Back in the Swing of Things

Ah, September! I think I mentioned all the things that are due in September: taxes, registrations, and so on. Well, we're now in full swing. I've been to the newly refurbished American Library and renewed my membership and the family membership for L's kids and I've taken C to the "Toddler Time", which is the new name for the "Lap-sit". The work at the library was almost finished two weeks ago and I hope it is done the next time. They've moved the circulation desk, again. Where it used to be, there's now a wide staircase leading to the basement, where they've created a reading room and study area. They've opened up book space down there, too. They've moved more books up to the mezzanine, also, and put in an elevator that goes to both the basement and the mezzanine. The big reading room had been soundproofed and there are electrical outlets all over the place for laptops. The children's library has not changed. There are no DVDs anymore. Not for adults, not for kids. Even though they were donations, it seems that the library was not allowed to lend them out without paying some fee or tax.
I'm typing on the new computer. I'm still a bit frustrated as I cannot seem to access my external hard drive. Every time I get the prompt to enter my password, and I do that, it does not recognize it, so it won't let me in. I can still get to it online, so I'm downloading to this computer, which has lots of space, still, and if I have to reformat the external drive and lose what's on it, I will and then start over. It's frustrating. Another program is giving me a hard time. I use Quicken and and loaded it up to this computer. I recovered the old files. It keeps asking me to register, but gets stuck in the process -- maybe because it's already registered from the time I bought it. In any case, I finally found the trick to stop the registration prompts, but when I want to download the account info from the banks, it still asks me to sign in with my Intuit password -- another hoop to jump through. This new computer comes with MS Office, of course, but I got hooked on Open Office and now need to decide whether I want to continue with that, but have to choose between Libre Office and Apache Open Office, which have diverged since Open Office, itself, was discontinued.
With the new computer, I picked up a new printer. No matter how much I cleaned the rollers of the old one, I couldn't get the paper feed to feed the paper properly.
I'm taking watercolor painting this year, not oil painting. Since the watercolor class will involve lots of drawing, too, it's the only class I signed up for. There's was a first session where we did not touch any water or color, just drawing. I bought some, but not all the stuff on the list of materials -- it's going to be an expensive class, I think. I missed last week, which seems to be a repeat of the previous session, so I didn't miss much. Several of my "buddies" from the drawing class are there, but we are all a bit disconcerted. There's the same set-up in the room and an invitation to draw it again, from a different angle, for an hour. Then, we get to the color, but the talk is all theory. I get that we must set aside white space, but I'd like some help determining, on my drawing, what that space should be. Then, we are told to create three grays: dominant yellow, dominant red, dominant blue. Fine. I know how to do that, but some in the class do not know what he's talking about. I know how to put oil on canvas and gouache on paper, but I feel intimidated with watercolor. How much water? Wet paper? Dry paper? If wet, how much? What about colors running into one another? What if you color a space you intended to leave white, but forgot? One friend in the class has now left, for good. She got her check back. She's an experienced watercolor painter who does lots of landscape painting in workshops during the summer. She showed us her paintings from the summer. She did a workshop in the Gers, not really far from where we were. The bastides were very similar. She did not like the imposed drawing of a subject with no interest -- neither did several of us, including me. She did not like the approach of the teacher. She left. I'll miss her. I'm sticking it out, at least for now, because I really want to tackle the medium.
There's a group on Facebook, Americans in France, with lots of people fairly newly arrived in the country. They have the usual administrative headaches that any immigrant has. In addition, they want to make friends. It seems to be a major concern, making friends. Well, the average person on the street, in the shops, or behind the window in an administrative office is not looking for a new friend. It doesn't make them unfriendly or rude, but the judgment of many in the group is that the French are snobs and standoffish. The complaints are commented on with more complaints feeding even more comments. I think they feel they should be welcomed with open arms, that somehow they are not just immigrants like any other immigrants. They wonder, after 16 years in France, why they should have a French drivers license and not renew their state license. (The argument that by getting their state license renewed, they are, in fact, declaring residency in the state and opening themselves up to local and state taxes, doesn't seem fair to them. They want the state license and not have jury duty or state and local taxes.) Why should they have to comply with the rule that states you need to present a clean record for your permanent residence papers? Why should they have to have their papers translated by court-certified translators? I think I'll take a break.

Tis Fall

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. 

