Today’s Election-Free Zone: Paris’s Independent Shopfronts and their Owners

At The Guardian, I love these gorgeous photos of the Parisian owners of indie shops standing in their own doorways. A chocolaterie, a patisserie, a pharmacie that makes me think of the TARDIS (sorry), a shop of homemade marionettes and toys, even a shop for pesticides and rodent traps (Destruction des Animaux Nuisibles). Photos taken… 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 »

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 »

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 »