Made in Paris

Paris

What comes to mind when you read or hear that name? Do you imagine it whispered by the soft, velvety voice of >Yves Montand*<? Perhaps some sort of accordion playing La Vie En Rose floats to you from the mythical Paris that is nowhere, but exists solely in celluloid?

With me a bunch of images, smells and tastes pop like paparazzi flashes: The Battle of San Romano at the Louvre, the stench of the underground, the food so good it merited the tears of joy I shed... Rambling aside, Paris is like any other tourist magnet city in Europe - too expensive, dangerous at times and thrilling to the max (Firenze is the exception since there everything is as it should be even when it seems not to).

It's true that the whole turn of the century Paris scene was spectacular and were time travelling possible, it would be a place to go for sure... but time has passed and Alice B. Toklas doesn't live there anymore (few can afford to live well there anymore). So why the persisting glamour of glamours deal? Could be Hollywood engineered - what with all those movies and musicals. If Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire are there, dancing and romancing, it must be true! I almost fell with Charade - I mean, it's Cary Grant! I have a very soft spot for Archibald Leech. In the end I came, I saw and I didn't cry when I left.

This long ditty came about because >this< article about the Paris Syndrome plaguing Japanese living in the city puzzled me. I'm hoping words like suicidal were used irresponsibly, because *breathing* it should take more than the disappointment that not all women in Paris go about wearing entirely Vuitton to induce somebody to contemplate the slashing of wrists.

I could be wrong and maybe that's all it takes these days.

*The wonderful voice of the Italian born Yves Montand can make any place romantic

The length and width of it while waiting for a car

( Warning: Contains Brief Reference to the Male Genitalia )

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I came across a rather enthusiastic review of The Singing Detective. It's evidence that this world is full of very different people with very different ideas of what is considered good and what is considered torture. Of course, a better reminder is when Ann Coulter shows up anywhere at all.

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You know that nativity scene that's causing all the unexpected raucous at >Madame Tussaud<? Somebody tried to vandalise the thing. Big words like controversial were used. Wasn't that the whole point? To have the press make a big fuss over it so people would go and cough up the moolah to see the creepy wax statues with their glass eyes unblinkingly staring at you? Can't you just imagine the Tussaud people all happy over even more press coverage for their manufactured controversy?

"He pushed Posh and Becks over. It caused some damage but we don't know how much. The baby Jesus is fine," said a spokeswoman for Madame Tussaud's waxwork museum in London Monday.

I have no problem with the whole thing as long as I don't have to pay the 19 pounds to see it. I mean, they must have somebody with a healthy sense of humour there... Bush, Blair and the Duke of E. as the Three Wise Men? I know... their joke was one of those way too easy things and it lacked subtlety, but, in case you have failed to notice, I'm easy and a laugh is always welcome. Though it would have been funnier if it had been done in earnest.

Incidentally - the perp is still at large.

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( Serious question )

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I'll post this now with no Spell Check just for the fun of it. The risk! The thrill! It almost feels like when you're a kid and you pedal really hard on your bike, close your eyes and then let it fly downhill.

You're right - it doesn't.

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Time has been killed. It has been poked, stabbed, garrotted and drowned in true Druid fashion and now it will rest eternal in some bog*.

Car is here, gone now.


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