ImmuebleParis, France
31_3_2009
31_3_2009
L’Observateur : Can You See the Number in the Circle? Edition
One of the classes I teach is information design, and the textbook we use has a section about how designers should consider the color blind, and this week one of the students in my class looked at the color-blindness test in the book and realized she is, which is a real bummer for an art school student.Whoever lives upstairs has been listening to Bill Callahan’s Woke On a Whaleheart really loudly lately, which I find remarkable for a variety of reasons, but mostly because Maine man Ben Plimpton recently asked me to perform a version of “Running the Loping” off that album at his wedding in August. So now I can just play and sing along with the neighbor’s stereo. How convenient.
The other night at the international pick-up basketball game (where the participants are wont to don complete top and bottom NBA uniforms), a dude showed up wearing a Steve Nash set and it was the first time I have ever seen a black man wearing a white man’s jersey.
Parisians have the peculiar habit of abruptly turning in the opposite direction when they are walking down the sidewalk. I experience this on a near-daily basis, and most often the person I see doing it also happens to be the person who is walking directly in front of me – and then into me.
I saw a very old woman standing in the middle of a crosswalk talking to herself through a bloody nose, which was dripping profusely onto the pavement. Everyone just sort of stood there and stared at her and it made me sad because if I spoke functioning French, I would have at least made sure she was okay. Then she turned around and walked the other way.
L’Observateur : Wow What Are the Chances Edition
Franz Ferdinand and their newly minted gold recordsLast week, our friend Eleanor invited us to come see her boyfriend Alex Kapranos’ band play. We were backstage after the show when they were presented gold records for their album which came out last week. Apparently, the last time they were presented gold records, they got into a no-holds-barred fistfight, so everyone in attendance was a little expectant. No matter, the point of this anecdote is that two days later I was at the FNAC bookstore when I opened a book of aperitif trivia questions (expecting to see liquor-related tidbits), and the answer to the question on the random page I chose was “Alexander Kapranos” ... wow, what are the chances?!?
Later that night, we happened to see our friend Mark in the street. This happens in Paris more than you might think, but still ... what are the chances?!?
The night after that, we randomly chose to eat in the same restaurant as our friends Andrew and Laurence ... but running into three of the twenty people we know in Paris on consecutive days? ... what are the chances?!?
Then the next day, (about 15 minutes after I was browsing at the FNAC) we were bicycling down Rue de Rivoli by the Louvre and randomly spotted Robin, the girlfriend of one of my friends from Oklahoma (Allan), waiting for the crosswalk light to change ... seriously ... what are the chances?!?
[Update: We just ran into John and Sara on the canal.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)