This is a busy, busy week for AARO-related activities and last weekend was devoted to art.
A bit of the room at the meetup
Monday, we had the now regular, monthly evening "meetup" meeting at Joe Allen at Les Halles, here in Paris (a good place for such meetings). This month, instead of just a social, no agenda, get-together for a drink, we decided to have our Overseas Americans Week recap. Last year, that was a meeting at the Mona Bismarck address, really for members and those in the know, only. This year, we decided to use the open, anyone-can-come, no-meeting-fee format. Only four of us had gone to DC as a delegation this year, so we didn't need a lot of time to recap. Tim and I, the newbies, gave our impressions of going to the Hill. Tim remembered how friendly everyone was in the different offices, how they have to sit through presentations such as ours all day and still be friendly. I gave a brief summary of what is in HR12, the Voter Empowerment Act, for us overseas Americans. In short, go to Title IX. There is now a sister bill in the Senate. In spite of its 200 pages, we hope it gets passed. Some of the points raised in my meeting with the Philadelphia Board of Elections are dealt with, such as the requirement to accept our overseas ballot requests before 45 days before the election and to accept a request for all elections in the year to be honored. This is something they adamantly didn't like in Philadelphia; they told me they really wanted us to send our requests in no sooner than 7 weeks before an election and for each election. It also deals with the states' obligations to send out the ballots 45 days before the election and to report on success or failure to do so, and to be able to use express delivery to send out ballots as the election gets closer and for voters to return ballots by express delivery -- thus taking away the postal services monopoly. Lucy spoke to the aide in Representative Lewis's office who was most involved with this legislation when we were in DC and she was very impressed by the aide. John gave a summary of the residence-based taxation proposal that we support. Lucy encouraged all of us to become delegates in our own fashion by writing and phoning our representative's offices and establishing good connections with their aides and visiting them when in Washington. It was a well-attended meeting, but not a packed house. A group of us stayed on for dinner, so I didn't get home until very late.
Tuesday was our monthly board meeting.
This evening is the second tax meeting, called tax seminar 202. This meeting is going to be packed. I printed out 70 attendee stickers! John will be heading this meeting and, from what I understand, will be covering FATCA as well as tax issues.
This is my exercise on perspective
using primary (red) + binary (green)
Over the weekend, I attended another "color workshop" at La Charpente. It didn't seem as well organized as the first one. I was rather lost in the instructions and had to start over a few of the exercises, and I was not the only one who was so confused. But I think I do understand how to work with colors better and create harmony rather than clashes.
Aude did a more complete job, orange and blue
It's tiring to do all those strips, mixing the colors, from saturated to grayed, to adding white, or later, black. My back is still killing me.
I haven't done any work on the negatives this week, but I have shared the black and white photos from the late 60s with the interested parties. Ken (Living the Life in Saint-Aignan) came out with a delightful nostalgia piece, using the photos. And via the web, I found the son of friends from those days and phoned his office and left a message asking his parents to get in touch and they did that yesterday. I'm kind of looking forward to renewing contact with them after so many years. They were really good friends and I'm not quite sure how we just dropped from each other's radar.
Now, off to that AARO tax meeting... and painting, tomorrow.
The days have been bright and crisp. It's Fall, at last. As I said a couple of posts ago, I'm trying to catch up on posting news.
I changed art courses this year. I joined some friends who were at La Charpente in St. Mandé. (St. Mandé is along the Bois de Vincennes, between Vincennes and Paris.) I signed up for two courses: oil painting and drawing, and I'm enjoying them both. The oil painting is on Thursday morning and there are anywhere between 8 and 12 of us at a time. We each do our own thing and Jean-François, the teacher, does the rounds from painting to painting, helping us out with suggestions and corrections. We do have one painting with a common theme for the year, but even that allows us tremendodus freedom. We have to stick a citation somewhere in a painting. The studio is a former iron frameworks company and there is a galery, which must have been the offices of the company. There's a closet for us to keep our supplies, sinks to clean, plenty of easels and hanging space as well as shelves to stock finished paintings.
Aude, the owner, started it just 10 years ago, but in a most professional way, recruiting other teachers to work with her and making it polyvalent immediately, so it seems as though it's an old established academy. There are a few students from the Sarah Lawrence study abroad program who get art class credit. I was told that there's a Pitzer student in that program, but I guess she's not taking art.
Aude is teaching the drawing class and it's good to get back to basics and build up from there. I still have lots of difficulty sticking to drawing what I see, at the angle I see it. Maybe that's what I like about Matisse, although I do know that he did master drawing before deviating.
