The Haircut

Today I decided to get my haircut. I'd already scoped out the shop in the Bastille where I decided to go. The people there seemed really nice. They don't speak English -- really, most people here don't unless they work in the tourist industry -- so I decided to make a little photo display of what I want in a haircut and what I don't want, based on photos from my laptop. So I put together a quick little iMovie of what I wanted with this haircut -- with French titling -- put it on my video iPod, and off I went to get my hair cut.

I gave instructions in French as best as I could. The movie with photos was just for a backup, to prevent misunderstandings. How many people do you know make a movie and put it on their iPod to show their hairdresser? Anyway, the haircut was amazing. She did everything I asked her to do...and she worked on my hair like it was a work of art, then styled it afterwards with products. It's really short, but I'm in a very-short-hair phase. It was amazing, and the whole experience cost me only 30 euros....less than what it costs at home.

It rained like cats and dogs today. I went shopping for books at Gibert Jeune -- getting soaked head to toe in the process -- and then stopped by the supermarket. I just love the yogurt sections in the French supermarkets. It's not just a section...it's normally a whole aisle: every possible flavor and texture, for breakfast, for dessert, for whatever. For people like me who eat yogurt every day for breakfast, this is heaven.

Tonight I'm meeting a musician whose group I've included in a podcast last year. I'm hoping that my little recording device on my iPod will enable me to get an interview from him that I can use in a special edition broadcast. Wish me luck!

Diary of a Gadget Freak

Today I decided to go back to Marche d'Aligres....I wanted to buy some really fresh tomatoes to make a pasta sauce....but this was only an excuse. I really wanted to try out the Belkin plug-in recording device on my iPod. Why? I wanted to record the sound of the vegetable merchants, hawking their wares. Would it work?

I plugged the device into the port at the bottom of my video iPod. The first thing I noticed was that it pulled out of the slot all too easily...it didn't snap into place. I had to be careful. I didn't read the instructions because I edit technical instructions for a living and I cannot stand to read them in my spare time. So off I went.

The key, for me, is to be surreptitious. This is true for recording audio in a crowd as well as it is for taking photos. I simply don't want to be obvious...I want the device to be small, and I don't want to stand around and fumble with it. I want to casually flick it on and either record pictures or sound without anyone noticing.

So I flicked on the recorder and held it in place on my iPod in one hand while I walked up and down the vegetable stalls at the market. The results: not bad.

Hear a sample here . I had more difficulties later in the day, when I hopped onto the metro with the iPod in my pocket. I recorded the metro as it pulled into the station, but the device got disconnected in my pocket and I lost the rest, including the woman who got on the metro and began a dramatic pitch for money. (For some reason, the beggars in the metro must be out-of-work actors, they're so dramatic! Always a speech.)

I also decided to go shopping today at Galleries Lafayette. The double-whammy of my current age and body weight was guaranteed to make me feel like a troll there, but it didn't stop me from shopping, conversing with helpful, friendly saleswomen in French, and ultimately, buying things.

Then I went to my favorite pharmacy, located in the Bastille: I'm fascinated by this place because it's both high-end healthcare products AND herbal remedies ..with a medical face on them. It's a wonderful place to buy lavender oil or many other oils and herbs....and it's practically across the street from Place des Vosges. Check out their window displays.

Tonight I came home and made pasta sauce with the amazingly great tomatoes that I bought at the market this morning. Also seen in the photo: the gluten-free Italian pasta that I bought at Naturalia. It was perfect, by the way...apparently the highest instances of gluten intolerance are in Italy...and even the ordinary supermarket products here alert you as to whether or not there's wheat in them. So while you probably associate France with baguettes and pastries, the first thing you see when you walk into a health food store is a giant section full of gluten-free food, and it's really good.

Finally, a note about bad user interfaces. I've been totally baffled, year after year, by the invention of the senseless 2-centime piece in Europe. Isn't it enough to have a 1-centime piece and a 5-centime piece to contend with? But no....as you'll see in the photo, there are three nearly identical coins with a fraction of a difference in value, which one must carry around and deal with when you pay for things at the cashier. And they WILL ask you for exact change, so good luck fishing through your pockets for 1, 2, and 5 centimes. Here are the coins....can you tell the difference between the 1 centime piece and the 2 centime? Me neither!

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Despite the dreary weather today, I had something to look forward to: buying a carte orange ticket for the week. There's nothing more liberating than knowing that I can hop onto a metro at any time with my pass.

And I did hop on: first to Republique, where I disembarked and walked along Canal St. Martin. Unfortunately, some of my favorite shops and cafes were closed for the August holidays, but luckily, Artazart....a really cool design bookstore...was open.

After perusing the books in Artazart, I crossed the canal on a quai not far from Hotel du Nord, and saw some very unsavory characters harrassing pedestrians as well as people in cars. It looks like they're some of the few survivors of last winter's tent encampment of "sans domiciles," and particularly unpleasant, aggressive ones at that. I love that area and I felt sorry for the local residents -- the ones who don't live in tents -- when I saw what was happening there.

I had a craving for Vietnamese food, so I walked up to Belleville for lunch....an amazing and mystifiying quartier for me, where Asians, Jews, Arabs, and artists seem to live in apparent harmony.

