Michael Ondaatje discusses his latest book Divisidero at the Village Voice bookstore in St Germain on Thursday night. I went there today and bought Absurdistan. Hmm. I'll miss it by a day, just like Rock en Seine. Hmm.
Other than that, I window shopped on Rue St Honore, unashamedly singing out loud to my mp3 player. Steve Malkmus and Franz Ferdinand: 'It's always better on holiday, that's why we only work when we need the money.' I went into the Campers bouteque. It's somewhere next to a 4000 euro watch shop (there's only about 26 on that street) I've been wearing mine everyday for three months and they're starting to look it. They were playing Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Cool. If I decide on a career change, a checkout chick in this store woud be a serious contender right now.
Monday, September 3, 2007
week bouldering
i'm back in paris for a few days before i fly to barcelona.
i spent a week camping near milly a foret, 90 km south east of paris and bouldering in fontainbleau forest, where there are circuits of climbs that you can do, following maps and painted signs around, like a gym session/orienteering course. people started climbing there 120 yrs ago to train for the alps but as bouldering became a sport in its own right, bleau became a mecca for intn'l climbers. great fun.
here's a link to my favourite climb: http://bleau.info/95.2/3699.html. the one that got away. i so had it!! but i was borrowing someone's crashmat and after i fell off the last move about six times in a row, they were getting kinda tetchy and wanted to go play somewhere else.
if you climb (and care) note the last move is a right hand sloper. i grabbed that the first time, but the british lads i was climbing with gave me bad beta(!) and told me to cross hands and reach for the crimper on the left instead. i didn't tick it and i'll blame them.
i've been in contact with ziggy, and we'll be in barcelona at the same time. we've organised to go to the salvidor dali museum together. it'll be a trip seeing him out of context. everytime i've seen him has either been with an anglegrinder in his hand in red hill or a glass of plonk in a gallery in new farm!
i put a few more pics up, but i didn't really take too many in fontainebleau. reason being, while i think rocks are sexy, they aren't really that photogenic, so just go to bleau.info and superimpose my face (john malkovic stlye) on the climbers you see there.
apart from the climbing, i met some cool peeps at the campsite, including some spaniards who live in Igualada, near Barcelona and Montserrat. They're gonna take me to a private climbing gym (you can only go by invitation. remember steve in 90210 trying to go to a rave: 'can i buy an egg?') and introduce me to some firemen who's work schedule means they've got the time to take me climbing at montserrat. gotta love loca knowedge. i want to climb this: http://www.bergefelsundeis.de/Spanien/Parets.html
Cavall Bernat.
We'll see.
Me and the Spaniards got into a fight with the local white trash who live in the trailer park. This pykie guy (track suit, gold hoop earing, 500ml can of Amsterdam moonshine in hand) stumbles over, gesticulating and shouting and insisting we follow him. I was scared of getting my head bashed in so Carles, Sira and I follow him to his van where we meet his good wife. at first i thought she had the biggest cameltoe i'd ever seen and then i realised it was her stomach.
anyway, we were accused of stealing some plastic outdoor furniture. they'd stolen the spaniards' tevas in retaliation. putting my south korean hostage negotiation skills to good use (ie, wiping the smirk off my face long enough to make sure it wasn't caved in), i stood by along with all the neighbours, while Sira (who was the only one of us who's french was good enough to understand slurred dialect) rescued her sandles.
i spent a week camping near milly a foret, 90 km south east of paris and bouldering in fontainbleau forest, where there are circuits of climbs that you can do, following maps and painted signs around, like a gym session/orienteering course. people started climbing there 120 yrs ago to train for the alps but as bouldering became a sport in its own right, bleau became a mecca for intn'l climbers. great fun.
here's a link to my favourite climb: http://bleau.info/95.2/3699.html. the one that got away. i so had it!! but i was borrowing someone's crashmat and after i fell off the last move about six times in a row, they were getting kinda tetchy and wanted to go play somewhere else.
if you climb (and care) note the last move is a right hand sloper. i grabbed that the first time, but the british lads i was climbing with gave me bad beta(!) and told me to cross hands and reach for the crimper on the left instead. i didn't tick it and i'll blame them.
i've been in contact with ziggy, and we'll be in barcelona at the same time. we've organised to go to the salvidor dali museum together. it'll be a trip seeing him out of context. everytime i've seen him has either been with an anglegrinder in his hand in red hill or a glass of plonk in a gallery in new farm!
i put a few more pics up, but i didn't really take too many in fontainebleau. reason being, while i think rocks are sexy, they aren't really that photogenic, so just go to bleau.info and superimpose my face (john malkovic stlye) on the climbers you see there.
apart from the climbing, i met some cool peeps at the campsite, including some spaniards who live in Igualada, near Barcelona and Montserrat. They're gonna take me to a private climbing gym (you can only go by invitation. remember steve in 90210 trying to go to a rave: 'can i buy an egg?') and introduce me to some firemen who's work schedule means they've got the time to take me climbing at montserrat. gotta love loca knowedge. i want to climb this: http://www.bergefelsundeis.de/Spanien/Parets.html
Cavall Bernat.
