Egg Beaters

Watched Tampopo this evening for the first time in twenty years, courtesy of BitTorrent.

It remains the most sensual film about food, or perhaps the most gastronomical film about sensuality.

It remains a mystery that no egg marketing board has licenced this scene.

The Café Society - Part 12 - French Blogosphere

Whilst trying to get a handle on the increasingly slippery topic of world blog statistics, one came across an article in the IHT that summarised most of what one suspected was the state of the French Blogosphere:

• The French are the Western World's most enthusiastic bloggers (one estimates that close to 10% of the French population has an active blog);
• French blogs are not about collaborative discussion, but rather about expressing the blogger's views (somewhat like the French approach to internal company meetings or, more generally, teamwork);
  
• French blogs are typically narcissistic in nature; and
• You can't run for elected office in France if you don't have a blog.

Given the nature of this blog, one can only conclude that it's based in France (even though one is not running for elected office, unless sporadic attendance at Council meetings counts as such.)

One would be interested in similar analyses of Japanese (5% of the population) South Korean (25%!) or Chinese (2%) blogs. Methinks they are diametrically opposed in more than one respect.

The Café Society - Part 11 - Savage Camping

Several hundred tents line the Canal St Martin in the rapidly gentrifying 10th district. Most of these are occupied by the homeless, a few by local Bobos - Bourgeois Bohèmes - demonstrating their support, who get to go home in the morning for coffee, croissants and a shower.

Some of the homeless hold down jobs, but can't afford rent. Meanwhile, a new study released today regarding growing French obesity shows that whilst 5% of graduates are overweight, 15% of those without a degree have a weight problem.

What a wonderful world, nous vivons une époque formidable.

The Café Society - Part 10 - Sunday Afternoons in Barça

Even after a Saturday night and Sunday morning's worth of clubbing, people in Barcelona are still feeling sociable. This bar is located behind Parallel, near the now-closed and soon-to-be re-opened Molinos theatre. The mature gentlemen in the backgound is one of the Molinos' retired singers, who now belts out torchsongs on Sunday afternoons, whilst his audience knocks back beer and tapas.

More evidence that Spain is not an ageist society, at least not on Sunday afternoons.

The Barbarian Invasions - Part 1 - Moto Mightier than Tauromachy

Barcelona was invaded by 3GSM last week, the world's largest collection of suits and ties who, for a few blessed days, can delude themselves that they are not technerds and are in fact Masters of the Universe. The illusion is hard to maintain, however, when one attends a party where the male/female ratio is ten-to-one. (Note: the function is not, à priori, dedicated to the gay lifestyle.)

It was with heavy heart that one observed that Barcelona had not contented itself with banning bullfighting - it had emasculated its Plaza de Toros with advertising. Hemingway would have shuddered.

The Café Society - Part 9 - Vieux Port

The old harbour in Marseilles is favoured by the local 'aristocracy,' swimming in water one wouldn't use for the WC, let alone fish from. In January the water is almost tolerably warm, no doubt due to a combination of global warming and exhaust fumes from the yachts.