Unconcerned, But Not Indifferent

In Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, Gil and Dali are sitting at a restaurant. In walks Luis Bunuel and Man Ray. Gil (the main character played by Owen Wilson) is in a perplexing situation and starts to explain that he is from another time. "Exactly correct. You inhabit two worlds. So far, I see nothing strange" says Man Ray. The four hash out Gil's problem and the scene is concluded with Dali proclaiming "I see a rhinoceros!". The surrealist perspective makes everyday life and problems seem so very boring.

This morning I woke up with bright eyes, but feeling like I didn't want to do anything. I spent the better part of my night trying to update all of my Apple tools (iMac, Macbook, iPhones, etc) without success. It's funny that I made the transition from PC to Mac to get away from all of the updates and compatibility issues only to be right back in a sea of updates and compatibility issues. With a few looming deadlines, part of me is telling me to focus and get to work, while most of me is telling me to take the surrealist approach and think about rhinoceroses.

I'm a huge fan of Salvador Dali, but thinking about the scene in Midnight in Paris got me thinking that I should check out Man Ray. Man Ray was born in 1890 and got his spot in Midnight in Paris because he was one of the famous artists and photographers who called Paris home in the 20's. He made the move to Paris in 1921, which would have made him about the same age as I am today. He said that he would paint what could not be photographed, the things from imagination and dreams. He would photograph the things he did not wish to paint, the things in existence. One quote that makes me think Man Ray may have been out there, but down to earth is his take on the seriousness of art; "I have been accused of being a joker, but the most successful art to me involves humour". I can imagine him being the kind of person that would watch people trying to decipher and articulate the deeper meanings in a painting and laugh to himself as if the real art is in their reactions.

So I've decided that being uber ambitious has it's limits. Taking a mental break to learn something completely unrelated to my studies is just what is needed today. As Man Ray's epitaph reads, I will be unconcerned, but not indifferent.

Observations of a Mature Learner

As of last week, my societal status changed from employee of international corporation to student of media arts, specifically Broadcast Journalism. In just less than two years from now, I will be a real journalist. This transition is the result of a three part concoction: 1 part passion for media, 1 part obsession with news and the world around me and 1 part disdain for working for the man. Don't get me wrong, I believe corporations have a legitimate roll and place in our society and economy, I would just rather not be a part of it. As Ani Difranco sings in her song, Not a Pretty Girl, "generally my generation wouldn't be caught dead working for the man". Meditating on things like this and the fact that I really am "32 flavours and then some", I don't fit so well into a corporate mold. Working as a journalist will satisfy my need for working creatively, working on a flexible schedule and grant me the satisfaction of having the power to deliver information to my community and even the world.

Making the transition from "9 to 5" employee to full time student has been relatively smooth so far. Although I am at least 10 years most of the other students senior, I'm happy that I've been able to connect with a few classmates and after figuring out the maze of hallways and buildings, feel right at home. A week before class, I was invited to a "Mature Learner" session to help with my transition back to learning land. My initial expectation was that it was going to be a little crazy...

The week before school started, my true love and I went to visit some friends and family in Ottawa. We visited the Museum of Civilization. Being a tech/media person, I was interested in seeing the Japan exhibition. Although the exhibition was relatively small, there were a couple cool artifacts that got me to thinking.

CRT televisions are now part of our history. The most common place I have seen these TVs in people's basements collecting dust or on the side of road on garbage collection day. I could be wrong, but I'm going to guess that no one is producing these anymore. They have been replaced with flat screen TVs and projectors.

Seeing a cassette player was awesome. I may have even had this same model when I was a kid. I can remember going through my dad's tape collection and playing them on my walkman. Each tape was like an adventure into an unknown galaxy. That was an education that I hope every kid gets to experience. When I think about it, having to listen to an album all the way through makes me think of slow cooking. Although I would never trade my iPhone for a walkman to listen to music on, there's something meaningful in not being able to switch to the next song with the tap of a button. Maybe the music was just better back then.

Seeing these old pieces of technology got me thinking about what I can expect to see in my school and classrooms as I start my new endeavour. I remember over-head projectors, binders and pencils. Computers were used in a computer lab. There were no video projectors.

