read reviews about the pushy staff, but the girl who helped me wasn't so pushy. They were out of what I really wanted to start my Lush experience with, the Balançoire face mask (called Love Lettuce in the UK and seems to be not available according to the Lush US website? Maybe someone in the US can comment to say whether or not Lush offers the same amount of fresh face masks?). So I went for the Matin et Soir (95 g - 7,50 euros, also known as 9 to 5) and the Herbalism (100 g - 9,50 euros).

After two weeks I can honestly say I really like the Matin et Soir/9 to 5 lotion cleanser. It's a pain in the butt because I have to keep my Lush products in the fridge, but I've worked it out by keeping cotton pads downstairs in the kitchen, putting on the amount of products I'm going to use that night or morning on one, and then bringing it to the bathroom. What I like is I can actually see the dirt coming out of my pores, my skin feels clean and soft all day long and the next morning when I wake up, and my pores seem to be less obvious (which is my major problem with my skin at the moment my pores are just out of control).

Now I have mixed feelings in regards to the exfoliating scrub Herbalisme. It seems really difficult to get it to sort of soften up so I can spread it on my face and a lot of little bits end up in my sink, which seems wasteful. I get the feeling that I'm still using the product incorrectly because my results aren't consistent. The girl at the Lush shop told me to use the exfoliating scrub twice a week, but I think it's gentle enough that I exfoliate about every 2 days and also use it on my hands, elbows, knees, and a little on my legs and feet. It does make my face and the other places I use it seem softer, but I still feel like I haven't gotten off the dull layer of skin I want to slough off.

And this is where my problem with Lush begins. Since the products all have an expiration date, I know I'm going to end up throwing away a lot of product because there is just no way I'll use up everything by then. I wish Lush offered small sizes because I'd be a lot more willing to use more of their products. I'm thinking about taking the Herbalisme back and asking to exchange it for something else. I'm not sure how good their customer service is, but in my defense their salesperson recommended it and it's not doing anything for my skin. It has tonight and Sunday night to impress me or it's gone.

There are a few products of Lush's that get good reviews such as the Coalface soap, so I think if I do bring back the scrub and decide to get one of their masks, I'll ask for something that does what the Coalface does, but I won't be changing my cleanser any time soon. For the price (even with the wasteful aspect because of the expiration date) it's pretty good stuff, though a part of me worries that like Kiehl's, Lush might be skincare for a *cough* younger woman. At my age I might need something more hardcore.

So to the other 30-somethings who might read my blog what do you use to keep your skin looking and feeling great? And if you're 30-something or otherwise and do use Lush, what are your favourite products?

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Today's "Practical" Adventure

Tomorrow is our biggest national holiday le quatorze juillet, the 14th of July also known abroad as Bastille Day. We don't call it Bastille Day, but when I lived in New York for some reason the French community did.

So naturally I've decided to celebrate France's abolishing feudalism by going furniture hunting. I'm a big supporter of what we call associations in French. An association is usually a charity run by regular people (sometimes by executives depending on the association's wealth and status), that somehow reaches out to the community to raise money for their cause. Emmaus is probably one of my favourites.

Emmaus was started by the Abbé Pierre in 1949. Abbé Pierre was pretty bad ass. He was a member of the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation of Paris and ran an underground that smuggled Jewish people into Switzerland after learning how to make fake papers and passports just for his new cause.

After the war Abbé Pierre went into politics, but his real accomplishment is Emmaus. Named for the village where Jesus appeared to two men who gave him shelter and hospitality after the resurrection in the Bible, Emmaus' goal was to raise money to construct housing for the homeless by selling used goods donated by the public.

"Emmaus, it's a little like the wheelbarrow, the shovels and the pickaxes coming before the banners. A sort of social fuel derived from salvaging defeating men.

Realising he'd need funds to start his association, Abbé Pierre went on a then popular game show and won 256,000 francs (about 40,000 euros if directly converted into today's money). It was because of his winnings that when the deadly winter of 1954 hit and the homeless were dying in the streets, Abbé Pierre appealed to the people in a famous speech. And the French heard him to the tune of 500 million francs in donations (Charlie Chaplin gave 2 million).

