A Place Where Everything Bleeds Turquoise

During my last few weeks in Paris I was partly occupied from working in Rachel Perlmeter's new film, but on the whole, I found myself with lots of spare time.  I decided to stroll around Cimetière Père Lachaise, without any touristy map, and see what graves I might run into.

The majority of the graves look like elevators, leading down to Hades.  Some of them even have stairs leading down into the earth...frightening.

Various busts and jesuses seemed to be bleeding.

 

Here is a Dumas grave.  This is my french family name, though of course there are many many Dumas families.  I did run into a couple of famous graves - le peintre Gericault and the showgirl Colette. 

 

In conclusion - while this cimetière is quite beautiful, I beg of you, whoever finds themselves in charge, please do not let me spend eternity in an elevator. 

Praised be Euterpe!

Who is Euterpe?
She is one of my eight sisters of greek myth, the muse of Music and sacred poetry. Despite the awesomeness of Euterpe, I admit to being glad that I was named after a muse with a less bizarre name.
June 21st is La Fête de la Musique every year in France.  French streets all over the country are full of people dancing and listening, all getting progressively drunker as they run around celebrating music.  In Paris, the metro lines even stay open all night long, especially for this once-a-year event.
I took a walk from my place to Opera, to the Palais Royale, and eventually found myself at Les Halles.  On this ballade (the french word for walk, and also a music-related word in english, how rad!) I ran into all sorts of crowds and sounds.
 My favorite part about all this was the variety...every single music group was different from the last.  What are the chances that I never heard two bands playing music of the same genre?  Check out these sounds and these funky audiences.

It all starts with the wonderful music show au theatre d'Orange, built by the Romans long long ago.  Here Rosa and I are talking about la fête de la musique.

Second, reggae au jardins du Palais Royale:

 

Third, a classical trio.  This was behind the Pailais Royale and informal.  The three girls singing must have been twelve or thirteen years old.  They were adorable and fabulous.

 Fourth, some electronic DJ-ing

Fifth, two amazing guys, on trumpet and ???

There was more, but I didn't film it all.  The French sure know how to let Euterpe know that her (mythical) discoveries are still appreciated.  :) Merci, maintenant allez-y, écoutez ou jouez de la musique!

Rehearsal pt4: Jaune

 In this scene, Maria plays an old naked tyrant and Vanessa is his servant.  The servant both loves and hates her master, in a pretty creepy way.
In this first clip you see Ella come in to help!

Here is a short section where the tyrant is being fed from a tray, and when he refuses to eat, his servant goes a little crazy. 

Pass me a slice of mime cake, would you?

Today is Poosa's birthday, and I recorded a little mime performance for her.
Have a piece of mime-cake, one and all...(Grandpa, make sure to take a big piece for your 75th, I swear I used mime splenda!)

And here is a little extra something pour toi, Poosa.  This is a many-lensed performance (oh boy, I could write such a long essay about this).  Here is Keith doing the mambo in his office in MN, seen through a camera lens, sent to me in Paris, seen by me through my computer screen...etc, you could go on forever, there are so many layers to this. 

joyeux anniversaire!

Rehearsal pt 3: Côme

This scene is a little more abstract, but very playful, and performed by one of the most talented second year students, Côme.  He gets out of his cardboard box and pulls various things out.  One of my favorite parts is when he puts on a tutu and does some silly-versions of ballet moves.  Enjoy it!

Rehearsal pt 2: Peut-etre

This one is the first part of the show's longest scene.  This is also one of my favorites, because Jeremy and Ko are hilarious! 
Here you will see them showing the moments of bliss and annoyance shared between a couple.  Ko is pregnant and becomes demanding for various delicious foods. Finally she gives birth and, big surprise, the baby is black.  Next, Ko goes about trying to figure out who the father is: "Peut-etre c'est celui la?"  And we have many flashbacks of encounters, but midway through each flashback Ko says "Non, c'est pas lui!" 
Here you have it, the beginning:

Rehearsal pt 1: Body Dream

Here is the first in a series of videos I took during rehearsal.  In this scene, "Body Dream", Cristelle and Margarita are a pair of crazed plastic surgeons, and when Kiaza comes in to get 'the body of his dreams'...they start hacking his body to pieces.  This is one of my favorites because there is so much awesome action-reaction work!