Jacques a dit …

30 years later …

My last day in Paris!

Just to comemorate I’ll expose one of the many precious things I learned while in Paris:

The Jagger Bomb!

STEP 1 – Take 3 cocktails glasses, and fill 2 of those with Red Bull. Take 2 Shot of Jagger Master and do a kind of pyramid:

STEP 2 – Surround this with some lighter-gas-fuel thingy. And IGNIT!!! Let cook for 5 seconds. And drop the shots into the red bull.

STEP 3 – Let the flame slowly go out.

STEP 4 – Enjoy … and take a Taxi or have a friend drive you home.

How is the weather? Well, It’s a pretty warm spring for a beginning of August.

The two (2) questions still pending from my “Suspense” post are now answered : July was a good month, not too stressful and with everything that came out the way it should have. Work was slow though which means I’ll have to work more in August so that I don’t fill guilt when I’ll leave my internship on the 29.
Brett was finally welcomed back by the Packers (how could they possibly have benched the best QB that played for their team since the AFL-NFL fusion and the apparition of the west-coast offense). But will he be a deluxe 2nd QB behind Rodgers or the iron man starter we all knew and worshiped ? Time will tell us.

I’d like to congrats J.L.P. a really nice guy I know and that just went through something really hardcore, so : Well done J.L.P. , take care, and much love to you J.L.P., I do worship you!

Yesterday, my very-very-best-friend (someone that is like a brother to me) came to Paris for business and we went to Lunch together, it was pretty nice to see him outside of our hometown. It felt kinda strange, but a good strange. We went to a Japanese restaurant called Inaniwa Umami-An behind the Champs-Elysée in Paris. It’s the kind of restaurant that gave me that “If I was a Japanese I would have had better stuff” feeling. I asked them for their sake list and all that was listed was 4 different kind of Junmai futsusake (I took one that seemed not too bad : Aramasa Rokugo Sake by Aramasa Shuzo co.), but it wasn’t as appealing as the lines of refined and traditional-looking sake bottle lined over the shelves on the dinning room. The dishes were simple but ultra-good (my salmon was cooked and seasoned with perfection) but again, it was that “I’m not an habitué” feeling, if I have time to visit them again I’ll make sure to be more “agressif” and ask them for the special stuff.
I started to appreciate some decent sake bottles in Milan, I must say I’m a bit disappointed by this spot. Fortunately there is plenty more for me to try in the website of the CEC.
Maybe it was because it was lunch? I wonder.

My internship is entering its last month. Things are taking shape but I’ve no idea how far my friend is taking his ideas. It’s like you are watching a really really slow explosion, you never know what’s happening until it’s done. Anyway I’m really exited to closing this up, I must say that I’m more looking forward my year in Strasbourg (and possibly in Japan) than I’m sad to leave this very interesting project. Plus I think Paris is just not the city for me (apart for the awesome quantity of good restaurant) I’m still a little guy from the south, if I don’t smell pasta&pizza or see the sea I’m no good (NISSA FOREVER BABY!).

Peace.

Some answers … at last.

Like I wrote in my post “Suspense!” I was still waiting on some answers for the future.
Well I got some :
- “Will I get accepted at ULP in Strasbourg?” Well I did get accepted so next year I’ll be attending class in Strasbourg! My room is booked, I already know the public transportation from my dormitory to my class-rooms, I know where the American Football Club train there and I’m making a good list of restaurants and bars that I need to visit once I’m there. Edouard 1 – Cruel-World 0!

- “Will the aliens finally invade us this year?” I got a phone call : apparently we were saved by increasing price of fuel. Their great commander in chief’s spokesmen told me that they could come here and enslave our primitive ass, but that they couldn’t possibly afford to refuel only half their fleet for the trip back home with the current state of the oil market. That was a close call!

- “Will the US finally come to sense and impeach Pr. Bush? ” Edouard 1 – Cruel-World 1

- “Will Kotooshu earn the Yokozuna title by winning the Nagoya Basho 2008?” Apparently not … as it seems he will be a contestant for some performance-prices but the yusho seems out of his reach in his current health-condition. Hakuho is still unbeaten too … but it still mathematically possible.

The Japan-Exchange issue is still on hold … but the fact that I landed an acceptance to the ULP is a big step toward my final goal. Same goes for the Favre issue. July is not over so I won’t judge it yet, and some important things will happens next week that will greatly affect my final impression.

PEACE!