I always tell people to check out Emmaus even if they're on France on vacation before heading to the flea markets. Not only can you find the one off thing you might not find elsewhere (brainwave reading machine anyone? 10 euros), you can always find things that flea markets will sell but at a fraction of the cost. I've found real silverware, Limogues tea sets, and lots of high-quality furniture.

Most of the people who work at Emmaus are people who have been helped by the association and are paid by the association for their skills either selling, repairing, stocking, or doing administrative work. So all your money goes to help locals. And that is what an association is supposed to be about.

There's a great new boutique for Emmaus at the 104 art space in the 18e, a massive warehouse of an Emmaus at Metro Pierre et Marie Curie in Ivry, and one that is really quite full of treasures in Seine-et-Marne, except that it's not exactly easy to get there.

What have you found at Emmaus that turned out to be a treasure?

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The Weekend Update

I had to take a few days off from blogging, but now I am officially back. I'm not sure if there is some formula to how long it takes to get back into the swing of things after you have guests, but for me I guess it's about two days. Mostly because the kitchen is a disaster.  But that's what happens when you rent a house in the country I suppose.  Funny thing is our guests are coming from Finland and New York while our friends in Paris couldn't make it.

I cooked, but not as much as I originally planned to because the gumbo just seemed to never run out! Thankfully it was one of my best batches ever. I also took David on his last day to Moret-sur-Loing a little 13th century village just a short train ride from where the house. He bought us some interesting (and delicious) homemade ice cream at the famous 1000 and 1 flavours parlour in Moret-sur-Loing.

Here's a few photos from the weekend.

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Another Reason to Love Hugh Grant (As If I Needed One)

Sorry, you caught me mid-drool.

I've been a fan of Hugh Grant's since I saw him in Impromptu, a film about the love affair between the composer Chopin and the writer George Sand (played by brilliant actress Judy Davis). He has always amused me, but that Mr. McMullen finds it hilarious that Hugh Grant managed to get proof that he was involved in hacking, police bribery, and other unethical practices, just baffles me.

Seriously Mr. McMullen - that's 1-2-3 times you've been so starstruck by Hugh that you put your foot right up your own arse. Couldn't resist bragging to the world that Hugh Grant (the moviestar oooh gasp!) took time out of his hectic schedule to do a bit of investigative journalism about you, eh? The irony is he's not a real journalist and yet he was investigating on the behalf of The New Statesman and you say you're a journalist but you were writing for the News of the World.

This isn't the first time Hugh has proved he is more than just an extremely handsome man that happens to spend a lot of time on the movie screen. I have always found him spunky and witty. Now he's showing the world he has brains and opinions on things that matter. And ethnics too.

Watch the clip to see Hugh tell it like it is - including calling Margaret Thatcher out for bowing to Murdoch's media back when she ran for Prime Minister.

An added bonus from a radio interview where Hugh's answer when asked about whether or not he has faith in Rebekah Brooks to "clean up the stables" is one of the best analogies I've heard in a long time. (And another radio but I found by accident.)

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An Open Letter to Rebekah Brooks, Former Editor of News of the World

Dear Ms. Brooks,

When a friend of mine from London told me about the phone hacking scandal and how the News of the World, a paper owned by a person I've long since despised for their business practices Mr. Rupert Murdoch, my immediate question was, "Did the editor know?"

Since learning the exact circumstances - that being that the News of the World paid a private investigator to hack into the cell phone of a murdered 13 year old schoolgirl I believe that question has been answered. Yes you did know Ms. Brooks, how could you not? And shame on you.

You are a sorry excuse for a human being and so is your boss. Given that you are close family friends with Mr. Murdoch I find it hard to believe that he was not aware of the tens of thousands of pounds being paid out to the police because I find it hard to believe that a single penny of his money is ever spent with out Mr. Murdoch's knowledge. Still, whether you were pressured to do what you did or influenced or whatever you want to say to make yourself feel better and absolve yourself for these heinous crimes you have committed there is in my eyes no absolution for someone who profits off the murder of innocent people and especially not the murder of children.

