Visitors, Christmas and a Good Resto

Visiting period has opened. For the next few weeks, 5 different visitors will be coming to hang out in Paris. First up were my cousins from New York. We've been having fun just tooling around the city, catching up and trying to survive the bitter cold.


Had a great night out with my 10-year old cousin. We hit the town together and spent an action-packed evening that included bowling, air hockey, pool, Elvis pinball and multiple crepes.

Took a break from the city and headed out to spend Christmas Day in Ivry-la-Bataille, about 50 miles from Paris.


Spent a night laughing, eating, drinking champagne and watching the ups and downs of gift giving.

Speaking of eating, went to an excellent restaurant this week. It's called Alcazar and is located at 62 rue Mazarine in the 6th. The food is modern French but it's generally a non-French experience. Located on a small street, the restaurant is large (by Paris standards) and chic, almost LA-like, and is own by a Brit (Terence Conran). I can attest that the fish and chips are absolutely delicious. Go for lunch if you can because they have a great specials.

Photos of the week:

A new mosque? No, a Bush press conference (thanks to Norman)
Individually-wrapped french fries
Large paintings at the Louvre
Nipple pinch at the Louvre

Compassion ...

Not much happened this week but what did was a grand experience. Both good and bad. An elderly woman who I've been friends with for almost 7 years now needed to have a rather complicated form of cataract surgery performed on her this week. She's pretty much all alone in Paris and her relatives who live in the suburbs were out of town. So I picked her up at her apartment and brought her to the clinic for the procedure.

It's hard to explain the level of fear and anxiety she experienced, starting with the taxi from her apartment. By the time we arrived at the clinic, she was almost inconsolable. We checked in and sat for about 20 minutes in a waiting room. Every time the clerk would come in and call someone's name, she'd jump up and nervously say "was that my name ... I think it was my name". We eventually got called and admitted to a private room.

The room was absolutely perfect. Seemingly new, like a hotel room, with a touchscreen television that had an internet connection, telephone, cable, etc. I was relieved to see that the room was great, thinking that might help ease my friend's angst a little. Nope. She looked around for a few seconds and then launched into a tirade that maybe only a mother who's child throws a tantrum at the supermarket could understand. The bed was too high (of course we lowered it), she was used to taking baths and the room only had a shower, she's used to a bar of soap and here there was only liquid soap. But the topper was the heating system. The room and the whole clinic had a central heating system that would blow warm air into each room. It made noise but just above a whisper. Well, my friend convinced herself that there was no way she could sleep in a room that noisy. First she called the department administrator and said that she had specifically requested a quiet room. Of course the clinic had actually given her their best room, the most quiet and had even (I found out later) actually upgraded her to a VIP room. It had zero street noise and was at the end of the hall with only one adjacent room. She had the best room.

The administrator was quite kind and found a solution for my friend. They brought in a radiator heater which made no noise and turned off the fan in my friend's room. Perfect right? Wrong. My friend decided she didn't like the KIND of heat from a radiator heater so that wouldn't do. She demanded to be moved to another room. The administrator told her that all the rooms had the same heating system and besides that, the clinic was full. Well, over the next 2 hours(!) my friend called just about everyone involved with the clinic from the admitting officer, the janitor, the heating technician, the top person and a few people I didn't even know who they were.

At one point, there were 7 clinic people standing in our room trying to make the situation better. The were completely at their wits end but other than the heating technician, refused to give up. I tried to stay out of the situation the best I could because it was difficult for me to following everything in French and truly there wasn't really anything I could do. Finally, the top administrator, not knowing what else to do or who I was, tried to enlist my help but asking me "Monsieur, que-ce que vous pensez (Sir, what do you think)? Feeling a bit on the spot and having 8 French people staring at me and hanging on my response was quite a moment. I paused and then said "I think you've done everything humanly possible and that my friend has created a problem without a solution". Everyone looked around for a couple of seconds and then my friend seemed to realize that what I said might be true and quite unexpectedly calmed down a bit. She told the mob in her room that of course a clinic can not be like home and that she would just have to deal with the inconveniences, or something to that effect.

I ended up spending 7 hours there and another 3 hours when I went to pick her up two days later. My friend's behavior was outrageous and painful but what will stay with me the most was the compassion of the clinic staff. Can any of you out there imagine the employees of a clinic where you live being that compassionate? Seven people over two hours trying to solve an unsolvable situation. As often as I call the behavior of Parisians savage (and that's often), events like this happen and I gain a whole new respect for the people and the "humanness" of their culture.


