Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

New English-language Musical Theater in Paris: "Edges"

Stephane Ly-Cuong’s  Edges : June 13, 14, 15, 2013 (21h); June 26, 2013 (19h)
; July 3, 2013 (19h) At: L’Auguste Théâtre
 6, impasse Lamier, 75011 Paris
  Reservations: 01.48.78.06.68

Edges by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul; Produced by American Musical Theatre LIVE! Paris, in coordination with Paris Broadway Saigon, L’Auguste Théâtre and Music Theatre International

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Interview with Miranda Crispin by Jacqueline Leahy

On the third floor of a building on Rue St. Roch, I am treated to the bold opening notes of Edges, a song cycle about uncertainty and insecurity, during one of the final dress rehearsals of Stephane Ly-Cuong’s Paris production. As the six central characters work through nuanced musical passages, their humor and loneliness illuminate the tragicomic spectrums of friendship and indifference, love and self-doubt in technology-addled modernity. Miranda Crispin, vocal director for the song cycle, shares some of what gives Edges its, well, edge.

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Jacqueline Leahy: Edges is a song cycle. Does this provide audience members with more freedom to construct their own narratives?

Miranda Crispin: Yes, the great thing about this kind of structure is that the audience can connect to the characters with their own experience in a way that is really portable. Since there is not a plot-structured through time, we can pop into these lives and see what we are ready to see based on our own lives.

 

JL: What are the musical challenges in the ‘Edges’ score?

MC: One great thing about the music in Edges is that it challenges the performers to stay connected to the text the entire time they sing, which, in some cases, is at the very top of their ranges. It's a cast of young performers and, in some cases, they are negotiating the most vulnerable parts of their voices through really wordy phrases. It's fantastic to see them tackle this challenge, especially since 6 of the 8 performers who do this show are Francophone and not native Anglophones. They are doing the entire show in the original English.

The show was originally written for 4 people, but has been expanded to fit 6 performers. This meant that we had to rewrite some harmonies so that it worked for a different number of voices and voice types. We also had to be really specific about how we assigned solos in the ensemble numbers. Normally, it's just 4 people and 4 stories, but we went through and gave certain sung lines in these ensemble songs to the character who might most relate to it given the solos pieces they sing in the piece, etc.

 

JL: What do you find particularly unique about the music of ‘Edges’?

MC: The music is a great blend of different styles, set to lyrics that are fun, funny, and direct. It really speaks to a young, contemporary audience. I mean, the messages can speak to anyone at any age - it's about making choices, finding your way in life, relationships working and dissolving, and the never ending journey we are on to figure out what is next. But the colloquial language and cultural references are really specific to people who are now in their mid 20's - mid 30's, and the music is more contemporary than standard musical theatre. It's a blend of rock, musical theatre, pop, blues, cabaret - a real fusion. 

 

As the song cycle pulls to a close, each wide-eyed expenditure of sound and gesture, meant to endear, meant to enrapture, settles into an acceptance, an appreciation of common vulnerability. Edges celebrates uniqueness: whatever you’re made of, whoever you are.

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Miranda Crispin is a world traveler, an actor, director, singer, teacher and language enthusiast. With a Masters degree in Music Theatre/Opera Performance from Arizona State University, and a B.F.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University, she studied French language at the Sorbonne and has served as an American Ambassadorial Scholar to France from the Arizona State University Insitute for the Arts. Currently teaching at the American Conservatory L'Ecole Koenig, Miranda is the star of director Stephane Ly-Cuong’s staging of ‘The Last Five Years’ and vocal director of Ly-Cuong’s production of ‘Edges,’ both set to premiere at Paris’ L’Auguste Theatre. 

"Edges" is showing: June 13, 14, 15, 2013 (21h) June 26, 2013 (19h)
 July 3, 2013 (19h) At: L’Auguste Théâtre
 6, impasse Lamier, 75011 Paris 
Reservations: 01.48.78.06.68

"The Last Five Years" will be performed June 27, 28 (19h) July 6, 9, 10, 11, 2013 (21h) AT  L'Auguste Theater. 6, impasse Lamier, 75011 Paris 
Reservations: 01.48.78.06.68

 

Susanne Kamata on inspirations for expatriate writing from Japan

Suzanne Kamata is the author of the novel Losing Kei and editor of the anthologies The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan, and Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs (Beacon Press, May 2008), as well as the literary journal Yomimono.  Her second novel, Gadget Girl: The Art of Being Invisible,  won the Grand Prize at the 2013 Paris Book Festival.  She now lives and writes in Japan.

A Paris Writers News Interview with Susanne Kamata by Jacqueline Leahy.

