Round One: All smiles

Warning: The majority of the French in this post is wrong.
The first trip to the prefecture was a success. A good 90% of stories involving the prefecture are laced with a healthy dose of horrors, hours wasted, documents rejected, flaming hoops jumped through, but we had a smooth first encounter. We were in and out in an hour and a half, one hour of that time was spent waiting for the one clerk who supposedly spoke decent English to return from lunch. One of my biggest concerns was the wait, it seems that most people are there for a minimum of three hours, Gretchen was there for almost five. I was mainly worried about how to keep the troops from revolting so we came laden with books, video ipods and gameboys, ready to set up camp. We weren't there long enough for me to stop sweating from the 30 degree temperature between the inside and outside before my number was called, literally five minutes.
I got through the first two or three questions; she asked for my passport, i gave it to her, she asked if the kids were there i said "oui" and pointed behind me, she asked me where i lived, "J'habite en onzeme arondissment", then she flipped to my visa and let fly with two or three paragraphs worth of unknown words while pointing to the date. I knew it had expired two days ago. I fell back on the old "Je ne parle pas francais bon". Still smiling plesently my lady went for backup and founda co worker that possesed a good knowledge of at least two dozen english words(more then the number of french words i know if you subtract the curse words). I think i managed to explain that the rest of the families visa's expired in another week and i had been perating with that date in mind(it could have been that i opened chloe's passport and pointed to the date on her visa). Somehow they, quite pleasently, tagteamed an explination that the English speaking clerk was at lunch and i would have to wait for an hour, either that or they were dumpingme(the nonfrench speaking ass hat) on the new girl. I gathered up my novels worth of documents and took a seat.
Almost exactly an hour later i was called back to the window where the very cute, miniuly english speaking clerk greeted mein French and then asked for several things all in french. After a few minutes of typing she asked for my picture, in english, and then disappeared. A few minutes later she returned with my three month visa extention(if the internet is to be believed this is the way it works, you get an extension every three months for a year and then you get a real long term visa). She then set up an appointment for me in french and explained to me what i would have to bring(everything i had with me right then). I then asked in my half English half French patois if the kids had to be there and she said NO!! This is good news, i hope she really understood my question. I then thanked her profusely and wished her a bon semane and she told me "good by, have a nice day" in perfect English!!


p.s. It took me three tries to find out how much money was in my account at the bank. The try that worked was in spanish; Combien euros(point to account number raise eyebrows questioningly).
I'm on a roll.

Everythings better with...

Yesssss, i want this.

Herman Dune in the 11eme

I've blogged about this cool French duo Herman Dune before but i just found these videos. If you step out my front door, take a right and walk 30 steps that's where this video starts.



This video is on the same street, it ends in our bakery.

Ryan Adam and the Cardinals - Cardinology

Wow, it seems like all i blog about anymore is Ryan Adams. Well I heard the new album tonight. I was so excited that i emailed Andrea while i listened to it, here is the email, unedited.

Born into a light is the first track. Nice acoustic riff. This sounds gooood.
track 2 Go easy. I like it.
track 3 Fix it. Wow this is alot more laid back then the live version we've been hearing. It has a little slinky feel to it.
track 4 Magick. A rocker! Is this political? Weird but me like the rock. Sweet a lyric about zombies. I like this song. Is it the halloweenhead of this album?
track 5 Cobwebs. Solid, mid tempo heartbreaker.
track 6 Let us down easy. This is a good song. I'm not sure how to categorize it. I hear a country guitar sound in there but it's not a country song. Maybe a little sixties do wop feel to it. I like what he's doing vocally in the chorus.
track 7 Crossed out names. He's just so sad.
track 8 Natural Ghost. Classic Ryan Adams alt country sound. Pretty chorus. Man his voice sounds good.
track 9 Sink ships. Sounds good. He's doing that thing where he cams a lot of words in some versus. There are some nice lines in here "blackbirds inside a bell". He is hitting his notes, nice. Tempo change. What a perfect ending.
track 10 Evergreen. This is pretty. How many times have i said that? Who is singing backup?
track 11 Like Yesterday. A classic laid back song. It's so comftrable sounding.
track 12. Stop. I was praying it was a Jane's Addiction cover for a millisecond. This is like September sad, but in a great way.
That is one hell of an album.