Being in media arts, my wing of the school is naturally saturated with state-of-the-art gadgets, but even the lecture rooms are also dressed with relevant technology. Every classroom is equipped with a projector and wi-fi access. Every student has a laptop. I have one Hilroy ring notebook to write in and it's only because the professor of a class made it a course requirement. This concept was foreign to me when I first went to school, but now it just makes sense and feels natural. What would have been considered a distraction (apps, internet access, youtube) is key to our learning and development as writers and information seekers.

However, some things haven't changed. Time still ticks away at 60 seconds a minute and I still feel like I have to rush to get to class on time. This is going to be an exciting and engaging 2 years of my life. What happens after this, I can only suspect will be greater things!

Pigeons of Paris

While going through all of the video I took in Paris, there was a strange reoccurring theme; pigeons. I know that I'm a lover of birds. They're majestic, they can do what every person secretly wishes they could do (fly) and I even have a couple tattooed on my arm. Pigeons have been labeled devious titles such as, rats of the sky. I bet they would be pretty hurt if they knew such a label. Sure, some birds are more aesthetically pleasing than others, but hey, we still take pictures and videos of ugly people too.

I put the best clips of pigeons I had together in a mini-documentary. Enjoy.

Paris Street Performers

When we first arrived in Paris and started to make our way to our our hotel in the Bastille district, one of the first experiences we had was listening to a street performer play violin while we rode the train from the Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport to the closest metro station. I thought to myself "oh, this is neat". After a day in Paris, I learned that the city is brimming with street performers, some good, some not-so-good.

Here's a video I put together of some of my favourite performers and a few interesting things that I just couldn't seem to ignore.

The talent and creativity of some of the performers made me feel like I caught a glimpse into some kind of bohemian world. It was like they were trying to hold on to the magic of the bohemian revolution of the late 1800's when being an artist and delving into your passion was main stage.

I was definitely inspired.

From Toronto to Paris

I started to get into video editing lately and am putting some short clips together that I took while my true love and I were in Paris. This video starts with us at the Toronto Pearson International Airport and then our journey from landing at the Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport and making our way by train, subway and foot to the Bastille district in Paris.

All of the video was shot with a Canon PowerShot ELPH 300 HS (compact camera) in 1080p 24fps and edited using Adobe Premiere.

Getting attacked by little bitters at Rondeau

Friday. I started work with an early meeting, so it was only natural that I leave early. This was perfect because my true love and I had plans to go to Rondeau Provincial Park for a camping weekend with friends. When I arrived home after work, my true love already had most of the gear in the car and I just had to attach the bikes to the back of the hatch. As we drove down the 401 towards our destination, I couldn't help but wonder if the bikes were secured properly to our car and if they did actually somehow break off, would there be a dramatic accident on the highway or would they just hit the road and fizzle to the side like nothing happened?

We arrived at Rondeau after about an hour drive. Perfect.

We made our way to the camp office to pay for our parking (our friends already picked up the tab for the site so we just had to make up the difference to them later. Friends are awesome.) We were pleasantly surprised by how peaceful and well kept the park was. Our bikes stayed put.

When we got to site, we wasted no time setting up our tent for two. We add to our list of camping kit every year. This year we added tarps. Great addition. Easily distracted, me and my friend decided to shoot rocks with sling shots at a beer can. He was the first to hit it, but had a superior sling. Note to self: Don't cheap out on the sling.

We wound up at one of the shores of Lake Erie.

I love how amazing Southern Ontario is in the summer. I will admit that I miss the mountains of Alberta, but these lakes do their best to make up for them.

One of my friends brought a watermelon and left it outside the tent on the first night. Looks like some clever creatures got to enjoy it. They must have had little hands with skinny arms because they managed to empty the watermelon out through a small hole.

Later in day, my true love and I went for a bike ride to the beach. We went along a nice path through the trees. It felt like I was on Endor in Return of the Jedi and I was racing through the forest, Ewoks at my side. (I am not referring to my true love as an Ewok. Really.)

Rondeau had no shortage of interesting creatures. I saw strange bugs, frogs and lizards. I expected to see some snakes as there were signs on the side of the roads to watch out for them, but not on any of my paths. There were lots of unwanted encounters with really small creatures too. I have a case of the worst bug bites on my ankles, legs and arms that I think I've ever had and wouldn't wish on anyone. I won't show pictures cause it's gross. The dragon flies were everywhere and seemed to think we were friends.

All in all it was a pretty awesome weekend and my true and I agreed that we have made some pretty good friends in this place. Next weekend we're going to camp on Lake Huron with some more friends. I hope this summer never ends!