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Paris Writers News June 2013 Update

 
This month, news from Christine Herzer, Mirsia Bochis, Caballeros Psicodélicos, Perry Argel, Michelle de Kretser, Andrew Nagorski, Yannick Renier, Philippe Calvaio, Carole Pereira, David Lescot, Edward Smallfield, Valerie Coulton, The Tower Theatre, Christelle Rosar, Michèle Cohen-Halimi, Emmanuel Fournier, Martin Richet, Bénédicte Vilgrain, Frank Smith, Pierre Giner, Eavan Boland, Ciaran Carson, Eamon Grennan, Biddy Jenkinson, Medbh McGuckian, Maighréad Medbh, Paula Meehan, John Montague, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Joseph Woods, Timothy Bradford, Fiona Sze-Lorrain, William Jay Smith, Jean-Paul Daoust, Joël Hubaut, Sebastien Lespinasse, Marilyn Kaye, Saul Williams, Mary Duncan, Fred Coleman, Nelcya Delanoë, Jeffrey Greene, David Barnes, Kate Noakes,Cecilia Woloch, Heather Hartley, Chris Boïcos, Caty Lévêque, Seamus Heaney, Jérôme Mauche, Clarisse Herrenschmidt, Emmanuelle Pireyre, Alice Boatwright, Amanda Kantor, Catherine Von Handroff, Corinne Gaston, Melina Charis, Emily McPeek, Sari Rachel Forshner, Jackson Burgess, August Luhrs, Mallika Dhaliwal, Maria Peltekova, Tyler Ann McClure, Ruth Madievsky, Shelby DeWeese, Pinar Selek, Michelle Perrot, Florence Rochefort,  Michel Bozon, Jean O’Sullivan, Declan McCavana, Michael Craig Gradwell, Shakespeare and Co, Virginia Galvan, Chris Garrecht-Williams, Tino Villanueva, and Alejandro Murguía, Sue Chenette, Dylan Harris, Andrew Parkin, Catherine Cusset, Yves Cusset, François Cusset, Stephane Kirkland, Mark Gerchick, Michelle Perrot, Florence Rochefort, Michel Bozon, B.J. Novak, Nâzim Boudjenah, Darren Frey, Jeffrey Yang, Jonathan Regier, Chris Adrian, Meghan O’Rourke, Lily Robert-Foley, Lan Samantha Chang, David Downie, Geneviève Guilpain, Elaine Equi, Daniel Pozner, Harry Clifton, Vona Groarke, Derek Mahon, Théodor Storm, and more!

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Summer enrollment in BILINGUAL ACTING WORKSHOPs in Paris and New York is open! Visit: bilingualacting.com to learn more.

Musical Theater in English:

"Edges" is showing: June 13, 14, 15, 2013 (21h) June 26, 2013 (19h)
 July 3, 2013 (19h) At: L’Auguste Théâtre
 6, impasse Lamier, 75011 Paris 
Reservations: 01.48.78.06.68

"The Last Five Years" will be performed June 27, 28 (19h) July 6, 9, 10, 11, 2013 (21h) AT  L'Auguste Theater. 6, impasse Lamier, 75011 Paris 
Reservations: 01.48.78.06.68

 

ONGOING EVENTS:

MONDAYS: SpokenWord Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Stand up, monologues, stories, beat poetry: all kinds of spoken word welcomed, whether in English or Français; “Chacun a son mot à dire.” Make the words come alive. Acoustic songs also welcome. Sign up from 7.30pm in the bar. Poetics start from 8.30pm underground. Check out the Practical info page for more info. Themes:
June 3rd – Dying
June 10th – Rhymes
June 17th – Anticipation
June 24th – Dreams (Contest – see above) Follow the themes and your work could be published in the literary magazine ‘the Bastille’ which is affiliated with the group.  

THURSDAYS : Paris Lit Up Open Mic every Thursday (in English or any other language) Sign up is continuous all night, but first come first served from 19h30. The fun starts at 20h. Rotating hosts Jason Mc Gimsey, Kate Noakes, Emily Ruck-Keene. AT: Culture Rapide, at 103 Rue Julien Lacroix, 75020.

 

LIMITED TIME:

2 June – 9 June from 11h - 18h daily: See “Je m’existe” art show by Paris-based author and plasticienne Christine Herzer, To learn more about Christine Herzer’s work, see: http://christineherzer.tumblr.com/ and:  http://www.nyqpoets.net/poet/christineherzer and: http://honeymooninthefridge.tumblr.com/ AT: Gallerie Evi Gougenheim/Artplace 14, rue Coetlogon, 75006 Paris Metro: St Sulpice

2 June - 9 June THE TEMPEST by Shakespeare/La Tempête de Shakespeare.  En français.   Théâtre des Quartiers d’Ivry. Show times: 12h00 Tuesday 4 June (student matinee), 12h00 Wednesday 5 June (student matinee), 19h00 Wednesday 5 June, 12h00 Thursday 6 June (student matinee), 19h00 Thursday 6 June, 15h30 and 19h00 Saturday 8 June, 15h30 Sunday 9 June Tickets: €20 (concessions €15, under 14 years €12) For more information, visit: http://www.theatre-quartiers-ivry.com/en/la-saison/spectacles-a-ivry/p_spectacle-78/

