Caged Era

A walk down Mombasa's memory lane

2009-08-10T05:31:00.000Z

My dad recently found himself in a spirit of nostalgia following the passing away of a schoolmate and teacher that both had an impact on his early life.

The full account paints a lively portrait of what it was like growing up in the Goan community 50 years ago. Hard to think of a time/place so removed from the current western world where, for instance, not everyone has ready access to learn music and play in a brass band.

In thinking of former friends and teachers who have moved on, my dad issues a poignant call to remember that yes, this life is short, and so we must be wise in what we spend our time on. Amongst those pursuits, how about keeping track of those who have helped shape your life, wherever they may be.

Stirring stuff. Dad, thanks for bearing your soul!

Picasso and the bull

2008-07-23T00:47:00.004Z

if you are looking for a cheap masterclass on how to create the kind of subliminal artforms for which picasso is legendary, then look no further.

this post from artyfactory pulls together a collection of lithographs that detail the transformation from highly stylized to heavily abstracted. the pic to the left is from about half way through the process.

that there is a link between between geometry and the inner, true substance of an object is an interesting concept. i can't exactly pin why this link should occur, but at the risk of sounding pretentious, perhaps the answer lies in the art and not in reason.

so, if you're feeling brave, go ahead and abstract at will. in the process you may discover the hidden meaning in things. and on top of that work out the unanswered question: why did picasso paint so many bulls?

A rare glimpse of the Bay from above

2008-07-06T17:01:00.004Z

Given that not so many years ago, every time I'd touch foot in a plane the one vital accessory I'd need would be a sick bag, it was with some trepidation that I took up the offer from my old boss to share his lunchtime hobby - a quick jaunt around the Bay Area in a propeller-driven single-engine plane.

I've never been in an airport that small and informal. No check-ins, no passport control, no duty free. No nothing beyond the whiteness of the planes standing out on the slightly dishevelled tarmac.

Dave had got there earlier and handled the initial preparations, so we were pretty much ready to go. I clamber up onto the wing and hoisted myself into the cockpit. Once inside, I'm struck by the resemblance with a regular car. There are obviously a lot more controls, but in terms of the cabin space I'm sure I've seen much bigger vehicles hurtling down Highway 280. Dave completes the final preparations while I adjust my headset and make sure my legs are well clear of the peddles below (planes this size have dual controls).

Negotiations with the diminutive air traffic control tower are made and we take our position awaiting take-off. Dave has always struck me as one of the most composed individuals I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, so his calm, measured conversation with the guys on the ground goes someway to assuage the butterflies humming around my stomach and throat.

And then it happens. Our time is up and we move onto the runway. The moment before the acceleration reminds me of that peace you feel staring at a solitary pool moments before you plunge in. As we start moving down the runway, again I have more the feeling of being in a car picking up speed after a stop signal (not even necessarily a sports car - the cockpit is too high up for that). But suddenly, at a speed much lower than I expect, our nose points upwards and we leave the ground. Now, the feeling of being in a car passes. We climb, we climb and then we tip to the right. The tipping is pretty severe, and I feel like the plane is slipping away from under me but as we approach the waterline of the bay, Dave rights the plane again. We curl upwards into the sky until finally we meet our cruising altitude.

There's a peace and serenity up there that I never really expected. I can see the clear line of the 280 Highway snaking through parched hills - my daily commute looking no more than an ant track up the bark of a tree. The beautiful pine-covered landscape dotted with small azure squares of dot com mansion swimming pools. There's a fade across the landscape: starting with dense vegetation near the temperate coast giving way to the bronze dust-colored hills of the more arid interior.

We make our way towards Half Moon Bay - but as always it wears its tight shroad of puffy white fog. Such a distinguished (distinguishable) weather line. This same fog continues north up the coast as far as the city and so scotches any plans to sneak a bird's-eye-view of our home in the city.

As this pic reveals, at this point things were pretty relaxed. No other traffic around us and clement weather conditions meant there was little to do other than keep us floating. And at this point Dave offered the controls over to me for a few instants.

Thoughts of sending the plane into an irreversible downward spiral play on my mind and I realize things aren't quite as effortless as Dave makes them appear. Still, I can hold the plane steady and even take us over to the right at one point. A small Cessna appears on the horizon and Dave takes the plane back under his expert control.

Having foresaken the idea of heading to the city, we veer inland. The most imposing structures on the peninsula tract linking San Francisco to Silicon Valley are an Ikea and red-bricked Stanford University, facing off like a metaphor for the interplay between academic and business life that is so prominent here in the Bay Area.

We head across the bay - the salt plains rimming the bay producing the most striking rust-coloured glow - and track through the Sunol Grade, where the conurbation gives way to cracked beige hills sparingly dotted with hardy vegetation. The towering Mount Diablo comes into view as we pass over the East Bay towns of Dublin and Pleasanton.

We file off to the South and Dave makes small talk with air control at Livermore airport before veering back along the path we came. As we cross the bay one last time, Dave makes preparations for the descent. We have clearance and find our place in the queue. We circle and get in line with the runway. We drop the flaps which in turn drops our speed and altitude. I marvel at Dave's technical ability to keep our plane on course, as with precision we lurch downwards and there's a final adjustment before the tires paw at the tarmac once more. All too quickly this Friday lunchtime joyride comes to an end.

The plane is duly parked and put to bed under its covers, ready for the next adventure. I make the journey back to work down 101, and I can't help picturing what this journey looks like from above. I am also slightly amazed how far I've come since my childhood penchant for in-flight sick bags - I'd happily take another journey over the bay, a serene distance from the melee below.

More pics

Made to Stick

2008-06-28T00:15:00.004Z

I blame Magali for sucking me into 'Made to Stick' by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. What's the premise? Certain ideas stick and others, well, just drift away like smoke from a candle. They back this up by pitting CEO's mission statements against urban myths and asking which has more staying power. Erm, you can probably guess the answer.

They distill this effect into six principles:

Simplicity
If you have ten points to make, beware, no one will remember. "Proverbs are the ideal. We must create ideas that are both simple and profound."

Unexpectedness
Use surprise to trigger alertness. Open gaps in knowledge and then fill them.

Concreteness
Give ideas some meat. Use concrete images rather than abstract principles.

Credibility
Put forward ideas that people can test for themselves. "Sticky ideas have to carry their own credentials."

Emotions
We feel for people - play on this. Find what your audience care about, and then tap into this.

Stories
Story-telling is the oldest human form of communication. Build stories, parables if you like, that will help ideas stick. There's a story at the base of most urban legends.

The book goes into more details on each of these, but definitely check it out if you're interested in making yourself heard and remembered.

As a postscript, I couldn't help thinking how close these tenets are to the principles of news (what makes a story newsworthy) that are usually covered in Journalism 101 classes.

fadel lives!

2008-03-15T16:03:00.003Z

so, we're here in sf. months of planning. and the whole journey. but i think i need time to go over that. thankfully what's behind us isn't gone. thanks to those lovely people at skype, i can again see fadel and the inimitable ruby.

he's off to work, but i might be back to bed for a saturday morning siesta. i sign that on friday night we did a bit too much 'discovering' around the city. i blame the cosmos at the wish bar.

Laugh? I almost died

2008-02-09T07:55:00.000Z

oh, i really shouldn't encourage this kind of juvenality on the web. i should be out there soaking in the glorious sunshine on my last day in france.

sorry, i'm regressing back to that bedroom-ridden state my mum detested so much in my teens.

no wonder i've chosen to return to the land of the krispy kreme.

oops, i almost forgot to mention this image came from the excellent subnav.com. a great collection of mixtapes. but then i would be biased about this sort of thing, wouldn't i?

Aliester Crowley on thinking and exercise

2008-02-06T08:58:00.001Z

it's getting stressy. it could be that natalie's gone and so i've lost my life jacket (a very poor description for somebody, especially somebody so close and so far). it's all down to me. still, the hours are limited and i can only do what can be done. there's some consolation in that.

the other thing that's helping at the moment is Aleister Crowley's strange view of the condition of man in 1920's europe: 'The Diary of a Drug Fiend'. Funny to see what you might consider 'modern thought' isn't actually so. And beyond that, the plain fact that much foresight in this world comes from the margins. i feel i must tender an example:

"People think that talking is a sign of thinking. It isn't for the most part; on the contrary, it's a mechanical dodge of the body to relieve oneself of the strain of thinking, just as excercising the muscles helps the body to become temporarily unconscious of its weigh, its pain, its weariness, and the foreknowledge of its doom."

