Category: Culture

Damien Rice: Paris sidewalk concert

Back in the summer of 2015, Irish troubadour Damien Rice gave a surprise late night concert on a Paris sidewalk. Despite Rice’s hoarse voice, and the occasional banging and clanking noise from his roadies hauling equipment, this petit concert video is quite beautiful. Listen to Damien’s french fans singing his english lyrics, as one unseen fan provides occasional excellent harmonies (was actress/singer/collaborator  Mélanie Laurent among the crowd?) Love it.

Chanson Du Jour “Les Feuilles Mortes”

Chanson Du Jour 10/30/2016 Yves Montand – Les Feuilles Mortes

Looking outside the cafe window on Blackstone Boulevard, multi-colored leaves are swirling about Lippit Park. Autumn seems fully arrived, and this beautiful melody came to mind.

“The Autumn Leaves” is a jazz standard covered by Harry James, Doris Day, Chet Baker, Bill Evans, Erroll Garner and many others.

The song originated in France in 1941 as “Les Feuilles Mortes.”  It was composed by Hungarian-French composer Joseph Kosma and lyrics by poet French Jacques Prévert.

The song and was made popular by the cool singing Yves Montand.  This clip appears to be from a film – if you know the title, please leave a comment.

Eating off the floor: Modern Paris apartment’s floor becomes the dining table 


It gives another meaning to ‘eating off the floor.’

 

We’re admittedly fond of interior spaces that attempt to bring in a bit of nature inside. While it may be a bit clichéd, the tree planted inside is one of the most oft used natural elements of this kind. This modern apartment in Paris’ twentieth arrondissment has what looks like a faux-tree, but it does have a striking design where the living room floor becomes the kitchen’s cantilevered dining table.

READ FULL STORY AT: Eating off the floor: Modern Paris apartment’s floor becomes the dining table : TreeHugger

Yann Tiersen and More in Moscow this Weekend

Moscow does not believe in tears, but apparently it believes in celebrating Halloween. Moscow Times’ Andrei Muchnik picks his gooviest Halloween events for the weekend, including a concert by Yann Tiersen, composer of the Amelie soundtrack. Da!

If you are short the 2000 rubles for the live Halloween show at Crocus City Hall, give a free listen to Tiersen’s latest from his new album”EUSA”

Halloween is almost here. This weekend almost every bar and club in Moscow will hold its version of a pre-Halloween party, but if you’re not in a mood for trick or treating, there’s plenty of awesome gigs you can go to instead. From one of the most popular British bands in Russia to a great French composer, here are our top picks.

READ FULL STORY at Source: Muchnik’s Picks: Placebo, Yann Tiersen and More Music in Moscow on the Weekend

Chanson Du Jour: Dans Ma Rue

Chanson Du Jour 10/28/2016: “Dans Ma Rue” performed by Zaz

This is not only a great home-studio performance by Zaz, but comes with a Serbian lyric translation (a bonus for the many Serbs who visit my blog.)
In English, the songs begins:

I live in the corner of old Montmartre
My father comes home sozzled every night
And to feed the four of us
My poor mother works in the wash-house
When I’m sick, I lean out the window
I watch outsiders pass by
When the sun comes out
Things appear that scare me a little

So – life isn’t easy for the young girl in this song. I wish her father would take a break from getting sozzled and instead take his daughter out to visit the Zoo, buy her an ice cream cone (deux boule!) at Berthillion’s  Glacier on Ile St Louis, and then pick out a pretty new dress at La Marelle.

However, my guess is that Dad will just get sozzled again.

In this video, Zaz displays some impressive chanson chops, and I really like her piano accompaniment (the young man’s name is not listed, so let’s call him “Yaz”). Yaz not only tickles the ivories with a nice feel for Les Blues, but at the end of the song, he tends to the video recording streaming to the MacBook sitting atop the piano. Merde! These hotshot multi-taskers are costing us jobs in the video production business. Hey Zaz and Yaz, walk a mile dans ma rue!

“Dans Ma Rue” was made famous by the great Edith Piaf in 1946. The song was composed by Michel Emer (June 19, 1906 – November 23, 1984)