Made it to the Monet exhibit

This is a picture by Jacques Demarthon/Agence France-Presse, used to illustrate the critical review in the New York Times. I'm glad I didn't read the review before seeing the show for myself. It's a great review and a great show, but I'm glad I decided it was great on my own. Well, not entirely on my own since Rita also got up before the break of dawn this freezing morning to get the RER and be at the exhibit entrance at 9:00.
There was already quite a line, but since I had that Sésame card, we went in first and didn't have to stop at the cashier's desk. We got rid of our coats and went into the absolutely empty Grand Palais. They weren't empty for long; Rita and I took our time and by the time we were through the first room, the crowd had caught up with us. It wasn't a horde, though, we were able to go at our own speed and look carefully at whatever we wanted to. That brings me back to why I chose this picture; I was most impressed by the many series. 
Back in September, when we went to Rouen with Jackie and Ed, we saw the Impressionists in Rouen exhibit and, of course, the series of the Rouen cathedrale were there. Well, they finished the exhibit in Rouen just in time to make the trip to Paris. Each painting in a series belongs to a different owner -- museums for the most part -- all over the world, so you really don't get to compare the cathedrale, haystack, or parliament paintings. Here, you do. They really did get paintings from all over the world, with the exception of the Marmottan museum in Paris, which has its own Monet exhibit and doesn't want to share. So you get to see the haystacks at different times of the day with colors and shadows more or less intense, or in sunlight or under snow. I just loved the Parliament paintings from the early 1900s. 
Another thing I noticed about Monet is that he doesn't seem to have a signature brush stroke. Each painting is done differently. Reflections on the water are fantastic, but there doesn't seem to be a certain way to get that result; it's all in the color, and there doesn't seem to any right way to do that, either. Sometimes the little people in a painting are really vague tiny splotches, but with a little different color in the middle of the splotch, it's a woman's dress. On the other hand, the details in large paintings with people are exquisite and exact. 
So now, I'm back home. No library today. Anne has kindly taken the afternoon slot for today. She has to stay in town for an evening activity and just preferred staying at the library. I understand her reasoning. It's such a schlep to go back home that the mere idea of schleping back out makes you want to just crawl under the covers and not go. I've had an excellent left-over turkey lunch. It's very cold, but the sun has come out. Rita and I walked up the Champs Elysées from the Grand Palais to the RER station at Etoile and then, of course, I walked home from the Fontenay station. That added to my walk to the station should be enough for today. 
Here is the link to the exhibit again: Monet 2010 and another to the post about our trip to Rouen in September.

Got a cold

painting by Joan Becker

I've got a cold. The kind that makes your throat scratchy and your eyes tear up constantly. I spent last weekend doing nothing except watch TV and try to read. Before that, though...
Last week, on Saturday, Paul and I went to the Salon de la Photo. We had invitations and just as we were leaving the house, we called Louis and Gwen and discovered that they were also on their way there, so we met them at the entrance and visited it together. There were too many people to do any real shopping around. I did manage to stop in at the Darqroom stand and see the different paper quality they use. (If you watch the  Salon de la Photo  report, it shows Darqroom at the end.) Nico V. wasn't there on Saturday and I was sorry to miss seeing him. After about an hour, we left, had lunch, and then headed over to Louis and Gwen's for a while. It was a nice way to get out on a gray and drizzly day.
Monday,first I went to see Candace. We were supposed to have met at the dubbing studio on Saturday, but that got cancelled because she had other meetings and on Monday she was recovering from a bout of something and not yet in condition to go to the studio, so we met up at her hotel. She worked a bit -- caught up on phone calls and e-mails, but mostly we were able to chat. I introduced her to Joan Becker's site. (Erica's sister-in-law). I hope she doesn't mind my plugging it here on the blog with a picture reference. Candace and I zoomed in on several of her paintings (especially the one above), trying to identify the details. I think I would love to have one of her paintings.
I went to see the movie, Sarah's Key (Elle s'appelait Sarah). I had read the book last month. I must say, for once, I think the movie is better than the book. I felt the characters were too cut and dried in the book, too predictable. They seem to have more depth in the movie. The acting is excellent.
On Friday, Paul and I headed into Paris to see the Monet exhibit. When we got out of the metro, the line was already there, at the corner. The entrance to this exhibit is about half a block away. Our Sésame card allows us to cut the line, but the entrance for that was also full and we figured that it would be mayhem inside, so we decided to go to FNAC voyages to set up the reservations for the big birthday weekend at Disneyland Paris in April. I have now cancelled the option I had with our local travel agency -- they were so useless thinking outside the box!
Then came the cold. After the weekend indoors, on Monday, Paul set off for Toulon to help Pierre take the small pieces and knickknacks from their mother's apartment, so it'll be more presentable to prospective buyers. I went to painting, but spent most of the morning coughing and not very up to painting. In the afternoon, since I was all alone in the house, I decided to put some papers away.
Tuesday I did some more organizing on the computer and then went to the library, but the book dust setting off coughing spasms was such that Ed sent me home early. I went to bed early.
Wednesday, the cat had me sequestered in my room a good part of the day. We can't let him in the house unless it's under complete supervision, now. There have been too many accidents, so unless he's in our arms or laps, he's to stay outside. And ouside, he meows constantly. He does seem to know if we're home, or not. It's unnerving. My only solution is to hole up in my room with the door shut, so the meowing only comes in faintly. I did manage to read, though. I'm almost finished with A Life of Picasso, Vol. I.
Thursday -- Paul was supposedly coming home this evening, but apparently he's staying down south another day or two. Not that he called me to let me know. I called to ask if he had indeed left and at what time in order to know when to expect him, but Gillette told me he was staying. To think, I cleaned up the house for nothing! Well this gave me time to catch up on the blog.

