The Art Freaks

This exhibition has been on since July- and on my 'to see' list from around the same time.
Olaf Breuning has re-worked renowned artists' works in installations that hang from the ceiling of Palais de Tokyo museum.
Do not go with any pre-conceived notions of garnering some socio-political insight - go just to see, and maybe enjoy in the process. He is an artist who eschews the pretension that sometimes inhabits the art world. He simply makes art for the visual pleasure- and stresses that endlessly in this interview.

It was interesting, in a good way and also just plain bizarre - as art can be. Was I moved? More intrigued, if perhaps to read up more on what makes this artist tick.

'Neither Black Nor White' Art Exhibition

If you're in Accra next week from Wed 30th Nov - Sat 3rd Dec, Studio Kurtycz has an exhibition on titled "Neither Black Nor White", with works by Anna Kurtycz, Isaac Konney, Kelvin Haizel, Nii Obodai and Rudek van der Helm.

A print-making demonstration will be help on Saturday at 5pm.
Sad to be missing this - do go and enjoy.

A Wonder? Of course it is!

Do we really need the New7Wonders organisation to tell us how wonderful our mountain is? Not! But it's great that they've noticed.
Two weeks ago  Table Mountain made it onto the list of seven of the provisional results to the New Seven Wonders of Nature list; not a mean feat to be selected from  a draw of 440 locations, 220 countries and 28 candidates. This came right off the back of a french class in which one of my classmates was speaking with pride about the wonders of her country; Venezuela. I never actually ever do that, unless asked - and I do find it interesting that she can wax lyrical unprovoked just like that. This was also in the same week I met some South Africans who were not particularly proudly South African. That I can never understand, but that's for another post entirely. All this was in the week in which a few not-so-friendly-French-encounters led to a not-very-happy-South African-expat. I was feeling extremely homesick ; then the seventh Wonder announcement and a morning spent poring over South African websites - cyber therapy if you will. Felt better after, and now calling all positive South Africans (and non-South Africans) to share something positive about South Africa today, on blogs, email, whatever. Let's spread the wonder!

Maori at Musée du Quai Branly

If you have seen the All Blacks performing the haka before a game, you will understand my fascination with the Maori culture. I must confess, I am not a rugby fan - my enthusiasm for the sport only ever emerges if the Boks are playing in some international final- and even then it's the camaraderie around the matches that enthuses, not the actual game itself. I am discovering that it is a definite followed sport in France though. That aside, I will go through all the pre-game rituals; drinks? check! snacks? check! remote? check - just to see the haka in any game, Boks playing or not. 
Then came the movie Whale Rider and and that just fed my interest further. Today I made it a point to get to Musée du Quai Branly early to take in the current Maori exhibition. I was not disappointed.

Brand watching

The strange phenomenon that is branding. Walked past Louis Vuitton on the Champs Elysees on saturday and the masses had gathered, yet again to see, buy, touch the apparel, handbags that are LV. Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall - it is alway the same. A perfectly executed and managed brand LV, screams of luxury and conspicuous consumption, suggestive of celebrity and exclusivity. Or is it?

Gastronomy: Le Sud, Paris

My children were mopping up the remains off their plates and declaring it the best food ever. Hunger will do that to you...it had been a long day and we'd gone to Le Sud for a light-ish meal. Ended up being a delicious lamb stew, with pasta and rich gravy. A taste of Provence, which was just what we needed that day. I was particularly impressed with the restaurant's lack of a kiddies menu. I have written before about the fact that I am not a fan of greasy, fried chicken, meat, mystery meat in any form served up as food for children. Le Sud has half portions from the main menu as the children's menu and they loved it!

Marché de Noël on Ave. de Champs Elysées

We started out early - well, past midday and the weather was beautiful. There were already throngs of people at the marché, simply strolling along, sampling the hot wine - of which there were many stalls, having their snacks on the sidewalk food courts. It had a strangely commercial feel to it though- it is after all the Champs Elysées though-  for authenticity I have been told that there is no other than the Strasbourg Market .

Robbed of Matisse, Cézanne & Picasso

Armed with my ticket from yesterday, I set out early for the Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso: The Steins Collect  at the Grand Palais - only to be rudely told to come back at 13h30. What!? Turns out the jumele ticket I bought restricts one's visits to certain hours only. Now, if only that kind gentleman at the ticket counter had explained this time restriction...best I get that french up to speed sooner than later, to avoid such vital communication being lost in translation. Irony is I missed the exhibit because I had a french class.

'Tis the season

It is grey outside. Gone are the long, balmy evenings; a far memory the Indian summer that drew itself out to the end of October. It is now grey. Even the crowds outside the famed Louis Vuitton store on Avenue Champs Elysées are no more - Ladurée looked stark and empty, I guess nothing was drawing the crowds out into the cold for their delightful macarons. Abercrombie & Fitch; I have yet to fully understand what it is this store sells that draws the crowds so much- but from what I've read and seen, great marketing and branding can take a product a long way. Even this store did not have its usual, winding queues. The models were still there though - decked out in their winter gear, ready to welcome would-be shoppers.

Books: LYRICS ALLEY by Leila Aboulela

Title: Lyrics Alley
Author: Leila Aboulela
Published: 2011
Genre: Fiction

I am going to come across sounding unimaginative I know, but Lyrics Alley is lyrical. A slow-paced introduction to the extended dynastic Abuzeid family leads one to identifying with the characters almost immediately. Slow-paced as the introduction is, the turn of events as the plot gives way is anything but. Lyrics Alley reads both like historical fiction - which it is not, and a dramatic work of fiction you want to sink your teeth into.
The plot centres around Mahmoud Abuzeid, a Sudanese whose life is a mélange of cultures, traditional Sudanese and modern Egyptian. Torn between the two worlds, he remains unavoidably and staunchly tied to his origins and his family in Sudan yet socially ambitious and yearning for acceptance in his new world. It is a story of families, love and heartbreak.