Author: THE HOBBLEDEHOY

Michael Stevenson, aka Dai Bando, Johnny Foreigner, Monsieur Pas De Merde, is a blogger of French and British culture. His blogs "Pas De Merde" and "The Hobbledehoy" have been called "marvelous" by some, and "meh" by others.

Santa ain’t King George

by Michael Stevenson 12/10/2016

This morning, as I did a bit of grocery shopping at my favorite food market here in Providence, Rhode Island USA, we shoppers were treated to a surprise visit from Santa Claus, much to the delight of the many children on hand. This particular Santa certainly looked the part, with a  broad face and a little round belly, that shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.

Oddly, this Supermarket Santa spoke with a proper British accent, sounding very much like “King George IV” from The Crown (as played by British actor Jared Harris.) I suggest, if one decides to play Santa as a Brit, please give Father Christmas a working-class London cockney accent or ship-building Liverpool accent. Today (more than ever) we don’t want American children confusing the magnanimous magic of Santa Claus with the execrable machinations of autocracy.  Give me a Santa who celebrates charity as well as democracy, and talks like a regular limey – or even better, like one of the Bowery Boys.

Seu Jorge tour Tribute to David Bowie will pass through Paris in May

We dreamed, we heard: Seu Jorge will perform in Paris in 2017 as part of his stage tribute to David Bowie. Always on tour in North America, the singer-guitarist-pop sambiste crosses the Atlantic in 2017 in order to present the program loaded in emotion. He will play May 31, 2017 at the Olympia.

Since early November, Seu Jorge , 46, runs the North American continent – the United States and Canada – to present, alone on stage, her repertoire of Portuguese adaptations of classic David Bowie, disappeared on January 10, 2016. A book he released in 2004 in the offbeat comedy “the Life aquatic” by Wes Anderson, a film very loosely based on the adventures of commander Cousteau … During filming, he had sung in the conditons of live. Continue reading “Seu Jorge tour Tribute to David Bowie will pass through Paris in May” →

The centenary of Léo Ferré: the exclusive interview

Born August 24, 1916, Léo Ferré would have been 100 years old this year.In November 1990, before a recital at Déjazet theater, libertarian theater in Paris, the artist gave an interview to two journalists from France 3 Paris, Rouzane Avanissian and Ambroise Perrin. It is this document, remained largely unpublished part to date, that Culturebox exclusively offers.

Paris, November 1990. Once again Leo Ferre is on show at the TLP Déjazet. TLP as Libertarian Theatre in Paris. In this place committed to the Paris scene, it really feels at home. Ferré has published its penultimate album, “The old boys.”

In 1990, let us remember, is the war of Kuwait, Saddam Hussein is the enemy of George Bush before eleven years later that of his son. 1990, in South Africa, the end of apartheid. In France, President Mitterrand began two years before his second term, 100,000 students demonstrate in Paris and Léo Ferré 74 years.

In this first part of the interview he gave on November 9 journalists FR3 Rouzane Avanissian and Ambroise Perrin, he speaks of rebellion, anger, the couple or the great mystery of our existence.
Listen to interview en français : The centenary of Léo Ferré: the exclusive interview