  SELECTED EVENTS

2 June 11h FRENCH ENGLISH POETRY FESTIVAL MOVIE NIGHT: Festival franco-anglais de poésie: projection de films vidéo réalisés autour des poèmes de la Traductière n° 31 « Poèmes que nous sommes/ Domaine roumain », en collaboration avec le Festival international du film expérimental - FIFE 2013, organisé par l’artiste roumain Mircea Bochis et en collaboration avec le Festival international du film expérimental de Baia Mare, en Roumanie - Entrée : 6 € organisé avec le Festival franco-anglais de poésie AT : Cinéma La Pagode (Paris 7e), 57 rue de Babylone 75007 Paris, M° Saint-François-Xavier (13) 

 3 June 7pm Michelle de Kretser on Questions of Travel: Laura travels the world before returning to Sydney, where she works for a publisher of travel guides. Ravi dreams of being a tourist until he is driven from Sri Lanka by devastating events. Michelle de Kretser illuminates travel, work and modern dreams in this brilliant evocation of the way we live now. This event will be chaired by Craig Taylor, author of ‘Londoners’ and editor of the literary magazine, Five Dials. AT: Shakespeare and Company, 37, rue de la Bucherie, 75005. M° St Michel or Cluny la Sorbonne. http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/

 3 June at 7:30pm: Evening with an Author: Andrew Nagorski will present Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power. Nagorski's fascinating book explores a new aspect of this period in European history - through the perspectives of American diplomats, reporters, Olympic athletes and even U.S. citizens living in Germany who saw firsthand the construction of the Reich in real-time.AT: the AMERICAN LIBRARY in Paris, 10, rue du Général Camou 75007 Paris Metro: Ecole Militaire (line 8), Alma-Marceau (line 9), RER: Pont de l'Alma (line C), Bus Routes: 42, 63, 69, 80, 82, 87, 92

 

TUESDAY 4 Juin 2013 - 20h HERVE GUIBERT, LETTRES A EUGENE SAVITZKAYA  PAR YANNICK RENIER & PHILIPPE CALVARIO  http://festivalpoesie.wix.com/maisondelapoesie#!22--herv-guibert/ct0d Maison de la Poésie - Passage Molière - 157, rue Saint-Martin - 75003 Paris - Infos et Réservations  tél : 01 44 54 53 00 du mardi au samedi de 14h à 18 

 

4 June 19h30—Ivy Writers Paris SPECIAL event PERFORMANCE AND POETRY NIGHT with a performance by Carole Pereira, directed by Criona Laing based on a play written by poet and dramaturge David Lescot followed by readings by author, translator and Apogee press publishers and authors Edward Smallfield and Valerie Coulton. . AT: DELAVILLE cafe, 34 blvd Bonne Nouvelle, 75010 Paris, M° Bonne Nouvelle More info at : http://ivywritersparis.blogspot.fr/

 

4 June - 9 June. The Tower Theatre returns to the Théâtre de Verdure de Shakespeare au Jardin Pré-Catalan MAP with its production of “The Taming of the Shrew.”  IN ENGLISH.  For tickets see website  and contact   01 45 20 67 30 Jardin Shakespeare, Bois de Boulogne, Paris

UK’s Tower Theatre Company is coming back in June for their 22nd annual season at the Théâtre de Verdure in the Bois de Boulogne, this year performing The Taming of the Shrew, in English with French subtitles. 
The play’s essential questions are revitalized through Questions this production's setting in the “rock'n'roll years of the 1950s.”
PAN has purchased 10 tickets for the June 4^th performance at 7pm, group-rate, at 15€ each. 
To sign up and for further details please contact Tessa Smith at [email protected]. 

4 June à 19h Rencontre avec CHRISTELLE ROSAR pour son témoignage J’ai survécu à la psychiatrie (Max Milo) En présence de Martine Dutoit et Marie-Claude Saint-Pé, auteures de la postface et de Jeannine Chalot de l’association Advocacy. AT : la librairie Violette and Co, 102 rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris, M° Charonne ou Faidherbe-Chaligny. Bus 46, 56, 76, 86. tél : 01 43 72 16 07  www.violetteandco.com/librairie/

 

WEDNESDAY 5 June, à 19h30  Michèle Cohen-Halimi, Emmanuel Fournier, Martin Richet et Bénédicte Vilgrain.  AT:  la Librairie Corti, 11 rue de Médecis, Paris 6^ème, Entrée libre, http://www.jose-corti.fr/ et http://www.ericpestyediteur.com/

 

5 Juin - 20h GAZA, D'ICI-LA / TALK SAVER: FRANK SMITH & PIERRE GINER Lecture-performance multimedia Pour plus de détails: http://festivalpoesie.wix.com/maisondelapoesie#!23-franck-smith/c1prw

 

