I’ve always preferred novels to short stories, the longer the better especially for my beloved science fiction/fanstasy tomes. I always thought that short stories were exactly that, too short. Just when you were getting into the story, it came to an end. With time however, the major life style changes took place and there are a few more constraints on my reading time. Short story collections now seem more and more apt for the harried times we live in. More than that, I’ve discovered that the beauty and strength of a short story lies in its ability to contain within its frame the entirety of a story. What limits its form is also its greatest strength. It’s a beautiful paradox which requires a genuinely skilled writer to bring to fruition. And there’s no shortage of great short story writers around, Grace Paley and Alice Munro are but two examples that come to mind. A recent discovery of mine is Amy Bloom, whom I first read through her breakthrough novel Away. As I really liked Away, I was a bit hesitant to start with her short stories for fear of being disappointed. Fortunately, Amy proved to be every bit formidable in short story form as with the novel.
I decided to start with her debut collection appropriate titled Come to Me. The running theme through this collection is love, in all its forms and all the ways by which we seek, destroy and nurture love. But this is by no means a fairy tale collection of maidens and princes with their happy ever after stories. Instead we have stories of flawed people struggling with death (Love is not a Pie, Sleepwalking and Semper Fidelis), madness and illness (Silver Water) and loneliness (Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines and When the Year Grows Old). As I was reading these stories, I marveled at Amy’s skill of making potentially unpalatable stories, more palatable, beguiling even, in their twisted sort of way.
What leavens the potential for despair in her stories is the palpable sense of hope that permeates these stories and the rich empathy with which Bloom writes their tales. In this day and age where a true happy ending begins to seem like a myth, Bloom offers us stories of the next best thing—the possibility of happiness and that all important second chance.

Currently running at the Cite de la Musique till the 1st of March 2009 is an exhibition on Serge Gainsbourg. One of France’s most beloved composer and singer, there is no doubting the influence that Serge Gainsbourg has exerted over the years. What this exhibition does is to present a rich trove of material on his life and works. And if you look carefully, much of the material was donated by his daughter Charlotte from her own collection. There are over a hundred pictures and television clips spanning the forty fruitful years of his career as well as interviews with numerous people he worked with. For the benefit of attendees, notably those not so familiar with his work, the exhibition also takes pains to highlight certain milestone periods of his career and the way he took the current trends and made it his own. He was an artist frequently way ahead of the times and the exhibition shows this facet of the man. It was fascinating to discover how much work he was able to produce. I didn’t even realize that he had published a book (Evguenie Sokolov) or that he had directed films. Another fascinating detail I learned was that he was so shy that he stopped performing in public in 1968! For such a provocateur, that was a real surprise. Of course, we can’t talk about Gainsbourg without dealing with his controversial private life and the exhibition doesn’t flinch from it. There are photos (some more provocative than others) of the famous women he was with, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, to name just two of the more prominent ones.

The nicest part about this exhibition is the room showing all the records he ever made. It was an impressive sight to see them all lined up against the wall. But even better than seeing the records are the computers set up where visitors could listen to a great number of extracts of his music, as well as the musicians that inspired him in all his long years. It also includes commentaries on his music. This is an invaluable resource and alone merits the visit to the exhibition. And because the organizers were nothing if not thorough, they have arranged for special showings of films Gainsbourg loved and more importantly, different tribute concerts throughout the period of the exhibition. All in all, this is a great way to spend a precious Saturday afternoon.

For practical details, feel free to consult the following site..

http://www.cite-musique.fr/francais/musee/expo_temporaires.aspx#

Souvenirs nostalgiques

Arrière petit-fils de René Coty (ex-président de la République pour ceux qui ont une absence), Benoît Duteurtre livre ses souvenirs. Ni autobiographie, ni roman, Les pieds dans l'eau a pour personnage principal Etretat, station balnéaire des parisiens aisés (et chics).

Cela pourrait être plein d'arrogance, c'est plein de charme. Décidément la société a changé, quand on compare cet ex-président à celui d'aujourd'hui. On y évoque certes René Coty et sa descendance, mais surtout on découvre une tranche de vie que"les plus jeunes ne peuvent pas comprendre" mais qu'ils peuvent pourtant regretter (ou pas).

