In France, in order to protect women from being oppressed by Muslim men who tell them what to wear, white men with guns force women to take their clothes off. I have so much fury and contempt for this racism, Islamophobia, and misogyny disguised as “liberation” and “secular values” that I don’t even have enough… Read more »
France
Birthday Month Randutiae
Season 3 of The Great British Baking Show (known as The Great British Bake Off in Britain) was my favorite yet. I cried through the Final (in a good way). Here is the chocolate well created by a contestant in Episode 9… …with a bucket that drops to the bottom to collect liquid white chocolate… Read more »
Another Paris Picture Roundup
If you’re a gargoyle, Sacre Coeur is probably a nice thing to be a gargoyle on, and Montmartre a nice part of Paris to look out over… Outside the Musée Rodin, people stick their entrance stickers onto poles – a spontaneous public arts project 🙂 On one of the footbridges over the Seine – I think it’s… Read more »
Paris: Graffiti
At the flea markets de la porte de Clignancourt. Outside the markets. Skeleton grate. Somewhere in the 7th, I think…. On Quai de Jemmapes. I think this was in Le Marais… And this near Place de la Bastille. This too.
Paris: Clocks. (And Snoods.)
The Musée d’Orsay, which contains the world’s largest collection of impressionist andpost-impressionist paintings, is in what used to be the Gare d’Orsay — a Beaux-Arts train stationbuilt at the turn of the 20th century. A number of the windows, like this one in the café, are clocks(to show the time to the outside world). Here’s… Read more »
Bots High, Émile Zola, and yes, more 2CELLOS
I adore Bots High, which is a documentary about high school students in Miami building combat robots and competing in a national robotics competition. Incidentally, many, many of the robot engineers are girls. That’s only one of the reasons to watch — I love these kids, love their smarts, creativity, procrastination, anxiety, heart, the ways… Read more »
Paris: Rue des Mauvais Garçons
Translation: Street of Bad Boys.
For Writers: A Quick Tip on Starting
When writing, there’s a danger in depending too much on preparation. Yes, preparation is important, but you’re not going to figure everything out about a writing project before you start it. Part of the point is that you figure it out while doing it. You’re planning a book, and you can’t figure out the solution… Read more »
Three Writers in Paris
Marie Rutkoski, me, Melina Marchetta
Paris: Work and Play
A day of work at the Bibliothèque Mazarine… followed by window shoppingon Boulevard Saint-Germain. (These shoes had ice cream cone heels!) Maybe hard to see — this was a shirt. Apparently wearing Ralph Lauren makes you climb up onto the bar. Incidentally, the umbrellas at Alexandra Sojfer were the main reason I needed to go… Read more »