THURSDAY 6-9th June (all day and evenings too):  L'Irlande, pays invité du Marché de la Poésie:  Eavan Boland, Ciaran Carson, Eamon Grennan, Biddy Jenkinson, Medbh McGuckian, Maighréad Medbh, Paula Meehan, John Montague, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Joseph Woods. Together with readings and discussions, two new anthologies and two new collections in French translation will be launched. Find the programme for the Marché and its Périphérie at: www.poesie.evous.fr and more info on the Irish Cultural center events at: www.centreculturelirlandais.com

 

FRIDAY 7 June at 7 PM:  UPSTAIRS AT DUROC, readings TIMOTHY BRADFORD, CHRISTINE HERZER and FIONA SZE-LORRAIN.  at: Berkeley Books of Paris, 8 rue Casimir Delavigne, 75006 Paris, Metro Odéon.

 

SATURDAY  8 June from noon to 3pm. SOS Help's "buy a bag of books for 5 euros" sale at St Joe's Church, 50 avenue Hoche, 75008 Paris.

 

8 June. 15,00-16,00: American Library in Paris. William Jay Smith, former Poet Laureate of the United States, is pleased to offer a program of light verse and comic poetry to children and their parents at the American Library in Paris. He has written ten collections of poetry, two of which were nominated for the National Book Award. A part-time Parisian, Smith moves between his homes in Cummington, Massachusetts, and Paris, France. No sign-up necessary! 

Parents Welcome

 

8 June, 11h, 14h30, 16h30 (Events All Day): le collectif poésie is not dead, dans le cadre du Marché de la Poésie de Paris (programme complet en pièce jointe), vous invite à la performance Rimbaudmobile II : Le Retour (http://rimbaudmobile.blogspot.fr/ ). Les poètes Jean-Paul Daoust, Joël Hubaut et Sebastien Lespinasse accompagnés du musicien-improvisateur bricoleur de sons Thomas Fernier et des vidéastes Anne-Sophie Terrillon et Christophe Acker vous convient à passer quelques minutes avec nous : 11h00 : Parvis Beaubourg, fontaine Niki de Saint Phalle et Jean Tinguely : Sebastien Lespinasse et Thomas Fernier 14h30 : Place Colette : Jean-Paul Daoust et Thomas Fernier 16h30 : Place Stalingrad : Joël Hubaut et Thomas Fernier Captation vidéo : Anne-Sophie Terrillon et Christophe Acker Conception : FM

 

8 June. At WH SMITH. Book signing 
Saturday 8th June 2013
4-6pm 

Marilyn Kaye will sign
 her new novel for young adults
 GLOSS.

 

8 June 19h30 Artist Serene Wise will talk about her exhibition Homage to Daniel Buren. AT: the AMERICAN LIBRARY in Paris, 10, rue du Général Camou 75007 Paris Metro: Ecole Militaire (line 8), Alma-Marceau (line 9), RER: Pont de l'Alma (line C), Bus Routes: 42, 63, 69, 80, 82, 87, 92

 

SUNDAY9 June 6pm Saul Williams: American poet, singer, musician, writer and actor. Crossing boundaries and genres, his work promises to inspire. He won the title of Grand Slam Champion at the Nuyorican Poets Café in 1996, and has worked with musicians including Nas and Nine Inch Nails. He says poetry: “…is the window that opens, that allows some air in, some other insight, some other possibility so we can explore all that we feel...” AT: Shakespeare and Company, 37, rue de la Bucherie, 75005. M° St Michel or Cluny la Sorbonne. http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/

 

9 June at 7.30 pm MOVING PARTS presents an evening of short films in French by various authors (screen) AT: Carr's Pub & Restaurant, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris, Metro : Tuileries 

 

(Reminders)

 9 June from 11h - 18h Final day to see: “Je m’existe” art show by Paris-based author and plasticienne Christine Herzer, For more info on “je m'existe” and Christine Herzer’s work, see: http://christineherzer.tumblr.com/ and :  http://www.nyqpoets.net/poet/christineherzer and : http://honeymooninthefridge.tumblr.com/ AT: Gallerie Evi Gougenheim/Artplace 14, rue Coetlogon, 75006 Paris Metro: St Sulpice

 

MONDAY (Reminder)19h30- SpokenWord – open mic/scène ouverte: performance poetry, stand up, monologue, stories, beat poetry, sketches, songs, spoken word. Open to all languages. Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Run by David Barnes & Alberto Rigettini. http://spokenwordparis.org/

 

, JUNE 11, 2013 – 6:30 TO 8 pm AUTHORS MARY DUNCAN & FRED COLEMAN TALK ABOUT NAZI RESISTANCE IN FRANCE - Mary Duncan’s next book deals with the Jewish Resistance in Paris and Fred Coleman’s newly published, “The Marcel Network”, a Book of the Month Club selection last January, tells the story of a young French couple who selflessly saved hundreds of Jewish children from being deported during the German occupation. Free for PAN members, 5€ for non-members. To sign up please contact Mary Ann Rivet at [email protected] 

