A picture I took just for you F.H.Woods.
26.7.10
24.7.10
Back in Beaune
with a much nicer weather than in January... Maybe a little bit too hot!
We had more time too, so we visited domains located out of town as well.
One of them was the Château de Pommard:
While waiting for the guided tour of the caves, we could look at the buildings. Here is the old kitchen:
Dali sculptures in the yard.
Painted barrels.
And finally the caves:
Barrels are purchased for each cuvée from a few different barrel makers so they can compare the results, the flavors given to the wine after fermentation.
Another stop was in Nuits Saint Georges, one in Vougeot, Chambolle Musigny... more tasting, and more visits of caves. To do again.
We had more time too, so we visited domains located out of town as well.
One of them was the Château de Pommard:
While waiting for the guided tour of the caves, we could look at the buildings. Here is the old kitchen:
Dali sculptures in the yard.
Painted barrels.
And finally the caves:
Barrels are purchased for each cuvée from a few different barrel makers so they can compare the results, the flavors given to the wine after fermentation.
Another stop was in Nuits Saint Georges, one in Vougeot, Chambolle Musigny... more tasting, and more visits of caves. To do again.
5.7.10
Musée du Quai Branly
I visited this museum for the first time about a week ago. It was built 4 years ago and contains objects coming from around the world, mostly primary art pieces. I had never seen anything like this. A few people warned me, saying it was mostly statues with big genital parts and the whole thing a little hard to understand. Yet I really was intrigued by this building. It looks really cool. Plus the pictures advertising the exhibitions were really nice.
So there I go, on a hot saturday. I took an audio guide hoping to learn a little bit about the stuff, and went to see the permanent collection.
I am so happy I did. It was really cool, and not at all what I expected. I forgot half of the things I saw and heard, and did not see everything as the museum got more and more crowded and I felt I had to go. I could take pictures, but without the flash, and some of the items are within glass boxes. In addition, the light in there was really dim so not all the pictures look good. Here are a few.
The first section I looked at was items from Oceania, mostly Melanesia which encompass Papua, New Caledonia if I remember well.
Some of these masks were worn in the "men's house" were ceremonies were held.
This costume represents dead people. The family of the dead are not allowed to see the ones makeing them. They go in the forest and arrange them with branches and stuff they find there.
Then they wear them for the ceremony for the dead. It's quite heavy, so several men take turns to wear them during the whole day. The family can speak one last time with the dead. Then at the end of the day, they are discarded.
Another cool mask:
These are drums carved in wood.
These are also representing the dead, and commonly done with the real person's head. Hmm. The rings you see around the arms are teeth from wild pigs. They are a sign of wealth. So the people are buried with them.
That would be nice for Halloween...
Most of the materials used are would, plant stems, sometimes leather, but also hair, turtle skin or cachalot teeth (not sure of the name: it's some sort of whale).
There were also a little statue from the Easter Island. I couldn't take a good picture of it... This is definitely a place I would love to go to.
So I spent quite some time in the Oceania section. That's when the first herd of kids came in running. I flew to Africa, but didn't have much quiet time there. So I just had a quick look on the collection and will have to go again. I still took a few pictures.
So there I go, on a hot saturday. I took an audio guide hoping to learn a little bit about the stuff, and went to see the permanent collection.
I am so happy I did. It was really cool, and not at all what I expected. I forgot half of the things I saw and heard, and did not see everything as the museum got more and more crowded and I felt I had to go. I could take pictures, but without the flash, and some of the items are within glass boxes. In addition, the light in there was really dim so not all the pictures look good. Here are a few.
The first section I looked at was items from Oceania, mostly Melanesia which encompass Papua, New Caledonia if I remember well.
Some of these masks were worn in the "men's house" were ceremonies were held.
This costume represents dead people. The family of the dead are not allowed to see the ones makeing them. They go in the forest and arrange them with branches and stuff they find there.Then they wear them for the ceremony for the dead. It's quite heavy, so several men take turns to wear them during the whole day. The family can speak one last time with the dead. Then at the end of the day, they are discarded.
Another cool mask:
These are drums carved in wood.
These are also representing the dead, and commonly done with the real person's head. Hmm. The rings you see around the arms are teeth from wild pigs. They are a sign of wealth. So the people are buried with them.
That would be nice for Halloween...
Most of the materials used are would, plant stems, sometimes leather, but also hair, turtle skin or cachalot teeth (not sure of the name: it's some sort of whale).There were also a little statue from the Easter Island. I couldn't take a good picture of it... This is definitely a place I would love to go to.
So I spent quite some time in the Oceania section. That's when the first herd of kids came in running. I flew to Africa, but didn't have much quiet time there. So I just had a quick look on the collection and will have to go again. I still took a few pictures.
