Cold Summer in Paris

I've just checked the temperature online tonight. It's 46 degrees. No wonder why I'm so cold! Paris is rainy and dreary and also rainy. Yesterday I got so soaked that it felt like my clothes were loaded with concrete. And I didn't bring enough warm clothes. I was expecting to be roasting.....not like this!

On Tuesday night, I met with Pierre Baillot of the Maïdo Project at a café in the Bastille. We did an interview using my iPod with the little Belkin recording gadget attached to it. And I think that part of the audio came out better than the voiceover I did at the apartment later. I don't have my usual recording equipment with me, so using my USB headset (for Skype) really sounds shrill.

Anyway, it was great to meet Pierre. A former jazz musician turned electronica/world fusion musician, he's the driving force behind the Maîdo Project. His tracks have been played at Hotel Costes and at Buddha Bar, but not made it onto any of their compilation albums yet. He gets airplay on some French radio stations and ...it looks like soon...perhaps KCRW in Los Angeles. But like so many great talents these days, you only get to hear this great music if you comb the internet.

I put together a special podcast/interview on my laptop, and now I'm struggling with the tools that I have with me to get the files online. I completely forgot to take a copy of my iTunes XML file with me and the code in it is complicated (and I don't want to overwrite the one that's online right now), and I also don't have a copy of my FTP software with all my shortcuts and site passwords saved in it.

Trying to make the audio in this podcast sound good when I used a headset for my voiceover that's actually meant for phone calls, and an iPod with a tiny microphone attached to it...that's a challenge. I've tried to massage the tracks in GarageBand right now. But I did put something together and I hope you can at least hear the MP3 version before I get home. Then I can maybe get the iTunes version (with images and links in it) online.

I really appreciate how gracious Pierre was and I'm so happy that I could do this special podcast, even if I'm a bit hamstrung by my lack of equipment. I'm pretty amazed that I have what I do, actually. And that's what the portable recording studio on a laptop is all about...I was just a bit disorganized.

What else did I do today? Not that much. I decided to eat a late lunch at Cafe des Anges on rue de la Roquette...I really like that place because they serve basic food all day, they're friendly -- like most Parisiens -- the people who work there act as invested in serving the customers as the proprietor would -- the salads are generous, and they always give me a full container of Amora mustard to go with it. And basically I use the salad as a delivery system for the mustard.

I think Amora mustard -- this basic supermarket staple -- is the best mustard in the world. It probably costs just a Euro for a good-sized container of it. But it's got this kick to it that's kind of like when you eat too much wasabi in a sushi restaurant. It really rocks! I wish someone would start importing this amazingly great mustard into the USA....forget Maille and all the others.

Then I went to my favorite epicerie in the 3eme, and sadly, like many other places that I like in Paris, it's closed in August until the 27th. I'm going to have a very busy last day here before I leave for Switzerland. What was I thinking? I won't be returning here in August again unless I live here someday.