De Miro à Warhol

Last Saturday I met Oriane, my friend from back when I was preparing the teaching certificate nearly 20 years ago. She lives in Lyons but comes up to Paris every so often to attend seminars in linguistics at the university. Her speciality is in swearing and use of vulgarity, which of course involves shifts in what is considered vulgarity over time, according to age, origins, and class. But now I'm getting off subject.
We had arranged to meet at the Musée de Quai Branly, but Oriane was delayed an hour and after having spent that hour on a bench outside, I no longer wanted to wind my way through the museum. Besides, we wanted to talk. So, we decided to walk to the Musée du Luxembourg, part of the French Senate building in the Luxembourg gardens. Let's say it was about 2 km. from one museum to the other. And we stopped for lunch. So we were still pretty fresh when we got there. There was no line to get in! And the exhibit is great. It's the Berardo collection of 20th century art. It takes you from Surrealisme and its origins (Miro, Magritte, Dali, and more) through Abstraction (Mondrian, Souza-Cardoso, Pollock, Reinhardt, Stella and more), on to Pop Art and beyond (Wesselmann, Indiana, Warhol, Lichtenstein, and so on). There are only 75 pieces and it's a varied collection, so you don't get bored.
We walked through the gardens and had a cup of hot chocolate. Then, down Boul. St. Michel, across Ile de la Cité, to the Beaubourg Museum, where we did not stop (oof!), through the Marais, all the way to Anne's apartment (just to show Oriane where it is) and then to the Gare de Lyons. All in all, with backtracking here and there, I guess we covered about 7 km., not including the museum. Our legs had had it and we managed to talk ourselves out, but it was a wonderful day.
For any of you coming through Paris, there are some great exhibits on:

• De Miro à Warhol until Feb. 22
• Picasso et les maîtres until Feb. 2
• Jackson Pollock et le chamanisme until Feb. 15

and more. Paul went to the Musée André Jaquemard yesterday to see the Van Dyke exhibit. He came back very impressed with Van Dykes portraits, comparing them to hyper-realistic art, and he said the old Italian masters, the mainstay of the museum, were great to see, too.
Also, earlier in the week we attended the Phd. dissertation of our nextdoor neighbor, Rob, on the Ordinance of June 18, 1349, regulating laborer's wages. A result of the plague? The first national regulation of the sort? Wow, I never realized what "defending" a thesis was all about. It's horrendous. But he came through with flying colors.
I left the dissertation ceremony early in order to accompany Anne to her signing for the appartment. It is now hers and she's moving in this weekend!

Groundhog's Day in the States, Chandeleur en France, and my Birthday Everywhere Else

I'm late getting to this today because so many of you have sent birthday greetings and I've been answering them. Thanks. It also meant that I started to write you about things that I then repeated to the next one. I finally remembered that that is what I was writing this blog for.