No Frog Legs and Fizzy Bubbly

Late yesterday afternoon, my true love woke up from a nap. I just finished a bottle of Vin de Pays du Gard 2010 (I know, whatever) and it was time to go for dinner. With new digs to sport, it was an exciting evening for the both of us. We got ready and made our way down Bourdon. I thought we were going down another street, but there were boats that caught my eye and got distracted.

We took each other's photos and moved closer to our destination, Ile Saint Louis.

When we got to the island, we walked into Auberge de la Reine Blanche (Hotel of the White Queen). The food was amazing. The service was outstanding! They were out of frog legs, so I had snails, duck and créme brûlée for dessert.

After dinner we visited Notre Dame again, went to City Hall and got mischievous in the Metro station. Very fun night!

This morning I woke up and was overcome with this feeling like we slept in and missed our train to Reims. I sprung up to rest my torso on my left arm and checked the time on my iPhone. It was 6:15am. We didn't have to get up until 6:45am. I breathed a sigh of relief and let my head flop back on the pillow to drift off for another half hour. The best is when you wake up at 3:00am and think it's time to get up and then realize you get 4 more hours.

Our train departed from Gare de L'Est. We had a short Metro ride to get there and had the perfect amount of time to sit down for a café allongé and croissant. There were these little birds trying to attack our paisteries. My true love was annoyed and said we're in a Hitchcock film, so I swatted the little buggers away. Don't get me wrong, I really like birds. These birds were more like mice with wings and I don't like mice.

The train to Reims was fast! I had a window seat. There was a woman a couple rows down who was chewing gum with her mouth open. Shmack, shmack, shmack... I put Bon Iver on my iPod. The song Holocene seemed to be the perfect soundtrack as the French countryside almost danced by. There were farms, fields, little villages and a big blue sky. Coming from Paris, it was like a snapshot of a simpler time. Believe me, it takes a special kind of scene to get a tech, news, culture, music junkie to sit still and just breath a sigh of appreciation for this amazing world we get to live in.

We arrived in Reims in what felt like minutes. Getting out of the train station, we referenced our map to decide where to go first. We heard the cathedral was a good place to start. There's a train system here kind of like the street cars in Toronto, except the trains are really nice and they grow grass between the tracks. Why not?

The cathedral was massive.

I decided to go along with the candle lighting thing and it was pretty cool.

Next on the list was a champagne tour at Taittinger. The map we used in the guide book didn't have all of the streets labeled on it and we got a little lost. A couple of locals sent us in the right direction and eventually we found it.

When we walked into the visitors door, we were greeted by three attendants behind a desk (well, sort of greeted. There was a brief moment where I realized I might be a little under dressed for this place and thought the well dressed attendants might have thought I was lost on my way to a pub). We were not lost and the place was simple and classy.

We took a tour of the caves and gained an appreciation for the champagne making process. Champagne is aged in it's original bottle, the bottle that you buy it in. The odd shaped cork actually goes into the bottle as a straight round cylinder. It's fermented twice and the sediment removal process might literally knock your socks off.

After our first champagne tour of the day, we walked towards the next champagne tour, but stopped about half way for lunch. I felt like I've been ignoring veg, so I ordered a salad. My true love, the same.

The next tour was at Mumm (pronounced moome). The map in our guide book was all wrong and we ended up walking around a few blocks a few times before we found the visitors entrance. The tour started at 2:00pm and we were still lost at 1:54pm. When we finally arrived at the door, they still hadn't opened for tours. Wicked.

The tour was relatively the same as the first, but the girl who gave the tour had the best French accent ever (it was an English tour) and I'd rather listen to that than the guy at Taittinger with perfect English. We are in France are we not? Anyway, when we were doing a tasting, a lady asked where the bubbles came from. Seriously. It took a great deal of self control to not burst into hysterics. Especially since I was enjoying my 5th glass of spirits at that point.

After Mumm (which had the best champagne in my opinion), we toured the city until having to catch the train back to Paris. We checked out a gate that was made in 100-something. I guess the Romans used to live here before it was France and this was a gated community.

We stopped for ice cream and later for pints at the James Joyce! How cool is that?

Tonight is our last night in Paris. I've done a good job of ignoring the fact that this visit would eventually end. We're going to get dressed up and have one more French meal! Au revoir!

