My latest repeat song

This is a song that I discovered thanks to my roommate. I love it, I listened to it all day, at least 15 times.

Party Pumpernickel

I had two very cultural moments this weekend during or surrounding my roommate's birthday in the village where her parents live.

1) One of my roommate's neighbors from when she lived in LA came all the way to France for this party. Whenever they said his name, I couldn't imagine what it would be in English. The way I heard it in French was Eeroueen, I thought his name might be Heroin, but that seemed too ridiculous to be true. Turns out it was Irwin. Anyways the American cultural moment was this. Irwin was telling me about his three daughters, about how well they got along, how old they were, their relationship status etc. Then he asked me, "would you like to see a picture of my pride and joy?" I answered sure, and he pulls out a laminated photo of a bottle of pride laundry detergent and a bottle of joy dish soap.

2) On the train on the way back to Paris, I was sitting across the aisle from a mother and her daughter. The little girl was about 4 and very chatty, the mother seemed a bit tired by the constant chatter from her daughter, and answered her sort of exasperatedly. Getting off the train, the mother told the daughter they should just wait until everyone got off, that they were in no hurry and that she didn't want to get crushed by the crowd. The little girl responded "maman, t'es un amour de maman, et je ne veux pas que tu sois coincé par ces gens' (you're a love of a mother, and I don't want you to be crushed by these people). Then she continued, "Maman, t'es un amour de maman et tu vas me manquer." (you're a love of a mother and I'm going to miss you.) Her mom was confused by this and said that they were going to get off together and that she was not leaving her, and the little girl answered "tu vas me manquer quand je serais adulte et quand je quittera la maison pour habiter avec Alexandre" (I'm going to miss you when I'm an adult and I leave home to live with Alexander). Her mom laughed and said that she was sure she still had a bit of time left before that happened.

Barefeet in a heartbeat

This is a silly fun group from Quebec that we saw at the Eurockéenes festival. I can't say that I really like penny-loafers or deck shoes though.

Where are the messy european boys?

I went on vacation to Berlin. Thought it would be a nice respite from the fancy Parisian long windblown wavy-haired, sharply dressed skinny-boys. I was expecting a substantial population of taller, slightly grungy, slouchy jeans-wearing, dirty haired types. Instead, all I saw were slick blonde, hip hair-styled, long shorts rolled up above the knee, bike-riding pretty boys. Do I have to go back to the states? I just want a nice, I look like I don't give much of a shit, but secretly I do, but only just barely enough, type of fella.

I really am very superficial.

Arrête de me bousculer

Last night I had a (maybe slightly drunken) moment of being so fed up with French (Parisian?) attitudes. I know there's a cliché that Parisians are rude. As far as my experience goes, whatever, that's not really true. To me it's sort of the opposite, people are too stupid polite. Mostly what pisses me off here is the expectations people have of others' behavior, and how patronizing and condescending people are when someone doesn't behave "properly."

Being the rude American that I am, I don't usually acknowledge or apologize if I brush by or bump someone in the metro. This is wrong. Even if the metro is crowded, people tend to expect an apology if you touch them.

Then last night we were out, on the eve of Bastille day there are dances at firehouses. And another Parisian thing is not being terribly neat or patient when it comes to forming a line. So the line to get in was a pushy mob of drunk people, fine. Except some smug jerkface with a stupid superior grin told my friend, who as far as I could tell was in "line" before him, to "arrête de me bousculer." (stop crowding/pushing me). She was drunk, and cursed in a foreign language, which didn't help.

First of all, it annoys me so much that someone in that situation, like on the crowded metro, feels entitled to not be touched. Second, after my friend cursed, the girl dude was with, who understood what my friend had said, reacts in the worst possible way. Instead of having an understandable reaction, like saying " Fuck you, I understood what you said," or something like that, the woman starts lecturing my friend. She started telling her that she was going to teach her a lesson on how to live, and that she needs to learn how to behave and blablabla. Ugh. Like one drunk asshole has so much wisdom to impart to another.

Then we got groped by some super creepers in the crowd and decided to give up. Too angry. Then we were treated like assholes for pushing the slimeface that touched my ass. These are the things that make me so angry. Guess life is pretty good then, generally. Plus we had so much fun dancing, when not having ass grabbed.

also because I love Adrien Brody

But mostly because I forgot about this song and a friend reminded me of it today. And it is so nice.

strange things

I never would have thought that I'd find a goat skin in my bed. It never even occurred to me to have never expected it. But my friend steens stopped in for a surprise visit, which explains it.