Refraction

Phoenix makes me pretty happy. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix sounds like a happy album, but reveals itself to be a little more somber underneath (just look at the lyrics). That doesn’t stop me from adoring this album to bits. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of them before last fall.

“so sentimental, not sentimental, no…”

Also terribly excited to be seeing them live in September! My entertainment budget has shifted to concerts from travel, clearly.

Okay, so in France everyone seems to use deezer.comto listen to music on their computers (it’s a free streaming radio, you can find a ton of stuff on there).

So I have “Bad Romance” stuck in my head, strangely enough, and do a search for it…. the second result is a remix of The Last Unicorn’s theme song by an artist called “Bad Romance.”

I guess you really can remix everything.

Stumbled onto Wikipedia’s article on perronismes, which reminds me of English mixed metaphors.

Never quite having fully grasped what a mixed metaphor was (and being unable to come up with them on demand), I found the examples presented here interesting. Perhaps they’re easier to see when it’s not your native language? Plus—it’s always a joy when such things can be translated correctly, with the right amount of awkwardness.

“Atteindre la lumière au fond du baril”
“To reach the light at the bottom of the barrel”

“La forêt vierge est une forêt où la main de l’homme n’a jamais mis le pied. ”
“Virgin forest is a forest where the hand of man has never set foot.”

One of the hardest things for me to keep straight in French is the difference between ‘tu’ and ‘vous’. I mean, obviously I know the difference, but I haven’t internalized it… it often happens that I start a sentence with ‘vous’ and switch to ‘tu’ halfway through. I figure I get a semi-free pass as a foreigner, though.

Anyway, this is only relevant because I was in Munich recently, wandering around Marienplatz. It’s right by the city centre: tons of shopping to do, quite touristy overall. One of these survey people (I think) came up to me and asked, “Sprichst du Deutsch?” I muttered “Nein” and kept walking, but the first thing that popped into my head was “He just tutoie-d¹ me! He doesn’t even know me!”

So maybe the French are getting to me a little.

ETA: I was talking to the Franco-German student at work and he explained to me that people in Germany systematically tutoient people if they appear to be less than 18, which is not necessarily the case in France. Hum. I don’t think I look that young.

1. Fr. tutoyer, to use “tu” with someone [↩]

There’s this guy¹ who keeps pacing up and down my hallway in the evenings. Talking. On a cellphone, I assume.

I am really really confused about why he needs to do this every night, and why he needs to do it in the hallway. It’s not like he’s bothering a roommate (we’re all in single rooms–or we’re supposed to be, anyway). I doubt he gets better reception in the hall.

1. I can only assume he lives on my floor [↩]

And okay, because I’m weird like that, here’s the English version of Feist’s song translated into French.

I really like the “La même histoire” much better than this.
Read the rest of this entry »

The soundtrack to Paris, je t’aime includes this little gem from Feist (yes, she of “1234″ fame.) There’s also an English version on the soundtrack, but it’s not the same song.
Read the rest of this entry »

Cultural collision, no 1:
When we make an appointment for 10 am, I expect you to be there at 10 am.

Happy New Year, everyone! The lateness is due to non-functioning WiFi chez moi… I’m huddling outside the lab typing this.

PS: Paris, je t’aime.

Is there any problem a dish of tomato beef served over rice can’t solve? Nope.

For those interested, my hotplate-and-one-pan version follows.
Read the rest of this entry »