The other activity I"ve signed up for is a Pilates class on Friday evenings. It's right next door, at the former PTT building that became a city gymnasium that bugged us for so many years with the noisy judo and karate classes.The only thing wrong with this class is that it is so late in the evening: 8:45! At least it's not far. There are certain exercised I refrain from -- all the stuff done lying on your tummy and bending backwards. There are exercises I am just lous at, but I'm not the only one.
And, of course, I still go into the library once a week to work at the circulation desk.
Wow another three weeks have gone by. I haven't been taking pictures, but it's been a busy time with friends. First, we started out with family. When I last wrote, Paul and I had just returned from England and were recovering from the move. Well, we had a short, surprise visit from Claire on the 11th, because on the 12th, she had a business appointment. Emma made lunch -- Thai -- and all the kids came. We missed not having Geoff and Aurelia and Charlotte, but we still loved having the others. And not having the little ones running around did make it more relaxing. The spring rolls were delicious and so was the curry.
The only thing I missed was going to the library for a Sept. 11 memorial get-together. Al Herter had lent his pictures and things for an exhibit, which I managed to see anyway when I went in on Tuesday. And Al has started dropping in at the library on Tuesdays, so I get to see him anyway. Funny how we all get into routines. I go to the library on Tuesdays because I volunteer on Tuesdays, but I chose Tuesday because back when I was choosing, that was the day for the movie night. It also turns out to be the day for the AARO board meetings, so it was convenient for me to be in Paris on Tuesday for these evening activities.
Then last week the high school friends came en masse. First, Jackie has been around for a while, and she came to lunch with Ed and Ruth, who was in Paris for a professional conference. After lunch at home, we went for a walk through the Bois de Vincennes. We stopped for a moment to see an inning of the PUC vs Toulouse baseball game, a "play down" since the loser ends up going down to the "National" level from the "Elite". We didn't see the game to the end because I had a bad feeling, but it turns out PUC won and will stay in the Elite. We continued our walk, through the Parc Floral, and ended up at the Chateau de Vincennes métro station, where we split; they returned to Paris and I caught a bus to Nogent. I thought we were going over to Jacques', but it turns out I had misunderstood.
Sunday, Jacques came to dinner and showed us his pictures from Chicago. He's got a macro lens and takes fantastic pictures of butterflies and bees, etc. on flower backgrounds. In contrast, he also took wonderful shots of the Chicago skyscrapers, especially of the buildings reflecting off one another. Fascinating!
Monday, I went out to the airport to pick up Fran and Karel, two more classmates! They're staying on Ile St. Louis. They're in town for the première of Phèdre/Psyché for which Karel's sister did the set art. When you consider that the art and choreography for the original performances were done by Jean Cocteau, you can imagine what an honor it is and how fantastic Karen Kilimnik must be!
Thursday, I returned to the library for an evening event, an Evening with an Author event, which this week featured Tatiana de Rosnay, author of Sarah's Key (Elle s'appelait Sarah, in French). The movie "Sarah's Key" is already on DVD here, but has just been released in the US. I read the book and saw the movie and think they are both worth your while. I will not say they are enjoyable because the subject, the Vel d'Hiv roundup of Jews and their deportation to concentration camps, first in France and then to the death camps, is not a pleasant subject. This evening, she talked about Rose, her new book, out in French already, which will be titled The House I Loved when it comes out in English early next year. Again, it's a story with a secret. That's the key to her books. This time the background of the story is the upheaval of the Haussmann renovations in Paris. Whole blocks of the old city were demolished to make room for the wide boulevards everyone admires today. I've got the book on hold at the Nogent library.
Friday, lunch with Fran, Karel, and Rachel! Jackie couldn't make it. Rachel came with her grandson, and Fran and Karel came with a daughter and niece. So, another 212 get-together.
I should be seeing Candace, too, early next week.
from Wikipedia
Jackie wrote about the troglodyte homes in the Loire valley that she and Ed saw a couple of weeks ago. My blog friend Ken, who lives not far from some, wrote an interesting piece today: Living the life in Saint-Aignan: Riding the train in France. If you are planning a trip to France, and especially to the Loire area, I highly recommend reading his blog. Also, if you don't know what to have for lunch, Ken might inspire you.
What else? I've started a different painting and drawing course this year. Looks interesting. This is also where Jacques goes, although not at the same time: La Charpente. It's in St. Mandé, so a bit farther than Francine's, but I can bike there or take a couple of buses.