Wayne's house

Check out this great article in the New York Times about Wayne Coyne's house(s). As any Oklahoma based Flaming Lips fan can attest Wayne is a great, warm, accomidating man. I think we've probably all cruised around OKC hoping to find him in his yard and be invited in for dinner.

Roundup

There are a lot of cool things on the web.
Of all the ridiculous ways to spend money this library makes the most sense to me.

Due to some cool posters in the metro i've been listening to a French band called Herman Dune(don't worry they sing in English). Check out their website, they have a cool thing going on.

Wooster Collective have the latest by everyone's favorite street artist BANKSY.

Scot has one lucky kid.

Somehow, this makes me feel better.

I wish I were in San Francisco.

Ordering Blues

The new not-yet-released Ryan Adams book Infinity Blues is available for preorder from Akashic books in New York City. The book is 50$ with a 10$ shipping fee in the states and a 20$ fee outside the states. The book is a hand signed hardback edition with a book of poetry titled Sad American Mythology thrown in. I guess i've paid more for books but i guess i better ask the boss before i order. Needless to say i'm super psyched about this release and it's always great to get a package in the mail.
I noticed while perusing their website that Akashic publishes one of my favorite beat poets Amiri Baraka. I caught one of his poetry readings about 12 years ago and actually got to speak to the man and get some books signed. If you get a chance to hear him read, jump on it. He has an awesome style and presence.

Infinity Blues by Ryan Adams

Preorders for Ryan Adams first novel will start on October 6th on the Akashic Books web site. Here is some info from their site:
Preorders for the forthcoming Ryan Adams book titled Infinity Blues will be available on this page starting Monday, October 6, 2008. Preorders will include a signed HARDCOVER copy of Infinity Blues, with a bonus poetry chapbook by Ryan Adams titled Sad American Mythology. The chapbooks will all be signed and numbered; it will be a limited edition available only through the Akashic Books website as part of this preorder. The official publication date of Infinity Blues is March 16, 2009, but preorders will be sent out before then, in December or January.

No price but who cares, i'm buying this book.
Big thanks to Andrea for the heads up!!

Go drinking bear

Flite #1

Scot has a great new print about to go on sale, get the detail at Loser Goes 1st.

Mad Max for Muscles over motors

Chloe and I watched The Road Warrior, the second movie in the Mad Max trilogy a couple of nights ago. It sparked some talk about the oil crisis, i'm impressed by how much she knows about the current energy crisis. She pointed out that instead of battling ass chap wearing mohawked punk rockers for gas in the post apocalyptic future she is going to ride her bike. Thank you Mad Max, you've created another biker.
Last night we watched Beyond Thunderdome... we couldn't figure out what it was about.

Stuff Parisians like

Modeled on Stuff White People Like this blog Stuff Parisians like is just as funny and just as true.

Kings of Leon Only by the night

The Kings of Leon have a new album coming out next week that i am completely in love with. Only by the Night is a huge step forward for the band this album really sounds like they've found their sound. It seems like a lot of their obvious influences have been so integrated into their music that they are left with a true unique voice. There are so many high points on the album that i don't know where to begin. One of the most striking things is the way Caleb sings on this album, he isn't holdin anything back on these tracks. The first single Sex on Fire has a pretty awesome video and for some reason it sounds particularly excellent on the Metro. The album opener is titled Closer and right away it's obvious that the Followill boys are doing something different. Crawl has one of my favorite lines from the album "you better learn to crawl/before i walk away" sang over a perfectly fuzzy rhythm part. Manhattan slows things down in an absolutely perfect way with Caleb taping into that elated feeling you get at the end of a great night. All in all a great album and destined to wind up in my top 10 of the year.