11 June à 19h Rencontre avec Nelcya Delanoë.  Ethno-historienne, traductrice, écrivain, Nelcya Delanoë est professeur honoraire des Universités. Elle a publié une dizaine de livres et de nombreuses traductions. AT: Librairie Michèle Ignazi 17, rue de Jouy 75004 Paris métro : Saint-Paul ou Pont-Marie

 

 12 June 6:00 p.m. Reading by Jerome Rothenberg AT: the gallery of Éditions Caractères, 7, rue de l’Arbalete, Paris

 

12 June 18h Please join us for a fantastic reading in celebration of the University of Southern California’s The Poet in Paris Program directed by poet and long-time part-time Paris resident Cecilia Woloch. With readings by USC The Poet in Paris faculty and friends Jeffrey Greene, David Barnes, Kate Noakes, and brief readings by Cecilia Woloch and Heather Hartley. Entrance is free, but audience members are expected to purchase at least one drink. AT: La Pierre Du Marais, 96 rue des Archives, 75003, Metro Arts et Metiers or Temple.

 

12 June at 7:30pm: ART TALK: Paris Art Studies lecturer Chris Boïcos returns to the Library to present the works of artist Marc Chagall reflecting themes from the exhibit Marc Chagall: Between War & Peace, now on view at the Musée du Luxembourg through 21 July. Boïcos takes us from Chagall’s Russian period in his hometown of Vitebsk during the First World War to his biblical paintings evoking the rise of the Nazism and onto his post-WWII life as a refugee in the U.S., showing how Chagall’s work embodies the strife of the 20th century. AT: the AMERICAN LIBRARY in Paris, 10, rue du Général Camou 75007 Paris Metro: Ecole Militaire (line 8), Alma-Marceau (line 9), RER: Pont de l'Alma (line C), Bus Routes: 42, 63, 69, 80, 82, 87, 92

 

12 Juin à 19h Vernissage de l’exposition d’œuvres de CATY LÉVÊQUE “La grande bibliothèque de Pétaouchnock” L’artiste Caty Lévêque et sa complice Fiona Britee ont entrepris de faire connaître Pétaouchnock, un pays avec sa culture, sa langue, sa géographie, son histoire et ses coutumes, comme un vrai pays ! L’exposition présente une série de livres sous cadres accompagnés de leur quatrième de couverture, prêtés par sa Grande Bibliothèque. A noter: les auteures de ces ouvrages ne sont que des femmes ; quoi d’étonnant dans ce pays dont la déesse préférée est Hypathie d’Alexandrie, mathématicienne et philosophe grecque. Pour plus de détails: www.petaouchnock.eu AT : la librairie Violette and Co, 102 rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris, M° Charonne ou Faidherbe-Chaligny. Bus 46, 56, 76, 86. tél : 01 43 72 16 07  www.violetteandco.com/librairie/

 

 13 June READING with Nobel laureate SEAMUS HEANEY! Seamus Heaney has published a dozen collections including Death of a Naturalist (1966), Door into the Dark (1969), Wintering Out (1972), Electric Light (2001), Human Chain (2011). Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature 1995 “for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth.” An Irishman himself, Heaney will read in the courtyard of the Centre Culturel Irlandais.  AT: The Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5, rue des Irlandais, 75005 Pars--RESERVATION STRONGLY RECOMMENDED FOR ALL EVENTS: see email on their site at:  For more info : www.centreculturelirlandais.com

 

13 Juin à 19h – entrée libre POÉSIE PLATE-FORME Jérôme Mauche reçoit Clarisse Herrenschmidt, anthropologue, et Emmanuelle Pireyre, écrivain.  AT: FONDATION D'ENTREPRISE RICARD, 12 rue Boissy d'Anglas 75008 Paris, Entrée libre du mardi au samedi de 11h à 19h www.fondation-entreprise-ricard.com

  

13 June 7pm ALICE BOATWRIGHT on Collateral Damage In Collateral Damage three linked novellas explore the lasting effects of the Vietnam War on people living in its shadow – including both those who fought and those who didn’t. These stories from one of American history’s most divisive eras show us that Vietnam may not be as far behind us as we think. A Small Press Distribution summer bestseller in 2012, Collateral Damage received the Bronze Medal for Literary Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards in May 2013. It was also a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. For more information: www.collateraldamage.us AT: Shakespeare and Company, 37, rue de la Bucherie, 75005. M° St Michel or Cluny la Sorbonne. http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/ 

 

(Reminder) 

13 June 19h30-00h00 PARIS LIT UP Open Mic every Thursday (in English or other languages too – when in Rome, speak French) Sign up is continuous all night, but first come first served from 19h30.  Rotating hosts Jason Mc Gimsey, Kate Noakes, Emily Ruck-Keene. AT: the historic home of French Slam poetry, Culture Rapide, at 103 Rue Julien Lacroix, 75020.

