Alan Furst - Take me back in time...

I discovered Alan Furst a while ago while I was one of my regular bookstore trips, browsing through the aisles, looking for something to catch my eye. I read everything, with a particular preference for historical fiction, especially historical fiction based in the 1930's and 1940's in Europe, so Furst's novels really fit all of the above.

I picked up The Spies of Warsaw and raced through it. Intrigue, passion, history, politics, Europe, 1930's, Nazis, Communists - what more could you want? Oh, and he writes really well too :-)

My favourites so far have been The World At Night and Red Gold , but I am biased because I grew up in France and love France more than any country in the world. These two novels really depict France at her best and worst. I would love for Furst to bring the main protagonist of these two novels, Jean Casson, back in another novel at some point. I feel that his story doesn't end with Red Gold...

But if you are more interested in Eastern European intrigue, politics and culture, try Night Soldiers or The Polish Officer. Bulgaria, Hungary, Russia...

I miss the old world. Someone build a time machine for me please.

Netherlands calls for arrest of Nazi war criminal Faber

Netherlands calls for arrest of Nazi war criminal Faber

I can't believe this... The guy escaped prison for war crimes, ran off to Germany and has been PROTECTED there since 1952?! First of all, why has it taken all these decades to call for extradition? Second of all, why was he ever given German citizenship? Some things will just never, ever make sense to me.

Incredible.

Time off...

I am going to enjoy these four days off so much. No stress, no sleepless nights, no worrying about things going wrong at work, no wondering when I am going to actually find the time to sleep, no staring at my computer screens wishing the world would slow down and stop for a minute.

Four days of family, friends, sleep, photos, words, music, food, laughter and silence.

Silence from the constant voices and questions and demands and issues and hopefully finally silence from the constant headache I've had for the past month.

xoxo

Varsovie (band/music)

I love these guys. Not just because I've known one of them for longer than I can remember (Arnault), and another one of them nearly just as long (Greg), but because their music, lyrics and style are pretty much a perfect mix of everything I like most.

Art, poetry, history, décadence, tristesse, paradox, love, war, mélancolie, nostalgia...

They also bring me back to days of the past, when we used to roam the streets of Grenoble together, drinking wine, talking about everything and anything, crying and laughing, smoking endless cigarettes, dancing, thinking we had all the time in the world. I don't think any of us have really changed at all. When I listen to Varsovie, I always feel like there is a piece of myself in there somewhere.

Varsovie released their first album Etat Civil at the end of 2009.
You can listen to some songs on their Myspace page
(an order the album)
You can also find them on Facebook

And here are a few videos. They really are worth it. And now I am REALLY homesick...

Varsovie - Etat Civil


Varsovie - Mademoiselle Else

New challenge - Russian

I like to set myself challenges. I like to make myself happy by beating these challenges.
The last one was a tough one, I quit smoking, and now I feel like I am past all the hurdles and running on safe ground, so it's time to focus on something new, to give myself a new challenge to accomplish within a set time frame.

I studied some Russian and long long time ago, back in my early teens. Sunday afternoons spent at a little old Russian lady's house in Seyssins, France. She didn't really speak any English or French, but she managed to teach us the basics: alphabet, grammar, basic speech. I could read Russian and make myself understood, but without continuing to practice, I don't remember anything.

I love Russian. I love the spoken language, the characters, the history of Russia, Russian literature. I always told myself that one day I would read Tolstoy in the original. Even the finest translation cannot beat reading a magnificent novel in the original.

Anyway... next challenge is to teach myself Russian. By next May I will have mastered the basic language (spoken and written), will be able to hold a conversation in Russian and will be able to read a book in Russian. Check back in at a later date for updates!

In the meantime: Счастье
(I google translated that).

Gorgeous skies

Gorgeous skies, originally uploaded by lunajade.

This picture makes me happy as it turned out EXACTLY how I wanted it to and how I saw it in my head.

