sometimes I feel exactly like this

via lolita

a sunny morning

in a few ways more than one.

I woke up a little late today only to find the sun shining through the thick red and orange curtains in my room. The sun. I see it so rarely that I've begun to actually take notice when it comes out. Maybe in the long run this Parisian weather will help me appreciate and take advantage of good weather more often. [insert quip about me keeping on the bright side of the street/fence/life, whatever.]

I got dressed and went to the corner store to buy some eggs. I've had a craving for fried eggs (sunny side up, of course) for about a week now, and this was my morning damnit! This little store around the corner is called 8àhuit, which just means "8 to 8". I take it to be France's exponentially more amazing version of 7-11. (They even sell this delicious raspberry yogurt that comes in a little glass jar, and a dozen varieties of those terrific pudding-type desserts that everyone here loves.) I bought the eggs and a little container of apple mango pressed juice (ugh, so good), and upon arriving home, immediately got back into my comfy clothes. This had to be done right.

(For the record, the sun was STILL shining at this point... such a record for Paris.)

Toast, butter, fried eggs, salt, tons of pepper, juice, sunshine... the simplest things, it was just so perfect. 

Then I felt compelled to listen to this song and its accompanying album so cleverly titled Album.

Took a shower, did some yoga, glanced at my email, and left for the darkroom. Spent hours there, made good prints. I've been taking the bus to the studio this week, which I much prefer to the metro. There's so much more to look at out the window.

la-di-da. more soon. bises.

Little Otsu this week!

Little Otsu is a truly amazing publishing company and online shop that's based in Portland, OR. (I've featured their products before, remember?) They support green publishing and independent artists– two things I care for so deeply! The Little Otsu blog has a fun little featured series where readers submit photographs according to a theme. I turned in three photos for the theme Living Things Among Us and they are officially live! Check them out here.

Big thanks to Little Otsu for featuring my work! I am so thrilled to be included among all the amazing artists featured on the blog.

In other news, here is a wonderful sculpture I saw at the Louvre today.

View the whole Messerschmidt exhibition online here. They're most amazing faces I've ever seen. And they were made in the 1700s, which surprised me because it seems like a very contemporary (though classical technique-wise) concept, sculpting screaming/grimacing people. N'est-ce pas?

14 feb and a new mix ~!~

I've been compiling a list of songs about weird love for a long time now, and it just so happens that tomorrow is valentine's day. So in the spirit of caring, I present to you odd love: songs of love gone awry and strange, just in time for st. valentine.

If you're interested in hearing my other themed mixes, check out my 8tracks account.

As for me, I will be spending the whole day with my one true love: the darkroom. oui oui oui.

Steven Alan Spring 2010

Steven Alan does a great job at making complementary collections for men and women. His styles are congruent. (I love that word, even if it makes me think of 8th grade math class.) I love man style like this, and my posting of this gorgeous model is my valentine's day gift to all you ladies out there.

And to say that I gasped when I saw that backless black dress would be an understatement. It's not listed for sale on the site yet, either. I wonder...

Spike Jonze + Arcade Fire

 

So intense. Incredible!

See by Chloé - Printemps 2011

so dreamy.

Sculpture

The sidewalks are covered in loogies, dog poo, and very serious looking people.

I bought some postcards of beautiful sculptures and tacked them up in my room.

Lyon this weekend was wonderful. Pictures to follow.

I cannot wait to go back to the Musée des Beaux-Arts.

Learning (in another language) how to use a photography studio is no easy task.

This stuff: saving my knuckles since I've been in Paris.

Monoprix is an amazing store (think: cheap cool clothes + B&N + ginormous grocery store)

Seeing two completely straight men kiss each other on each cheek makes me so happy.

And it happens so often here!

It's official: I must cut back on the amount of cheese I'm eating. No bueno.

But the ham can stay.

I can't stop listening to Blue. I feel 15 again.

Sitting on the métro and reading a French magazine makes me feel like a local.

Choosing themes for my work is proving to be a challenge. In time the theme will choose me.

I feel like I've been gone forever.

Joseph Chinard, Juliette Récamier

I have always loved this song...

"All good dreamers pass this way someday..." 

Where to begin...