Nice, huh? One thing - I'm only a few pages in but this definitely isn't a weighty tome. There's already been a pretty violent bar brawl. Somehow I feel I may have a gentler time of it in the UK and then So Cal. I'll try and keep in touch.

giacometti and the pompidou

2008-01-21T17:40:00.000Z

so, on what could well be the final sojourn into paris for a little while for me i took the time to pay a visit to the pompidou centre.

thankfully no strike by the toilet cleaners on this visit (esp. as i got caught short after some excellent sushi i'd ventured on in saint germain).

nobody had told me that the pompidou centre enjoys one of the most astounding views of paris. i discovered that for myself as i floated up the glass elevator draped across the spiny exterior. the skyline's wondrous, especially if you hanker for the time when big-city architecture was all about domes and spires.

having said that, there was an excellent exhibition on the work of richard rogers - one of the architects of the pompidou. aside from his curvy environmental designs, it was funny to hear how some of the problems posed by the pompidou were solved through collective arguing!

not much collective arguing on the top floor exhibition of the work of giacometti. you could feel the solitude under which the artist generally worked. i was familiar with the stick men sculptures but wasn't quite aware of how many of them he actually created. kind of like matisse and his blue cut-outs. something to do with the modernists when they hit later life?

giacometti's paintings are lesser-known but achieve an arresting intensity, primarily due to his manipulation of perspective. globulous eyes pop out from shrunken heads sitting on inflated torsos. rough paint strokes and ghostly sombre backdrops oddly create a strong sense of humanity.

au revoir paris.

Girl blog from Iraq

2007-12-20T15:04:00.000Z

I haven't been on this site in a while. It could be that I'm getting ready to move - looking through past postings I realised that most of them came from the times of major upheaval - generally when I moved somewhere.

Still, it's not that nothing has been going on. Work is always there, and I talk about that in other places. As many have pointed out, we're also doing the rounds trying to take in as much as possible from the South of France before we move on. So far that means a night in the Hi Hotel and a visit to the Matisse museum (definitely unexpectedly worth it), and a trip to the top of Mount Vinaigre (the highest point in the Esterel). That was quite a trip (well, it only took about an hour in total) but the views were reminiscent of what I saw in the Grand Canyon some years ago. Actually, the reason I think of the Grand Canyon is because I've been revisiting some old college photos.

And then there's media - top films recently include Last Days by Gus Van Sant and I did find Minority Report interesting (although everyone had been going on about the virtual interface that I didn't find that amazing, and the product placement was kind of annoying). That's all that springs to mind. Although there have been some interesting books recently. Wilt by Tom Sharpe made me think of Henry Fielding. I finally finished the Dalai Llama's 'The Universe in a Single Atom'. Main points here:
- Meditation is about focus and insight and balancing the two.
- Karma gets interesting when you think about where consciousness first came from on our planet. Karma doesn't exist in non-sentient beings. Things just happen. With the introduction of consciousness comes the introduction of karma. But what brought this about and why?
- The idea that we are going to die is not that unfamiliar to most of us. However, we spend a lot of time living our lives like they'll go on forever. That's one of our greatest self-delusions.

And then there was 'The Little Prince' by Saint-Exupery. Quite a book. From the explanation of the drawing of the boa constrictor I was completely entranced and even shed a tear at completion. I'm not quite sure why - I think it could be something to do with it's intricate tale of innocence and that much of what concerns us in our lives is largely futile. Step back, fools.

... and read the girl blog from Iraq:

http://www.riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

wilde on art and journalism

2007-11-02T17:41:00.000Z

ok, seem to have been away from here for a while. i have been caught up reading some of oscar wilde's plays. almost as good were the interviews with him at the back of the book. here's what he had to say on journalists:

"the journalist is always reminding the public of the existence of the artist. that is unecessary of him. he is always reminding the artist of the existence of the public. that is indecent of him."

the wheel of time turns in the sun

2007-08-16T07:47:00.000Z

something happens to you over a year in the south of france. you gradually forget the rasping of the cigales. i'm not sure if it's the ear or the mind - but one way or another the creaking orchestra just disappears. i only think of this because natalie asked if they're still around.

i think there's a certain similarity between the way i read a book and the way i move around. there's the bit in the middle that drags. you wonder where you're going with this thing. and then there's the commitment for the end. the extra effort and emotion put in to finish the thing off. and the hearty slap on the soul at the final juncture. at the moment, given that i probably have a little under 6 months left in the south of france (i always call it that, even though i never called brighton the south of england - probably down to my ignorance of this land) i'm going through that fitful stage of thinking of all i'm giving up. now, finally, i realise the importance of the relationships i've been fortunate to develop. why not always? oh, there's a question.

and talking of relationships, it was great to rekindle some old flames on rob's stag do recently. spending time in a way i haven't done since manchester. most of these boys now live in london so they have their links. for me it was different. i realise in the absense of friends (amis, not copains) how far i can drift from myself. paradoxically the thing that happens when i spend too much time alone or among strangers in whom i only see the reflection of my mask. somehow, dax, rob, roman, ant and the others managed to effortlessly tear this mask off. maybe dancing around like an idiot till 6 in the morning helped too.

what i've been trying to get to is that i finally finished fitzgerald's 'tender is the night'. i still have no idea about the title, but as a cautionary tale on the corruption of shitloads of money its pretty effective. how many people this tale actually applies to is hard to say. i enjoy his writing but can see why people don't. the story never gets that far from the prosaic but he writes from about with philosophy and without judgement. snippets of his text lay the human form bare. i've given the book to ant so can't share any here.

last night, aug 15, was fireworks on the beach. from the beginning, fireworks have the anticipation of the finale, given that you never really know when that is coming. these were the best i've seen in a while - some crazy organic little puffs of light. to natalie, something like a globe of cotton wool. prior to the fireworks we sat on the beach, on the black and white elephant throw that's been living on forever and ate pasta. with our own sun-dried tomatoes (we're still awaiting the final harvest). then the sun started setting and all of cannes turned the colour of 1982 - that hue between light blue and lilac. a colour pratically invented by brian de palma.

morocco a go go

2007-07-28T17:00:00.000Z

fadel and mirian have some balls. would you invite a couple you've met a few times in a bar on a festival holiday to morroco? still, they did and we went. it was only five whirlwind days split between the windy seaside town of essaouira, marrakesh and a few hours in casablanca, but one of those trips that leaves a strong memory trail.

we arrived in essaouira late on a friday night after driving through some stunning desert countryside. the next morning we set up which meant getting a small old man with a pointy hood and a cart to truck our equipment through the medina. the plan was to play in the al khaima restaurant. that was it. as the day unfolded the plan shapeshifted until it finally morphed into a 7 hour set in the middle of the day.

7 hours of techno starting at 4pm in a restaurant - not sure that was the tightest programming for us, though it did give fadel and i a chance to explore our own styles and figure out how we could play well together. i was definitely wowed by his mixing skills. i also realised that even in a moderate arabic country, everything has to stop for prayer time. even fat boy slim's star 69.

as for the festival, i'd put it on a par with burning man - completely different but seminal nevertheless. completely free and nuts seeing women in purdahs get down to weird tribal african rhythms

across the trip i realized i still have a lot of misconceptions about africa and the arab world in general. like the fact that of the 300 sat channels in our hotel, prob about a third were the dedicated to the world's porn industry. with translations in about 12 languages running across the screen. this we discovered on our last night at the other-worldy jasmina riad. other worldy in that the minute we stepped out into marrakesh we became indian superstars hounded down for a few dirhams. in the medina, we could just laze around the small rectangular pool at the foot of the internal courtyard, or go up to the terrace to hear the wailing of prayers.

we ate snail soup in the massive central place, we were scrubbed at a hamam and we had our fill of tagines - how can you fault that?

i'm sure one day we'll be back. i hope that one day might be next year for essaouira - one of the wonders of the world on the festival scene.

if you want to see some of the video, visit my you tube.

rain didn't stop play in barca

2007-07-28T15:39:00.000Z

oops, i realize i've been a bit lazy with this journal recently. the popround music collection has been taking up a disproportionate amount of my time. well, that and jetting around these parts. since the uk trip, there's been adventures in barcelona and morocco.

we drove across the south of france and through the top of spain to arrive in a sweltering barcelona. the plan had been to camp but a massive thunderstorm just outside ceret put paid to that. ceret was great for the cherries and a small gallery with some of picasso's china with the bull motif. we ended up in a 13th century hermitage (L'Hermitage de Notre Dame du Coral) that had been converted into a small guesthouse. one of the more tranquil places i've stayed at and the young couple and 3 massive st bernards were more than accommodating. one strange thing about the chapel at one end of the building was the backward-facing mary. she was addressing a small prayer room behind the altar, rather than the body of the church.

we got to barcelona around lunchtime just in time for our first round of tapas. we were staying in the lively born quarter, with about 20 flights of stairs leading to our flat and terrace. sonar by day once again provided leftfield music treats in the shape of a blistering sunset james holden gig, some mad electro synth pop outfit called black affair and the wonderfully eclectic dj muerto. for the night-time line-up (we only managed to make one evening, and that destroyed all of the next day), highlights for me were Kode 9 and Spaceape's Dubstep workout, the Beastie Boys and Ben Mono. unfortunately Modeselektor were a flop - which could have been down to technical issues, but still, you thought they didn't necessarily need to throw a tantrum.

we headed back via arles and montpellier, and once again we cut short our camping due to bad weather in the camargue.

time for a change in quotation...

