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 La Rochelle, one night when I remembered my camera Well, here it is: the final night. I’ve been in La Rochelle, France for about three-and-a-half months, and it will definitely go down in my big book of Life as “an experience“. I’m starting to gather my thoughts together. I suspect that the next weeks will be filled with many such posts, as I think over things and re-read my journal and go over my many photos (5800 so far!). But right now, I’m thinking of today — or more, really, of tonight. I’ve done my laundry today. In packing to come to France, I had to pack only what I needed. It was confirmed that there was a laundry room in the building, so that meant I could carry less, and worry less about having to truck laundry around a new city. Then it came down to the question: what do I pack? Far beyond the simple question of the ideal blank forms of things I’m going to need (so many each of shirts, underwear, socks, pants), the question really revolves around a much deeper point: who am I going to appear to be? Perhaps it is inevitable that I feel some nostalgia now, with less than a week left in this town that has been my home for three and a half months. It’s not all been good — often quite stressful and frustrating, actually — but I’m trying to take what gems I can from it all, see what of myself I have learned or how I might have changed, see what of the world I have learned or experienced. And yet, it was while going down to get my laundry out of the dryer that I had this more interesting thought: what does my laundry say about me?  A tunnel between dreams, or a black hole? No Album Walk today, as I went to the movies instead, and only podcasts were listened to. Yes, I’ve finally had a chance to see Inception. I liked it. Whether or not you liked the film, or even if you have seen it, you must agree: people are talking about it. I hate spoilers. I like to experience things for myself, thank-you-very-much, like the story to play out on its own. I like the unfolding of a mystery, the game of questioning reality that happens in most suspenseful movies. That’s a big reason why I went to see it as soon as I found out an English-language version was playing in my area. More detailed, spoiler-free discussion below the jump.  "Brain Salad Surgery" by Emerson, Lake & Palmer I had to get out and get some groceries, refill a few of the staples I’ll need in the last 4 weeks here, so I threw in another album. The grocery store is about a 1/2 hour away, and with the time I spent in the store, I nearly finished the album twice. Oh, which album? Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Brain Salad Surgery. (I’m cheating a bit; I’ve had this album for a while, and I’m pretty sure that I’ve listened to it before, maybe even in one sitting. But my collection here says its unheard, and its never received the kind of focus these album walks are giving to it.) So, what’s this album like? In a word: Another word: intense. And another word: epic. But here are some more words.. Continue reading Album Walk: Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s “Brain Salad Surgery”  "Blush Music" by Woven Hand I’ll admit: I’m not a music writer. I don’t have the right vocabulary for it yet — but practice supposedly makes perfect, and if there is anything to come out of this notion of re-integrating my life and sharing thoughts and reflection, it will be at least to generate lots of practice. I like to try out all kinds of music. I often treat eMusic like Wikipedia, moving from one loose connection to another, ending up miles from where I started. I don’t know how I stumbled upon Woven Hand’s Blush Music, but I’ve very glad I did.  Man's Mechanics Exposed How does life become complicated? Why does it happen? How do we fix it? These questions occur to me once and a while. I’m not always lucid enough to remember just how complex life is — or perhaps I’m blithely unaware of it. In either case, I think I prefer those times when it does occur to me, because it also highlights my own problematic patterns. And when a problematic pattern is highlighted, you can address it. Its visibility is its weakness, as you can change or slay that which you see. In this case, there are a couple of patterns that come to mind. First, I have a great desire to learn things. Not quite everything, but certainly a substantial list of things. I’m constantly frustrated by my lack of knowledge of history, or the limits to my scientific understanding. Lumped in with this is the desire to explore those great works of fiction and philosophy that inform our society. Not knowing those means a break in the universe, a separation between the foundations of how the world is and the understanding of how it came to be.
No, nothing has come of my emails (aside from practicing my French, and using Google translate as a crutch I’m not counting all the blocked sites — a guy’s gotta some privacy! (Actually, I just realized that this reduced list is just the one’s I’m making a case with, so I’ve added a few more sites that are not crucial but are blocked as well. Heck, while creating this page, I found about a dozen more…) Keep in mind that the only policy that was ever specified to me was a block for bandwidth concerns. Before I give the list, let’s play a game, shall we? In the comments, drop me a link to your local-ish newspaper that’s online, and one of your favourite, regularly-viewed sites (relatively clean! no porn!) — if it isn’t already blocked. I’m curious how much more of the world I’m missing.. Again: a word of caution: this isn’t about France, this is about ARPAE. One company holds all the blame here. Here’s my list, organized a bit by site type: Continue reading Dispatches from Behind the E-Curtain: Where I Can’t Go
The album art is a typical street in the old port area. I believe this is looking southeast along Rue St. Nicholas. (Decided to try an outdoor recording. Must find that setting on my H2 which automatically zooms on my voice, turn it off for more ambience.) Theme song is “Things That Keep Me Up At Night” by Beatnik Turtle from the albums TheSongOfTheDay.com and The Best . . . → Read More: WOL007: Staring At The Sky
Theme song is Things That Keep Me Up At Night by Beatnik Turtle from the albums TheSongOfTheDay.com and The Best . . . → Read More: WOL006: Wondering En France … in which I go from pretty poor hotel nachos to struggling with shyness to research.. But not in any sort of straight line, because on the way there’s something about a failure to adapt to new situations and going to conventions.. One of the reasons this is going up is simply because I want to start the habit of releasing this quickly and habitually, to not toy over them too much and let them be natural. … although once I get back to a normal studio situation, I will likely add music and editing.. |
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Copyright © 2010 Mark Kilfoil - Encaffeinated! - All Rights Reserved |
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Hear me muse about looking at the sky, being in France, and the balance of utlity vs esthetics..
A very echoey bonjour from France! I needed to get back into the recording habit, so here are a few thoughts about differences in France, and the three types of photographs.