We'll see.
Me and the Spaniards got into a fight with the local white trash who live in the trailer park. This pykie guy (track suit, gold hoop earing, 500ml can of Amsterdam moonshine in hand) stumbles over, gesticulating and shouting and insisting we follow him. I was scared of getting my head bashed in so Carles, Sira and I follow him to his van where we meet his good wife. at first i thought she had the biggest cameltoe i'd ever seen and then i realised it was her stomach.
anyway, we were accused of stealing some plastic outdoor furniture. they'd stolen the spaniards' tevas in retaliation. putting my south korean hostage negotiation skills to good use (ie, wiping the smirk off my face long enough to make sure it wasn't caved in), i stood by along with all the neighbours, while Sira (who was the only one of us who's french was good enough to understand slurred dialect) rescued her sandles.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Fontainebleua
Well, had a nice day yesterday after all that. I went to Bastille and St Germain but all the galleries are shut during August for the annual hoidays. I was gonna go to Rock en Seine for the last day but the line up was crap except for Bjork.
Train to Fontainebleau today. The Germans don't get in til Thursday night, so it'll be fun exporing by mysef for a few days.
Booked the Dream Hostel in Barcelona for my first few nights on Cam's recommendation.
Train to Fontainebleau today. The Germans don't get in til Thursday night, so it'll be fun exporing by mysef for a few days.
Booked the Dream Hostel in Barcelona for my first few nights on Cam's recommendation.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Shitty Day
Man!
I left Bad Bergzabern for Paris today on the train; Had to transfer at Widden. As I was loading my bike on the train, on of my bags ...the one zith my passport etc in it? fell off onto the platform and then the doors shut before I could get it. I pulled the emergency brake!!! cool! but nothing hqppened. I had a one and a half hour return trip back to the same station. Luckily some maintenance workers were looking after the bag and I got on the next train to start over. But this one was a local and stopped at every stop instead of just straight to bumsville whereever the fuck it was I had to be. Long story short I got to Paris hours later than I wanted, lived thru hell thinking I;d lost my passport and 400bucks worth of gear, got in a fight zith the french conductoron the tgv cos of my hopelessly invalid tickets; mqnqged to slate a lot of it home to die bahn the german train ppl. and got my fine reduced from 45 to 20 euro after a heated trilingual fight in front of a bunch of commuters all thinking when is this arrgant tourist fucker gonna shut the fuck up and pay soMe money.
so i got to paris and the key is not where lolita said it would be so im buying 500ml heinekins from the corner store and sitting in the grimiest internet cafe in paris. sunset over sacre cour looked nice on the way here even if the keyboard is black and sticky.
tool finishes rocking the seine qbout midnight so ill go knock on lols door again about 1am.
I left Bad Bergzabern for Paris today on the train; Had to transfer at Widden. As I was loading my bike on the train, on of my bags ...the one zith my passport etc in it? fell off onto the platform and then the doors shut before I could get it. I pulled the emergency brake!!! cool! but nothing hqppened. I had a one and a half hour return trip back to the same station. Luckily some maintenance workers were looking after the bag and I got on the next train to start over. But this one was a local and stopped at every stop instead of just straight to bumsville whereever the fuck it was I had to be. Long story short I got to Paris hours later than I wanted, lived thru hell thinking I;d lost my passport and 400bucks worth of gear, got in a fight zith the french conductoron the tgv cos of my hopelessly invalid tickets; mqnqged to slate a lot of it home to die bahn the german train ppl. and got my fine reduced from 45 to 20 euro after a heated trilingual fight in front of a bunch of commuters all thinking when is this arrgant tourist fucker gonna shut the fuck up and pay soMe money.
so i got to paris and the key is not where lolita said it would be so im buying 500ml heinekins from the corner store and sitting in the grimiest internet cafe in paris. sunset over sacre cour looked nice on the way here even if the keyboard is black and sticky.