 

 14 June 17h30 to 19h30 Please join us for a fabulous reading in celebration of the University of Southern California’s The Poet in Paris Program directed by poet and long-time part-time Paris resident Cecilia Woloch. Thirteen talented and spirited creative writing students read poems written over their month-long stay in Paris: AMANDA KANTOR, CATHERINE VON HANDORFF, CORINNE GASTON, MELINA CHARIS, EMILY McPEEK, SARI RACHEL FORSHNER, JACKSON BURGESS, AUGUST LUHRS, MALLIKA DHALIWAL, MARIA PELTEKOVA, TYLER ANN McCLURE, RUTH MADIEVSKY and SHELBY DeWEESE. Food and beverages available for purchase. at Le Café Rouge, 32, rue de Picardie, 75003, Metro Arts et Metiers or Temple.

  

14 June 7.30pm Shakespeare and Co Production of Much Ado About Nothing. Taking place right outside the Shakespeare and Co., the play revitalizes Shakespeare's classic comedy. AT: Shakespeare and Company, 37, rue de la Bucherie, 75005. M° St Michel or Cluny la Sorbonne. http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/ 

 

14 Juin à 19h Rencontre avec PINAR SELEK pour son roman La maison du Bosphore (L. Lévi) A Istanbul, quatre jeunes épris de liberté cherchent leur place dans une société figée depuis le coup d’État de 1980. La condition des femmes et des minorités, les conventions sociales, l’oppression politique : tout leur pèse. Premier roman de P. Selek, sociologue, militante féministe et pacifique turque, exilée en France après avoir été accusée à tort de terrorisme et subi un imbroglio juridique qui l’a condamnée en janvier dernier lors d’un procès inique. AT: la librairie Violette and Co, 102 rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris, M° Charonne ou Faidherbe-Chaligny. Bus 46, 56, 76, 86. tél : 01 43 72 16 07  www.violetteandco.com/librairie/ 

15 Juin à 19h Rencontre avec MICHELLE PERROT, FLORENCE ROCHEFORT et MICHEL BOZON pour leur ouvrage Au bazar du genre : féminin et masculin en Méditerranée (Textuel) Mercredi AT : la librairie Violette and Co, 102 rue de Charonne, 75011 Paris, M° Charonne ou Faidherbe-Chaligny. Bus 46, 56, 76, 86. tél : 01 43 72 16 07  www.violetteandco.com/librairie/ 

 

16 June--Littérature  « Bloomsday in Paris » présenté par le Paris Bloomsday Group The Paris Bloomsday Group – JEAN O’SULLIVAN, DECLAN McCAVANA and MICHAEL CRAIG GRADWELL - perform readings and songs from James Joyce's work, striving to make Joyce accessible to all. Their Bloomsday 2013 programme, features guest artist Rosena Horan. Bring a picnic and come in 1900s costume if the fancy strikes you. Lyrics are provided! AT: The Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5, rue des Irlandais, 75005 Pars--RESERVATION STRONGLY RECOMMENDED FOR ALL EVENTS. For more info: www.centreculturelirlandais.com

 

16th June at 6pm Paris Literary Prize ceremony! To celebrate the winning entries of our international novella competition for unpublished writers, the three winners will be reading a selection from their works for the first time in public. Seats are LIMITED and will be allocated via RSVP to [email protected]  (email title: 'RSVP Prize Ceremony - Reservation'). Reservations will be held until 5.45pm, after which they will be reallocated.  Extra seating outside the shop, weather permitting. AT: Shakespeare and Company, 37, rue de la Bucherie, 75005. M° St Michel or Cluny la Sorbonne. http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/

 

16 June à 18h: Virginia Galvan interprètera des textes issus du site. Ceci sera complété par une lecture par l'auteur. Ce travail est issu d'une collaboration artistique entre Virginia Galvan, Frédéric Benhaim et Linda Blanchet (Compagnie Hanna R.).  Au Théâtre le Passage vers les étoiles, 17 cité Joly, M° Père Lachaise. Contribution libre, inscription : [email protected]

17th June 7pm A summer’s evening of verse with three wonderful poets – CHRIS GARRECHT-WILLIAMS, TINO VILLANUEVA, and ALEJANDRO Murguía, the San Francisco Poet Laureate.  AT: Shakespeare and Company, 37, rue de la Bucherie, 75005. M° St Michel or Cluny la Sorbonne. http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/ 

 

(Reminder)

17 June 19h30- SpokenWord – open mic/scène ouverte: performance poetry, stand up, monologue, stories, beat poetry, sketches, songs, spoken word. Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Run by David Barnes & Alberto Rigettini. http://spokenwordparis.org/

 

TUESDAY 18 June at 7 p.m. POETS LIVE reading with SUE CHENETTE (Canadian poet), DYLAN HARRIS (British poet and publisher based in Luxemborg) and ANDREW PARKIN. AT: Carr’s Pub,1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris, Métro: Tuileries or Concorde.