20.6.10
19.6.10
This is how we play soccer. How do you?
France won the world cup once, in 1998, when France hosted the competition. It was huge. And also the "coming out" of one of our all time stars Zinedine Zidane. He and a few oldies saved the French team ready to be kicked out before the play-offs 8 years later (he was injured and did not compete during the 2002 world cup that ended up pretty early for France), and took the team to the finals, where his infamous head butt put an end to his international career.
No matter what people say, I think he is one of the best (if not the best) soccer players in the world and a really generous person, a great example for generations of kids.
Since 2006, though, the national team has been struggling. The players, arrogant and selfish, have not been able to produce any results, and the team got eliminated in the early rounds of the Euro 2008. The coach Raymond Domenech decided not to change a losing team. And for the last 2 years, despite criticism and poor results during test games, despite the fact that these players don't get along, he did not make any change. To give you an idea of the atmosphere in the group at the beginning of the South African competition, there were two groups of players hanging out together, the "carribean players" and the "bullies from the suburbs". Plus one guy, the one nobody else likes because, I quote: he is too polite. That already gives you an idea of the level of interactions among the players.
So these guys go to South Africa (after cheating against Ireland if you remember), and stay at one of the most expensive hotels... which triggers criticism from the French Minister of Sports. This is a good start. Then the first game against Uruguay ends with a tie. Here and there, you can start hearing nasty comments about the players unable to develop an organized game and blah blah blah.
Someone has to be blamed. Guess who? Yep, the too polite guy. He was on the first line, wasn't able to score, and it was decided he wouldn't play the second game.
It was probably a good thing for him in the end. The second game was the beginning of the real drowning. First half, no one scores, but one of the "bullies", Nicolas Anelka, does everything wrong on the field. He refuses to cover the zone the coach had told him to, which reduces the opportunities of play for the team, and barely even runs during the game. I mean the guy is paid (a lot) to run after a ball, the ball rolls at about 3 feet from him and he just watches... He just didn't seem to even want to be there. He is not on the field for the second half, but the lack of enthusiasm and desire of the team is obvious when the Mexican goal (excellent Mexican team btw) doesn't even trigger a reaction. Shameful performance of a team supposed to be one of the favorites.
At this point the speakers on the radio have only words like "losers", "lazy", "incompetent" and so on to qualify the team, and I won't even talk about the violent critiscim towards the coach, who stubbornly never wanted to reconsider the team composition. The only chances for France to be qualified for the play-offs at this point are if 1) France wins against South Africa by at least 2 points while Uruguay wins against Mexico; 2) France wins against South Africa by at least 4 points while Mexico wins against Uruguay. South Africa has not played so well so far, but I don't think France can beat any team. Plus if Uruguay and Mexico tie, they're both qualified, so why would they take any chance? So it is very unlikely that France will go on to the next round.
But when you think the show is over, the broken arms club still has something for you: a newspaper published this morning a paper saying that Anelka violently insulted the coach during the half time (Go f*** yourself, s** of a **** - I quote) while the coach was yelling at him for not following the directions. And that would be the reason he didn't play the second half. Great. So now we have the journalists, the government commenting on this last fact. The news all day only talk about how unacceptable this behavior is, and how this guy has no respect for the coach. Consequences: the French Football Federation (FFF) fires Anelka, effective right now. That's right. The guy is taking a plane tonight to London (where his current club is). No more super fancy hotel, and never a national team jersey on for him. Well he will only miss a game after all. I guess he might also loose a few sponsors.
To (temporarily) close the chapter, the team captain, Patrice Evra had a press conference tonight and was asked about what happened during the half time on Thursday. His response: the words of Anelka were not quite these words, and the team problems are certainly not solved by his departure. The problem is, there is a traitor, someone who went out and told the journalists about that, it was in the locker room where only players and staff were, and now the team has to get rid of the traitor.
Okay. At this point, I think the whole thing leaves me speechless. In the polls, 83% of the French hope the French team is going to lose their next game and leave the competition. Is this karma? Is this all because they cheated in the first place? Is it really because the coach was/is blind/stupid/stubborn/incompetent (circle the word you choose)? Is it what French soccer has become (I won't talk about the soccer fans killing each other...)?
I love rugby.
(note: of course I did not take this picture - googled and can't find out the author...)
No matter what people say, I think he is one of the best (if not the best) soccer players in the world and a really generous person, a great example for generations of kids.