A Sparkling Pylon and Fashion Galore

Last night we had dinner (like we said we would) on the cheap. Q Burger. I think the Q stands for quick. The burger had a whole wheat bun. I was confused, I thought this was Paris. People don't eat whole wheat buns in Paris. Anyway, I'm way more confused about the service customs now, because at Q Burger, it was impeccable. We were promptly served, our order was cooked fresh and served to us in a timely fashion as we sat on a high stool table overlooking a little rock garden. All included, €14. A regular restaurant costs at least €40. After dinner, my true love had a special night planned, so it was off to Pont de L'Alma to take an evening boat ride on the Seine.

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Metro Station (I have no idea how he got a metro station named after him) was awesome. Classy with big screen TV's. My kind of Metro station.

When we got to our destination and surfaced, the Eiffel Tower stood proudly in the distance. It was a bit chilly, but the sky was looking great, so I was looking forward to an enchanting boat ride.

We got on board. My true love bought me some candy along the way, so I ate the sour pieces and gave her the Coke bottles.

It was a very romantic experience once we mentally blocked out the photo crazy tourists trying to get a shot of the Eiffel Tower (because this very boat was the only permitted opportunity to take a photo of the giant pylon) and beer swigging Aussies who thought it necessary to recite some (I'm guessing Aussie Rules) chants full of eff bombs and blah blah blahs. We still cuddled and told each other how nice it was to be there in that moment.

When ever we passed under a bridge, people would wave and cheer. I thought I would get a photo of the waving and cheering to share. When I went through the photos, I just about spat out my wine with laughter as I noticed that not everyone was waving and cheering.

I got some really nice photos of the setting sun and the lit up pylon.

All in all, it was a great experience. This morning we set off to visit the Catacombes!

The Bastille Metro Station was vacant. Very lonely. At times like these, I tend to either do acrobats or dance. Either way, my true love cracks a smile and tells me I so weird. I tell her I'm living in the moment.

We made our journey to the Catacombes, only to find out that it was closed for Bastille Day. No one really knew that it was closed because it's supposed to be open on a holiday. Even a tour guide didn't know. He asked us if we were there for a private tour. I said, "yes, we definitely are". Then my true love said, "no, we're not". And he said, "oh, ok. Well no one told anyone that they were closed today."

So I sulked about until we had breaky. Then I was ok and it was off the the Opéra Garnier! We realized we were out of money again after breakfast, so we had to make a quick pitstop to refuel the money bag.

The Opéra Garnier was awesome. I learned some stuff about this magnificent place. They call it the Palais Garnier. Louis XIV (the man) founded the Paris Opera in 1669 and this was the 13th edition of the building. It was built by Charles Garnier and took 15 years. There were a few set backs in construction (but when isn't there?), but if you get the chance to see is place, it's a masterpiece.

I bet Charles visited the Palace of Versailles, saw the hall of mirrors and thought to himself, child's play. There is a hall at the Opera that I thought was impeccable.

After we left the Opera, a shiny apple caught my eye.

We went to the Apple store! It's so funny because I've played with all the Apple stuff a million times, but it just doesn't get old to me. After I got my fix, we went shopping shopping. The place to spend lots of money is Galeries Lafayette. All the major labels are there; Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Tiffany & Co., blah, blah, blah. The people that can afford those antiques we saw yesterday probably buy their casual weekend clothes here. A petite dress my true love had her eye on was on sale from €520. If you want to spend some real money, get something made custom. Tailored suits started at €3500 here.

We decided to stick to our plan and each get an outfit for dinner tonight. My true love got a nice little purple dress, I picked out a yellow shirt to compliment her. It was funny actually. I got it in my head that I needed a yellow dress shirt, so the hunt was on. No one was selling the colour yellow! This either verifies that I am a trend setter, or have no fashion sense. I even went to Café Cotton where the only thing they sell is dress shirts starting at €110 and they had every colour except yellow. Not even a yellow stripe. Anyway, I did find a nice yellow polo.

After shopping, we had pizza again at Pompei on Rue de Castellane. Delicious. We even had a salad to get a little greenery. The dining room overlooked the street.

When we got back to Hotel Royal Bastille, there was a protest in the street! Something about democracy for France. Maybe they haven't read the news since 1958.

It's been a relaxing afternoon writing and drinking wine, my true love napping and protestors protesting. Tonight we'll put on our new clothes and visit Île Saint-Louis for dinner!