Some photos of the week:

Metro scene

Metro scene

Boxing, The Spirit and Zimbabwean Dollars

This week I had a splendid time photographing a night of French boxing at the beautiful Cirque d'Hiver in Paris. The tournament titled "Le Grand Tournoi" featured professional French boxers in various weight classes as well as one international bout. I was quite surprised at the talent level. The two main fights were excellent.


Being ringside is thrilling as well as disturbing. Things happen so quickly in the ring and before you know it, the boxers can be right on top of you. I only hope and pray that they're tested for AIDS because all the photographers catch a fair bit of fluids during the fight. Boxing is problematic because from a human standpoint, there's no reason for a sport to exist where the rules are to basically hit the other guy in the head so hard that he can't even stand up for 10 seconds - it's real savagery. Yet at the same time, I find the intensity of a good boxing match to be one of the most engaging and exciting events in the world of sport.

Somewhat less violent (and interesting) was the French premiere of the film "The Spirit" with Samuel Jackson, Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes (the women, at least based on this photo, arrived naked).


The most entertaining part of the evening happened when Samuel verbally smacked down one of the French photographers who kept ordering him to move around. Once you photograph Samuel on a red carpet you know that he's the one in charge and yelling requests really doesn't sit well with him. I loved it when Samuel stopped, pointed at the French photographer and said in his Pulp Fiction-like voice "You gonna keep on barkin' or take some damn pictures?" Not sure the Frenchman understood the words but he certainly understood the meaning.


In the "it could be much worse" category, Zimbabwe this week announced the minting of new 500 million dollar bank notes. Take a guess how much 500 MILLION Zimbabwean dollars is worth in terms of US dollars. The answer: $8 So if your desire to become a millionaire is strong, you know where to move. You'd need just under 2 US cents to be a millionaire in Zimbabwe.

Here is some very compelling and telling video shot by a photographer Robbie Cooper showing young people playing video games. CLICK HERE TO WATCH.

Photo of the week ...

Danger of death

P.S. - Don't miss the special holiday video just below - only good through January 15

I Dance, Therefore I Am

Philosophy Cafe, Assemblee Nationale and Read After Burning

This week I attended a "Cafe Philo", or Philosophy Cafe event at the famous Cafe de Flore in Saint Germain de Pres. The idea of the Cafe Philo is to have organized debate in a public place, establishing a philosophical exchange, and quite democratically giving the right to speak (and the microphone) to anyone who wants it.


These public philosophy debates in cafes have been taking place here officially since the early 90's but unofficially for much longer. But more recently, at the Cafe de Flore, these debates have been happening in English, hence my participation - if you can call sitting there and trying to figure out what some people are talking about participating. There were some very lively and entertaining moments. You can read more about these debates HERE.

I covered an unlikely event this week. Five mayors of American cities came to Paris as the first officials to visit since Obama's election.


The delegation included mayors from Cincinnati, Oklahoma City, West Palm Beach, Albuquerque, and Hialeah, Florida. They met with the president of the National Assembly and the son of a former French President (Louis Giscard D'Estaing). The most interesting part was seeing inside the private residence of the president of the National Assembly.


I'm guessing it is quite different than the official residence of the mayor of Oklahoma City.


On the entertainment front, I shot the French premiere of the Coen Brother's film "Burn After Reading". Unfortunately, neither Brad Pitt nor George Clooney were there but only Frances Mcdormond and Joel Coen. Catherine Deneuve made an unannounced appearance.


One of the more fascinating websites I've found in recent times is this one: www.midomi.com
This is a site where all you have to do is hum a few bars of a song you like and it will tell you what song it is. Even pretty obscure songs. I didn't believe it but I tried it and it really works. It's a great way to find out the names of songs you know but don't know the title of. The only disconcerting part is that you have to give them the right to record you, both with your webcam and microphone. I've never seen my webcam light turn on so I know they're not recording video. And I didn't care if they recorded me humming songs.

If you find yourself feeling a bit down, take 5 minutes and watch this old video of a young Arnold Schwarzenegger. I think it's more stunning that someone who not only did a soft porn movie (yes, he actually did) and starred in this clip could become governor of California than it is that a black man could become president.



Photo of the week ...

Peculiar flavor ...