croissants and more croissants

Now I know why everyone falls in love with France. I tried hard not to, just because there's a word for it.  (Are there any equivalents to francophile? Canadiophile? Americophile? Russiaphile?)

But if you can't beat them join them. France is so beautiful. The cathedrals are on every other corner. The other corners have cafes where you can sip delicious coffee all day and enjoy the perfect breeze off of the Seine. It's ridiculous. And the French people are so hospitable and fun. I had the best time running around the city with Ms. Anne-Marie!

If you haven't been, I hope that you can visit there very soon. My only advice is to learn how to say a few food items in French, so you aren't eating your weight in croissants like me, unless you want to of course.
(I had too much pride to speak English, so I just went to the baguetteries and said un croissant again and again, hahaha!)

 

Drawing Notre Dame, but got kicked out of the garden for closing time.

The ceiling of Saint Sulpice

Sinead O'Connor + Elizaveta UK Tour

I'm back from travels in the UK and France! Rock and Roll! We jammed to nothing but The Clash, Kinks, Beatles, Talkingheads and Bowie! Ah musical soil.

Elizaveta opened for Sinead O'Connor in some of the most amazing cathedrals in the UK. As far as venues go, I think they are better than ampitheaters. There's nothing like bass in a cathedral.

 

Note my map.

Note my Sinead.

Finally, note Elizaveta and me !

Elizaveta rocked the mic, opening for Sinead O'Connor. I never knew much about Sinead; she had her controversy with the church before I was really on to pop culture. After reading back about the pope incident, I'm inclined to say: good for you. She stood up for what she believed: that the Catholic church was (and is) condoning sexual abuse. Speak truth to power. I'm with you!

crossing the atlantic and another dimension

Tea time.. getting ready for the British

I'm heading back across the Atlantic this week. This time our stops include: London, Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, Scotland, and Paris! I'm a lucky lady.

Also meet my new friend, I haven't figured out its name yet.

Can you see him/her on the other side of the window?

Most every day that I am at home working, this same little birdy comes to the window, pecks at it and waits. I peck back, and we go back and forth for a while. It leaves, comes back and does this all through out the day. Sometimes I'll be in the kitchen and hear its sound and have to go say hello. Maybe little bird sees its reflection, or maybe it's trying to talk. It certainly waits around for the sound. I keep thinking that there is some kind of trans-species communication going on here. 

Imagining myself in its place, there is a huge plane of glass with various things flickering through it, when I make a sound it causes a ripple and sometimes comes back to me. But its not the same. Is it another living thing? Is it my echo? Is my brain too small to contemplate such things?

I can't help but think that there must be a parallel for humans, running our heads up against a plane of glass with no idea what is on the other side watching us, communicating with us.

random mansion tour

Last week I worked on a photo shoot at this mansion in the Silverlake hills. I took a bunch of clandestine pictures.

The mansion belonged to a silent movie star who's life was very similar to the main character in The Artist. I won't spoil the movie, in case you haven't seen it. His story also sounds a lot like The Great Gatsby, but maybe that's because his wife was named Daisy. They split and she died tragically on Mulholland Drive. Some people think that there was foul play and speculate that this might be why the house is haunted.

Some famous very bad rock bands have stayed and recorded here and claim to have seen and experienced all sorts of freaky things... being chocked in the night and bathtubs filling with water.

I can say that it was kind of eerie at first. There were some freaky angel and devil paintings and taxidermy everywhere. The souls of all of the poor African animals! Overall though, I've been in places that are much creepier. The only bad vibrations that I felt were coming from the guy who owned/ managed the house. Perhaps all of the bad spirits attached themselves to him. He was so rude that you had to laugh and play along.

The courtyard - also where they filmed a Brittney Spears video where a car goes into the pool??

This room was my favorite. Windows on all sides. (unfortunately some kind of rare taxidermied Toucan on the coffee table... oh and a stuffed peacock on the long table.) Click to see bigger

This is the room that was supposed to be really haunted. No one would use the facilities all day because they were afraid of something happening, like the bathtub mysteriously filling up with water. Creepy shadows...

Just happen to have a triceratops head in the study. Shot and killed that beast myself, that's right.