One day in Bangkok - sorry: Paris...Passeport part one

...is not the title of a film (or song) but the 'short story' about me having to visit Paris in order to get my passport renewed.

This first time only for the photos, papers and fingerprints.
I don't complain. Paris is a fantastic town. On the same time I'm actually glad living in a small town like La Châtre and this for many reasons.

First of all it's very expensive living in Paris, if you don't want to live in a small 'studio' in the terrible suburbs, paying a rent that is sufficient for a three room apartment in La Châtre.
Secondly the town is rather filthy and malodorous, I'm sorry to say.
Thirdly the pollution from the cars - as in any other major town - is terrible. The scooter and motorcycle drivers are people you feel inclined to kill!

The advantages of having fresh vegetables and fruits from your own (or your father-in-laws) garden, is another advantage, not easily realizable either. There are fine markets, as we all know but it's however not the same.

Spending two weeks in the capital is though wonderful, giving you an opportunity to visit museums, exhibitions, concerts, see a lot of films, theatrical performances etc etc.
This time it lasted one day but I have to return once again in order to get my passport and we'll see what happens then.

During this visit I met one of my cousin Lars' daughters, Jenny, working as a make up-artist in connection with fashion parades.
The company where she is emplyed is Shu Uemura (176 Boulevard Saint-Germain-des-Près).
I had planned to say hello to her sister Elin too (working as a stylist) but she was working in another town this day. Jenny and I ate a lunch and had a good time talking about this and that.

After this I only strolled around the town, looking at sites and people, memorizing streets and places and taking some (not so good) iPhone-photos (above and below):

(Photo boutique Shu Uemura 176, Bld. Saint-Germain 75006 Paris copied from: http://s.plurielles.fr/mmdia/i/84/9/boutique-shu-uemura-10532849wnelv_2041.jpg)

Billy the Kid for sale

This photo (above) is said to be the only one left of Billy the Kid and it was sold at an auction in Denver, Colorado for 2,6 million US$. The buyer is a collector by the name of William Koch, businessman, sailor, and collector, the son of Fred Koch, the founder of Koch Industries. William or Bill Koch can afford this as he is regarded as one of the richest persons in the USA.

The photo of 'the Kid' is taken in 1879 (the year my grandfather was born) or 1880, in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Billy the Kid had given this 'tintype' or 'ferrotype' (a sort of photographic tecnhique) to his friend Dan Dedrick and since then it has passed on in his family, only displayed once at a museum during the 1980s'.

Photo below is said to be Dan Dedrick and Billy the Kid

Photo below is said to depict Dan Dedrick,

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

(Photo copied from this site: https://petapixel.com/2011/06/27/lone-photo-of-billy-the-kid-fetches-2-3-million-at-auction/)
(Photo of Dan Dedrick and Billy the Kid, taken from : https://www.newser.com/story/173436/this-photo-may-be-2nd-ever-of-billy-the-kid.html)
(Photo Dan Dedrick, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid copied from: https://www.pinterest.fr/pin/341007003012437074)

Athene's Theory of Everything

Is there such a thing as a theory of everything? I guess many thinkers, scientists, philosophers have argued that there exists or has existed such a theory but how can they prove that this is the case?
Take a look at this video and make up your mind:

Plus sombre que l'ombre de tes ailes...

...is the title of this book written by the French journalist and nowadays writer Sébastien Acker, having lived and worked in Berry/Le centre for ten years.

He has always been a bibliophile and as young he read around 4-5 books per week.

When working as a journalist he became fascinated by Swedish and Scandinavian literature and specifically the crime fiction ('polar'), beginning with Sjöwall & Wahlöö.

Later on he continued to interest himself in other authors and more or less incidentally he came to write this book with the above name that - with a rough translation - means: "Much somber/darker than the shadow of your wings".