Then I headed to a shopping area in search of a warm coat, because the weather is in the 50s here and I wasn't prepared for it. I didn't find what I was looking for....there's a new coat style here that's vaguely remiscent of 1962 (think Parker Posey in "The House of Yes"), but got distracted by the incredibly gorgeous bathroom displays.

In Europe, it's completely normal to have beautiful bathroom fixtures (or any kind of home design), whereas the USA still seems to be in the grip of hideous, bulky, neocolonial furniture design. It's no wonder IKEA became so popular in the USA...but IKEA is only one of many European shops. There are many more inexpensive options that look as stylish, or better. I'm including a couple of photos of affordable, good-looking bathroom fixtures that are normal here, but called "European Design" in the USA (which is synonymous for "not ugly").

I don't understand what the deal is with American furniture design....why purposely design something that's ugly and then waste materials and labor on it?

And finally....I'm including a photo of the really cool bike-rental system that just started this year in Paris. Last year they were ripping up the streets and sidewalks to build useful and safe bike lanes...this year, there's a bike-rental system where you can rent a bike for about a euro an hour and return your rented bike to a kiosk in nearly any neighborhood. The bikes look really cool, they're brand new, they have bright headlights, and you see people riding them everywhere....hello, American entrepreneurs...take note...

another pleasant valley sunday

I overslept today. Really overslept: till 11:30. But I still had time to get to Marche d'Aligres before it closed. So I ran down there to mingle with the crowd. I snuck a quick photo with my iPhone, which presumably is safely in Airplane Mode to protect me from outrageous roaming and data charges.

Paris is peaceful right now. A lot of Parisiens are on holiday. The people on the streets appear to be from out of town, but the crowds are smaller. After I went to the market, I cruised down rue de la Roquette...again, the most peaceful I have ever seen it to be...and to the used bookseller whom I know is open on Sundays. Inside his shop, he has stacks and stacks of bandes dessinées, for those who have the patience to wade through them. I have a thing for historical bandes dessinées, or those with social importance. So I look for these graphic stories amongst the stacks of action/adventure, sci-fi, etc. I found one today for 4 euros about a post World War II political figure in Europe.

Later, I walked to the Bastille and then through le Marais. I walked to the street that I hope to live on someday (but I'll settle for one of the streets near it)....and took a couple of photos. Then I came home and made myself a relatively healthy dinner, supplemented with wine.

speaking in other tongues

I'm back in Paris, jetlagged. My French is still awful, but I do pretty well with giving cabbies directions to "my" apartment. Luckily for me, French is usually a second language for them, too.

After a lunch of roquette and fromage de buffala with my friend Geneviève, I headed for Monoprix and other shops to stock up on the stuff I need in the apartment and that I miss when I'm not here, because it's either not available in the USA, or not the same, or so outrageously expensive that I can't justify buying it...like the raw sheep's milk cheese and the pimentes stuffed with goat cheese...and the coconut yogurt.

Then had to pop on the metro and off to the BHV to look at the fall clothes, while I was still ambulatory. I didn't last long...I'm too tired.

It's good to be back.

urban mobility, part deux

I've just read a local news article about how there's a ballot initiative in San Francisco for this November's election: one that will make voters choose between funding our public transit systems -- which are in dire need, with 700,000 passengers per day -- and funding more parking for cars, a measure backed by the Chamber of Commerce and initiated by the guy who founded The Gap, which presumably would sell more jeans and t-shirts if people had more places to park their SUVs.

Read about the initiative here .

Apparently, these are dueling ballot measures, and they're either/or bills... we'll either get funding for public transit, or we'll invest in cars and parking lots. This is why I cannot stand the ballot-initiative system in California. Ballot initiatives are like malware. You click on the wrong thing, and you destroy something that's important.

Apparently the president of the SF Board of Supervisors was quoted as saying, "This is about San Francisco's destiny. Voters will have to ask themselves, 'Do you want San Francisco to be more like Paris or Los Angeles?'"

That's a no-brainer for me. You know how I'm going to vote.

urban mobility

I have a car. But I live much of my life without using it. In fact, I only drive it to haul things or to go someplace that's impossible or unwise to reach with public transportation.

I don't think this is so strange -- I live in a city, and I grew up in New York. It seems completely normal to live my life, for the most part, without a car.

However, I live in the USA, and this is considered bizarre. Granted, there are many places where you absolutely MUST have a car and without one, you'd perish. But I don't want to live in those places. I can't stand driving in dense traffic, or looking endlessly for parking spaces that aren't in tow-away zones, or trying to get out of a parking lot without being hit by a bigger car. In general, I often feel like I'm in a horrible video game when I drive. It's not fun.

I won't get into a rant here about using non-renewable resources. I don't have to...you already know.

What I don't understand is the increasing number of people moving into my city with huge cars -- people who live next to a transit hub, but drive everywhere anyway. People who would rather drive four blocks than walk. People who drive to urban events with tens of thousands of other people, with no hope of parking.

I think that maybe it's because cars are basically mobile homes --once inside the car, people feel at "home" -- no matter where the car might take them. So much at home, in fact, that they often have no place to seat their passengers because of the toys, clothes, baby carriers, food, and entertainment items strewn everywhere. They feel "safe" in their car-home in unsafe times.

I'm of the belief system that the more people you have walking on the street, the safer the streets are to walk on. (With the exception of a few horrible mob scenes, that is.) So how do you get people out of their mobile homes and onto the sidewalks again?