2007-07-03T10:28:00.000Z

the old one was a goodie, so i want to keep a record:

"The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception." - Hietzsche

javier, eleeta pereira artwork

2007-06-04T10:42:00.000Z

phew, finally the sun shines and the riviera lives up to its reputation for the visit of albert, rajinder, jayvier and eleeta.

so far the kids have reenacted most of the pirates of the caribbean on the inflatable in the pool, albert's been initiated into the wonderful world of undercooked french food with a generous portion of steak tartare and we've seen the strange bulbous waxy underbelly of st cezaire.

i've also learnt that i can keep up with graphical renditions of their fertile imaginations through this online gallery (http://www.toddlerart.co.uk/gallery.php).

who said the internet was all puff and no cigar?

stop press: mum and dad's new house

2007-05-27T11:18:00.000Z

so, the gluttony of good times continues at the moment. we had a wonderful week with the parents. beyond the garden toiling there was artichokes, sardines, avignon, l'isle des sorgues and the setting up of cannes. check out some pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/natalierodpereira/AvignonLIsleSurLeSorgueFontaineDeVaucluseCannesPereiraSInFrance
and then the pool. the first real viewing of mum and dad's new house. bright, airy yet compact. couldn't believe how much they had done to make it 'home' over the last 6 weeks. the conservatory put greasby into a whole different light. ahh. see the pics here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/natalierodpereira/ThePoolMay2007

as always the food rained down like manna and in between that and the sleep i honed my 'air' pereira skills on albert's new hoop.

far too short a visit: in the words of john lennon, who must be one of the few pop stars to have his own airport, 'you say hello, and i say goodbye'.

handmade star wars

2007-05-21T13:47:00.000Z

ok, i was meant to be filling the gaps on recent trips to berlin and the wirral, but this came up first: the final scene of star wars made with hands.

i love the fluttery arms used to recreate the speeding wall of the death star.

sometimes the trashy side of the internet far surpasses reality. ah well, holiday notes will have to wait.

the other nasdaq story

2007-05-15T21:21:00.000Z

okay, so this is what really happened that fateful monday morning. a wasabi overdose at a broadway sushi bar in the light of a full moon left me incapacitated in a state of willful abandon. this photo (courtesy of the wellwood photographic institute of the mentally unsettled) more than aptly illustrates the results.

it's taken 4 bagels and an hour recanting the mantra 'i'm one cwazy schmuck' to get me back to my current state.

ciao, mad dogs

2007-05-13T21:28:00.000Z

il va bien ici maintenant. kind of busy entertaining as my parents are here for a week at the moment. good fun and it's time like these that make me realise the beauty of this place (that could be because so much of it is set up for tourists). been busy entertaining/being entertained for some time now and it isn't set to stop yet. been to san francisco, new york and berlin over the last 3 weeks (mixture of work and pleasure) so can't really complain - although i am a bit sick of airports now. coming up we have al and jen, my brother, 1 stag do and 3 weddings. just have to remember to feed the cat from time to time.

on that note, still no complaints with our living arrangement. sharing a villa with some friends and their kids works out really well for us. even doing our bit at pretending to be provencal farmers: tomatoes, courgettes, salads, chillis (well, these aren't provencal - but necessary for us) all slowly appearing in the parched sandy earth. and the cat (cannelle) manages to keep us sprightly (giving us almost as much run-around as the 3 kids downstairs).

it's starting to heat up here and so have started just sitting around listlessly as much as possible. natalie has been moving from job to job and at the moment is 'in-between' whilst mine is fine - busy but i can (to a point) make my own hours. which generally means start later in the day. i had been dj'ing monthly at a bar in nice but it may be quitening down for summer. running this music site: http://www.popround.com/ takes up a fair amount of my time, but i do enjoy it.

the french is slowly getting better. i've been crap at making an effort recently and pretty soon it will be depressing when the 1 year-old in the house is more conversant that me. that day may not be that far off.

in case you're wandering what we look like these days, check out these pics from new york:

http://picasaweb.google.com/natalierodpereira/NewYorkApril2007

including some of the bell ringing at the nasdaq tv studio on time square as part of work's 20th anniversary (i spawnily won the trip to new york on the back of this). i was in the back row off to the side. still memorable.

danka, berlin

2007-05-08T11:45:00.000Z

what can i say? berlin was wicked - highlights included an outdoor club called 'les visionnaires' and an alternative night in a club/bar called 'vorwien'. both in kreuzburg.

by day, the berlin by bike tour of the berlin wall really brought the cold war-era of the city to life. was with natalie so no 9am clubbing on this trip (like i would have done that on my own). made up for it by eating my weight in currywurst and pretzels.

btw, this pic seems to be about the only bit of wall that hadn't been graffitied. leftist, punkish, bohemian - no where was this more evident than on every available inch of concrete in many a neighbourhood.

anyhow, our pics here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/natalierodpereira/BerlinMay2007

kevin smokler on the internet vs the literary

2007-04-23T06:24:00.000Z

wow, so for the second time in as many months i once more find myself on the sandy reclaimed shores of northern california. and somehow this time i managed to have escaped the crush of my body being thrown off its regular schedule by 8 hours (in french given the bulky yet mellifluous term 'décalage horaire') being strapped to a plane for 10 hours. how have i managed this? in part through hanging out with close yet distant family (cousins + aunt + grandma-in-law) but some credit also has to go to the wonderful american radio. in stature, up their with this country's basketball team - by being leaps and bounds (pardon for the pun) above what every other country seems to offer.

if you want ultra-juvenile, but quick with it, check out howard stern. for quirky leftfield music (from thrash through to hawaiian hip hop) roll the dial over to stanford university's radio station at kzsu. if it's interesting debate sans pomp or condescension then you can't do much better than the public radio stations - my faves are npr or pri.

this kept me going while making the trip from east bay to mountain view via san francisco, especially when i got a little closer to the city than i intended by inadvertantly exiting 101 by the ballpark but for the error being privy to seeing some heavy dockland development. i couldn't help but admire (and at times chukle out loud) to kevin smokler's impassioned defense of the culture of literature sparked by the internet. not sure why i get moved by such pieces, but maybe the eloquent dismissal of the cultural elite naysayers who point to the drop in pulp sales as an end to the masterful art of prose.

maybe not quite legal, but i couldn't help recording this piece (5MB mp3).

if you like that, check out his blog - even if it's for nothing other than to see an imaginatively constructed title banner.

new york, new york, much better than miami vice (one hopes)

2007-04-12T14:45:00.000Z

so, its all going on over here at the moment. in the last 2 weeks i've found out i'll be going to san francisco AND new york. first is work, seccond is an award from work for coming up with some dodgy scheme to help celebrate the 20th anniversary. no complaints, although i have to brace myself for a lot of flying. it's also odd winning an award for something. a few people have said congrats but i feel like everyone's looking at me like i'm some kind of uber-winner in life. get over it, says my id and don't be a jumped up prick says the mother in me. but still, now i have an inkling of the duplicitous nature of success.

that, and i'm a bit tired from staying up too late watching the new miami vice film. i think michael mann may have been trying something with the cinematography. it has the look of ultra-cheap reality tv. there wasn't the normal attention to making sure every shot is perfectly lit. i'm not complaining - perhaps this is the next step following on from the jerky-camera fly-on-the-wall effect which could do with an overhaul. however the cardboard prima-donnas who have trouble stringing a sentence together (particularly colin farrell) took the reality tv metaphor a bit far.

btw, pic today is from our garden taken a couple of weeks ago. we've got more recent pics with kath and lee, honey and firoz, not to mention those crazy italians.

a little bit of Flash from my profane past

2007-04-10T09:03:00.000Z

wow, i really used to have a lot more time on my hands. during my Masters in brighton i could dream up whimsical follies that might somehow laterally help me through the multimedia classes.

i do actually recall figuring out how i could do this (why i would do it is another matter) as i was walking over the top of the seven dials. i then got completely lost as i picked the wrong spoke and drifted off the path i had taken every day for months.

still, the outcome was the super steaming shit search. a precursor to google.

looking back...