Acker has today (Saturday) visited La Châtre and La Maison de la Presse in order to sign his book. The photo below (published some days later in the newspaper 'La Nouvelle République') shows Acker in the middle - of course - and my wife Aurore to the right, carrying a box of cinnamon buns, something Acker had asked for and through a 'cooperation' between Aurore and me, he was able to enjoy these Swedish delicacies. Part of the deal with the cinnamon buns was that he promised to carry the yellow shirt of the Swedish football team and below you can see that Acker also kept his part of the deal. (The text in French under the photo).

(DÉDICACE. Sébastien Acker était à la Maison de la presse, samedi matin, pour dédicacer son premier ouvrage Plus sombre que l'ombre de tes ailes aux éditions La Bouinotte. Sébastien avait tenu son pari en revêtant le maillot de foot de l'équipe suédoise ; Aurore, une Castraise, mariée à un Suédois, venue faire dédicacer son livre, avait apporté des kanelbullars, brioches suédoises à la cannelle.)

The events in the book take place both in Berry/Le Centre and Stockholm wherefore Aurore contacted Acker through Facebook, in order to talk about Swedish and Scandinavian literature and parenthetically the links between me and the implicit main character in the book - not mentioned by name - Stieg Larsson, among other things.

The book circles around Léonard, a Parisian postman (always ringing twice?) who is a huge fan of Scandinavian crime novels but also a (very) private investigator, working for noone and nothing.
When having finished the reading of a world famous Swedish crime novel (guess which one), he becomes convinced of one thing:
To him it's clear that the author of this crime novel, dying before he get to see the success of his books, as a journalist threatened by the extreme right wing groups in Sweden, was murdered!
Léonard plonges into this certitude. How can it be that everyone believes that the author of this blockbuster actually died from a heart attack?
Our postman starts his first own major private investigation, flanked by Léon a disabled colleague.
To the Stockholm of Mysteries from Berry, the two men experience a surprising adventure, taking them from places like The Old Town in Stockholm to the province of George Sand, from The Blue Tower in Stockholm, where August Strindberg lived to Sainte-Sévère and Jacques Tati's 'Jour de Fête'.

Below an interview in French by Bip tv, (Berry Issoudun Première Télévision), where Acker explains a little about himself, his passion for Scandinavia and his own book.

Sebastien ACKER

(Photo Acker and Aurore at La Maison de La Press in La Châtre copied from: http://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/indre/LOISIRS/Livres-cd-dvd/D-233-clic19)

Bloomsday 1904/2011

Bloomsday is the name given to this day by those wanting to commemorate the author James Joyce and particularly his Magnum Opus (some would mention 'Finnegans Wake' perhaps) 'Ulysses' and the character Leopold Bloom in this very book. Leopold Bloom is the protagonist of Ulysses.

The event in this book toke place this very day in Dublin in 1904, or did they?

Bloomsday was 'invented' in 1954.

This is a very intresting book composed by different literary techniques and a kind of mind flow/stream of conciousness-writing, developed throughout the years by Joyce when teaching literature to his students - when not singing, drinking or writing.

Normally I dislike advices like: "The 1000 books you have to read before you die" or the like but in this case I would like to exhort you to read this book as it's a rather groundbreaking œuvre, not least stylistically.

Further reading: The James Joyce Center
Works by James Joyce The Guthenberg Project
Work by or about James Joyce World Cat.org


(Photo 'Ulysses' copied from: https://jamesjoyce.ie/ulysses-2/)
(Photo painting James Joyce by by Jacques-Emile Blanche copied from: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw03533/James-Joyce)

Darkness/Light/Darkness, Jan Svankmajer

A fantastic film maker/animator, not as widely known as he should be, looking at his listing of works:

Personally, I've only seen his 'Alice' (at least as far as I can recall), an adaptation of Lewis Carrols' (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) book about 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'. Svankmajer has influenced many other film makers and animators and should be more talked about than is the case. See parts of his Alice below:

Michael Lonsdale et la médaille Grand Vermeil

Michael Lonsdale - un des acteurs préféré de ma femme - a reçu La Medaille Grand Vermeil de Paris.


Michael Lonsdale reçoit la médaille Grand... par mairiedeparis

Michael Lonsdale (sur IMDb).