Tour Dates: Because these guys can put on a show.
10/11/08 Las Vegas
10/12/08 San Diego
10/15/08 L.A. (Get on it Scot)
10/17/08 San Fran
10/18/08 San Fran
10/20/08 Seattle, Wa
10/21/08 Portland, Or (Luke i'm looking at you)
10/23/08 Denver, Co (Phil have a Fat Tire for me)
10/25/08 Austin,Tx
10/26/08 Oklahoma City (Practically a home town Crowd)
10/28/08 Houston, Tx
10/29/08 Dallas, Tx

The man who fell to Earth

French tv is a pretty mixed bag. There is a football match on every single night(yeah) and they often show entire sets from big festivals in and arounf Paris(Clap Your Hands last week) but the rest is crazy French produced hings and then American stuff that has been dubbed. They show a lot of recent movies which is cool, i've found it pretty easy to follow the plot of most action films and of coarse they don't take out the nudity.
Last week they showed the David Bowie gem, The Man who fell to Earth. This was cool in and of itself. If you hven't seen it it's a pretty weid film but just to make it even odder it started out dubbed for the first twenty minutes then it switched to English and then it just randomly went back and forth, five minutes of French here, ten minutes of English there. All of the music was in English which is what i expected and why i was watching(and i knew there were boobs and that crazy shot of Bowi as a naked alien). Gotta love the french tv.

Oklahoma in the news

Check this out, a tattoo shop in Moore, Oklahoma giving away free Obama tattoos.

Could it be?

This is what it kinda looks like a poster advertising an upcoming production of Grease in Paris. The only thing on the poster in English is "Grease" which begs the question "Are we looking at a French language version of the musical"? If so I'm in. In fact I'm in even if it's in English with heavy French accents. Grease is the word.
Sorry for the picture, my camera is broken, no viewfinder and only taking pictures without a flash.

Rock en Seine

Wouldn't you know it Rock En Seine is starting today and i'm as broke as a joke. The really horrible thing is that the French music television channel(not MTV) which is one of the five channels we get keeps playing blokes of videos from artist performing at the festival.

Way late REM

This concert was forever ago but i had to share a few pictures. After missing the National(don't ask) and rocking with Modest Mouse REM came out and blew us away.
They played an extremely varied set and sounded great. They all still have it goin on.


Johnny Marr came out and played the encore with REM. Can you imagine how awesome that was? I still can't believe it.

D Fest day one

We got a late start to D Fest but with the temperature in the upper 90s at 10:00 that was probably a good thing. The only band we really wanted to see on day one was the mighty Ghostland Observatory. As you can see from this sweaty picture of Gretchen with Aaron Behrens we managed to see them.
After a little bit of Moe's set the lasers were set up, the smoke machine was cued up, the cape was fastened and the hair was braided for an unbelievably show. I can't remember ever having danced that much at a show, the video that i shot was shit because i couldn't stop dancing.
Aaron's dancing really has to be seen to be believed, that kid can move. They played my two favorite songs, Heavy Heart and Move with your Lover, i couldn't have asked for a better set.

After the Ghostland set we hustled over to Blank Slate to catch the last half hour of the Apples in Stereo set. They sounded great but we were all jazzed up from Ghostland and ready to dance so i didn't give them my full attention. We left the festival at about 1:00 and wouldn't you know it, it was still hot as hell.

Grace Potter and the ironics

You know the night is going to be good when your cute 20 something bartender has a Petunia tattoo(a la Pete and Pete) and gives your party free shots to celebrate your shared love of the show. Like i said earlier a cousin(Melanie you rule) hooked us up with free tickets to this sold out show. My expectations were low, i really only listened to the first two Black Crowes discs so imagine my surprise when this turned out to be one of the best nights we've had since arriving in Ok.
The first surprise of the night was that Grace Potter and the Nocturnals were opening. It's ironic that we finally saw this Vermont band at the Cain's Ballroom in Oklahoma after living in Vermont for two years. They were great, a lot more rocking then i expected.
The Black Crowes put on an amazing show, the band had two gospel singers with them that sounded great. It was amazing how tight yet still jammy the band was. Hard to handle sounded like a brand new song with the band really jamming it out without losing the groove. Since i was only familiar with the hits i had plenty of time to just get down on the famous spring loaded dance floor(thanks Gretchen!!)
This fellow with the mullett had a dance that required him to jerk backwards frequently narrowly missing Gretchen each time, rock on mullett dude.

