Beth Arnold

In iWorld

Crossposted at HuffingtonPost.  Comments not included here.

The promise of yet another fab Apple product in our iLives--the iPad--reminded me of this photo I took in Athens:

I am a huge Apple fan--but couldn't resist taking a snapshot of this T-shirt hanging outside a kitsch tourist shop in the Plaka.

                                                               ---Beth Arnold in Paris

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Letter From Paris: Happy Birthday Django Reinhardt

Image via Wikipedia

For the last week and half, Paris has been celebrating the 100th birthday of one of the world's great jazz guitarists and the founder of gypsy jazz Django Reinhardt.  

A square near where Reinhardt's family parked their caravans was named after the jazz master, and the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, was on hand to do the honors for Reinhardt. “He was a Roma, he was a rebel," said Delanoe, "and he is someone who represents the culture of traveling people.”

"Behind Delanoe, a band made up mainly of Reinhardt's descendants played east European-tinged gypsy pieces." 

And it is a relief to know that the music carried the crowd away and

"the gathering of press and fedora-hatted relatives, however, could hardly sit still and soon crowded the stage to dance." --Reuters

What could be more appropriate than to celebrate the King of Gypsy Jazz with happy feet?

Reinhardt was born in Belgium and grew up in gypsy camps close to Paris.  He was a guitar prodigy but also played banjo and violin from an early age--and played professionally at Bal-musette halls in Paris. The real kicker is that at age 18 he was badly burned in a terrible fire in his caravan, and doctors thought he'd never play guitar again.  But he somehow retrained himself to play all of his guitar solos with only two fingers of his fret hand along with his lightning quick right.

From Wikipedia:

With violinist Stéphane Grappelli, he cofounded the Quintette du Hot Club de France, described by critic Thom Jurek[2] as "one of the most original bands in the history of recorded jazz." Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become jazz standards, including "Minor Swing", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42" and "Nuages" (French for "Clouds").

Letter From Paris: A French Idol and His Daughter

Image by mauren veras via Flickr

Crossposted at HuffingtonPost.com.  Comments not included her.

The biopic of Serge Gainsbourg, titled Gainsbourg (Vie Héroïque), has opened in Paris, and the French are flocking to see it like Americans used to beat it to Woody Allen movies.  (That is before Woody basically had an affair with and married his adopted daughter and became his natural born son's brother-in-law....Not to mention his films were getting a little boring.)

Unknown French actor Eric Elmosnino is playing Gainsbourg, who remains a beloved figure in France, and the actor's resemblance to the singer/actor is said to be uncanny.  The film covers Gainsbourg's entire life and is getting some criticism for the inclusion of M. Gainsbourg's alter ego (representing his insecurity about his looks) as a cartoon that speaks to him.

I haven't seen the film yet--but why not, I say?  The alter ego sounds cool to me.  I'll have to watch the film before I make my final judgment, but I can see this mixture of medias could add excitement as well as enhance the story and mood. 

Gainsbourg was a chain smoker of Gitanes, which added to his mystique and image.  The alternate movie title to go with the alter ego could be "Have Gitane Will Travel."  See movie poster below:

Paris Art Market Buzz: A Boullienne Fantasy

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By columnist Paul Paradis, Art Historian, Specialist Consultant in French Furniture and Decorative Arts

The auction scene in Paris has been slow to take-off since the holidays so I decided to make the trip to Frankfurt on the TGV (high speed train) to see the exhibition devoted to the star French ébéniste (cabinet maker) entitled André Charles Boulle (1642-1732): A New Style for Europe.  The historic show features many rare pieces of furniture never before displayed outside their places of origin from 29 public and private collections, including the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the Banque de France, Versailles, the Swedish Royal Collections and several German collections.  I knew that this was an opportunity not to miss.

The “direct” fast train journey from Paris turned into a fiasco since the TGV could only go as far as Saarbrucken where passengers had to transfer to a German intercity train. A friendly German waiting for the transfer train next to me in the sub-zero station explained that the French don’t like German trains which they claim are technically inferior. Oh well, so much for European integration.  In my former life as an economist specialized in European affairs, I had always been led to believe that European integration was seamless and all but complete.  It’s funny how different the real world can be.  By the way, the German train was luxurious (precious wood interiors, leather seats) and spacious compared to the French TGV.  Vive la différence!