2007-04-06T14:31:00.000Z

which is something i should be entitled to do now i'm old (35 and counting).

the idea was to talk about what's going on right now:

- cat has caught up with daylight savings and is up at 6.30 every morning
- france can be both spectacular and frustrating in equal measures
- i'm now fully sucked into work projects (partly the reason for the lack of posts) such as building news monitoring tools
- spring's on its way and the weather is truly awesome

but then i came across this from a message to someone i used to work with sent in december 2005 (a couple of weeks after i arrived):

things are good here although trying to get by in french makes my head hurt. i have a nice apartment near both town and work so that is convenient. work is in a forested tech park surrounded by mountains. in a cramped little office at the moment though but hopefully that will change. the people i work with are sound and constantly guzzle coffee and cigarettes.

the office has changed, and these days i arrive after the coffee and cigarettes. mainly because i'm sitting on the bog reading this:

Dalai Lama - The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality

pretty cool, although i'm not in much of a position to judge: knowing little about science or spirituality. what gems can i take from it so far? that in buddism, empirical knowledge can be gained from sitting around thinking about things rather than studying them in a lab. there's the concept of inferred vs. implicit knowledge. ie. you see smoke over a hill so you make the appraisal that there must be a fire, even though you never see it. apparently einstein used a similar technique to come up with relativity.

how can i apply this? probably try and spend less time looking up useless facts on the internet. it's only going to keep growing and how much can i ever know?

i seriously should try and spend more time meditating (given that i'm in the fortunate position of being somewhere pretty tranquil) and less time greedily sucking up useless information.

there. how's that for a yearly resolution? i need a goal to make it happen. how about if i keep to it, i get a bigger laptop next year?? oh, my inner contradictions...

culture rears its ugly deranged head

2007-02-08T23:23:00.000Z

funny, culture has been coming up for me a lot recently. it started with a reference in the goan voice to a press release by the uk right wing party, the bnp, talking about an influx of konkani speaking students into a school in swindon (middle england - what a surprise). that got me onto some bizarre right wing forums (well, it is the internet so it's going to have a bit of everything) where amongst talking about the 'liberal-fascist elite' that rules the uk, there was a question by someone who had befriended an asian kid at college, and wondered how this fit in with his ultra-conservative leanings. i was somewhat surprised by the thread that followed - most members thought this could work, given that asians had shown that they were able to sustain a somewhat functional culture all on their own. unlike blacks and jews! interesting (ok, sad) the way some can use such a narrow concept of 'culture' as a benchmark for judging others as if:
1) there was some definable sense of culture that has remained constant throughout history
2) our current society (even the 'white' element) is homogenous enough to be able to say exactly what that culture consists of
3) cultural values are normative and can be labelled good or bad
where i stand on this seems clear-cut to me.

the other place culture has been coming up has been more in my immediate viscinity. i've noticed that my stunted level of communication in french does make me view french culture in general in a somewhat lesser light. everything from how i perceive the politics in the run-up to the elections here to judgements i make about the french attitude to work. it's like because i'm stuck at the 'eurotrash' level, i assume everyone around me is too. today workmen laughed at my coffee-making abilities (which are non-existent) and probably traded in the finer nuances of conversational french - all of which was lost on me. maybe by being an 'estranger', a distant observer, always confers a degree of conceit. that could be why i like it.

ok, well off to the states tomorrow. i'll see what kind of culture exchanges that holds for me...

midem, smarties and more

2007-02-04T11:45:00.000Z

just when we thought january was seeming a touch dreary, along came kev, old-time brighton compadre, to spice things up. last year the midem festival in cannes happened just after we arrived and we got to look on from a distance with jealousy. this year kev happened to be a participant so we could watch the proceeding from a little closer. still with jealousy, to the extent i haphazardly defaced his entry badge after he left and thought i'd try my luck at getting into the conference. nobody but security greeted me at the entrance (there wasn't much of a crowd around) and i thought i was a gonner for sure when a brusk young lady grabbed the badge. perhaps they had a lot of cartoon-looking characters this year, because next thing i found myself on the right side of the door.

there could have been another reason i got in so easily - most of the stands had actually gone and although the conference officially went on for another couple of days, most exhibitors had packed up shop and left. i also realised that kev had picked up just about all the free cd's on offer.

still, it was great having him around - the big man simmering with energy as always. we even managed to squeeze in a big night out in nice, starting with grungy indie, moving onto the slick beats of smarties before finding a cavern housing yer bulk-standard eighties fare - the crowd part stag party, part shlong brigade. quite a night.

i seem to have been hanging out in smarties a bit recently. mainly thanks to them asking if i'd be interested in playing last friday. a bizarre stroke of luck meant eddy wasn't in the uk, as i thought, but was tooling around in antibes. we played together for just over 3 hours. through the later part we found our groove and the time sauntered by on a wave of minimal/tribal/techno, finally settling on the doors at the end. having a crowd around (not exactly sure quite how appreciative they were) definitely helped. as is the want with smarties, we hang around afterwards, as marc and cindy start fooling around and out of nowhere, the mac-do vs. quick debate sprang up. for some reason quick has a problem keeping their burgers warm.

hopefully we'll be back...

storm in a coffee cup

2007-01-17T14:44:00.000Z

oops, looks like something happened between last october and now. apologies for the dearth of posts. i've been busy. i've been getting blasee (spelling?) about life in france. i've been to england twice.

ok, truth: i've been plain lazy. and the more i put something off the bigger it appears to become. life's just one big lawn to mow.

anyway, england in november was fabulous. susie and nick were radiant, ali was big and radiant and jay screwed around with red wine next to susie's dress - much to ali's dismay. somehow we managed to get sandy and steve and what must have been 300 pairs of irish flannels down to brighton. good fun, as always, and left on a high - feeding alice while jen got ready for baby yoga. very bobo, as they say down here.

england in december was cold but fabulous. jayvier and eleeta appear to have entered our wavelength - eminently interactive with their little brains running double-speed to mine. clearing away the cobwebs with football in the backyard on xmas day did the trick. and a trip into liverpool to meet dax led us to a chinese where everyone had chips - probably wise given dax's inedible soup. still, the old mucker was on top form and never did find out how well his nye at a pub/restaurant went down. madonna's 'like a prayer' was lined up for midnight:

Life is a mystery, everyone must stand alone
I hear you call my name
And it feels like home

whereas we had a somewhat different nye. nobody called my name. just a lot of popping corks and some not-too-gently wobbling around kath's living room. great to have all assembled together. and it turns out to be rowland/richard's birthday too.

it was the culmination of an odd few days spent in our flat. very bare with lashings of pregnant nostalgia that i couldn't quite grasp. in some ways, the tesco at the end of the road felt more like home!

and then back to france. work is taken up with a change to the coffee machine. 30 cents now and the plastic cups have gone, much to the chagrin of a few. rights of man, and all that. rugby once a week is a great way to burn off some steam and burn up my calves. the coach drives a hard bargain, but at the end it always seems worth it. and then yoga in the evenings. talk about the ying and yang of physical activities. i'll either be perfectly balanced, or have dementia.

and then yesterday something odd happened to my ankle, and in last night's delirium i thought of peace and love - and the way i seemed to have stopped thinking about them. if i can do more of that this year, that's no bad thing.

modern art blog

2007-01-17T14:22:00.000Z

have to give a mention to Art MoCo. great blog for contemporary sculpture from across the web. was drawn there by a search for Antony Gormley which in turn came from a friend's diary. oh, the serendipity of it all. still, check it out:

http://mocoloco.com/art/archives/cat_sculpture.php

who said humour's cultural?

