Finished Paris Weekend: Cinématheque Française (who knew Dr. Fu-Manchu would go on to become Count Dooku?), Museé national d’art moderne (a cogent history of modern art – sans surrealists for the most part for some reason – that is physically and mentally tiring), and walking around during Bastille Day (apparently it takes a while for the serious parades to get started).
How do real Parisians manage? Tourists attack the town like locusts, there’s excessive inflation (not Phil Graham-like “mental inflation”), and traffic is poor. It gets worse in a couple of weeks when bicyclists flood the city. On the plus side, there is a nice subway system that moves swiftly despite the fact that Paris hasn’t understood how to schedule express trains and share tunnels. Everyone must take a photo of everything, such that their camera becomes their best friend and biggest memory of their trip. Fortunately I am no longer part of that plague for the time being.
The line for Notre-Dame was over an hour and I wasn’t feeling like it at the time so I strolled about instead. It’s a pleasant place to relax.
How does one stay cool? I found out that Beck is releasing a new album in the T.G.V. complimentary magazine. I found out about Oasis’s new release in a similar fashion. In the 1990s, they were my absolute favourite artist and group and now I know nothing about what they are doing. Rumours that Beck hanged himself on a guitar string were untrue; he simply disappeared for three years.
So frustrated with pop music, I have been listening to Nevermind and The Bends far too often. I don’t want to turn on the radio because it’s often drivel. Listening to Nickelback thrice every hour is too much to take. How does one with a job and other interests keep up to date and find new good music these days?