September 20/21, 2018 (Paris)

September 20/21, 2018

We just got back from Paris.  Yesterday we spent the day at Passage des Panoramas (11 Boulevard Montmartre).  This is the arcade that Walter Benjamin wrote about in his major (unfinished) book "Arcade Project."  What's interesting about this arcade is that it opened in 1800, and its the first role model or attempt to make an indoor shopping center in an urban area, in other words, a city.  Paris in 1800 was dirty streets that were not friendly to the retail space, due to the lack of electricity and their various plumbing problems, where citizens would throw their shit and piss on the streets.  The Passage des Panoramas is the oldest covered shopping area in Paris.   Going there was a moving experience for me.

I have great admiration for Walter Benjamin's writing, as well as his interest in culture and city-living.  He openly admired Charles Baudelaire not only for his poetry but also his appreciation for the aesthetic and nature of a city (Paris).   Passage des Panoramas was invented for the sole purpose of shopping, which one comes to think of it, a somewhat original 19th century thought.  But why is it fascinating now?

Well, for one, I'm a consumer.  I can't help it. Without a doubt, it's an addiction of great importance to me, as a person, and writer.  I'm sure those who read my posts have a good indication that I love records and books.  But I also have a deep secretive (even to myself) love for other's childhood culture.  For instance, I'm fascinated with TinTin, yet though I have to admit I'm not French or Belgium (the home of TinTin).  There was a tote bag we saw through the window that seemed to me to be a perfect purchase, but alas, the store was closed.  I find the independent stores in Paris a mystery due to their hours. Some are open from 1 pm to 6 pm, and I get the impression that they don't want to change their lives too much due to the success of the tourist demand.  Still, I'm amazed at the beauty of a culture that's expressed in a retail shop.  People tend to not to look up to the retail place as something as important as a museum.   Often I think it is even more critical, because there are people who open shops that are devoted to the past, and they do so with great passion.  When I go into a good shop, I feel obsession, love, sensuality, and pleasure.  I feel this when I enter the Passage des Panoramas

May 22, 2014

May 22, 2014

Although it's warm and sunny outside, my heart is dark and gloomy.  I wake up in the middle of the night, and I’m sure it was from a dream, but for the life of me, I can never remember what that dream was or about.  All I know is that I wake up with a heavy heart and a gloom that penetrate my thoughts into a thousand pieces.  I wander around the house in the darkness, to somehow shake off the great loss I’m feeling at this moment.  I put a recording of “Tristian und Isolde” and explore my inner-thoughts as I watch the dawn rise, into what is truly a beautiful day, yet, the brightness and cheeriness of the birds singing outside, depresses me dearly.  I put the volume up louder hoping to be able to drown out the chirps of the bird that is on the telephone wire in front of my house.

Throughout my life, I have tried to keep my disappointment at bay, fearing to embrace failure that’s my life.  By a certain age, I wanted to be a successful writer, and still, even at my late age, it hasn’t happened …yet.   The dread I have when I go to a bookstore and see the works of authors proudly displayed in the bookshelves and display tables, seemed to mock my failure as a published writer.  Yet, by the afternoon, I am at the store, haunted by my lack of success.  I go back home to remember that I do have specific duties to do.  I do have a pet. It’s a lobster.  My lobster is almost 60 years old, in fact, the same age as yours truly.  The odd thing about the creature is the fact that they do not weaken as they get older.  I, on the other hand, have noticed aging affecting me physically as well as mentally.

I named my lobster “Thibault, after a character in TinTin.  After feeding him, I put a leash around him, and we go for a walk through my neighborhood in Silverlake.   People would stare, or even be angry with me, especially those who are walking their dogs.  A creature by the way, that I find disgraceful.   I can’t stand the tone of a dog’s bark, and a lobster is quiet, well behaved, and is not forcing a personality down your throat.   The fact a pet lobster doesn’t seek out your love, also offers me a sense of peace and comfort.   As I get back home, my grief and misery seem to be knocking on the door, and I just want to escape into…. Another world.  Regardless of the fact that not my favorite painter, I often admire the paintings by Mary Cassatt, mostly due to the images of mother and daughter sharing an intimate moment or two.  I have a book of her paintings, that focuses on this one subject, and when you turn a page after another, one is overwhelmed of a world that is almost obtainable, but alas, it is like looking at a month of Sundays, and somehow they eliminate the other six days.  To quote a famous Manchester poet, “Everyday is like Sunday/everyday is silent and grey.”

Tears are streaming from my eyes by reading this line, and I go to my piano, which I accustomed to spend a great deal of my childhood on this instrument, with the hopes of having a career in the performance world.  But words win in the end, and it is now  the medium that will either bring me liberation from pain, or bury me in a coffin of someone else’s choice.

"TinTin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece" 1961 film

The original film poster

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6


Part 7


Part 8


Part 9

The Adventures of TinTin "The Secret of the Unicorn" by Hergé

Ah I always do things half-assed backwards.  Ok, so this is the first part of the two part story and I sort of gave a review for the second part.   What's amazing and interesting is how much research Hergé did for his stories.  Besides clothing, he had a good eye for architecture as well as weapons, automobiles, etc.  These young reader editions all have additional information regarding the story - and overall its very interesting. Similar to a bonus on a DVD set.   The world of TinTin is very very rich.

The narrative doesn't impress me that much, but the detail work of his Hergé's illustrations is really impressive.  And as I mentioned before I am really attracted to his drawings.  And I think I got that bug ever since I was a child.

The Adventures of TinTin/"Red Rackham's Treasure" by Hergé, plus Documentary on TinTin

I have known TinTin all my life and i must have read the series as a very very young tot, or my mom read them to me.   For the past 40 something years I have been avoiding re-reading the books, while at the same time being very attracted to the author/artist Hergé's artwork.  in fact I am totally nuts about it.

It is fascinating that Hergé did a remarkable amount of research for his narrative/artwork.  He made models of locations/ships, and in many ways they are sort of like little films or at the very least visual film treatments - but alas, that doesn't really matter, because the work really does it best on the printed page.  "Red Rackham's Treasure" is the second TinTin book, and my understanding is that it is sort of attached to the first adventure "The Secret of the Unicorn" which I will read next.  Nevertheless "Red Rakham's Treasure" stands up on its own, and all the eccentric characters are fully exposed and explained.  What we have here is a boy's adventure,  but with very well dressed characters.  And that alone is worth the attention, and seeing how Hergé works and thinks, this has to be an important aspect to the aesthetic of TinTin.

This book as well as the others I will read shortly are young reader's edition's, which is exactly (at least I have been told that) the same as the original, except the images are bigger, and each title has an additional 20 pages of bonus material, which is quite interesting.

Down below is a documentary on Hergé and his invention TinTin.


"TinTin & I Documentary Part 1


"TinTin & I" Documentary Part 2


"TinTin & I" Documentary Part 3


"TinTin & I" Documentary Part 4


"TinTin & I" Documentary Part 5