2006-10-31T12:42:00.000Z

a sound clip by was forwarded to me by a french guy (thanks olivier for making my day!) who said that the recorded message made him laugh like a child.

i guess it works in any country where telemarketers operate.

tom mabe's recorded telemarketer conversation

eco trips in goa

2006-10-23T14:13:00.000Z

if you are in goa and fancy catching up on life in the interior, you can do a lot worse than hook up with these guys:

http://www.southernbirdwing.com/

you'll be hard pushed to find people that match encyclopaedic knowledge with a genuine love for goa's abundant flora and fauna. just check what's in the bag (they'd been carrying around a viper they'd trapped at someone's home and were going to release into the wild last when we took a tour with them).

avec les vertes

2006-09-27T15:24:00.000Z

"This house is great for music" declared Al, taking a sip of some cognac from the Martell distillery we'd visited earlier that day. Al wasn't wrong. the converted barn that makes up the Green family home just outside Angouleme, aside from being being both rustic and sumptuous, seemed to be constantly filled with a feast of sound. the sweet gurglings of a 14 week old Alice were the finest, a small bundle of life with strong legs and a cheeky grin. her dad's folksy renditions of everything from dire straits through frankie goes to hollywood to coldplay turned the two-storey living room into an acoustic rock lounge bar. something i feel there should defenitely be more space for in this world. (ok, that's the thirty-something in me talking).

the four days in the south west of france was a very welcome peaceful break. arriving on saturday afternoon to one of Al's famed omelettes, we didn't make it out of the house again till the visit to Cognac the following day. arriving slightly outside the regimented french dining hours, we thankfully found a 24/7 brasserie that saved us from McDonalds (seemed wrong, having just arrived in this heavily gastronomic part of the world).

we forewent the Hennessy tour as we only wanted to taste the stuff - not marvel at the big brass kettles in which it's 'burned'. a few tastings in the elegant boutique and i'd started to realise what all the fuss was about. even noticed the difference between the 'fine de cognac' and the 'vsop'. our eager young barman had a concentrated sauve gait that i couldn't help feeling a bit insincere. although i could just have been jealous at the ease with which he flipped between english and french. the english sounding distinctly american making his roots difficult to trace. the martell tasting room was a much more laid-back affair, dark wood benches and wall-hangings reminiscent of a bavarian beer hall. but the service was more straightforward and the cognac ginger ale cocktails got us hooked.

we took a detour back to puymoyen through neat vineyards and large chateaus. couldn't help but pick a few low-hanging fruit (the colour of blueberries with a slightly tart taste). back home in time for alice's feed. natalie did the honours (well, with the bottle) and i came in at the end playing the minstrel to try and keep alice awake. we thought we'd done well but all our efforts came back up a few hours later.

i don't get tired of coming around a hill in france and catching sight of a villaged perched on a hilltop, delineated by a stone wall. such is angouleme. although this time there's also what looks like an english high street nestled close to the hotel de ville. to natalie's dismay, even on monday everything was closed.

still, we made up for it by having oysters and crab for lunch. oh, how we suffer. on to the cathedral - the highlight of which is the intricate facade more than the high-vaulted interior which seems to have escaped the baroque retrofit. in the evening we barbequed on what looked like a 17th century pit. tough to see what was going on in the dark so a few prawns were given up to the god of charcoal fires.

on tuesday, sad as it was, we left al, jen and alice and headed back towards bordeaux. stopped in saint-emilion en route, and definitely glad we did. surprising that more isn't made of this village propped up by hills on either side. the light beige limestone architecture seems a fitting backdrop to the hearty red wine which is everywhere. the convent and church go back to the 14 century - a time where there must have been a much closer link between god and fine wine.

bordeaux itself has a jaunty student vibe, although feeling that we'd had our fair share of fine french gastronomy, we were on a mission to find asian. something limited to one country (NOT 'chinese/vietnamese/thai' all under one roof) and not too pricey. unfortunately a tall order, so as has often happened before, we ended up in an asian fast food. one lesson we've learnt here - always be sceptical of a restaurant that has a microwave as the main feature in the dining area. keeping it simple with noodles and chow mein seemed to do the trick for once.

the train home was as packed as the way there, having to squeeze through narrow corridors and climb over the other 4 people in our cabin to get to our bunk. an extra 4 inches headroom could have made all the difference. whatever the reason i slept worse than on the way out. broken sleep dreaming of the far superior trains i'd taken in kerala.

still, it did take us through to the other side of france. could have been a different country in europe at first glance. maybe weather informs the architecture, because both felt very english. not a claim easily levelled at the riviera. a great getaway that's left us slightly soporific today, but nevertheless buoyed up by the distractions of the past few days.

we are monkeys

2006-09-15T14:01:00.000Z

just in case you were over-dwelling on the problems in your life. or getting self-absorbed about whether you should change yourself in the name of evolution and progress or rejoice in your own humanity. in case you were wondering where you sit on the scale of predefined destiny and the liberty to make personal choices. in case you were wondering about why its so difficult to find the right words for the people you feel closest to. or you were disappointed about the state of your bank balance mid-month.

then it might help to find out a bit more about what we are.

an air of indignant resignation

2006-09-08T12:02:00.000Z

this tickled me today:

Sorrow and sophistry as the war ends (for now)

otherwise things roll along as normal. seem to be sleeping better now - flinging my ageing limbs across timezones definitely took its toll. canelle also seems to be quieting down in the early hours. phew.

brighton seems like a lifetime ago and the states was great. but for now we're left with middle-of-the-night mosquitoes and ultra-sweet tomatoes as autumn in provence dawns.

'daryl pereira' in the news

2006-08-30T01:07:00.000Z

i just did that oh so narcissistic of google searches and typed in my name. i actually come up first for my name (some surprise given that just about everytime i sign up for a new service online i inevitably can't get dpereira as a username).

besides the mere fact of ranking first, i was quite pleased at the result. thanks google. oh, and thanks goajourno for publishing an article i wrote a couple of years ago about experiences with a goan newspaper (a memory now growing dimmer by the day).

so, if interested, check out DARYL PEREIRA: A year apart... journalism and leaving home.

oh, and don't forget to look yourself up on the web. you never know what you will find.

benicassim

2006-08-02T09:57:00.000Z

ah, a week off work can be a wonderful thing. especially if friends have prompted you to meet up at the benicassim music fest in spain. why not drive, we thought, and so there were many stops on the way there and back. most of them are documented in pics here.

it began in Carcassone: meant to be medieval France, but could just as equally have been created by Walt Disney.

onto Dali country – astoundingly rugged Spanish landscapes littered with giant eggs, feet and other objects dreamed by the man with the gravity-defying moustache.
pics of the festival at Benicassim are few – I blame it on the heat. How we wished tents came with fans.

then back via the massive-vaulted cathedral of Gerona and that king of kitch’s museum in Figueras.

so unfortunately the one thing we largely missed out on were pics from benicassim, but hell, they took a bunch of better pics than we could have (click on the young sigmund freud in a south park-stylee below).

the fest itself was wicked - depeche mode and the pixies were notable highlights. even in the youthful world of pop, showmanship and experience can go a long way, especially in combatting nostalgic dirge. although echo and the bunnymen didn't quite win that battle.

the spanish seemed unafraid of partying till dawn and perfectly capable of clearing it up in the morning. touches such as the massive showers in the campsite and the braun-sponsored shaving area (one of the most relevant forms of promotion i've ever seen) helped keep casualties to a minimum. even though it was truly baking. as most bands didn't come on till around 2am and it was impossible to stay in the tent gone 9, by the 4th day sleep deprivation was the powerful intoxicant that kept us going. well, that and depeche mode's amazing video display.

smarties parties

2006-07-27T12:49:00.000Z

okay, not exactly recent, but found this pic of a party at smarties we went to a while back. full marks for inventiveness as they even gave away free dolls with the entrance fee.

fooz ball with a difference...

gorges du verdon

2006-07-11T15:30:00.000Z

ok, a bit of explanation for the last few posts. over the weekend we decided to visit one of the most talked-about sites in the area - the gorges du verdon; france's answer to the grand canyon.

given that the day i visited the grand canyon it rained, obscuring the view and turning the slopes into a slippery donkey poo pit, i've come away with a much more favourable memory of verdon.

we left late on saturday and the sweltering heat started to subside as we drove north of grasse, forever climbing. unfortunately castellane, where we were heading, was just off the tip of the map, so we arrived after having taken in a few more verdant plateaux and craggy river beds than we should have.

the campsite was compact but nicely located on the banks of an icey river surrounded by cliffs. more rustic than most so would definitely recommend it.

headed into castellane for dinner, which the guidebook had called 'unassuming'. we took a negative interpretation of this and so were very pleasantly surprised by this small greystone town nestling under a massive cliff with a small chapel on top. the place goes back to the 12th century and was built for a time without cars.

the vietnamese food was homestyle and the elderly couple had a refreshing twinkle in their eyes (well, the husband actually seemed a little bit mad).

we had seen a band setting up in one of the squares so we thought we'd head back to check them out. turned out to be a startlingly good rock cover band. the beatles set went on for about 7 songs (to my joy and natalie's consternation) and it was great to see a 16 year old kid (who definitely fits the 'unassuming' tag) handle The Edge's riffs with consummate ease. made me rethink my idea of cover bands. although scarily, that could be an age thing.

ok, i haven't even got on to the gorges on sunday... a small turquoise river carving a deep rift for itself through gently rolling hills really is a site to see. the 'sublime point' viewing area really lived up to its name. check it out.

lunch in moustiers was impressive in a very french way (small perfectly formed plates) and from there it wasn't far to one of the picture-postcard scenes of provence - field upon field of deep purple lavender in full bloom. the smell was magnificent, if not a little reminiscent of old ladies.

we returned back in time for france's slim yet crushing defeat at the hands of the italian mob, and to witness zidanes imaginative-yet-mindless act of violence, marseille style.