 

18 Juin prochain À 19H30, dans le cadre des Mille-Feuilles au restaurant Le Trumilou [84 quai de l’Hôtel de Ville – 75004 Paris, métros: Pont-Marie ou Hôtel-de-Ville], nous pourrons rencontrer et entendre: Catherine CUSSET, romancière, essayiste, pour :  Indigo, dixième roman, Gallimard, 2013, Yves CUSSET, philosophe, enseignant, écrivain et comédien, pour: La Vie rêvée des philosophes – Biographies extravagantes, François Bourin, 2012, François CUSSET, historien, enseignant et écrivain, pour: À l’abri du déclin du monde, roman, P.O.L, 2012. Ces trois livres seront disponibles sur place grâce à la Librairie LA BELLE LURETTE, sise 26 rue Saint-Antoine – 75004 Paris. IL EST IMPÉRATIF DE RÉSERVER (au moins 5 JOURS à l'avance) :06 08 43 50 53 ou [email protected]

 

18 June 19h30 Evenings with an Author: architect STEPHANE KIRKLAND talks about the making of a modern city in his book Paris Reborn. About the book: The French capital underwent an epic transformation in the second half of the 19th century, led by Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, following the vision of Napoleon III. In his book Paris Reborn: Napoléon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City, author and architect Stephane Kirkland takes us through the evolution of Paris, the politics of its urban design and the controversy surrounding the massive project. AT: the AMERICAN LIBRARY in Paris, 10, rue du Général Camou 75007 Paris Metro: Ecole Militaire (line 8), Alma-Marceau (line 9), RER: Pont de l'Alma (line C), Bus Routes: 42, 63, 69, 80, 82, 87, 92

 

MERCREDI

19 June at 19h30: Evenings with an Author: aviation expert MARK GERCHICK’s book, Full Upright and Locked Positions: Not-So-Comfortable Truths about Air Travel Today, gives readers an inside view of the changes in air travel since 9/11. He gives a procedural look at how the business works from the inside out, as well as the politics and perspectives on all sides of this issue that affects all air travelers. AT: the AMERICAN LIBRARY in Paris, 10, rue du Général Camou 75007 Paris Metro: Ecole Militaire (line 8), Alma-Marceau (line 9), RER: Pont de l'Alma (line C), Bus Routes: 42, 63, 69, 80, 82, 87, 92

 

19 Juin à 19h Rencontre avec MICHELLE PERROT, FLORENCE ROCHEFORT et MICHEL BOZON pour leur ouvrage qu’il-elles ont co-coordonné Au bazar du genre: féminin et masculin en Méditerranée Cet ouvrage interroge les multiples façons d’être homme ou femme dans l’espace méditerranéen et redessine les contours d’un ordre des sexes bouleversé : mutations démographiques et maîtrise de la fécondité, revendications des femmes et des minorités sexuelles, rites, normes et nouveaux modèles, représentations culturelles... M. Perrot et F. Rochefort sont historiennes. M. Bozon est sociologue.

20 June 19h30-00h00 Paris Lit Up Open Mic every Thursday (in English or other languages too) AT: the historic home of French Slam poetry, Culture Rapide, at 103 Rue Julien Lacroix, 75020. Featured reader this week is Joe Ross.

 20 June 7pm B.J. NOVAK (of TV’s “The Office”). B.J. Novak is an actor, writer, and comedian, best known for his contributions to Emmy Award-winning comedy ‘The Office’. First discovered as a stand-up comedian, Novak continues to perform live at theatres, clubs, and universities. For this event, he will be workshopping his first book, a work of comedic fiction, scheduled to be published by Knopf in 2014. AT: Shakespeare and Company, 37, rue de la Bucherie, 75005. M° St Michel or Cluny la Sorbonne. http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/ 

  

20 Juin à 19h30 Lecture par Nâzim Boudjenah de « Ici dans ça » de Mathieu Brosseau. « Nous en savons beaucoup trop, bien trop pour être menacés, bien assez pour mourir à petit feu par le poison, nous n'appartenons pas au monde car le monde ne nous appartient pas, il y a une symétrie dans l'exercice de la propriété, un vol a été perpétré, celui d'une parcelle de l'âme, nous possédons ce qui nous possède dans la fiction de nous-mêmes, nous sommes des vendus et la parole nous tient par la gorge, nulle fuite possible, nous revenons d'un pays où nulle propriété ne fait loi, nous sommes en exil et la pensée nous charrie. » Ici dans ça. Page 45. AT: la médiathèque Marguerite Duras  (Paris, 20e). M° Porte de Bagnolet 

 

21st June 6pm Philosopher in the library, DARREN FREY, for his book Dr. Heidegger or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb: How folk psychology and actual empirical research suggest that technology impacts our ways of thinking. This talk will present the questions concerning technology that Heidegger thought were most important while outlining the general contours of his own thought. AT: Shakespeare and Company, 37, rue de la Bucherie, 75005. M° St Michel or Cluny la Sorbonne. http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/ 