Black Crowes

One of G's cousins invited us to a sold out Black Crowes concert. I'm not one to look a free concert in the mouth(why in the hell did i turn down those Hold Steady/Art Brut tickets) so we will be there getting down with the hippies.

A brief update

Things have been incredibly busy with packing, discarding, shopping and cursing the visa process and the exchange rate so the posts have been lacking. A big sorry to the two people that read this.
Some days i've just got to give my ipod props. I rarely listen to it on anything but shuffle and although I use less that half of its 60 Gig capacity i end up having to skip over things i'm not in the mood to hear, but some days it seems to be hardwired into my brain and only plays things i love to hear right then.
I need to do a full write up of the R.E.M. show, it was tits.
I did find time to get to the tattoo shop.
Phil is here for the heavy lifting and whip cracking but i keep distracting him with tattoos and stuff.

Long live cover art

I've just got to say that this article is encouraging. As everyone knows there is something special about vinyl and not only vinyl, i miss carefully planned and well executed packaging. Whether it be a cd booklet, that carefully folded sheet in cassettes or the big gatefold covers for vinyl it was a really cool physical connection to the music and the artist themselves...

False 45th Record Club

G! and i attended the False 45th record club blowout at the Black Door in Montpelier on Tuesday. What a great event, we heard lots of cool music and met lots of really awesome people. The music choices were really all over the place making for a very diverse mix. Everyone submitted two songs and the False 45th crew put a mix together that we all got copies of. I chose American Girl by Tom Petty simply because it is an awesome song. I've always thought that this track is the sound that the Strokes were trying to get on their first album. My other pick was The Slow Descent into Alcoholism by The New Pornographers. I chose it because it's a great track by a great band and I always thought it would be funny to hear that track in a bar... and it was.
G! didn't submit any songs so on the way home we discussed what her choices would have been. Her choices would have been Ecoutez bien by Eux Autres and maybe I wanna be your Lover by Prince. Those were tentatively arrived at after 30 more were proposed and then withdrawn.

We also checked out the bike art that is displayed around town.

D Fest Tulsa, Oklahoma

During the month of July I will be in Oklahoma. The temperature will easily be in the 100s but at least Tulsa will be hosting D Fest. This year the festival will be hosting a pretty decent lineup. There are several bands i'm excited to see including The Roots, Ghostland Observatory, Apples in Stereo, El Paso Hot Button and Helmet. There is even a chance that I'll get my hippy on and check out the Disco Biscuits and Moe. At least the beer will be cold.

Nick Cave

I'm way behind on posts but the wife is done with law school for the moment and is now constantly distracting me.
I've been giving the (sort of) new Nick Cave album Dig, Lazarus, Dig! quite a bit of attention lately. I've got to confess that I loved The Boatman's Call but was pretty ho hum on every other Nick Cave and the Bad Seed album. I did like the recent Nick Cave helmed Grinderman album.
Dig, Lazarus, Dig! is a pretty ideal marriage of Cave's story songwriting, distinctive voice and the rocking sound from the Grinderman album. Midnight Man is probably my favorite track on the album but there are several standouts that cover a wide array of styles.

Yo Yo who

The strangest thing i witnessed last week happened in the kindergarten classroom where i help out with English twice a week, check this out.
Kindergartener: Can we listen to music while we color?
Teacher: What do you want to listen to?
Entire Class Chanting: YO-YO MA, YO-YO MA, YO-Yo MA, YO-YO MA, YO-YO MA
Teacher: Ok
Me:(to crying student) What's wrong Austin?
Austin: I wanted to listen to Beethoven.

Check it Yo!

If you haven't seen the 11 Most Unintentionally Gay Rap lyrics Ever over at cracked then you have to get over there and check it out.

Jose @ Higher Ground

Looks like Higher Ground just added a Jose Gonzalez show on June 24th. That just might be the last show i see at Higher Ground before moving to Paris.

