Archive for July, 2008
- Heaven
Smells like church and woods. They were burning it when I visited apartment yesterday.
It was the only thing I could semi-afford.
- So
I’ve been wanting to share my experience on here but it’s hard to do justice to what I am living right now. Through pictures or words. I don’t want to attempt to post pictures every day as things are happening, since for logistical reasons I don’t have them in real time and I have stopped obsessively trying to record everything; , I just want to live right now. Also I can only take very few film pictures now because my Yashica is fucking up, and I don’t like to lug my digital camera at night, bla bla bla.
My sisters Marine and Amandine visited me this week (not on the same days). Let’s just say we did not sleep at very Mormon hours. I smoke way too much. My new favorite bar is owned by French guys and isn’t officially open yet. They know my name and make delicious food that is the best thing in the world at 3am. I feel more loved and understood by the people here than I could have imagined. I met some French people that have taken me around the city. I think being the same kind of foreigner in a city of foreigners definitely helps.
I have not seen too many touristy/cultural things, except the excellent Helmut Newton Foundation and some walking around Unter den Linden, but it feels more important to me to do things like walking through Prenzlauer Berg right now and recognize a little more every day. Oh yeah, my neighborhood drunk recognizes me now. He screams “Brigitte Bardot! Jacques Dutronc!” when he rides past me on his bike.
I think I’m going to go lay in the grass in the park next to Kastanienallee five minutes from here right now and maybe have a drink with a friend. The weather is super hot, finally, it’s almost 8pm and really really nice out right now.
- Snapshots
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- Berlin
I got here on Tuesday. I made some tea, stared at the whiteness and just enjoyed being completely alone for the first time in a while.
The apartment is OK, sort of, as you can see!!!I will be here for almost three weeks. There is an entire foreign-speaking world outside to explore but first I wanted to take care of some photos. I’m close to Rosa-Luxemburg Platz which is really central. The one downside is the construction on the outside of the building that starts loudly at 7am (that’s part of why I was able to afford this place)… It’s lovely anyway, aside from having to make sure there isn’t someone looking at me from the scaffolding outside.
I’ll be dancing alone in here and writing and editing photos and thinking about what is next.
OK, I have spent far too much time inside, time to go out.
PS to Yasmine: look, a palm tree in the corner!
- Gossip, July 6
Fantastic live as always.
- Paris
I went to the Avedon retrospective. The In the American West series blown up huge is arresting.
Then I saw the Annie Leibowitz show at the Maison Europénne de la Photographie, and it spoke to me on a more emotional level. I love feeling the tacit understanding between her and the people she photographs. She had a statement on the wall about how she admires Avedon’s work so much, but she couldn’t do studio pictures with only a white background and no environment, it’s just you and the other person and you have to talk to them to put them at ease. He was a master of talking but she doesn’t know how to do that with people when all she really wants is to stare at them.
Paris was seductive and too brief. I spent most of my time walking around the Marais, got to stay in a rooftop apartment from heaven, hung out with Solène from Portland in overpriced clubs with bad music and also great bars with great people, and had some very inspiring lunches (company-wise and food-wise).
Sorry for the weird scanning issues, I have no control over it right now!
- 4 days in Toulouse, Léa passait bientôt le bac de français
My sister Léa was taking French literature exams that week. She ended up having to discuss Baudelaire’s “Parfum Exotique”, which is one of my favorite poems.
She did very well.
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