toute seule et contente
what a big disappointment at the grocery store: for some reason the refrigerated section was broken and they had removed all the items...this means..no dairy. dairy is like my food staple. i think i eat more dairy than any other food group, even though i know this is not advisable, i'm addicted. wasn't there an episode of daria where the father drinks tons of milk because of the tryptophan and the "happy" effect it has on the brain. maybe it's true.
so france telecom scammed me. sortof. but what else could i expect from them?? that new abonnement that i took with them for unlimited calls was 59 euros per month, not every other month like my bills have been since the beginning. when i read the fine print of the contract i realized this and although i would be able to make as many calls as i want, i'd still be paying atleast 120 euros/2 months which is definatey the high end of the range for phone bills, 60 being the low end. so i had to cancel. super! while i was in the mood to deal with french bureacracy (so rarely does this happen) i decided to call up my friends at noos. i wanted to see if they could offer me something since i've been a customer since 2003 despite the heinous problems i had with them in november. they were able to double my internet connection speed and tried to suck me into one of their schemes to get more channels for a just a few euros more each month...but i know better than that! i know i would get like 10 cartoon/kids channels, 7 football channels, 3 hunting channels, 1 news channel, and oh maybe 1 movie channel. with my cinema subscription i don't think i need any of that. so i'm still paying the same but i get a faster internet, which i'm sure is counterproductive since my computer is slow as molasses.
i saw 2 movies saturday night: nausicca, the miyazaki film, and les particules elementaire,which is an adaptation of the german novel by michel houellebecq. nausicca was alright, but i mostly liked it for the animation and the creativity. i don't know how that guy comes up with such fantasic things, and i mean 'fantastic in the french was "fantastique" like fantasy. the second film was good, in a depressing way. there were some hilariously sick parts, when the teacher masturbates to the picture of his student and ends up ejaculating on her essay. yeah. it wasn't bad, but not great either.
yesterday i laid low, did some cleaning and went running a bit. i made an awesome dressing for a salad with mung bean sprouts. it had tahini, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, mustard, salt, pepper. so good!
leakhena was out with lamine's cousins and invited me to go bowling with them, but it was all the way in the 16th and i was in the mood to see another movie. i'm totally getting my money's worth this month. i mean i've seen like 7 movies i think for 18 euros. crazy. anyway, i saw flandres which i couldn't even pronounce correctly when i asked for the ticket. i should have known better than to say "flaan-dress" when it's really "flon-druh". what came over me that i lost all instict to pronounce french words?
anyway, the movie was good, good in that completely french cinema way. i think about 90% of americans would not tolerate a movie that has actors that do not show (purposely) any facial expressions and about 2/3 of the film is without dialogue. we're so used to banter in movies. anyway, it's another fucked up kindof story that had some military dudes (hot) and a slutty girl. can't go wrong there.
one thing i did notice in the film was the complete range of "sloshing" noises that was able to be captured. i think they must have had a whole crew of audio people just working on this aspect alone. let me explain: the film starts off on a farm in the south of france and since there's like no talking for a long time (this is a french film remember) all we here are goulash-type boots walking trhough muck. and there is a whole maj paj of surface-to-shoe noises. here's some that i remember off the top of my head:
goulash/rubber boots in swampy muck, sloshing
goulash in wet grass/mud
boots on gravely road
boots cracking over sticks and branches
squeeky sneakers on tile floor
army boots on desert sand
winter boots on new snow (that weird, distinct noise)
more shoes in wet muck and sloshing a lot in fact
yeah. it was quite impressive. a bit like an orgasm for my ear.
in other film news, a film by raphael fejto is being shot on my street in front of my apartment for the next few weeks.
if my calculations are right, and they can be a bit off since i'm going by a paris plan de poche-type map, i ran 30 miles this week.
so france telecom scammed me. sortof. but what else could i expect from them?? that new abonnement that i took with them for unlimited calls was 59 euros per month, not every other month like my bills have been since the beginning. when i read the fine print of the contract i realized this and although i would be able to make as many calls as i want, i'd still be paying atleast 120 euros/2 months which is definatey the high end of the range for phone bills, 60 being the low end. so i had to cancel. super! while i was in the mood to deal with french bureacracy (so rarely does this happen) i decided to call up my friends at noos. i wanted to see if they could offer me something since i've been a customer since 2003 despite the heinous problems i had with them in november. they were able to double my internet connection speed and tried to suck me into one of their schemes to get more channels for a just a few euros more each month...but i know better than that! i know i would get like 10 cartoon/kids channels, 7 football channels, 3 hunting channels, 1 news channel, and oh maybe 1 movie channel. with my cinema subscription i don't think i need any of that. so i'm still paying the same but i get a faster internet, which i'm sure is counterproductive since my computer is slow as molasses.
i saw 2 movies saturday night: nausicca, the miyazaki film, and les particules elementaire,which is an adaptation of the german novel by michel houellebecq. nausicca was alright, but i mostly liked it for the animation and the creativity. i don't know how that guy comes up with such fantasic things, and i mean 'fantastic in the french was "fantastique" like fantasy. the second film was good, in a depressing way. there were some hilariously sick parts, when the teacher masturbates to the picture of his student and ends up ejaculating on her essay. yeah. it wasn't bad, but not great either.
yesterday i laid low, did some cleaning and went running a bit. i made an awesome dressing for a salad with mung bean sprouts. it had tahini, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, mustard, salt, pepper. so good!
leakhena was out with lamine's cousins and invited me to go bowling with them, but it was all the way in the 16th and i was in the mood to see another movie. i'm totally getting my money's worth this month. i mean i've seen like 7 movies i think for 18 euros. crazy. anyway, i saw flandres which i couldn't even pronounce correctly when i asked for the ticket. i should have known better than to say "flaan-dress" when it's really "flon-druh". what came over me that i lost all instict to pronounce french words?
anyway, the movie was good, good in that completely french cinema way. i think about 90% of americans would not tolerate a movie that has actors that do not show (purposely) any facial expressions and about 2/3 of the film is without dialogue. we're so used to banter in movies. anyway, it's another fucked up kindof story that had some military dudes (hot) and a slutty girl. can't go wrong there.
one thing i did notice in the film was the complete range of "sloshing" noises that was able to be captured. i think they must have had a whole crew of audio people just working on this aspect alone. let me explain: the film starts off on a farm in the south of france and since there's like no talking for a long time (this is a french film remember) all we here are goulash-type boots walking trhough muck. and there is a whole maj paj of surface-to-shoe noises. here's some that i remember off the top of my head:
goulash/rubber boots in swampy muck, sloshing
goulash in wet grass/mud
boots on gravely road
boots cracking over sticks and branches
squeeky sneakers on tile floor
army boots on desert sand
winter boots on new snow (that weird, distinct noise)
more shoes in wet muck and sloshing a lot in fact
yeah. it was quite impressive. a bit like an orgasm for my ear.
in other film news, a film by raphael fejto is being shot on my street in front of my apartment for the next few weeks.
if my calculations are right, and they can be a bit off since i'm going by a paris plan de poche-type map, i ran 30 miles this week.