RIP Jean Simmons

As a tribute to the beautiful British actress Jean Simmons, who died this past week of lung cancer.

how stunning was she?!

Much love. x

music for mercredi: songs to get inside your CABEZAS!!

I decided this week to do a 'music for mercredi' based on one of my favourite new shows, Community. This was a weird decision to make, because no one in England, or in fact Europe really knows about Community yet (except for a very small selection of people who read this blog (smiley face!)) and Skype isn't permitted the one place where it is widely known: the United States.

So, let this be an opportunity for all of you ignorant of the wonder that is Community to become inspired to watch it. It is a great new comedy with some amazing talent (Ken Jeong, am I right?), and they pick good music.

music for mercredi 20.01.2010

tracklist:

1. Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare- Matt & Kim (from Community trailer featured on NBC)

2. Don't You (Forget About Me)- Simple Minds (covered by the 88 in the Pilot episode)

3. Wise Up- Aimee Mann (as featured in episode 102: Spanish 101)

4. Daylight- Matt & Kim (as featured in episode 102: Spanish 101)

5. The Way It Is- Bruce Hornsby (as ripped off by Pierce in episode 105: Advanced Criminal Law)

6. Please Do Not Go- Violent Femmes (as featured in episode 106: Football, Feminism, and Law)

7. Home- Edward Sharp & the Magnetic Zeros (as featured in episode 109: Debate 109)

8. Somewhere Out There (from An American Tail)- John Bayless (as featured in episode 110: Environmental Science)

9. Whistle for the Choir- The Fratellis (as featured in episode 111: Politics of Human Sexuality)

10. Kiss With a Fist- Florence + the Machine (as featured in episode 112: Comparative Religion)

Some of the cast's musical moments:

Much love. x

music for mercredi: "winter is nature's way of saying 'up yours'"- Robert Byrne

It's friggin cold outside, guys. And the snow is being a bitch. How about a free playlist to cheer y'all up?

music for mercredi 13.01.2010

1. 10/10- Paolo Nutini

2. The Reeling- Passion Pit

3. Changes- David Bowie

4. Winter- Joshua Radin

5. Foolin'- Devendra Banhart

6. Murder in the Streets- Mark Minelli

7. Before You Were Young- Travis

8. White Winter Hymnal- Fleet Foxes

9. Drumming Song- Florence + The Machine

10. Don't Phunk With My Heart- Black Eyed Peas

Much love. x

I'm saving this for my memoirs...

So folks, I'm back in Lyon. A town where the snow is currently falling in a very determined fashion, and shows no signs of backing down. As a gal from the Chi, a city that is (un)lucky enough to experience both extreme winters and extreme summers, I'm OH so used to the idea of snow, and in a big way. I forget sometimes that most of Western Europe generally isn't. This is why I have found it so surprising and infuriating to have the streets so slippy, I mean, do these people not have salt?! The fact of the matter is they do, but in limited quantities, far too limited for the amount of snow that has attacked the region.

This whole 'being ill equipped to deal with the weather' thing became evident to me on my connecting flight from London to Lyon, where I spent 5 hours in a plane, not moving, because we were waiting to be de-iced. Not that the process of de-icing took longer than 30 minutes, but the amount of planes that had to undergo this procedure meant that there was a long wait. Because of this unforeseen delay, I arrived back in Lyon seven hours late, and there was no way to get back into the city. The best idea seemed just to hang out in the airport overnight until I could catch a bus into town, so that's what I did.

Doing as many 'long-haul flights' as I do (as I calculate it I do 6 transatlantic flights a year) one of the questions I get after arriving back home from the airport is "were you able to sleep on the plane?" My response is always the same: "No, I can't sleep on planes." While not strictly true– I would say on an 8 hour flight I average about 45 minutes of kip– nothing shows how little sleep I got on this particular journey back than the spontaneous writing sesh I did while hanging around in the airport at 3 in the morning. Allow me to present you with an excerpt.

There's nothing like a gin and tonic at 27,000 feet to make you forget your troubles...

I feel like the stench from my foot sweat is seeping through my leather boots. I daren't raise my arms above the normal height for fear that my BO might cause passersby to faint. Maybe I'll go to the bathroom in a minute and take what Adam adorably calls a 'whore shower'. It's 2.41 am in Lyon, hour 22 of travel.

This is by no means unfamiliar to me. I do a lot of transatlantic travelling; a lot of waiting around. I'm used to getting NO sleep over 24 hours, having makeup smeared all over my face, smelling a bit, and having people look at me and debating whether or not I just fell out of a tree. I've never spent the night in an airport though, this one's new.