Arriving in Frankfurt, I decided to walk across the river Main to the Museum für Angewandte Kunst MAK (Museum of Decorative Arts, pictured above) hosting the exhibition as it didn’t look far on the GPS of my personal digital assistant.  It turned out to be quite a trek.  The snow had melted leaving the sidewalks full of a black mush consisting of salt, gravel and who knows what else.  The wheels of my chic little brown suitcase protested but I forged ahead on the Shaumainkai (the road along the river hosting a row of museums) cursing myself for my irrational fanaticism of beautiful 17^th and 18^th century French furniture.  Lost in the mush and a daydream, I passed the MAK without even realizing it.  How could I have missed the glamorous sign featuring a naturalistic gilt-bronze lobster for the André Charles Boulle exhibition?  Having confirmed the exact address twice, I backtracked and found myself in front of a gate opening on to a non-descript courtyard featuring the above-mentioned winter mush, a wheelbarrow and plastic-covered scaffolding across the facade.  Could this be the Richard Meier building from 1985?  A small poster with the lobster was tacked onto a wall near a revolving door indicated the Boulle exhibition.  Not quite what I had imagined for such an illustrious craftsman, but at least I was in the right place. Already confused as to why the exhibition was being held in Germany to begin with, I was more than a bit baffled by the choice of venue and began to wonder whether it was worth the trip.

Cover of Catalogue to André Charles Boulle Exhibition (Photo: MAK)  

Letter From Paris: Funny Lady and Chinese Checkers

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From my perch in Paris, this is quite a juxtaposition:  One small town in France is honoring women cartoonists from around the globe for expressing themselves and the culture--for using humor as a catalyst to thoughtful change.  In fact, one of the goals of the RIDEP confab--that Amnesty International is co-sponsoring--in Carquefou is "providing the public with the occasion to reflect upon freedom of expression and Human Rights and other universal themes such as women or the environment." 

Then there is China--the most populated country in the world--whose minister just slapped U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's hand for criticizing China’s censorship of the Internet.  As we all know, the Chinese government's goal is to prevent thoughtful freedom of expression and Human Rights, unless officials approve of the subject and its content.  Watchers of the Internet such as PRI's The World: Technology from BBC/PRI/WGBH podcast regularly report on China's trying to "control information, especially online information."

Nothing funny about that, is there?  Not to those of us who relish Freedom of Speech in every form and format.

From the HuffingtonPost.com:

BEIJING — Beijing issued a stinging response Friday to U.S. criticism that it is jamming the free flow of words and ideas on the Internet, accusing the United States of damaging relations between the two countries by hoisting its "information imperialism" on China.

Letter From Paris: Laughing for Change

Cover via Amazon

Crossposted at HuffPo.com.  Comments not included here.

I had taken the bus to the Atlas stop on Line 26 and walked the cross street to Boulevard de la Vilette, where I found the Amnesty International Building. New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly, whom I had come to meet, seemed to materialize in front of me at just the right moment. We kissed hello as one does in France, and I walked in.

As the press conference started, the six women were settling into their chairs, some with their translators behind him. I looked at this line-up of women. It was a diverse group in some ways, though they could easily have been your neighbors or friends, whose funny bones and ability to draw happened to be the avenues of their intelligence and wit. The drawing of cartoons is how this group of artists are most themselves, and, by the way, many of the women had been inspired and determined to make this their life's work since they were kids. The common thread was that their humor would somehow be used as a catalyst for change.

Letter From Paris: Crime As Justice

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I can't nail down the reason.  But returning to Paris after the holidays has seemed tougher this year.  Can't seem to get enough sleep.   I am tired and feel confused about this and that.