Yesterday, the mayor of Pittsburgh, Luke Ravenstahl, was in Paris to promote Pittsburgh. I went because of our Pittsburgh connection and Jon sent me a question to ask, so I did. Yes, the mayor went to Amsterdam and met with officials from KLM to discuss opening a single direct line between Europe and Pittsburgh with Amsterdam as the European hub. The audience applauded when I asked if they were hoping to reconnect Pittsburgh to the rest of the world, meaning there were several people present who were familiar with the current obligation to connect through Philly or Cincinnati. The thing is that the Amsterdam hub doesn't really change things for us Parisians because we'd still have to connect.

I also learned some things about Pittsburgh. It's a remarkably green city and trying to become even greener. It's growing again - very big in the health-related industry, robotics and sustainable development. I remember him mentioning BPL (making more efficient use of power lines, office in Paris,...) and that Louis should look into them. And for Emma, there are several links: Sustainable Pittsburgh, the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the e-mail address of the person to contact for any interest there. I also spoke with Maureen Guttman, Executive Director of the Governor's Green Government Council.

I read that the mayor is being criticized for this trip; it's being called a vacation. Well, what I saw on Friday morning was not someone on vacation. Looks more like someone on a business trip. He's very curious about other cities and how they manage difficulties. It sounds like he's been getting some flack about the US not having signed any of the international agreements on the environment, but he did a good job explaining that in the US, the movement is bottom-to-top, and that a city, like Pittsburgh, has much more leeway to find its way to becoming a "green" city. In Europe, he has seen much more top-down management. He was so proud to show off the bike paths in Pittsburgh, but he said that, after almost being run over by the bikes in Amsterdam, he realizes that the Pittsburgh bike grid is not that much of a to-do. So, he touted "flex-car", which works like Paris's "velib" except that it is short-term car rental instead of bikes. Someone in the audience asked about public transportation and he explained that it was virtually non-existent, except for the bus lines and a rapid transit project between the universities and downtown. He also explained the need to look for more space for university (Pitt and CMU, at least) expansion and that former steel mill sites were being investigated for that. Someone else in the audience is thinking of returning to the States to live because the dollar has dropped so far as to make it too expensive to continue on here -- she asked about the cost of living. There was a shocked gasp when he told us the low cost of a family home. I'm bad at estimating attendance; I'd say there were about 75 people attending this early morning presentation.

What else is going on? Not much. I'm still drawing - I did a landscape based on a photo Paul took in China. It forced me to work on shading. I don't have the patience. I think I'm more a line-drawing person.

The STC France conference is coming up. I'm still working on it, but I won't be able to attend.

That's it, for now.

Odds & Ends

I got distracted over the weekend and forgot to write. Sorry. I seem to get more and more distracted, though.
I have managed to go to my art classes. I'm learning how to draw at long last. It's not quite as exciting as I had hoped - especially the Paris Sketchbook. We go to museums and draw from sculptures. I think I want to learn how to do fast sketches from life. I don't seem to have the patience for spending several hours trying to draw a sculpture. We'll see how this works out.
Last week, I signed up at ASSEDIC and the ANPE to make sure I get unemployment benefits if I'm entitled (I don't think I am.) and appropriate help in finding what I am looking for. I'm looking for short-term contract work. Yesterday, I managed to get off my CV for a job.
Also yesterday I made our ferry reservation for England at Christmas. I'm looking forward to that. But I've got to get some shopping done!
Yesterday, there was a walk in the Fontainebleau area, but I had to decide against it because my arm was hurting too much - same for the catch-up art class at the Louvre in the evening. It meant that I was able to "attend" the STC board meeting on Skype. For some reason, our Skype voice meetings are not any good anymore and we have to resort to typing. Very frustrating and I'm just not interested this year. It turned into a virtual shouting match and since I can't spend so much time at the keyboard these days, I dropped out. I will still try to cull the minutes from the conversation and post it.
What else? Jon has been in touch and it looks like the estate matters are winding down. All that's left is taking care of taxes. He will be so relieved to have that done with and, although it hasn't been any work for me, I will too. I think that what is bugging me about everything else is that I'm not able to really spend the time I want on the papers. Now that the rest of the papers and photos have been delivered I want to do that full time. But after half an hour, my arm is ready to fall off.
We did get the Suzie DePoo (Zuzek) wood panels up in the living room and they look great! (I took these pictures before we hung them up.) I'm thinking of having the Bruce Mitchell jazz musicians and my old circus copied. They were done in marker, which has faded to monochrome nothingness.
Time to get up and out.