You and your newspaper not only gave Milly Dowler's poor family false hope by deleting her messages for not being "juicy enough", but you underminded a police investigation. Labour leader Ed Milliband has asked you to "examine your conscience", but to me and countless others there is irrefutable evidence that you have never had a conscience to begin with and how can one examine what one does not have?

It is not "inconceivable" that you did not know what was going on when you served as editor. What is truly baffling is how you Ms. Brooks sent emails to your staff claiming that, "“If the allegations are proved to be true, then I can promise the strongest possible action will be taken as this company will not tolerate such disgraceful behaviour. I hope you all realise it is inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations.”

Now I'm not sure exactly what an editor does when it works for a newspaper (not that the News of the World could be called that), so I emailed an editor for a small Boston paper I know back in the US and asked him what he thought of the situation. His answer was just as I guessed, but the Dowler family lawyer said it better: "If she didn't know what was happening, what was she doing as editor?"

While Mr. Murdoch is known for showing a baffling amount of loyalty to those he likes, I cannot imagine that as a businessman he would promote someone who didn't know what was going on around the clock. He has made his fortune on being able to know information before anyone else, so why would he elevate you to an executive position if you couldn't even manage a newspaper? Why have you already basically lied by leading the public to believe that Andy Coulson's past scandals were something you weren't equally guilty of participating in? Why are all your high-powered friends, Mr. Murdoch aside doing everything they can to distance themselves from you?

I hope the British government and the public come to your office, rip you out of your chair and use your desk as the kindling to start the fire to burn you at the stake and when the fire goes a little low that the last thing you get to see if Mr. Murdoch himself throwing on another log. With Ford and a number of other companies pulling advertising from News of the World for public relations reasons and the private lawsuits that Murdoch is going to have to pay to settle, I can't imagine that the moment this will happen is too far away and I for one will be chanting "burn baby burn" because you fucking deserve it.

And resign already. I'm sure you have accumulated more than enough money off of the heartbreak of those poor families. I would spit in your face if I could stand to look at it.

Sincerely,

______- _____ ______

Thanks to Dangerous Minds for making the cover that yes, I would most like to see.

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A Year's Worth of Make Up

About a year ago (fittingly enough) I decided to stop wearing "make up" every day and to spend the money I normally would spend covering up my face and what I perceived as my flaws to take better care of my skin. It's been a very liberating experience in many ways and I do wear a little make up from time to time either for special occasions or if I have a really bad blemish, but one thing I've realised is by giving up wearing makeup every day I like my face more. Not because my skincare regime has suddenly made me more beautiful (although my skin does look better than ever and when I do wear makeup I no longer need foundation), but because I no longer spend 15 mins to an hour every day examining my face for flaws and covering myself up.

For their short film Natural Beauty, directors Lernert & Sander applied a year's worth of makeup to a model's face and the end result is a goopy, drippy, mask-like mess. The beauty of their model Hannelore Knuts who has a gorgeously symmetrical face is lost behind the 365 layers of airbrushed foundation and yet what I find most poignant is that by the time the last layer is applied she looks sadder. Maybe it's acting, but she does. I wonder if the directors showed her what she looked like at the very end and if that caused what I perceive to be her sadness.

It took 7 bottles of Ellis Faas foundation and several bottles of blush, cream eye shadow, and lip gloss to create the "look" over a period of nine hours.

The Dutch duo of Lernert & Sander are famous for torturing chocolate bunnies and other thought provoking work. I really hope to see more and more of their work in the future because it has always moved me, but as a woman this has hit me differently. I am someone who has always believed there is something physically beautiful about every person if one takes the time look closely everyone has something that is near perfect about them. And in this past year I've realised that "everyone" happens to include me too.

Watch the video below and if nothing else today, look at yourself in the mirror and learn to love your natural beauty and if you look long enough you'll realise it's not just skin deep.

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This Weekend's Menu

When we'd have a lot of company at my grandmother's house often our dinner parties turned into three day weekends of non-stop eating with the day's offerings always written on an antique bistro chalkboard similar to this one (minus prices of course).

