anti-romeo

not a welcoming situation for any aspiring romeo, or even a few tired birds... the medieval elements striate this façade in rough-hewn solidity, determined to deter and repel all interlopers...

la vache sauvage

it's quite disconcerting to think that so much is extorted from this poor shy animal for another species' greedy consumption...
squeezed dry for its milk, cut up for its meat, skin stripped and tanned for leather goods... they were clever to pretend to be mad for a while [although that got some executed, too]!

l'étoile mineure

the minor star formed simply by only a few perforated dots...pas pour MOI, mais peut-etre pour la boutique MODE quelque chose... now long closed for business?

l'étoile majeure

what major creative force it must have taken to forge this portal gate into existence...multi-starbolts to speed Mercury on his way...

photo-cine

such an odd retro reminder of a world of imagery that has now accelerated to beyond the wildest imagination...
if only the scope of my visual intake can keep up!
[note to self: limit viewing of interesting blogs!]

deco-rum

the "epitomb" of art deco elegance strains against the messiness of the living above and all around...
even high upon this little hill, Ruhlmann must rue the day they planted him here!
[I jest...this compact and half-hidden Cimetière de Passy is a repository of some haute privileged remains indeed]

driving into delirium*

like a sleek black panther crouching outside a disheveled garage, this shiny dew encrusted machine was primed to take flight...
I prowled around it a few times absorbing the primal energy of italian engineering and wished that I could drive away into my delirium...

[*"Driving into Delirium" is a song title from Malcolm McLaren's Paris album]

red-i-vivus

a prairie barn in a field of wheat??...reflected back onto a Pariscape of monumental edifices...
hard to guess where this mirrored image is located, isn't it?

mes boulets royaux

roll with them here...tilt their world to catch the light...loosen the chains and let them free...float them up to the silver skies...let them fall as mercury bubbles...to burst upon the cold hallowed ground...

wolf at the wall

it is always jarring to walk by a solidly bricked up façade of a seemingly still usable building...
what is it shielding behind such a finite barricade?
how long has it been this way and for how much longer?
does the wolf still come huffing and puffing to blow the house down??
and what of this curious altar-like niche so perfectly placed to break up the brick pattern and perhaps even endow it with an art installation status?

om

the transcendent soaring of a vertical garden sends the eye gazing heavenward... an uplifting meditation upon a living green wall to dispel thoughts of the rampant consumerism transpiring behind this "slice of nature" billboard...

[this mur végétal by the innovative and eccentric Patrick Blanc is part of the entry façade of the BHV Homme department store on Rue de la Verrerie]

naufragé

a sabotaged ship, an abandoned ark, cut adrift below the colossal glimmering glass barge that is the Bibliotheque Nationale de France...
its smashed glass windows howling helpless angst at its sinking, the pattern of black jagged openings an expressive code for a mercy rescue before it completely submerges...

sarko

five green letters methodically spray-painted on five closed shutters of an aristocratic abode on the Ile Saint-Louis...
a minimalist and simplistic statement for or against?
a high-jumping child with green paint to spare?
mere blank canvases evidently begging to be defiled?
a spontaneous tag by a deliriously voluble president out on a walk??
[most probably:: a love-giddy declaration of a well-fed and victorious first lady!!]

orangina

on the window of a closed up grocery store, this artistically modified advertisement for the iconic french fizzy drink is worthy of the company's grateful endorsement...
I am often gifted with bottles of this barely orangey tasting drink by kindly frenchmen just because my name is part of its name!...[one even awarded me with an "orangina" trophy cup that he had found at the flea market!]

for more "orangina" fun facts, visit www.musee-orangina.com

barbie's party

barbie and her friends need to party, too, especially to celebrate the end of such an exhausting and volatile year...and to welcome a new one that should be more enlightening and rational, but then again, spirals have a way of being always at the mercy of gravity...
[just go on fondling your delirium like a pretty pony, as the frazzled Aragon would have encouraged...]

[barbie's fête took place at the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine in an exhibition themed "La Villa de Mlle B."]

joyeux jolly jolly

don't brown-bag your holidays just because the economy is in free-fall, the air is toxic, the oceans are emptying out, the rainforests denuded, and the world's general health rapidly failing, soon to be on life-support if there is still a universal clinic standing...no matter how desperate and dire the straits are, let's hope that there is still love to be made, pâtisseries to be eaten, unmurky water to drink, pockets of adequate air to intake, and most of all, tolerant friends to make it a little more bearable...
to one and all...enjoy a most exuberant and transcendent season [while we can!] and gently push all those delusions into the new year!
still, make merry and much happiness always...

R is for...

R is for...
ruthless ruminations of a rapscallion...
rough and re-tumbled resolutions...
rubicund requiems for renegades...
rampant and random railroading...
and a rarefied retrospective on a rutabaga...

licking the muses

sometimes when you merge the interior and exterior worlds in a single reflection, the potent and poetic image that emerges can confuse even the staunchest of surrealists...but for me, the muses can float by in a dusting of light particles and even a glint is enough of a sign...

va-vroom

at a vide-grenier in a Neuilly neighbourhood, someone's precious collection of old toy cars is meticulously laid out on a pristine white tablecloth...what courage and sadness he must feel to finally decide that it is time to part with a cherished part of his boyhood, and hoping that their new homes will treat them just as well...

gardien

there is so much to guard against these days... priceless jewels on the Avenue Montaigne, Chinese products [edible or not], quick and nimble bicycle thieves, even unscrupulous Swiss bankers!... oh, for the easy days of knowing exactly who and where le gardien was to solve the little problems of a much simpler and smaller world...