Since 2006, though, the national team has been struggling. The players, arrogant and selfish, have not been able to produce any results, and the team got eliminated in the early rounds of the Euro 2008. The coach Raymond Domenech decided not to change a losing team. And for the last 2 years, despite criticism and poor results during test games, despite the fact that these players don't get along, he did not make any change. To give you an idea of the atmosphere in the group at the beginning of the South African competition, there were two groups of players hanging out together, the "carribean players" and the "bullies from the suburbs". Plus one guy, the one nobody else likes because, I quote: he is too polite. That already gives you an idea of the level of interactions among the players.
So these guys go to South Africa (after cheating against Ireland if you remember), and stay at one of the most expensive hotels... which triggers criticism from the French Minister of Sports. This is a good start. Then the first game against Uruguay ends with a tie. Here and there, you can start hearing nasty comments about the players unable to develop an organized game and blah blah blah.
Someone has to be blamed. Guess who? Yep, the too polite guy. He was on the first line, wasn't able to score, and it was decided he wouldn't play the second game.
It was probably a good thing for him in the end. The second game was the beginning of the real drowning. First half, no one scores, but one of the "bullies", Nicolas Anelka, does everything wrong on the field. He refuses to cover the zone the coach had told him to, which reduces the opportunities of play for the team, and barely even runs during the game. I mean the guy is paid (a lot) to run after a ball, the ball rolls at about 3 feet from him and he just watches... He just didn't seem to even want to be there. He is not on the field for the second half, but the lack of enthusiasm and desire of the team is obvious when the Mexican goal (excellent Mexican team btw) doesn't even trigger a reaction. Shameful performance of a team supposed to be one of the favorites.
At this point the speakers on the radio have only words like "losers", "lazy", "incompetent" and so on to qualify the team, and I won't even talk about the violent critiscim towards the coach, who stubbornly never wanted to reconsider the team composition. The only chances for France to be qualified for the play-offs at this point are if 1) France wins against South Africa by at least 2 points while Uruguay wins against Mexico; 2) France wins against South Africa by at least 4 points while Mexico wins against Uruguay. South Africa has not played so well so far, but I don't think France can beat any team. Plus if Uruguay and Mexico tie, they're both qualified, so why would they take any chance? So it is very unlikely that France will go on to the next round.
But when you think the show is over, the broken arms club still has something for you: a newspaper published this morning a paper saying that Anelka violently insulted the coach during the half time (Go f*** yourself, s** of a **** - I quote) while the coach was yelling at him for not following the directions. And that would be the reason he didn't play the second half. Great. So now we have the journalists, the government commenting on this last fact. The news all day only talk about how unacceptable this behavior is, and how this guy has no respect for the coach. Consequences: the French Football Federation (FFF) fires Anelka, effective right now. That's right. The guy is taking a plane tonight to London (where his current club is). No more super fancy hotel, and never a national team jersey on for him. Well he will only miss a game after all. I guess he might also loose a few sponsors.
To (temporarily) close the chapter, the team captain, Patrice Evra had a press conference tonight and was asked about what happened during the half time on Thursday. His response: the words of Anelka were not quite these words, and the team problems are certainly not solved by his departure. The problem is, there is a traitor, someone who went out and told the journalists about that, it was in the locker room where only players and staff were, and now the team has to get rid of the traitor.
Okay. At this point, I think the whole thing leaves me speechless. In the polls, 83% of the French hope the French team is going to lose their next game and leave the competition. Is this karma? Is this all because they cheated in the first place? Is it really because the coach was/is blind/stupid/stubborn/incompetent (circle the word you choose)? Is it what French soccer has become (I won't talk about the soccer fans killing each other...)?
I love rugby.
(note: of course I did not take this picture - googled and can't find out the author...)
10.6.10
Going to La Rochelle
The little sister had a dance exhibition last weekend. The occasion for me to go visit the small town our dad introduced us to, enjoy not-so-warm ocean air and be amazed by the future ballet star in action.During the little one's rehearsal, I walked around the harbor and saw this cool sculpture:
A little wierd, but I like it...
The show went really well. The dance school had all the students dancing several times, ballet and modern dance as well. It was all really impressive, but pictures were not possible in the theater. Once the show was over, the girls were all excited and chatting about how this one did this when she should have done that and blah blah blah. So I decided to sneak out and walk back home to prepare a little treat/dessert for when they'd be back.
Hmm. Well it turns out I couldn't really walk home as there were all these folks on the way:
what is that?
A carnival. A week before, there was a big fair in town, and a big parade was planned. These people work all year on their "vehicles". But the weather was really too bad and the rain pouring, so the fair happened but the parade was postponed. The nice thing is it seemed no one except for the guys doing it knew it was going to be today...It took me quite a while to cross that street... and I brought a lot of confettis home. But I made it before the 3 crazy teenage girls who made me feel old and tired when at 1am they still didn't want to go to bed. What happened to me? Is it from hanging out with too many old people?
Come on, I'm kidding!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