I've had a hard time convincing myself it will be worth it to sit down and write about my time in Paris thus far; not because the time isn't worth writing about, but because no amount of writing would be enough.
I have learned more French in this past week than I have in the past year, easily. My host family is amazing, and their apartment is lovely (and huge! there are parts I don't even go to). Everyone is nice, but I'm doing a lot of work for my program. It's French-only, all the time– it's not at all a vacation. I went to the Musée d'Orsay this morning before my mandatory orientation class to see some grand Courbets and colorful van Goghs, and then I remembered why I came. It hasn't felt all that different. Ok so it's really, REALLY different. Plutôt.

Unlimited metro pass, I can go basically anywhere.
Cheese, white bread, ham, and butter every single day.
Duck and fish sometimes too, which I normally don't eat that much of.
Someone asked me for directions on the street.
Found an organic food store and bought falafel and taboule; they were delicious.
Spent an entire afternoon speaking French with a group of five friends.
Encountered the biggest dog on the street that I have ever seen in my life.
Walked through a dewy Jardins du Luxembourg in the morning.
Walked in circles around streets, just to get familiar.
Saw the same man walking his golden retreiver two days in a row.
Spoke in French with our Sri Lanken housemaid.
Discussed politics at the dinner table.
Explained how charter systems and american universities are organized.
Opened a bank account.
Learned the value of terrific supermarket pudding desserts.
Sat for hours listening to my host mother and her elderly church friend discuss 'la vie.'
Tried to buy a cell phone; got lost.
Looked up – birdcage lamp!

Useful French Phrases for the Foreign and Confused: Installment No. 5

The best yet!

Useful French Phrases for the Foreign and Confused: Installment No. 4

(In case you were wondering.)

Who am I?

I'm living with strangers and speaking only French. I do not know this person. Or, rather, I did not know this person existed in me.

Ok, it's time to tackle the handheld shower/ no curtain combo. Here is a glimpse of my room!

Paris: Pre-departure edition

Buy it here, if you so please

Tomorrow night, I depart for four months in Paris. There's so much to say about it that I truly don't know where to start. How about: I'm nervous, but mostly excited. I'm going to miss my family and friends, but more than anything I'm going to miss my dog and my baby nephew because they're the only ones who don't understand Skype (or the function of mirrors, why peanut butter is so sticky, or why I would up and leave for so long a time). 

Everyone keeps telling me, "But Cat, you're going to Paris," and I'm all like, "I know. DUH." It's one of the most notoriously inhospitable, proud, and frankly pretentious cities on the map. (You know, unless you try to be like them, and even then, good luck.) It has a reputation. It has a million connotations. My course of thought has gotten to the point where I don't even think of the Eiffel Tower and croissants anymore – I think of the cold glances, les bousculeurs (the passers-by who have no qualms about walking into you, be in on the sidewalk, in a store, or while you're taking a picture), and people answering me in English when I attempt to speak French (which I speak well, for an American). People tell me, Just roll with the punches, you'll be fine, to which I reply (in thought), Some advice! Do YOU like being punched?

It's a hard feeling to understand (this feeling you get when you leave a place to go on a journey by yourself, not even knowing the people you're going to live with) unless you've done it before. Paris is one of the most well "known" cities in the world. People assume it's easy to live there because it's a western, industrialized, and chic city. Everyone thinks they know something about Paris. You can read books, you can look at pictures, you can talk to people about their trips, and you can romanticize it to the billionth degree, but at the end of the day, no overarching truth can be deduced from secondary resources (despite anything Law and Order may tell you). It is necessary to GO there. True – I am judging Paris the same way I assume they will judge me, right? Right. But honestly, I've been there once, and I came back knowing even less than I did before I went. The place is baffling. And tomorrow I'm moving there.

So now it's time to embrace the adventure.

Hemingway wrote, "I do not know what I thought Paris would be like, but it was not that way. It rained nearly every day." I know that it's a rainy city, seeing as the field of meteorology is mostly accurate and at our service these days. About the first part though... how clever of him. I hope that at the end of my stay I will look back on these pre-departure sentiments, laugh a little, and think, Wow, you were so wrong about that place.

So I'm actually reading Eat Pray Love...

And I realllllly like it! For a bestseller, Elizabeth Gilbert is a great wordsmith. I thoroughly enjoy the amount of thought and research that she puts into her writing and speaking. This one in particular is quite enlightening.