tool finishes rocking the seine qbout midnight so ill go knock on lols door again about 1am.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Rock en Seine
Man, the line up tomorrow rocks! I'm gonna miss it by A DAY!!! Why!!!!
http://www.rockenseine.com/index_va.php#programmation
http://www.rockenseine.com/index_va.php#programmation
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Castles Forest and Rocks
...usually all three at once. I climbed a cliff yesterday where you handjam to a cave which you crawl into, and it becomes a chimney. Then you walk up about 10 steps that have been there for 800 years and which used to be the only access to the castle that sat on top of that particular outcrop. Then you layback a corner to the top. I've never done a climb like that before! There was another one on that cliff where you have to climb through a medieval window then up another staircase. Cool!
Apart from climbing, I took Rudi's topos and did some mountainbiking - some single tracks and trails. Stopped and did some bouldering too.
Visited to castles. Saw some torture devices, catapults (which used to hurl 100 and 200kg cannonballs 200 metres, as well as diseased rotting animal carcasses and human cadavers), went down into the dungeon. Heard about the inevitable ghost of the 'white woman' who committed suicide by jumping off the top for some reason.
I'm here till the weekend then making tracks for Fontainebleau! Can't wait. I've also booked Ryanair tickets to Barcelona and back to Paris travelling 05.09 and 20.09. Climbing at Montserrat just north of Barcelona and up to the north coast - Bilbao and San Sebastian. That reminds me, Ziggy Libucha is gonna be in Spain about that time...
Apart from climbing, I took Rudi's topos and did some mountainbiking - some single tracks and trails. Stopped and did some bouldering too.
Visited to castles. Saw some torture devices, catapults (which used to hurl 100 and 200kg cannonballs 200 metres, as well as diseased rotting animal carcasses and human cadavers), went down into the dungeon. Heard about the inevitable ghost of the 'white woman' who committed suicide by jumping off the top for some reason.
I'm here till the weekend then making tracks for Fontainebleau! Can't wait. I've also booked Ryanair tickets to Barcelona and back to Paris travelling 05.09 and 20.09. Climbing at Montserrat just north of Barcelona and up to the north coast - Bilbao and San Sebastian. That reminds me, Ziggy Libucha is gonna be in Spain about that time...
Monday, August 20, 2007
pfalz
wow, whistlestop tour of hamburg where i went to the rappabahn and a 30th birthday party where the theme was "who wants to be a millionaire". i didn't understand a thing, but there was impressive sound effects, a powerpoint presentation for the questions, a german equivalent to eddie (the b'day boy's best friend) and copious booze and trashy german pop.
five days cycling. i thought i'd need a map but i just followed the rhine south. if i got lost i just headed east til i hit water and then turned right and kept going. at one stage, 1.30am friday night, i was riding down a donkey track, lit by my headtorch, with cornfields on one side and cars whizzing past on the autobahn at 160km-h about 10m on the left. no map. i took a detour, which was then closed and ended up totally lost! i got acosted by two security guards that night. one looking after a chuch and the other looking after a waste water plant.
the rhine is a mix of beautiful country, winelands, castles, beautiful 2000 yr old towns, crappy industrial sites, lots of cyclists (mean age - 62...which at least made me one of the fastest most hardcore of this elite group of athletes).
now i'm in bad bergzabern, climbing in the pfalz with rudi and wolfi.
dreams and asperations: leading "gross verschneidung" clean; getting my hands on an east german army tracksuit at a suplus store - think brown gotcha/adidas with the german flag colors running up the seams on the arms and legs. awesome.
five days cycling. i thought i'd need a map but i just followed the rhine south. if i got lost i just headed east til i hit water and then turned right and kept going. at one stage, 1.30am friday night, i was riding down a donkey track, lit by my headtorch, with cornfields on one side and cars whizzing past on the autobahn at 160km-h about 10m on the left. no map. i took a detour, which was then closed and ended up totally lost! i got acosted by two security guards that night. one looking after a chuch and the other looking after a waste water plant.
the rhine is a mix of beautiful country, winelands, castles, beautiful 2000 yr old towns, crappy industrial sites, lots of cyclists (mean age - 62...which at least made me one of the fastest most hardcore of this elite group of athletes).
now i'm in bad bergzabern, climbing in the pfalz with rudi and wolfi.
dreams and asperations: leading "gross verschneidung" clean; getting my hands on an east german army tracksuit at a suplus store - think brown gotcha/adidas with the german flag colors running up the seams on the arms and legs. awesome.
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