2006-07-10T22:53:00.000Z

the lavender

2006-07-10T07:37:00.000Z

the natalie

2006-07-10T07:36:00.001Z

the gorge

2006-07-10T07:36:00.000Z

the band

2006-07-07T08:20:00.000Z

thanks to cecile, finally tracked down one of the guys that have been ever more relentlessly assaulting our eardrums over the last few weeks. known as secadas in the states and cigales here, they have no qualms about rubbing their legs together for hours on end. the huge storm last night seems to have dampened their spirits but i somehow feel their rasping chorus will return.

2006-07-07T08:10:00.000Z

the satanic mills of la roquette. heating up in the flat so needed to take refuge in the coolest area i could find... vive le wifi!

2006-06-26T07:18:00.000Z

this guy gets me everytime. i think there could be a old pic of him up here somewhere but couldn't help snapping him up again. the lines etched into him give him a robotic sinewy feel. might not be a him.

2006-06-26T07:16:00.000Z

up at the palais du longchamps with its crazy nouveau renaissance structures. don't build water bunkers like this anymore.

2006-06-26T07:14:00.000Z

the wonderful cours julien again. paid another well-worth trip to this area of marseille that is a leftfield tripped out breeze compared with the stuffy suave mini-metropoles of cannes and nice. shame about the bin strike.

2006-06-08T14:38:00.001Z

this is the kind of crap we have to put up with...

2006-06-08T14:38:00.000Z

roll up, roll up, get em while their fresh!

2006-06-08T14:37:00.000Z

we're getting somewhere on the provencal farming tip. the courgettes are coming!

2006-06-08T14:36:00.000Z

...before the whitefly get them. 6 fledgling tomato plants and a couple of courgettes just below.

2006-06-07T11:46:00.000Z

just when we were losing faith in the 'le volume' sound system on came nascimiento with a sound both thunderous and melodic. crazy electric violin solos and a rapid-fire snare rhythm were highlights for me.

2006-06-07T11:42:00.000Z

lost in sanremo... could think of worse places to end up.

2006-05-26T17:20:00.000Z

apologies to any veggies reading this, but couldn't help indulging in this beef fondue at a local restaurant called the duplex. didn't quite know what we had in store for us as a mound of absurdly red cubeed steak meat arrived, followed by a pot of burning oil. really did get into the DIY ethic of it all to within an inch of food coma. that was last night and today we've felt like nothing more than mellow japanese noodles.

2006-05-26T17:15:00.000Z

still a bit whacked out after the england trip but finally got out of the house and ventured up into the surrounding hills (peygros this time). as we climbed the vegetation got sparser but this babe didn't seem to struggle with the rocky soil or fiece sun. being wild lavender it also has the most arresting fragrance.

2006-05-26T17:06:00.000Z

well, all the recent work seems to have been worth it. what was in danger of becoming a oversized flower bed is indeed now a beautiful pool. there could still be a leak so we all decided to strike while the iron (and provence) is hot and take the plunge. really did feel like we were on holiday for a few minutes there. doesn't make me feel so bad about the fact it's 7pm on friday night and i have to call the states.

it rained, but who cared?

2006-05-24T20:32:00.000Z

okay, posts getting all out of order and hardly anything to show for it, but this is practically all the photographic evidence of the fact that we were in brighton this weekend. between sorting house stuff out, raiding primark (harsh, prob unethical given the prices, but quite rewarding given that i know i won't see fat old guys here on the beach wearing teh same garb), seeing the ever-lively nils and abi, a big ole night out with too many names to mention that was cut short too soon but then continued on at tim and karen's before anja letting us into kath's at the time the seagulls get rowdy, and hanging out with the parents stocking up on much-missed indian food at rita's curry house in southall. somehow we managed to miss out on photos. apart from this one at al and jen's swanky new pad. forget what you think of loft spaces - they've reinvented it.

2006-05-24T20:16:00.000Z

this is it. summer's rapidly coming and it looks like the pool-ache has abated just in time. today olivier, christelle et al (olivier's dad and grandma are here at the moment) took the plunge today. meanwhile, i struggled to explain to higher management what a great job i do...

2006-05-12T06:32:00.000Z

the mimosa season has passed. the wisteria was purply awesome but brief. and now we enter the season of the poppy (finally discovered why there's so much of it in the local artwork) and an explosion of these tiny little white guys that grow as a bush or a hedge.

2006-05-12T06:29:00.000Z

i think it could well be that i am slowly becoming less of a tourist. seem to be getting wowed by less and less these days. the other day i wondered past the stone and shuttered schoolhouse in the olive grove round the corner from work (an angular and relatively bland two-storey block) and barely battered an eyelid at the farmhouse chic.

however i had to run out and snap a picture of these guys roaming through the extensive garden next door. the distant clink reminds me of the gentle bells we used to hear from the buddhist temple next door in san francisco. quite a surprise then to peer through the bamboo wall that divides our house from the next and see about a hundred sheep 'cutting' the grass next door. i have rarely felt more like a city boy.

2006-04-27T08:01:00.000Z

lapin sur la plage..tres bien, n'est pas?

2006-04-27T07:57:00.000Z

albert et famille en france.

2006-04-10T19:06:00.000Z

daryl's anniversaire in la napoule...oldy but a goody. wonderful meal overlooking the med. la vie est bonne.

2006-04-08T06:37:00.000Z

the heights of gourdon

cap d'antibes

2006-03-18T10:42:00.000Z

one of our favourite spots locally, a couple of weeks ago we completed a walk around the cap d'antibes. to begin with stunning views of nice. 1 hour later circumnavigating some rediculously grand villas we were greeted with similar views towards cannes.

it had started to get pretty hot so we stopped for our picnic lying on rugged stones facing the med.

political fantasies - an aside

2006-03-10T08:32:00.000Z

seem to have been bombarded by fiction trying to tell a deeper story recently. last night we saw 'crash' - a collection of tales bound together by car crashes and racial tension. the coincidences that linked the cast together made LA seem smaller than trumpton.

the first scene where overt racial stereotypes were flipped - ludacris and buddy turning from preppy college kids into car jackers - was then repeated throughout the film. matt dillon is both hater and hero. the home boy is a nice guy. the whole thing takes place in the space of about 24 hours. that's a short time to learn a lot of lessons.

i have also recently finished reading 'my year of meats'. written like a screenplay, it tells the story of an american-japanese 'documentarian' that is hired by the US meat board to travel america making meat-based cookery shows to be aired in japan.

she learns a lot about the meat-making process (doesn't seem to have changed too much since 'the jungle') and comes across a number of victims. it then turns out that she herself is also one of them.

it's not that i don't feel there's truth in the book - there's great research and attention to detail, it's just the way that sociological facts hammer the narrative into submission making it feel over-coincidental and contrived. it feels like the seed is the politics and the fantasy is wrapped around it. whereas in contrast, the great political narratives of orwell such as '1984' and 'animal farm' start as forces of imagination that are gently guided by ominpresent political forces that never completely steal the show.

likewise, other old masterpieces such as 'the grapes of wrath' and 'for whom the bell tolls' don't seem so caught up in putting across such a strident poignant message. the characters are more organically formed and are head and shoulders above the demographics and statistics that partly shape their lives.

moving + guests = no time to blog

2006-03-08T08:02:00.000Z

okay, looking at the timestamp i can see there's been some radio silence. we've been on the move. we're swapping our temporary apartment for a permanenant shared villa. we get space, light and a tiny village with half a bakery and the only entertainment in town being some old guys playing petanque in the square. still, i'm not far from work and we'll be close to the showy touristy megapolis that is cannes. still, it is host to the wonderful barberella.

the move kind of happened a couple of weeks ago with the help of a large lorry that smelt of burning plastic and some hefty help from friends of olivier. the biggest physical challenge i've had in a while (not saying much given that tying shoelaces is about as far as my exertion goes these days), but basking on our sun-drenched patio lunching on baguettes and pate did make it all seem worthwhile.

although we've moved most of our possessions, we've stayed on in the apartment. it's been busy but fun for the last couple of weeks with guests galore. the space sari left was filled by trevor. our excitable septuagenarian brighton neighbour was full of his normal gusto with trumpetting wake-up calls and an unrelenting desire to not miss a thing. equally at home in the stunningly grandiose gardens of the villa ephrussi de rothschild (see below) or one of antibes' late night bars. we also managed a few hands of whist and sevens for sunday lunch with olivier, christelle and the family.

so, our last weekend in antibes and by this time next week we'll be in la roquette sur siagne.

trevor in the rothschild garden..

one of the house and garden. the one thing that is hard to get across is the fact that the garden is perched on top of a small peninsula facing nice on one side and monaco on the other..

