À la recherche du temps perdu
Sometimes this place is so weird for me. I've been coming here since I was 13. I've only missed 3 summers in that time. Like the place is part of me, I feel like i'm part of it, in its walls... it's weird.
Yesterday we had a ceremony for Denise, who has been working here for 25 years. She was the dean when I first came here as a toute petite gamine. A fair amount of her old staff showed up for the ceremony as well. There was Sylvie who read well wishes collected from other monos. These were the people I idolized when I was 15, who I worked with when I was just starting here and didn't really know what I was doing. Martin put together a sketch to roast Denise a bit and in that sketch there was Zoe. I hadn't seen her in years. I couldn't remember if we had worked together or if she had just been my mono my last year as a credit. I went up to say hi to her anyways. She knew exactly who I was and was pleased to see me.
Afterwards I went down to Beaux Arts (which used to be the Cage - for any former monos who are confused) where everyone who works here paints their hands on the wall at the end of the summer along with the dates that they worked here. Zoe stopped coming here before I became a mono. I hadn't seen her in 12 years, and she still knew exactly who I was. That's amazing.
The walls in Beaux Arts are dangerous, though. That building was only built in '92, and I started coming here in '93, so I know almost everyone on those walls. The chunk of wall people started painting on in the early 2000s blows my mind. Fanny 2000-01, Sabine 99-01, Magali 00-01... How have I not seen these people in 7 years? it seems impossible. How have I not seen Maddy since '03? Gabi and Gaëtan since '00? Anatole since '03? Rufus since '01? Sèvrine since '02? I would be in no way surprized to turn around and see any of them walking across the terrain de foot. They're like ghosts in a way. But friendly ones.
Time moves so strangely here. Long and short at the same time. Days last for years, but weeks go by in the blink of an eye. Years collapse in on each other and everything happens at the same time. At the dance on Saturday night, little girls were dancing the macarena who can't possibly have been alive the last time that song played on the radio. We all know that camp isn't real life, but to explain what it is in terms of real life is amazingly difficult. It's all a waking dream where all the rules are different. Comme a dit circe_pleading (aka Pasqualina), Je vis le rêve, mes amis, je vis le rêve.
Speaking of circe_pleading, it's amazing how little I see her considering that it is physically impossible for us to be more than 1/2 a mile apart...
Dernière chose: Le Tektonik. Y'all've gotta check this shit out. It's the hugest dance craze in France at the moment. It's kind of like rave dancing, but without lightsticks, done in broad daylight on the street, by highschool kids who've never been to a rave. It's strange. I watch these youtube clips and feel like I'm watching Breakin'...
Here are some clips for your amusement. Lots of arm flailing, very little leg movement. It's a street dance and people just go for it. The key is to pretend that you know what you're doing. It's quite popular here this summer
clip 1
clip 2
clip 3
I need an LdB icon.
Yesterday we had a ceremony for Denise, who has been working here for 25 years. She was the dean when I first came here as a toute petite gamine. A fair amount of her old staff showed up for the ceremony as well. There was Sylvie who read well wishes collected from other monos. These were the people I idolized when I was 15, who I worked with when I was just starting here and didn't really know what I was doing. Martin put together a sketch to roast Denise a bit and in that sketch there was Zoe. I hadn't seen her in years. I couldn't remember if we had worked together or if she had just been my mono my last year as a credit. I went up to say hi to her anyways. She knew exactly who I was and was pleased to see me.
Afterwards I went down to Beaux Arts (which used to be the Cage - for any former monos who are confused) where everyone who works here paints their hands on the wall at the end of the summer along with the dates that they worked here. Zoe stopped coming here before I became a mono. I hadn't seen her in 12 years, and she still knew exactly who I was. That's amazing.
The walls in Beaux Arts are dangerous, though. That building was only built in '92, and I started coming here in '93, so I know almost everyone on those walls. The chunk of wall people started painting on in the early 2000s blows my mind. Fanny 2000-01, Sabine 99-01, Magali 00-01... How have I not seen these people in 7 years? it seems impossible. How have I not seen Maddy since '03? Gabi and Gaëtan since '00? Anatole since '03? Rufus since '01? Sèvrine since '02? I would be in no way surprized to turn around and see any of them walking across the terrain de foot. They're like ghosts in a way. But friendly ones.
Time moves so strangely here. Long and short at the same time. Days last for years, but weeks go by in the blink of an eye. Years collapse in on each other and everything happens at the same time. At the dance on Saturday night, little girls were dancing the macarena who can't possibly have been alive the last time that song played on the radio. We all know that camp isn't real life, but to explain what it is in terms of real life is amazingly difficult. It's all a waking dream where all the rules are different. Comme a dit circe_pleading (aka Pasqualina), Je vis le rêve, mes amis, je vis le rêve.
Speaking of circe_pleading, it's amazing how little I see her considering that it is physically impossible for us to be more than 1/2 a mile apart...
Dernière chose: Le Tektonik. Y'all've gotta check this shit out. It's the hugest dance craze in France at the moment. It's kind of like rave dancing, but without lightsticks, done in broad daylight on the street, by highschool kids who've never been to a rave. It's strange. I watch these youtube clips and feel like I'm watching Breakin'...
Here are some clips for your amusement. Lots of arm flailing, very little leg movement. It's a street dance and people just go for it. The key is to pretend that you know what you're doing. It's quite popular here this summer
clip 1
clip 2
clip 3
I need an LdB icon.