My summer Rock n’ Roll story

I’m not the kind of guy that could be the hero of films like “Almost Famous” or “Velvet Goldmine”. I don’t gravitate around musicians or film’s artists. I’m a down-to-earth Rock n’ Roll fan computer programmer. I’m the average folk that have one in a billions chance to make rock history or (lamer) history at all. But sometimes, the awesomeness of some people I know just fall down on my knees.
I want to tell you the story of my drumsticks. I’m currently living in Paris in a little loft, for free. The other day, while cleaning up a forgotten closet in my apartment I found a barely used pair of drumsticks. My neighbor being a film maker (and, by the way, the son of the guy that lend me the loft) that love to help out his friends, some young musicians he meets at his favorite bar, I assumed that this were left-over of a long forgotten music clip filming and went on using them to lose stress on any object that could produce a nice sound without disturbing the neighbors(tables, books, stools, wallets, etc etc).
Just yesterday, my very own friendly-neighborhood-film-maker came by to ask me a few washing machine related stuff (like “why do you keep on using high-temperatures!” or “where did you put the plastic bowl?”) and saw me fooling around with this sticks. He then went like this : “LOL, do you know what those sticks are?”
That’s how I learned that my sticks were actually the property of the drummer of the rock band Noir Désir
famous around Europe (and maybe the world) for this song “Le vent nous portera” or this one “L’homme pressé“. This group is also well known for its lead-singer/guitarists killing his girlfriend in a drunken fight (they were both drunk and she fell on the table apparently … which still makes him an asshole, minds you). By the way, the girlfriend was also the daughter of a family that is the closest representation of a royal family the French movie industry might have, the name was Marie Trintignant.
My neighbor landed those sticks in Bulgaria, the Noir Désir were on tour there, he was simply accompanying a photographer that was covering the tour. They were sitting at a table in a restaurant when the band came and sat at the very table beside them. They were just over with sound-checks and the drummer, Denis Barthe, was still carrying his sticks with him. After exchanging some very boring banalities with the photographer and his companion the band finished eating and went to prepare itself for the show. Denis just left the sticks behind as they were barely chipped and no more useable (as they might have damaged the drums during the concert). My friend had the good idea of picking them up and keeping them as a memento of the tour.
Now I’ve inherited those sticks … and frankly I don’t care where they came from : they are just very good for loosen up a bit when I’m alone and working on complicated stuff. For me it’s just a nice true story, and I needed to post something on my blog. Thanks Denis Barthe!

On a side note : I’d like you all to see this movie : CHOCOLATE. I’m not talking about the one with Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche – although that one was really good too I must admit – but the one with JeeJa Yanin. It’s a Thai movie directly from the same mold that was used for  Ong-Bak (same producer and director, and the choreograh of Tony Jaa is the master of the lead-role actress), but god is that girl great … Don’t go there if you love well written stories with complex plots or lots of actor’s work. This is a 100% action packed movie, the 20 first minutes (the classic intro of the character) is so-so but we see a lot of Hiroshi Abe in it(LOL… I love that actor). Just watch it with friends to have some fun and disconnect your brain for 110 minutes. Watch the Trailer for now … this one doesn’t lie, what you’ll see on this teaser is what you’ll get on the movie. So get ready for seeing a cute girl (really Aya Ueto’s level cuteness and all IMHO … ok maybe a bit lower … but that’s an almost illegal level of cuteness too) kick some (many) A$$! Peace!

Suspense!

Here comes a few questions that should be answered soon :
- Will I get accepted at ULP in Strasbourg?
- Will I be allowed to participate in an Exchange to Japan?
- Will Brett Favre return to the Packers for the 2008-09 season?
- Will the aliens finally invade us this year?
- Will the US finally come to sense and impeach Pr. Bush? Vidéo
- Will Kotooshu earn the Yokozuna title by winning the Nagoya Basho 2008?
- Will July be a good month in Paris?

Maybe some of those questions will have answers in a few days ^^.

By the way, I know I already have a student room’s on Strasbourg campus … the prob is I don’t know yet if I got accepted as a student by the school itself. I love French administration.

See ya all!

What we do is what we … doh.

I found a good song to symbolize what was my past 2 weeks of work.

Unfortunately, I promised my “boss” to speak about what we are making only to my most trusted friends and family members, or just to anybody that couldn’t understand the concept and, therefore, wouldn’t be able to stole his idea. That might sound a little paranoiac … actually it sound a lot paranoiac. But I kinda understand it, his ideas are pretty good too.

Paris is nice. It’s big … too big. People always have a sad or angry face on the bus. Food is not that great if you go to the supermarket, and it’s expensive. Paris is good for rich people.
I finally got some cooking instruments, from now on veggies are back into my diet … w007! I received a humanitarian package from an Italian association – a.k.a my mom sent me my coffee machines with some Italian coffee powder. This package comes at the right moment in this time of deep crisis.

I just entered in contact with a high-school friend that now lives in Japan (it’s easy for her as she have double nationality Japanese-French) through Facebook. She’ll try to enter a docotrate program in Todai or Waseba … so I’d like to wish her luck on this forum. And I really hope we will stay in contact.

Over and Out!

Busy week in Paris

I just though it was time for my first post since I moved to Paris.

Right now I’m in Paris for helping some high school friend finishing his new awesome website so that it could be released during August. It’s a great new concept, using a lot of original ideas, I personally think it should work out for him and his project; and I hope he won’t forget me when he becomes a bazzillionaire thanks to the hard work I put in his project!

I arrived on the 3rd of June by train … it only took me 11 hours and a sleepless night in an uncomfortable night-wagon. Then I had to carry my 70kg+ luggages around the subways of Paris to reach my “workplace”, which is a nice apartment in the west of Paris near the Business District of Paris (La Défence). We started to work right away, but it was more a big briefing about what needed to be done rather than a proper working day. At 18h30 I left my “boss” and headed to my mom’s friend’s apartment.
After a 20 minutes Bus ride I arrived in Colombes, a reaaaaaaaally peaceful suburb of Paris. I lost my way a little, but, eventually, I found someone to ask for directions. Once arrived at my new home I installed myself and then was invited by my “landlord” to a nice little restaurant, more a “crêperie” than a restaurant.
At the end of the day I was exhausted.

The rest of my week would have been a normal “metro-boulot-dodo”, if it wasn’t for an unfortunate event that occurred to my “landlord”’s son, which happen to be a dear friend of mine too.