Vive la France

We got back from Paris a couple days ago. As cities go, Paris was, you know, ok.

I am lying my ass off, of course. It is amazing. As beautiful as you imagine it is going to be, and with a bunch that you couldn't have imagined.

For those of you who kept track of international events while we were gone, the Mick & Cory-specific headlines are:


We were not involved in the bomb threat at the Eiffel Tower, although we were at the Eiffel Tower the day before. Whew!

We were indeed involved with the Transit Strike/national protest of the proposal to raise the French retirement age to 62. These days French strikes would appear to be more for show than for real shut-down, but the fervor and popular involvement is impressive. [As election day approaches staggeringly quickly, I crave some of this passion here in les Etats-Unis. Seriously. Please do not consider not voting this November. And maybe do a little more than vote. Don't make me start whipping out the reasons why it's important not to cave to racist, hate-filled fear mongers.] What this meant to us was that we had to do some extra work getting from the airport to our hotel in the Latin Quarter. We'd done some advance homework, so were fairly prepared - made a train transfer that wouldn't have been needed on a non-strike day, which sent us to a different station that was a little farther away. And when we approached the location of our hotel, we saw a mass of people up on Boulvevard St. Michel. Like - a BIG mass of people. It soon became clear that the demonstration going on pretty much surrounded the place we were staying. We had a perplexed-tourist moment, noses in the map, trying to figure out how to get around it, when a very friendly student asked us (in English, no less) if we needed help. I said, something to the effect of "well, we need to get to Rue Sommerard, and we're trying to figure out how to get around the demo," and her smiling response was "just go through it." So we did. I have yet to go through most of the photos I took, but here's this shot I snagged with a phone camera of the scene:



Lots more to come...

Zoo Time

As you know, my sister's family moved to Long Island a few weeks ago. Their first visit to the city since that move came a couple weekends ago, when they drove in to celebrate Mary's 11th birthday.

The current vagaries of my life are making it tricky to devote sustained time to creating a post, so for now, enjoy this mini-series, shot by Cory, detailing our side-trip with Anna and Jason to the children's zoo:


Anna trying to feed a llama. He was pretty blasé.


She had a little better luck with a sheep.


The sheep thanking me with a nuzzle to the noggin.


Cory's closeup of a llama.

There was much fun that day. Maybe I'll get to posting more about it later.

But first... I'm off to Paris. Au revoir for a few days!

Saturday afternoon in the wonderful world of TV movies

Maria Conchita Alonso's character:

"You screwed up our marriage with your booze, and pills... and those sleazy hookers."

Michael McKean's character:

"Well your skirts weren't exactly pristine, honey!"

And so it goes.

Still More Adventures in the Commonwealth...

...The Madeleine Chronicles

You may remember Miss M from last year's excursions. Well, now she's a year older, badder and bolder. She has her day-to-day civilian persona, of course.



But on occasion... she emerges from the shadows to embody, not just one superhero identity, but a whole slew of them. These include, but are not limited to:


Accordion Maestro


Spinning Technicolor Commando


Jellyfish Wrangler and All Around Beach Babe


Glamor Model


Mountaintop Yogi


Stealth Tourguide (and remote lighthouse keeper)


Spaceship Pilot


Speeding Racecar Driver (with spotted dog sidekick)


Tamer of Flying Horses


She is a force to be reckoned with, and could surely fill many entries on her own. For now, this will have to do.

More Adventures in the Commonwealth

Back to the Vineyard...

Once we got some sun, we went out and about quite a bit. One morning into midday, we headed out to West Tisbury for an event at the library for Madeleine.



While she and SJ did their thing. Cory and I hit a farmers market and the general store. Then we all met up and found a (not terribly well-hidden) secret passageway through the trees to a land of oversized people and things.



Ok, it was really a sculpture garden. But a really cool one! Adjacent to the Field Gallery, these Tom Maley sculptures were enough to bring our mood up and break through the clouds.

This one has some attitude, wouldn't you say? No matter where you look at him from, no matter how you shade him, he's got some fierce going on.

You can see that the sky was still pretty gray that day, but we felt totally released going out into the elements.

This one's Dance of Joy was contagious - and reflective of the mood inside the gallery: among other exhibits there was a showing of Herb Greene rock-n-roll photos from San Francisco in the 60s and 70s - included some pretty well known images of Janice and Jimi, and the shot of Jefferson Airplane that turned into the album cover for Surrealistic Pillow, as well as some other perspectives on the period. Didn't shoot any of that; that tunnel of photos of photos gets pretty narrow pretty quick. Rad exhibition, though.

The field at the Field was grazed by a protective herd of cast iron cows. (Carved iron? I don't know)

Last but not least is this exhuberant father and daughter duo. I don't think that it's a Tom Maley - didn't catch who it is, but I really like the energy there!

Live Tennis is pretty awesome

We interrupt this program to bring you a special message from the U.S. Open:




\

Live tennis is really fun to watch.

And Roger Federer is astounding.

In other news, the sky is blue.

Also, there were other stars there, who need no introduction.

Thanks are most definitely due to the dayjob for hooking me up with some pretty bitchin perks every so often.

Live from Flushing Meadow, good night.



We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

9/02/10

As in 90210.  Yup.

Here's a celebration of the auspicious (?) date, courtesy the good people at Go Fug Yourself.  There's a whole rabbit hole there devoted to the event if you want to jump in.

Yes, that was yesterday.  And no, I didn't catch it then.  And it's pretty likely that I would never have caught it if it weren't for Sherin.  What does this prove?  I don't think very much, other than that I am probably not a girl.

Images from the Island

Two quick shots to sate you for today.

First this one from outside the General Store in West Tisbury. In addition to the general composition, note that the advertised public telephone appears to be invisible.




And then there's this fearsome moment:

That menacing visage is a one-up from the scene a few years ago in Maine. I wasn't thinking much of the Red Sox factor when I was cooking those beasts last week, but I'd love to see some of that mojo wrap around the Sox this year. Not much time, guys...