Ce récit vaut par ses descriptions sur cette société en mutation vu par un enfant qui va devenir adulte. Une vie assez ordinaire malgré ses origines, et qui passera sans inconfort d'un milieu social à un autre. Ainsi que pour ses évocations d'Etretat qui semble être une ville balnéaire au charme désuet. On est bien loin du bing-bling d'aujourd'hui, Côte d'Azur et St Tropez en tête...

A trio to listen to

Our cultural weekend theme continued today with a visit to the Cité de la Musique near the Parc de la Villette. We were invited to watch the Jobic Le Masson trio in concert as part of the ongoing tribute to Serge Gainsbourg (more about the exhibition later on) at the Cité. I’d first heard the jazz trio play at Sunside at the launch of Hill, their first CD and was very impressed with their music. All but one of the songs in Hill are original compositions of Jobic Le Masson and I’m proud to say that he is as talented as the reviews say. And the cd as good as the reviews. Since the first concert, I’ve tried to watch their concerts as often as I could. Today was another good occasion to listen to them play and once again they didn’t disappoint. Playing in three sets of half an hour each, the trio played a selection of Gainsbourg tunes adapted in their inimitable jazz style. And while I confess to have a preference for the piano, Peter Giron on bass and John Betsch on drums are by no means laggards in musical talent. What is really cool about their group is the obvious ease (even affection) they have with each other which translates into a melodious collaborative effort among the three. And for the audience it is a real pleasure to listen to their seamless and always innovative way of playing. Today this ease was once more on display at the concert and if a number of their audience were below the majority age, all the better for them to discover early on what great jazz should sound like.

Here's John on drums..

Lest you remain unconvinced, I invite you to listen to the trio play and discover for yourself the music of the Le Masson trio. Here is the website where you can check for their concert schedules and listen to extracts of their music. http://jobic.lemasson.free.fr/

Here is their CD ...

An Art Afternoon

If last weekend was devoted to Cars, this weekend is shaping up to be devoted to art. This weekend the Grand Palais and the Cour du Louvre is the place to be for the 35th annual Foire Internationale D’Art Contemporain, or more simply known as FIAC. This year’s FIAC hosted two hundred participants, of which 114 were foreign exhibitors. And I can tell you that they had a very fine and diverse selection of modern and contemporary art.
Our visit started with, funnily enough, champagne (thanks to a friend who had invited us to a private “brunch” if you will) and a guided visit. And when we had finished the guided visit, we leisurely made our way among the different stands and it proved to be one of the most visually arresting visits I’d ever made outside a museum. Imagine if you will, the variety of modern artists available for viewing under the elegant completely restored dome of the Grand Palais, where the autumnal light bathed everything in a rosy light, and you can see why it makes for one of those unforgettable afternoons. Unlike literature with its more easily categorized characteristics for what distinguishes bad from good, art appreciation tilts more towards the subjective. All the more so when the art in question is modern or contemporary. The question of what makes something a piece of art as opposed to squiggles on a canvas, is never a line drawn in stone. For me (as I imagine it is for other people) the line is more often than not drawn where the piece of work touches or moves me, an answering call, if you will, to the art work’s siren call. What is clear is that modern art provokes questions, debate and contemplation as to why we should consider it as art. Whether or not we agree on what we like or dislike, what is most reassuring is that artists nowadays are more free than ever to experiment, and express, in whatsoever way they choose, their artistic urgings. And there are people ready to support such endeavors.

This year's FIAC ran the gamut from established artists like Warhol, Basquiat and Calder to relatively new comers who had some very interesting works.

Here are a few of the more striking ones..

Untitled (Union Street) by Gregory Crewdson-- we were surprised to learn that this photo is actually a composed one. The artist had painstakingly assembled each and every element in this photo to create what we can see now...




The bronze sculpture that is the model for the the large Kate Moss free standing scuplture called Sphinx by Mark Quinn...

The Nebula Crab, again by Mark Quinn. A genuinely interesting artist whose been known to use his own blood (among other things) in his art work..