I thought about wandering around my favourite flea market in the world (and rightly so) Les Puces in Saint-Ouen north of Paris (which is still the biggest flea market in Europe), but then I realised where would I put it?

I want a chalkboard wall. Like this one to write my menus on...

It looks pretty cool right?

Thursday

Appertif/Nibbles

Fougasse aux herbs Provencal de La Maisonette des Mots*

Traditional Provencal bread with herbs from the region, special house recipe blend

Olives farcies aux anchois, saucisse de sanglier de Corse, et un assortiment de fromages régionaux

Olives stuffed with anchovies, Corsican wild boar sausage, and an assortment of local cheeses

Vin rosé - La Cave d'Augustin Florent

Rosé wine

Entrée

Velouté d'asperges garni avec huile de truffe blanche servi frais

Chilled asparagus soup garnished with white truffle oil

Plat

Gigot d'agneau rôti servi avec du miel de romarin et sauce à l'ail croustillant, pommes de terre soufflées, et la ratatouille de Juliette (la recette de ma grand-mère de Juliette)

Roasted leg of lamb with rosemary honey sauce and crispy garlic, puffed potatoes, and ratatouille (made with my grandmother Juliette's secret recipe)

Vin rouge - Chateauneuf du Pape Louis Jadot

Red wine - Chateauneuf du Pape Louis Jadot

Dessert

Clafloutis aux cerises et crème glacée à la vanille et du porto

Clafoutis with black cherries served with vanilla ice cream and aged Porto wine

If you notice I'm not serving a separate wine with the first course and it's not because I'm cheap or lazy. The reason why is because this chilled soup is meant to cleanse the palate before I serve the lamb and the wine. Chateauneuf du Pape is probably my favourite appelation of French red wines and it's meant to be served with lamb, it just is. So if someone counsels you to take a Bordeaux ask them if they have a Chateauneuf du Pape and the Louis Jadot specifically. It's a bit cheaper than a Bordeaux of the same quality and I don't think you could find the same quality Bordeaux for the price of the Jadot Chateauneuf du Pape either (though I am willing to be corrected on this).

There two more days of cooking after this massive welcome meal (whose leftovers will be packed up for a picnic) that will feature Cajun cooking and Korean BBQ. By Sunday I will most likely pass out from exhaustion, but for friends like ones who are willing to come from so far just to visit, the effort will be worth it.

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Samsung's Galaxy S 2

I have so far resisted the urge to buy a new cell phone, but recently the itch has turned more into a rash. But I wasn't going to rush into anything. The days of being sent electronic gadgets for free are long gone for me, but one thing I can say is even if something is free if it's crap, it's still crap (yes I mean you Sony Cybershot).

So after looking at what promotions my cell phone service provider was offering I was down to two choices. Either I could go the route of the iPhone 4G or I could go for the Samsung Galaxy S2. Here is how and why I made my final choice.

The first thing I did was Google "Samsung Galaxy S2 vs. iPhone 4G". Sure enough there were plenty of hits. Obviously other people were having the same dilemma. In the end it was this YouTube video that helped me decide.

I watched it twice to count the difference in time from switching the phone on to get going. I still have my old school HTC I bought six years ago and one thing I hate about it and have always hated is how long it takes for it to turn on. In this battle the Galaxy S2 beat the iPhone 4G by a whole 16 seconds. Thank you Bulgaria!

Now the Galaxy S2 had me intrigued. My friend recently purchased the Google Nexus S and was meeting another friend of ours who just got his Galaxy S2 so I asked him to compare the two and got to finding out more about this new Samsung offering.

Unlike Victoria Beckham I don't always think thinner is better, but after years of using my HTC (which is thicker than my home wireless phone), I like the thinness of the Galaxy S2. It's only slightly thinner than the iPhone though, but what makes it thinner, as the guy mentions in the clip above is the screen and the screen on the Galaxy S2 is pretty fantastic. It's slightly less bright and has more saturation to its colours, but in the end it's just easier to look at it. And the score is Samsung 2 iPhone 0.