I have been dazzled by the "energy" predictions for the year coming up, so where is my mojo?  That it's to be a year for transformation definitely rings my bell anytime, but is it more true now?  I don't know.  Yes, I love change, but sometimes I hate it.  Don't we all?  What's wrong with that?

Even letting my inner murderer out by watching Dexter, which is ever so satisfying, hasn't given me the lift that I'd like.  Daughter Bret is thrilled today that actor Michael C. Hall won the Golden Globe for his Robin Hood as serial killer performance.  I can happily go along with that, even though Dex didn't get to a couple of the show's 1st season characters that the Lone Wolf and I thought deserved chopping up.  Crime-As-Justice is a theme that American television seems to be handling very well.  How about you, Life, is that what you're brewing up for the next year?

Can it be that I haven't quite adjusted to my new neighborhood yet? 

Well, yes in fact I think that's part of it.  So along with the gratitude of the day that I'll choose, another of my New Year's plans is to get out more and explore my hood.  What is it like living on the edge of Paris?  I want to find Edith Piaf's trail and discover the artists and artisans who inhabit these hilly spaces.  I will meet more of my neighbors in Pere Lachaise.  I will get more exercise and computer a little less!

But in the meantime...Paris.  Here are some winter images on my return to my favorite city in the world:

 Gallery Vivienne in the 2nd Arrondissement, one of my favorite spots

Paris Art Market Buzz

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17 January 2010

By columnist Paul Paradis, Art Historian, Specialist Consultant in French Furniture and Decorative Arts

Happy New Year: The Drouot Scandal Continues

The highly popular French daily Aujourd’hui en France (national version of  Le Parisien) featured the headline in large block print last Monday:  Trafic d’oeuvres d’art à Drouot (Trafficking of Works of Art at Drouot).   Having stopped at the news stand to purchase my evening copy of respectable Le Monde, I was stunned to see the Drouot arrests from early December (See Paris Art Market buzz, 11 December) were still literally making headline news.  I couldn’t resist purchasing a copy of the USA Today-style paper and quickly glanced over my shoulder to make sure that no acquaintances actually witnessed my lapse in standards.  Once safely hidden in a dark café, I opened the paper to see a complete two-page spread devoted to the story.  “Thefts at Drouot: a Chagall and Diamonds Found”, “Surprising Discoveries by Investigators” the titles read.  I did not realize that Drouot had enough popular appeal in France to deserve so much copy and attention in a mass circulation daily. 

Sold!....... A former auctioneer who embezzled lots.. (Cartoon: Aujourd’hui en France, January 11 2009)

Letter From Paris: 2010--The Year to Transform

The world is a big place that becomes smaller every year.  Whether you live in Paris, Sydney, or Kathmandu, I'd like to set a little more tone for a global New Year--or more precisely, a way to think.  I'm suggesting the time has come to stop living with fear and to expand our horizons.  Let's open this new year as transformative.

A sneak-preview of life's coming attractions for the "mighty" year of 2010. Courtesy of our friends from the Unknown.

All quotes are from the December 2009 edition of "The Sedona Journal".

The track is called, "Amazing" and the band is "One Eskimo".

                                                ---auradotca on YouTube

Whether the predictions in this video become true or not, what makes a huge difference is the open, connective, and creative attitude it sends forth. 

Letter From Paris: What I Miss in Paris #3

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Back in Paris, I am putting away all the gifts, items, and gadgets I was given and bought in the United States of America for myself and our new apartment.  The unpacking of clothes, mobile office, and miscellaneous toiletries, etc. usually takes me a couple of days.  Yes, I know I'm slow, but I want everything put back in exactly the right place.  Because you see I LOVE to be organized!

Yes, it's true.  It's a handy little obsession of mine, which I've had almost my entire life.  I was president of my student council/student body in high school.  I ran into one of my successors a few years after I'd left, and he told me how well he found all the documentation of my governance and the school's business that I'd handed down to the organization.  Well, I thought, not bad.  You see I want things to be perfectly in place before I start working or doing anything else, and after the pristine beginning, I can mess it all up or turn it around while I know where it is. 

So what do I miss in Paris?  THE CONTAINER STORE!