Destroyer, Club Lambi

I managed to catch Dan Bejar as Destroyer this weekend in Montreal at Club Lambi. The club was pretty cool, the second smallest room I've ever seen a show in(the original Green Door in OKC being the smallest). Without knowing what time the show actually started we showed up around 7:45 and walked right into the club where Dan Bejar was standing by the door talking to someone. Gretchen spotted him and was sure it was him i was hesitant, he was too short, way too thin and wasn't rocking the beard, in fact, he looked a lot like Joe Jack Talcum from the Dead Milkmen circa 1991. Before we could approach him or continue debating who he was he was called up on stage for soundcheck, thereby effectively proving Gretchen right. About that time we were told that doors wouldn't open until 8:30 so we hit the bar down the street.

Back at the club we grabbed beers and a table and settled in, with the exchange rate basically being even i paid $15 USD for a shirt before sitting down for a wait.

The show opened with a band who's name i forget, i believe they were local, in any case they literally put me to sleep(granted i haven't slept well since the funeral but come on).

Next up was Colossal Yes, they put on a really good set but it was very short, the singer explained that he had blown out his voice a couple of shows ago, that put Destroyer up next.

I really enjoyed the show, he sounded great playing mostly new stuff although he did play something from Destroyer's Rubies and i believe a song from Yer Blues. Foam Hands sounded spectacular. The Destroyer set ended up lasting an hour and ten minutes. Dan explained that he had lost his voice the night before in Toronto. Towards the end of the set he said that he would be cutting it short because of his throat but he did come back out and do a song without the band. I was happy and quite satisfied, the show cost $15 CD and we got two really good bands. Gretchen was less that satisfied, her point being that we had come from Vermont, had rented a hotel, paid for food and entertaining the kids, it was probably our last trip to Montreal and she was away from her studies two weeks before finals. She wasn't complaining about the show, she liked the set but the length was definetly much shorter than either of us expected especially since Dan had lived in Montreal and homecoming shows are usually pretty awesome. No one regrets going but it does make you think about all the things that go towards making a great show because a live show is an experience. The performance is a big part of it but there are so many little things that count, the people you see it with, the venue, dinner, the trip home, the list goes on and on.

Thanks

Thanks to everyone that's sent cards or e-mails or have given condolences in person, it's appreciated.

A Sick day conversation

My kids were sick most of last week, my youngest and i had a conversation in the car at one point that i feel like i have to write down.
L: Where is it ok to throw up?
Me: The toilet.
L: I threw up in the trash can at school.
me: That's ok too but the toilet is better.
L: Where can i throw up outside?
Me: I guess on the grass is alright.
L: What if it gets frozen and someone slips and falls in it?
Me: That would be bad, i guess you should try to throw up away from where people walk.
L: Ok.
Several minutes pass.
L: I better not throw up at the zoo because the animals might eat it, is it ok if the animals eat my throw up?
Me: It would probably make them sick.
L: So i better not throw up at the zoo right?
Me: Right.
L: How about at a farm? I probably better not throw up there either.
Me: Probably not.
Several minutes pass.
L: Would an elephant eat my throw up with his trunk?
Me: I'm not talking about this.

R.E.M. plays Boston kicks me in the wallet.

Yesterday I payed more for a concert ticket then i ever have before, in fact i bought two of them. I guess that's not technically true, Austin City Limits cost more but that was a lot of bands and multiple days.
I have two tickets for the R.E.M. show in Boston on 6-13-08. The Athens boys are touring on their strongest most rocking album in years. The seats are on the floor and as a big added bonus Modest Mouse and The National are both opening the show. I've wanted to see the National for quite awhile, R.E.M. has put on a great show every time i've seen them and Modest Mouse were shit the only time I caught them live. If R.E.M.s Dublin shows are any indication, this should be a great show.

Jenna breaks out.

As a fan of Zombie movies i've gotta say that this looks like a work of sheer genius, just look at that tagline! Jenna Jamison(looks like pre freaky plastic surgery) Freddy, strippers and zombies, a magical mix. I'll go out on a limb and say we are guaranteed to see boobs.
Another genius idea, covering Dita Von Teese with silver paint.