September 2, 2006, 3:20 pm : Paris, Subway, Metros and Marilyn Monroe
Filed Under: My PostsDiscussion: Comments Off
I had meetings in Paris this past week and got to spend a little time off on Weds wandering the coolest fucking city I’ve been to so far in these 41 years. Man, I love that place. I stayed near the Louvre at this great little hotel which is cheap(ish), well located and air conditioned. I ran to the Eiffel Tower every morning and waved at the other (obviously) non-Parisians in their ‘Paris’ t-shirts and far too shiny Reeboks. Visited my favourite stores on Rue St Honore-Fauborg, Commes Des Garcons and Colette. I love them because of their hidesouly overpriced shirts that are far too small for my middle-aged gut, their $12E designer pencils and the staff that wear little white gloves and wipe down the display cases whenever you get within a metre of them.
I especially love Colette and CDG to people watch-it’s like an entire issue of all of the latest fashion rags, but acted out live as Kabuki theatre. I bought some cologne, tried on some Marc Jacobs Vans that were faaar too young for me and went to the Marilyn Monroe photo exhibition at Musee Maillol. The pics are all from Bert Stern, still stunning and sad after all these years. I had fun time in the Marais, visiting some cool stores (constantly looking for the latest addition to a comic or bear collection), great bars and finished off with dinner at Georges at Pompidou Centre, overlooking the city at sunset with a lovely glass of wine and the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the distance. Ah, I love my job. At CDG (the airport, not the store) I looked at the guy across from me in the lounge – it was the formerly fat guy in the Subway ads, being watched closely by everyone else who noticed him, as he picked at a plate of vegetables, which everyone secretly hoped was a plate of Cheeto’s and Ding-dongs with a beer to chase it down…
September 2, 2006, 2:40 pm : Flip-flops outside Apartment Zero
Filed Under: My PostsDiscussion: Comments Off
I’ve spent the last week in South America, whirlwind trip through Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires. I was on a meeting, setting up and meeting some more trip for work, which is always good fun, hard work and everything in between. I didn’t get enough time to see much of Sao Paulo, aside from our cool offices, cool people and a cool restaurant. The hotel was really fun and funky, with a great pool, bar and just enough crap from the desparely cool staff to let me know that this was somewhere cool and that I was damn well lucky to even get a drink, let alone pay for it. Restaurant Figuera was a recommendation which was dead-on, great food and a fuck-of decorating idea: build the restaurant around, I don’t know…how about….a GIANT TREE! Branches everywhere, dressed-up, surgically enhanced (or reduced, take your pick) women and men nibbling on amazing food beneath the tree’s branches – the most expensive picnic I’ve ever had. I bought piles of Habeineros for about $8 bucks, rather than shelling out $80 at Kitson. You can check out some pics here.
The next couple of days were in Buenos Aires, which is etched in my mind from one of my favourite movies of all time, the campy ‘Apartment Zero‘, with the hunky Hart Bochner and Colin Furth. Hard to find on DVD, but worth the search. Went to Evita Peron’s grave with the rest of the folks at our meeting, which I thought was a little weird, but what the hell, we like big brands and Evita is certainly a big brand. The creepy cats added to the atmostphere, reminding me of the time I was in Pere Lachaise at dusk and the biggest fucking crows I have ever seen started appearing around us, followed by cats lurking near the crypts. I was waiting for Carmina Burana to start playing and some dude hacking open a crypt and discovering the Jim Morrison was….really….a jackal!! This graffitti was in one of the plaza’s of the old part of BA and Andrea from our BA office told us that protests happen regularly and that the fences which cut the plaza in half are permanently in place.