One by Alexander Calder..

A personal favorite...one by Mimmo Rotella

And because this weekend is devoted to art, we had the pleasures of the Petit Palais waiting for us at the end of our FIAC visit. A short hop across the street and we were in the equally elegant interiors of the Petit Palais where the Patrick Demarchelier exhibition is currently running. And while Red Addict has already done a great job reviewing said exhibition, permit me to add a few words.

What struck me the most about the exhibition was the clever juxtaposition of the temporary exhibition with the permanent collection of the Petit Palais. It permits the viewer to discover the works of Patrick Demarchelier and at the same time view an older artwork with fresh eyes. To view them was to see mirror images that echoed each other despite a difference in a few hundred years between their creation. And it allows for a deeper appreciation for both works despite their seeming disparity.

One with Sandra Bernhard and French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy...both could have been called Portrait of a strong willed woman

Ideas of the feminine beauty...one by Courbet, others by Demarchelier

While Demarchelier is most renowned for his fashion pictures, he was also an excellent portraitist..

And last but not the least but just because I thought this was funny..

yummy!

J'ai toujours pensé que le restaurant (hors restaurants exotiques) était une perte de temps et d'argent. On y mange moins bien que chez soi, pour trois fois le prix. Je considère donc ça comme une commodité.

Mais j'ai une faiblesse (même moi, j'en ai) pour les restaurants végétariens (c'est mon côté hippie). Cela dit, un restaurant végétarien rue du Bourg Tibourg fait davantage référence aux bobos parisiens qu'aux hippies de San Francisco, mais en temps de crise, on fait ce qu'on peut...

Ne crachons pas dans la soupe (que l'on déguste d'ailleurs sans cuillère dans l'assiette Thai Delhi, à moins que cela n'était pas une soupe. Heureusement le pain brun éponge très bien), ce petit restaurant vaut le détour. On y mange très bien (et très copieusement) pour un tarif raisonnable, les serveurs sont fort sympathiques, et la carte est tellement alléchante que l'on prend un dessert en ayant déjà dépassé ses limites alimentaires. Le cadre n'est pas particulièrement cosy, mais c'est un détail (en revanche les appartements au-dessus du restaurant m'ont l'air fort agréables. Je suis preneuse de dons, et promis j'invite les donateurs au restaurant une fois que j'ai mon appart au-dessus).

Et pour ceux (celles plutôt) qui veulent doubler leur plaisir, le magasin stock de Zadig et Voltaire est en face....

Ps: Pour les infos pratiques:

RESTAURANT LA VICTOIRE SUPRÊME DU COEUR

29 rue du Bourg Tibourg

75004 Paris

Téléphone : 01 40 41 95 03

Métro(s) : Hotel de Ville

Rentrée littéraire

Un peu en retard (le temps que les gens achètent les livres, les lisent et me les prêtent), j'entame donc ma rentrée littéraire.... sur des chapeaux de roue puisque je commence avec La meilleure part des hommes, la révélation de la rentrée (selon les médias).

L'action se passant dans le milieu intellectuel homosexuel de gauche, c'est donc très hype, et donc probablement pour cela est encensé pour la critique. A un an près, Tristan Garcia, l'auteur est mon contemporain, je ne devais donc pas être perdue dans la description de cette génération SIDA des années 90 qu'il n'a pas plus connu que moi.

Le résumé avait l'air excellent, les premières pages font un peu déchanter, notamment au niveau du style. Le style "parlé", c'est bien ... pour parler, dans un roman, c'est plus rebutant.

Et pourtant..., le roman captive sans pour autant convaincre. On a envie de dérouler le fil de la vie des personnage principaux (pourtant passablement inbuvables), en parallèle de la vie de cette génération et de cette communauté homosexuelle. Je ne pense pas que cela soit une découverte littéraire qui restera gravée à jamais dans l'esprit des lecteurs, mais l'auteur a indéniablement du talent (et il en fallait pour m'intéresser à la politique et à ce qui gravite autour). Reste à voir ce que cela donne dans ses prochaines oeuvres.

Un livre à se faire prêter donc, un bon compromis dans le rapport qualité-prix!