A few more clips later and I just couldn't find a reason not to get the Samsung Galaxy S2. So I went looking for some reasons. Here's the nasty things that bothered me the most:

1. There may be a defect in the screen, though not on all models apparently and while the website says to report it to Samsung, it doesn't say whether or not Samsung will replace any phone with this problem, which means it's good idea to ask before buying.

2. As an iPod (does this make me old school yet?) user I'm worried about syncing my iTunes library. I found plenty of suggestions of third party apps, but there was no single app that seemed to work for everyone.

3. Speaking of apps, there are not as many apps for the Galaxy S2 as they are for the iPhone.

And that's it. Three reasons that can all be rationalised away in a way that won't make me feel as bad as when I rationalise that eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream in one sitting means I'm getting all that calcium all at once or that I'm supporting Vermont's dairy farmers. I'm sure I can sort out the iTunes thing. It might not be as easy as it would be on the iPhone but who am I kidding? I haven't bought music from iTunes since 2005.

Then of course there was the massive price difference. I can have through my provider a Samsung Galaxy S2 for 100,00 euros without having to change my current plan or pay anything extra whereas the iPhone 4's cheapest offering would cost me 234,00 euros. For 134,00 euros I could fill my Galaxy S2 with nifty apps and since they aren't that many yet I can use the money I save to buy shoes (you know, to support shoemakers in Italy). This is obviously a win-win.

I have to wait a few weeks since it's a birthday present and I've found no way (yet) to rationalise buying it sooner after having been on two expensive vacations in the past 5 months, but it will most definitely make its way into my impatient hands before August 21st if only because my current phone has reached an age where it has become incontinent (it drops calls), grumpy (I get bad reception even when I'm in a place where I once got good reception), and the battery life means I have to charge it every day if I talk on the phone or use the web for too long, which according to techie reviews of the iPhone 4 means I basically have all the problems I could have with an iPhone 4 but because my phone is 1,000 years old in tech years at least it has an excuse whereas the iPhone doesn't.

Sorry iPhone users but I'm sick of being called up by friends with iPhones that need tech support. I was almost tempted for a few weeks to change my voicemail message to: "You have reached a number where the mobile user doesn't want to help you debug, jailbreak, fix, or listen to you complain about your iPhone. Please check the number and then call someone else."

In the words of Garth "Oh yes you will be mine. You will be mine."

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Happy Independence Day America

Today is the day that the former thirteen colonies declared independence from Britain in a document that would be forever confused with the much later adopted Constitution, the Declaration of Independence.

As someone who fell in love with the ideals America was founded upon over two hundred years ago I hope that one day the ideals stated in the Declaration of Indpendence, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are put into further practice.

So happy, happy Independence Day to the U-S of A. I hope all my American readers enjoyed their long weekend.

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Mr. Mojo Risin' - 40th Anniversary Tribute

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Mr. Mojo Risin' aka The Lizard King aka James Douglas Morrison. While I walked around the forest today with a dear friend who came to visit I found myself humming "Soul Kitchen" at one point in the day (in order to get the song Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones out of my head). I didn't know today was the day Jim Morrison was sadly found dead of a heart attack in his Paris appartement in the then not-as-hip Marais neighbourhood.

Apparently people flocked to Pere Lachaise cemetary for the occasion, but in 2001 because the rent on his site had only been paid for 30 years he was nearly moved. His grave site is one of the most heavily guarded and rightly so - aside from the now flat grave stone his original headstone and sculpture bust have been stolen from the site over the years.

Jim was a bit of literature buff and besides writing lyrics he also wrote poetry. His literary influences include William Blake, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire, Jack Kerouac, Nietzsche, Joseph Campbell's "The Hero With a Thousand Faces, and James Frazier's "The Golden Bough". In fact, if you look at the contents section of The Golden Bough you will see listed:

L.X. BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH

Part I                      Not to touch the earth

Part II              Not to see the sun

(The next part of the lyrics is "nothing left to do but run, run, run")

He was also heavily influence by Louis-Ferdinand Céline's "Voyage au bout de la nuit" (Journey to the End of the Night), Antonin Artaud (performance-wise), and Elvis Presley.