"Don't go anywhere too quiet!" Shouted my dad down the phone when I explained the situation. To be honest, when you're in a tiny French airport at 2 in the morning, everywhere's quiet. My positioning of myself and all my crap was based purely on convenience: I sat myself in the only place where I could find an available electricity socket. It also happened to be between the two lavvys, so people are always coming and going. I was joined not too shortly after by a man in an orange fleece, clearly on a similar quest as I was. He's quiet for the most part, except for the little bit of singing he does along to his music before remembering he's out in public.

I'm finding it hard to concentrate on anything. The announcements here are beyond ridiculous. Well, in English, anyway. "CuhztUmeRRRs are wemahnded not to leave their luhgehj unAHtenDED." Oh, how I love stereotypes.

A Chinese man just ran through the hallway with the utmost urgency. I don't know why– there are no flights right now, and the fact that the bus isn't running is the whole reason I'm still here.

I wasn't able to write too much more before it became nonsensical. Don't worry, y'all, I've gotten a lot more sleep and am now almost back on track.

Much love. x

My Year in Quotes

Goodbye 2009. I'd love to say I'll miss you, but you were kind of a pill.

It's the second day of 2010 and I already have a good feeling about this year. Two thousand and nine got off to a bad start and it set a tone for the rest of my year. This year began in a great fashion, surrounded by copious amounts of booze, music, and friends– old and new.

So, a new year with new experiences, new challenges, and new adventures. But still, one can't help looking back. As I said, 2009 wasn't the best year, so rather than dwell on the negative, let us think about all we've watched, all we've heard, and all we've learned in a year in quotes from ramblings:

january/janvier/enero 2009: from comedian Michael Mcintyre

"Don't get drunk. If you get drunk that's bad. If you're posh, of course, you have a variety of options: you can be trousered, or trollied, or wellied, or rat-arsed! You can actually use any word in the English language and substitute it to mean drunk as a posh person, and it still sounds acceptable. 'Did you have a drink last night?' 'Are you joking, I got utterly gazeboed.' It fits! 'Angus! You're driving– I'm car parked.' 'Slow down chaps, I'm pyjamaed!'"

february/février/febrero 2009: from comedian Dylan Moran

(about Sylvio Berlusconi) "He is fucking crooked he sleeps on a spiral staircase! So thoroughly corrupt everytime he smiles an angel gets gonorrhea!"

march/mars/marzo 2009: from comedian Jason Manford

"The only people wasting water are the ones taking it into space. Where it don't come back. Damn you Aldrin!"

april/avril/abril 2009: from greatest fake MCs on earth, The Lonely Island

"Like a Boss!"

may/mai/mayo 2009: from the film Pride and Prejudice

"I take no leave of you! I send no compliments to your mother you deserve no such attention!"

june/juin/junio 2009: from the film Forrest Gump

"But you ain't got no legs Lieutenant Dan!!"

july/juillet/julio 2009: from comedian Mike Birbiglia

"I'm always embarrassed to tell people I have a blog because everybody has a blog, about anything. People will just be like 'Today I went to JC Penney!' And like, there's one comment: 'JC Penney, eh?' and I'm like, 'that's not a blog, that's a text message.'"

august/août/agosto 2009: Paul Rudd and Jason Segel

"No Gideon! NOOOOOO!"

september/septembre/septiembre 2009: from a comic relief sketch with Armstrong and Miller and Mitchell and Webb

(said in a WWII fighter pilot voice) "Look, this is me being them: 'Ooh, ooh! Look at me, I'm flying a hurricaine. It's a shit plane, I'm rubbish, and my mum goes chippy in her slippers!' That was me being them."

october/octobre/ocotobre 2009: from the TV series Black Books

"Manny I don't feel that well. I feel like I've been beaten up... underwater. I can feel bits of my brain falling away like a wet cake."

november/novembre/noviembre 2009: from the movie Hamlet 2

"I have so much anger. I feel like I've been raped... in the FACE!"

december/décembre/deciembre 2009: from the TV series Community

"Every so often someone will come up to me and say 'Señor Chang, why do you teach Spanish?' They say it just like that, 'why do you teach Spanish? Why you? Why not math, why not photography?' I mean, surely it must be in my nature to teach you something ancient and mysterious, like building a wall that you can see from outer space. Well, I'll tell you why I teach Spanish: it is none of your business. I don't want to have any conversations about what a mysterious, inscrutable man I am. I AM A SPANISH GENIUS! In español my nickname is El Tigre Chino! Because my knowledge will bite her face off! So don't question Señor Chang, or you'll get bit. You're bit. YA BIT!"

Much love. x