2006-02-22T13:16:00.000Z

sunday - carnaval in nice. the floats were outrageous and the weather almost held up...

most floats were dedicated to political satire - most of this was lost on us. just about recognised this one: the two faces of anglo-french relations.

2006-02-22T13:14:00.000Z

dinner at barbarella in cannes was out of this world, quite in keeping with the film. the 'waiters' really went to town. weren't too shy, either..

2006-02-22T13:13:00.001Z

if you ever get to the wonderful perched village of eze, you have to check out the 'jardin exotique'. turned around a dull feb day.

2006-02-22T13:13:00.000Z

had to drop in another one... that's kerry vogueing in the distance.

2006-02-22T13:06:00.000Z

this pic

2006-02-22T13:04:00.000Z

a little different to your local tesco. a mediterranean hypermarket doesn't hold out on the fresh fish supply.

couldn't resist capturing some of these beauties on film..

we finally made it to marseille

2006-02-13T22:54:00.000Z

just got back from a weekend in marseille. second biggest city in france and centre of the french music scene. and that's what we felt. the hotel was small, inauspicious, friendly and in the middle of everything.

on a recommendation we ventured up to the cours julien. this struck a cord. reminiscent of both height street in san francisco and london's camden. vibrant graffiti was everywhere - got the feeling that the shops had adopted a 'if you can't beat them...' attitude and created caricatured spray painted versions of themselves across the storefronts.

we sat outside and split a salad - a mediterranean feast of couscous, peppers in oil, anchovies and leaves. the crowd was mainly young families who seemed perfectly at ease with the grittier side of urban life - tramps, dogs and hooded kids drifting along the sidewalks.

over a day and half we took in all the main sights including the port (complete with a ferry taking weary tourists from end to end), the steep narrow streets of the old town and the cracking views from notre dame de la garde - a church that secured one of the vantage points over the city topped with a gold madonna visible from just about everywhere.

we took a gamble on the nightlife and bought tickets for a hip hop gig at the espace julien. the crowd was young, black, male and smoke hang heavy in the air. the men travelled in packs and, oddly enough, readily exchanged kisses. the hip hop was variable (the beats on the whole seemed cheaply packaged) and for me the high point was a capoeira crew.

on sunday we treated ourselves to a full meal at a small port-side restaurant we stummbled on in a small fishing village just down the coast. the gambas (the daddy of the prawn world) were grilled to perfection and the scallops were almost the size of a burger. i hope we'll be back there!

so, at only a two-hour drive away, i'm sure we'll be back to marseille.

2006-02-13T22:53:00.000Z

marseille - a tiny port hugging the coast just below the beaten track

2006-02-13T22:51:00.000Z

marseille - the best way to get across the port

2006-02-13T22:49:00.000Z

just horsing around

2006-02-13T22:47:00.000Z

marseilles - something everywhere you look on cours julien

the old man of mougins

2006-02-07T08:18:00.000Z

not sure who he is but he has that french military look down. checked out mougins that's going to be very close to where we are moving. another medieval town perched up high - overrun with restaurants and art galleries. funny how you can get blase about these things.

the views of wooded hillsides stretching towards grasse, and snow tipped mountains beyond was quite something.

biot mimosa festival

2006-02-06T21:21:00.000Z

mimosa..no not champagne and orange juice unfortunately..but lovely yellow flowers trees everywhere in the village of Biot.

and yes, it's everywhere - flowing in garlands over the streets, tied to every lamppost, in little vases on all the tables in the restaurants and bars. somewhere, a field has been culled. nice festival, though, kids everywhere all armed with silly string.

mancat...

2006-02-02T09:54:00.000Z

this just about sums up the last week.

le derriere est occupe

2006-01-30T19:35:00.000Z

ok, no pics this week i'm afraid - i've been struck by the revenge of the riviera and so haven't been able to venture too far from the smallest room in the house. not too great a loss given that it's rained for 3 days solid.

sitting around watching dvd's - the life aquatic (wes anderson's tribute to fame and the murky depths, with bill murray playing the deadpan laconic role that he plays so well and has played so many times that you can't help feeling its himself), the singing detective (twisted hospital drama cum detective story remake, the best bits being the repartee between robert downey jr and mel gibson, the worst bits being robert downey jr singing) and raising victor vargas (teenage hood flick refreshingly without guns, drugs and not even that much dialogue, just your good old fashioned boy meets girl).

video junkies or what. did also finish oscar and lucinda (to natalie's amazement - it was over 500 pages and took me less than a year). what a tale. a great epic based on glass, betting, 19th century evangelicism and one of the most eccentric anti-heroes you're likely to meet - the timorous oscar hopkins with hands like a praying mantis.

where i've been and where i'm at

2006-01-22T09:19:00.000Z

wow,

it's funny how life can blow us to different parts of the globe.

ended up watching 'entre ciel et terre' last night (english with french subtitles was my concession towards learning french for the week) - an oliver stone flick about vietnam - part social commentary, part romance, but grandiose in geographic scope moving from vietnam to the states and then back again.

and then this morning ended up on friends reunited reading through references to vague names from a school i left when i was 14 - whose corresponding faces i have not seen in just under 20 years.

some have studied art and are part of theatre troups wondering round holland. others have stayed local and are part of the gloucester community fabric.

the school was just the local catholic school with not too many aires and graces, and being mixed both in terms of gender and ability, is probably the closest i have ever got to community interaction. i'm probably more open now and the shell is coming down, but more often than not i mix with my kind and don't often stray far from my social milieu.

even if i do stray all over the place. the above ramblings probably have more to do with my current situation than the past. still early days on the riviera, so just spoiling ourselves with its beauty - the natural and the man-made.

btw, the chateau at la napoule was a perfect example of this link between us and our surroundings - an american art patron couple (the clews) with high ideals for art and society.

2006-01-22T09:06:00.000Z

that same sunday, they let us in to the picasso museum in the heart of antibes. couldn't help but steal at least a couple of photos of art that made the last century come alive.

2006-01-22T09:05:00.000Z

a little bit different to your normal bulk standard casino. this is the famous one in monaco. true to form, the pizza we had wasn't that cheap, although paper thin and truly tasty.

2006-01-22T09:04:00.000Z

for the last couple of weeks, this has been our weekend occupation - being tourists on the local scene. not a bad way to spend what's normally a dreary january. especially when you end up in places like eze - dripping with history with inspiring views of the med.

2006-01-22T08:59:00.000Z

this is saint paul de vence. a medieval town walled up on a hill. more than a cursory nod towards dali..

2006-01-22T08:58:00.000Z

if anyone knows what the spirally-looking cauliflower is, let us know..

on the move again - this time a villa!

2006-01-16T21:32:00.000Z

ah.. this is it. after the grand search (well, actually the first place we looked at) this is the villa we have gone for. accepted today. us, olivier, christelle and the kids are all going to share this generous-sized villa in roquette sur siegne... just north of cannes.

a glimpse of the pool - we are on the top floor.