Grinderman @ Best Buy Theater NYC 11/14/2010

I NEED to blog about this show, but I have been having the week from hell at work, and haven't even had a chance to really sleep (literally), let alone do anything else outside of working. It's all worth it though, I hope.

Anyway, back to real important news. Grinderman. Nick Cave. MY HUSBAND Nick Cave. Ha! In my eyes Nick Cave can do no wrong. Musically, lyrically, physically etc etc. I have loved him for so long that I can't even remember the time that I disliked him (and yes, I did, back in my very young years when my Aunt Louise kept going on about how amazing he was). I love him in all of his incarnations, The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Grinderman, Nick Cave the Novelist, Nick Cave the Poet, Nick Cave the Screenwriter, Nick Cave the movie soundtrack score writer. Ok I need to stop. Let's just say that I am obsessed with the guy.
Oh I nearly forgot - he's even in my second favourite movie of all time, Wings of Desire.

Enough. You all get the idea. He's a genius and I LOVE HIM. I don't even have one favourite song or album - ask me that question and you will get about 20 answers, depending on my mood, the time of the day, if I am hungry or thirsty or bored or happy...
I'm blown away whenever I see him, be it on stage in one of his bands, walking down the street, or reading his writing. He has such a presence and a magnetism...

Anyway, the show was of course, amazing, and I still feel like it was very surreal. Dana and I were pretty much at the front (we would have been right in the front had I not been stuck answering work emails until the last minute), and there were moments that Nick Cave was literally standing over me, staring into my eyes (I mean of course, what else would he be doing?!). Grinderman take me back to The Birthday Party days, to the tongue-in-cheek Nick Cave, to the Nick Cave who likes to ROCK and have a blast. 90 minutes of pure (smart) rock n roll. Nothing is bad or goes wrong in the presence of my husband.

I can't forget to mention Warren Ellis, who is another genius - Bad Seed, brilliant and super eccentric violinist. Another amazing presence on stage.

I filmed one song for my brother (who happens to have inherited my obsession):


I also took some pictures

HOWEVER, my friend Dana Yavin is one of the best photographers I know, and excels in musical photography. She happens to be a lot shorter than me AND only had her point and shoot on her, and despite all of that took a PERFECT set of photos, that pretty much portray the who experience that the show was. Please check out her pictures here: Grinderman by Dana (Distortion) Yavin
(Feel free to browse through her other selections - she has some amazing shots of some amazing bands).

I'm going to stop gushing right now and will leave you to look at the shots. If you get a chance to see them do not miss it. You will be disappointed if you do.

Street art?

Iconic, originally uploaded by lunajade.

I never leave the house without at least one camera in my bag. There is so much to see everywhere I go, especially in the city, where there are so many images painted and/or graffitied on walls, abandoned buildings, cars...

I love this one. Stalin depicted as Zeus. Interesting no?

I love things that make me THINK. This image has been stuck in my brain for a while.

There are others I have taken on my walks: Street Art

Nightmares...

Last night during a fitful sleep I dreamt very vividly that we were caught in the middle of a nuclear war. Late one quiet night I was walking home with some friends when all of sudden the sky lit up with lights trailing from missiles, no sound, just colour.

And then fear. Running away from the destruction, the bombs, the darkness with my cat and Rosie, off to my Mum's house where we were sure the radiation wouldn't hurt us.

Scary.

The Dandy Warhols @ Webster Hall, NYC, 11/06/2010

If you get to Webster Hall early enough you can usually get a really good viewing spot. This time I got right up front on the left side and sat up on the blocks by the speakers. GREAT view.
Hopewell opened and played a really good warm-up set (they are so good they deserve to be talked about by themselves, so I will post about them separately sometime).
The Dandy Warhols played for about 2 hours, an awesome show with a great mix of songs and energy. I don't think they can ever really disappoint anyway!

They hadn't done an encore in 3 years but we were lucky enough to get one:


Although it was really dark and I didn't have my best camera on me, I got a few more pictures: more pictures here

<3