Don't Harsh my Yellow

Remember that David Sedaris book where he writes about going to flea markets in Paris and being able to buy human skulls and alligator fetuses? Well Saint-Ouen's not really like that. More like a lot of postcards, Johnny Hallyday records, and t-shirts that say "Ma Banilieue." I did find out though that, in France, Short Circuit 2 was called Applez-moi Johnny 5 . 

Anyway, traveling solo has its ups and downs. I'm not accountable to anyone and can do or not do whatever I want. On the way to Colette (so gross) I was a block away from the Louvre and didn't even entertain the notion of going in and I bet you a million dollars that if I was with someone else we'd be like "Should we go? I don't know, should we?" for twenty minutes and then freak out about if we were ruining each other's France experience. 

Plus, I really do just love hanging out in my canary yellow hotel room at Residence des Gobelins and watching Ulysses 31 reruns and The Enforcer in German. 

Had the worst butter chicken of my life today. The worst.

Paris Flash

So today I saw Henri Langlois and Serge Gainsbourg's grave, went to the goddamn Eiffel Tower, then to this electroclash shopping zone. Just ate a pizza -- not the one with the egg on top unfortunately -- and bought two tall cans of Kronenburg, which are now cooling in the sink. Going to Trevor Jackson and Pilooski tonight. 

Newsflash

I'm in Paris, where they are celebrating, surprise surprise, 400 years of Quebec. They have great sandwiches but hardly any drip coffee. I don't think I've had a real conversation in like 4 days. This afternoon in my hotel room I watched this great euro action movie about a jew who avenges some terrorist attack all around Paris. I haven't even seen the Eiffel Tower yet and they moved the APC store. I was supposed to do archival research, but I went through all the materials in about 3 hours and there wasn't really anything I could use (guess who funded my trip?).  Tomorrow I think I will go to the catacombs, Versailles, or Montmartre. Everyone here is pretty sexy, but they're into kind of stupid stuff  -- like a picture of Shakespeare with a word bubble that says "What's up?" 

Update: Taste of home: Kid Sister's Beeper just came on the Virgin station.

Update II: Followed by Simple Plan. WTF?? What next? Tokyo Police Scene? 

St. Louis

Before this past weekend, this was about all I knew about St. Louis.

Now though, I know that they also filmed Escape from New York there and that their regional culinary specialties include toasted ravioli and provolone pizza. 

I was there for an urban visual studies workshop, and we were all excited to visit the site of the Pruitt-Igoe housing development. Built in the 1950s, Pruitt-Igoe's Le Corbusier-like design was slated for lower-income residents. 

But, like similar designs in other major American cities, the design seemed to produce more problems than it solved and was torn down in the 1970s, an event regarded as the death knell of modernist architecture. Since its destruction nothing has been built on the site -- it's overgrown with plants and apparently populated by wild dogs. Apparently this scene, depicting Pruitt-Igoe destruction, from  Koyannisqatsi is being used in current Grand Theft Auto IV trailers. 

Oh yeah, I also walked by Eddie Izzard eating at an outdoor patio. I looked at him, and he looked at me with that kind of "I-know-you-recognize-me" face.