... and this is the side view. plenty of olive trees and the facing shutters shows the living room.

new years eve

2006-01-01T21:45:00.000Z

"some you win.." ok, one perk of working in france is the oddles of holiday. the only thing is, that makes complaints about not receiving time in lieu for holidays over a weekend sound that much more hollow. even if that happens to include both xmas and NYE!!

still, there is a feeling of festivities in the air all day friday which carries through to saturday. after having driven half way across france, we plump for trying out the french train network. the local rail system has that new york-ey feeling of a simmering urban angst with no shortage of low-grade graffiti and angular carbuncles for stations.

although, being the south of france in the midst of all this happens to grow an orange tree. a smattering of clementines lined the platform below.

the journey only takes around 20mins and the track runs ridiculously close to the azure of the med.

i had been to nice on the scooter hunt so had the vague idea of where things were. athough funny how many extra things natalie seems to hunt down through some hidden inner shopping sense.

we found an indian shop within minutes. like all good indian shops this was the type that never closes, even on NYE. the cordial shopkeeper said he'd be open till 11. after taking note of a number of vietnamese restaurants (i haven't enjoyed good pho since leaving the west coast), we discovered a small organic shop. the whole back-to-earth organic lifestyle movement hasn't taken root down here so we considered this a find.

in the old town we came across a nicoise speciality: socca. these large chick-pea flour crepes are more golden than their traditional french cousins and have a refreshingly nutty taste. this and a plate of whitebait set us up for our walk up to the chateau - what in effects is some roman ruins on a craggy park that offers some of the best panoramas of nice.

natalie had spotted les huitres (oysters) at an italian restaurant sometime earlier, so this is where we returned to for dinner. as you might be able to guess, this was somewhat of a culinary trip! we took in a couple of bars and were lucky to track down 'le volume' [link] which was quite a find - a divey cavernous venue with an unpretentious crowd who looked set to enjoy themselves and unfortunately we couldn't stick around for the band. we had a train to catch. this proved a bit more hairy than we had bargained for. after the october riots the heavy-handed end of the gendarmarie (complete with cs gas canisters) had sealed off the station.

difficult to get a sense of what was going on - only that there wasn't too much festive spirit in the air. we had time to kill so escaped back into the city (complete with our bag of indian shopping, including 5kg of rice). stumbled on a north african restaurant that had some kind of private party going on. i think the guy on the door tried to tell us as much, but we could make head nor tail of it and stared back dumbfounded. eventually he capitulated and let us in. it's amazing the power of ignorance.

this was quite a scene - some reved up chunky beats overlaid with intermittant tasteful wailing. a handful of people engaged in some serious shoulder action on the dance floor. it took us a good 15 mins to work out that the music was live. just one guy and a keyboard. made me think i would like to explore deeper into the world of electronic arabic music over here.

all in all quite an end to the year. and what seemed like good omens for the time to come.

2005-12-26T14:08:00.000Z

so, after boxing day, that was it. back to trevor's to pack the car. the wonder of a saab - everything, including the massage table fitted in without too much hassle. then onto le havre for the ferry. sleeping accomodation was 'modest' - some partially reclining seats and as the night drew on the temperature sank. this meant kind of fitful sleep.

6 in the morning we made way from le havre with what looked like a thin paper covering of snow. turned out to be a icy to begin with. 20mph with little control of the car. everyone sliding around. we thought we would be doing well to make it to paris. after an hour or so things improved and before we knew it we were discovering just how good the french motorway system really is (although with pay stations every few miles, the cost adds up).

made lyon by about 5pm but took the best part of two hours to find the hotel. a city with a one-way system and two rivers running through it doesn't make for easy orientation on first encounter. still, the hot tub and sauna went some we to make up for it. unfortunately our plans to hit the town were a little scuppered by the fact the metro and most establishments were closed. the hotel night manager later told us it could be becuase of the snow, or it could be because everyone went skiing. still, even with the odds against us, we did discover the best wontons i've ever had! the morning we awoke to the scene above. our hearts dropped at the thought of more snow to contend with (although a smattering of snow seems to work wonders for city landscape photography).

2005-12-25T14:23:00.000Z

you have to hand it to the french - they really do know how to put a cake together. the filling was some multilayered soft and creamy number - to my mind reminiscent of the best bits of tiramisu.

2005-12-25T10:21:00.000Z

so, this is how it began, muchos merriment esp having jayvier and eleeta around. santa's 'footprints' by the door and the food he munched on (and some rather large boxes) got them all worked up. we didn't see the early stages though as only made it in time for xmas lunch apetizers.

so this was it - the end of the time of joy. not really. kids still around and at that heavily 'interactive' stage at the moment, so that's good.

2005-12-25T00:47:00.000Z

was great to have an xmas at the parents with albert and the family there. mum pulled out all the stops as always and dad had put up all the trimmings around the house including the yearly defoliating of one of the few remaining pines. didn't feel like i ate quite the gratuitous amount of food i have consumed in years gone by. could be my inflated middrift is more capable of dealing with it now.

2005-12-24T00:41:00.000Z

christmas eve. feeling woozy and leaving brighton late. stopped off at ascot to drop off mr norman. had to do that goodbye thing one more time. never gets easier, especially when his parents and an eccentric indian guy from next door are standing around. then on to high wycombe for the beginning of the family festivities...

2005-12-23T13:37:00.000Z

ok, so xmas meant a quick return home to catch up with family and friends. as with all these things, the time just wasn't enough.

felt odd having rented the flat. haven't thought about it much since i've been away, but standing outside and not being able to go in felt slightly disorientating. anyway, hard to complain as we were staying in trevor's sumptuous flat. and, as always, natalie had some yummy scram on the go. was great to meet up with friends in a pub. definitely one of the pleasures i've missed. pia and stefan were the first to arrive followed by mr norman and al and jen. jen's getting bigger and had glow bordering on ecstatic (could have something to do with the fact school had broken up although she said she was feeling the best she had in ages). felt sad that only had one night in brighton. managed to allay the sadness with a few more drinks at the arthouse. one last time... although the amount of times we have told them we are leaving and keep showing up again - i think they think we have made the whole story about moving up.

avec une newborn

2005-12-21T10:33:00.000Z

so, trying to look like i know what i'm doing holding adele - christelle and olivier's 1 month old girl. she's enjoying the good life at the moment, sleeping and eating, and seems very content for it. well, until she opened her eyes.

2005-12-21T10:26:00.000Z

so this is it... apartment + scooter = me sorted for the time being. not sure if the pic gives an illusion of warmth, but it definitely isn't at the moment. it's odd - there's frost in the mornings but for lunch can often sit outside (as long as in the sun),

work and play

2005-12-18T23:23:00.000Z

my first week at work wiped me out. it has been a while since i have gone through the experience of being the new boy. dealing with the admin. nudging into the tight human ecosystem that is the office. in my case that is a small room overlooking a building site with three of us crammed in until extra space can be found.

i've been in tighter squeezes and the crew are friendly, so all's well. the mulch under the website has moved on since i left it over four years ago so it taken me a bit of time to get my head around all the programming. my french has come along tremendously, but then it really needed to and it's difficult to see how it could have got worse. when i left england i couldn't even read a little french missive left in my leaving card. hmm.

haven't really even started getting into tenses yet, but i've found somethings common to english and french quite striking - such as the reliance on 'to have' and 'to be'.

so, to try and recoup after that first week, thought would explore the local surrounds and make the most of the hire car. i thought i'd try the cap d'antibes for starters. a small peninsula extending out from antibes' old town like a beverly hills-by-the-sea. i wasn't the only one with an idea of a sunday-afternoon stroll. almost as busy as the autoroute on the tight path hugging the rugged cliffs. didn't last that long, and sped away in my little citroen in search of that raclette burger that looked so alluring in the Quick ads (unfortunately it wasn't all that - not the smallest leaf of lettuce to cut the heavy meat and cheese).

2005-12-18T23:20:00.000Z

oh, one more from that walk.

btw, sorry - no pics of me. will have to wait until natalie gets here. (at that time picture quality may well improve!)

home is where the dimmable spotlights are

2005-12-18T23:14:00.000Z

so, i think i can safely say i landed on my feet. i think i can safely say i seem to have landed on my feet when it came to finding a flat. christelle gave birth the day after i arrived (her and olivier are the couple we know from the states that graciously offered to put me up until i found a place) and so i felt that me being around wasn't helping them adapt to their new life. thankfully, the first apartment i looked at, attached to a sumptuous villa on the hills overlooking antibes was good. good as in good hotel standards. the place actually reminds me of a german hotel we stayed in in the centre of london when i had a wisdom tooth out and couldn't eat the nice food. everything included and all spanking new.
also reminscent of the flat we had in palmeira avenue. that could be partly because of the synchronicity. me making the tentative first steps and hoping that the abode is up to scratch, given my lack of knowledge in these matters.
only complaint is that it's missing one thing that separates an off-season holiday rental from a comfy home - namely a sofa to lounge in. to get round that, i've had to join the local gym. years since that's happened, and either i've gotten older (well, ok, definitely) or its something particular to this part of the world, but working out seems to be synonymous with euro-trance.