When I first discovered The Doors I was a thirteen year old girl, armed with a new grasp of the English language and fond of Birkenstocks and Dancing Bear tye-dyed t-shirts. Since I couldn't follow The Doors I ended up following the Grateful Dead (Jerry was amazingly nice) and sold tye-dyed t-shirts and bottles of water to concert goers in order to finance the next ride. Still in the afternoons while I dyed my hands brown (the colours all ran together and gave me bad faux tan before bad faux tan came to be but only on my hands and arms up to the middle of my forearm) I listened to Jim and wrote bad poetry and lamented that I had been born in 1977 (despite 1977 being the year The Clash released their eponymous debut album and that Star Wars came out in theaters).

Though a part of me moved on to The Clash, The Smiths, and other bands without "the" in their names (like R.E.M.), the music of The Doors moves me today more than it did that thirteen year old girl I was. Now I can understand the depth to the songs. They don't seem to address that teenage angst because I no longer have it, but they still move me if only because the songs are such a pleasure to play (especially on vinyl if you can).

Here's a video tribute to Jim and his music, starting with the official ceremony that took place today.

And of course...

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The Hobbit

The geek in me (who is the same geek that has seen the long ass director's cuts of the three LOTR movies in the cinema even) is pretty excited about Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit". Of all the LOTR books it is by far my favourite. It also contains one of the best opening lines of any book in history:

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

Before this sentence no one even knew what a hobbit was. No one had ever seen or heard of a hobbit. No one knew what they looked like, where they lived, or how many times a day a hobbit might like to eat breakfast (at least twice). It makes this first sentence unique and original. It is also a fine first sentence because of its simplicity and it's ability to immediately get your imagination going.

I was eleven when I undertook reading The Hobbit and Tolkien's other LOTR books. I had been long obsessed with C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia and read somewhere that the two men had been friends and had influenced each other a great deal. So out I set to the school library and from the first sentence I didn't stop. I read while walking; before sleeping; while eating; basically any chance I could get (including hiding the books inside my textbooks during class; and when I had finished all four of the books I read them again.

Over the years I've read a or a few books from Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia nearly every year of my life. The last time I read the Tolkien books was when the first of the films was set to come out and only to see how true Jackson was going to be to Tolkien's much beloved material. While I have my complaints (mostly surrounding Elijah Wood) about the films I still enjoyed seeing some of my favourite fictional characters come to life. Especially Gandalf.

Living in a forest it's hard not to think about Tolkien's books and Middle Earth. Once on a long walk unsure of where to go me and my friend thought, how would Gandalf decide what road to take when he encountered five separate paths in the wood? Then when my neighbour's son started reading The Fellowship of the Ring I decided it was time to read the books again. So naturally I started with The Hobbit.

But I had to buy it as I had lent the set I bought before The Fellowship of the Ring came out in theaters and it was never returned, which really upsets me as they weren't a valuable set, but they happened to be the first books I ever bought at The Strand  and I happened to find them under a set of shelves as opposed to on them. They were covered with thick dust that made them seem all the more magical.

I bought a cheap paperback copy of The Hobbit (I could have had a first UK edition for 200,00 euros but I couldn't afford it) in Amsterdam at The Book Exchange and read that first line again, but this time with the perspective of someone who would love to write something as brilliant for children..."In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit."

If you're looking for news more on the movie than the book this is a pretty decent website, but I warn you that any true fan of the books isn't going to like the initial news. Yes Orlando Bloom is one sexy Englishman and I loved his portrayal of Legolas, but he isn't in the book. Jackson's "tinkering" around with details and well just between me and you I don't approve.

Why don't I approve Mr. Jackson? For the same reasons why I didn't approve of your other "tinkerings". For the past twenty + years I've been entranced by that one opening line alone, nevermind the entire book. Why change it? Why make it more Hollywood? If something has lived in the hearts of its fans for such a long time I would think it's good enough to be left alone.

But reading this book after so many years has made me smile. Like Bilbo, I'm there and back again to a time when my imagination was all I needed to make a book come to life.

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