I made it home to Paris Sunday, we dropped
Dani's rental car at Orly airport, and his the guy putting on his show that night picked us up and dropped me at home. I had every intention to attend his show, but not long before I was set to go out, I had some stomach troubles, and let's say they prevented me from straying too far. I was in for the night. I had thought I had gotten over it, and was walking to the metro, when disaster threatened again...so that, as they say, was that.
The rest of the week was spent at home. Working on new music, taking care of all the things I don't have time to do working and touring non stop (doctor, dentist, equipment repairs etc). Meals at home and at neighborhood spots--with the family, or once, on my own when Dom was working and Aden was with her nanny. I drank more and ate more and exercised more and slept more and read more and just enjoyed what was essentially my holiday break.
I also sequenced the albums for the Sad Knights and Oh, Libia! in anticipation of their mastering dates this month, and approved the master for the Twice album.
I spent time shopping Sunday in the market near our place, running into Xavier B. (Tahiti 80 etc) always nice, we are neighbors of a sort, equidistant from this market but in opposite directions.
There were evenings where after putting down my book or newspaper, I let Aden fall asleep on me, while I paid minimal attention to some American B movie dubbed in French. Good to catch up a bit.
My favorite discovery from this time is a film called '
La Antena' I read a review of it in
the Stranger, and it sounded intriguing. I asked about it while in Argentina, where the film was made (directed by a guy named Esteban Sapir). There is a great store for DVDs and movie memorabilia in Buenos Aires called
Cine Si, which I dropped in and asked the proprietor, Julieta, if she had the film in stock, she didn't but said to email her in a month or so. And so I did, and she had it, and it was sent to an American address I use--the shipping and DVD in total was about $15. With this little pause, I had time to watch it, and what a surprise it turned out to be. Part Fritz Lang, part Alphaville, part City of Lost Children, part Eraserhead...a fable in black & white that takes place in a wonderfully realized, imaginary city. it's essentially a silent movie, since the main part of the plot concerns the fact that an evil media baron, who controls the only TV network, has managed to steal the voices of all the citizens. So, when the people 'speak' there are words, text, emerging from them or floating around them, all in very imaginitive ways. My DVD menu showed that English subtitles were available, but in fact, they didn't work for some reason. But that didn't matter. What Spanish I know was absolutely sufficient to follow the story--it's told much more with the action than with the words. All of this is accompanied by a brilliant score by
Leo Sujatovich. In fact, the opening sequence is a wonderful ballet of hands 'playing' a typewriter in time to elaborate piano music. Really an incredible marriage of images, design, and music throughout the film. So many nice details, too--the cityscape is in fact a model, about 75 small buildings--and shots are filmed among them and greenscreened--for example: they would move a tiny camera down and around the streets, and then from the camera's perspective, sumperimpose the hood and hood ornament of a car, and voila--you are sure the car is driving thru the city--not even noticing that you are looking out the window of the car at a miniature world. It's hard to describe--but it's a seamless integration of sets, locations, and models. And actors of course! Highly recommended. You can get it on DVD in the UK,
like here at amazon.co.uk or you can order it from cine si. the film was released a couple of years ago, and I know Mr. Sapir is working on a new script, I truly look forward to what comes next from this amazing team.
Love
KS
Paris