24 June at 19h30—New Directions editor, poet, translator and reviewer for the NYT Review of books JEFFREY YANG and Paris-based poet JONATHAN REGIER participate in Ivy Writers Paris’ celebration of COLOR TREASURY 002, "Rotation" by Jonathan Regier and Color Treasury 003, Newspaper, a compilation of 25 visual artists and poets, both designed and published by Sarah Lariviere. Readings will include CT003 contributors Jeffrey Yang, Jonathan Regier, Sarah Lariviere, Christine Herzer, Jennifer K Dick and Jacob Bromberg. Bios: JEFFREY YANG is the author of the poetry books Vanishing-Line and An Aquarium, the translator of Liu Xiaobo's June Fourth Elegies and Su Shi's East Slope, and the editor of Time of Grief: Mourning Poems and Birds, Beasts, & Seas: Nature Poems from New Directions. JONATHAN REGIER’s first book of poetry was published by Six Gallery Press (Pittsburgh, PA) in 2008. Recently, his poetry has appeared in journals such as Diagram, Upstairs at Duroc,  or elimae, and his essays and book reviews have appeared in Drunken Boat and the Huffington Post. For more: http://ivywritersparis.blogspot.com Join our FB group on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/101898279922603/?fref=ts AT: DELAVILLE cafe, 34 blvd Bonne Nouvelle, 75010 Paris, M° Bonne Nouvelle

24 June 19h30- SpokenWord – open mic/scène ouverte: Primarily in English but open-minded. Sign up in the bar from 7.30pm for your 5 minutes of fame. Poetics begin underground from 8.30pm. Make the words come alive. Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Run by David Barnes & Alberto Rigettini. http://spokenwordparis.org/

 24 June 7.30pm lectures de Chris Adrian and Meghan O’Rourke (in collaboration with NYU summer program) Meghan O'Rourke is the author of The Long Goodbye (Riverhead), a memoir about grief, and the poetry collections Once and Halflife (W.W. Norton). A former poetry editor for The Paris Review, she is also a culture critic for Slate magazine and a founding editor of the web site Double X. She is the recipient of the 2008 May Sarton Poetry Prize. Her essays and poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, Best American Poetry, 32 Poems, and more. Chris Adrian is the author of a short story collection, A Better Angel, and three novels, Gob's Grief, The Children's Hospital, and The Great Night. He was selected as one of The New Yorker's 20 writers under 40. AT: Shakespeare and Company, 37, rue de la Bucherie, 75005. M° St Michel or Cluny la Sorbonne. http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/ 

 

25 June 19h: Corrupt Press author’s book release: m by Lily Robert-Foley; published by Corrupt Press (http://corruptpress.net/ ) M is a collaged poetic exploration and echo in the poetry of Lily Robert-Foley of Samuel Beckett’s works published by Faber & Faber and LES EDITIONS DE MINUIT S.A.: The Unnamable / Poèmes - collages à partir de L’Innommable. Get your copy HOT OFF THE PRESS at this event which will take place AT: La Mutinerie, 176 178 rue Saint Martin, 75003 Paris

 

25 June 19h30 Evenings with an Author: Novelist and Director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop LAN SAMANTHA CHANG, On Writing As the Director of the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop, Lan Samantha Chang will discuss the art of writing at the Library. Chang is also the 2013 Distinguished Writers-in-Residence with WICE, and will be teaching the fiction/novel course for the WICE 2013 Summer Writing Course.  About the Author: Lan Samantha Chang is the author of a collection of short fiction, Hunger, and two novels, Inheritance and All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost. Her work has been translated into nine languages and has been chosen twice for The Best American Short Stories. She has received creative writing fellowships from Stanford University, Princeton University, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. AT: the AMERICAN LIBRARY in Paris, 10, rue du Général Camou 75007 Paris Metro: Ecole Militaire (line 8), Alma-Marceau (line 9), RER: Pont de l'Alma (line C), Bus Routes: 42, 63, 69, 80, 82, 87, 92

 

MERCREDI

26 June at 19h30 Evenings with an Author: DAVID DOWNIE will present his book Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James. AT: the AMERICAN LIBRARY in Paris, 10, rue du Général Camou 75007 Paris Metro: Ecole Militaire (line 8), Alma-Marceau (line 9), RER: Pont de l'Alma (line C), Bus Routes: 42, 63, 69, 80, 82, 87, 92

 

26 Juin à 19h Rencontre avec GENEVIÈVE GUILPAIN pour la parution de son essai Les célibataires, des femmes singulières (L’Harmattan)Invisibles sur la scène sociale et historique, alors qu’elles se sont souvent exprimés par leurs journaux intimes, leurs fictions ou essais philosophiques et féministes, les femmes célibataires sont d’excellentes observatrices de la scène sociale et du jeu des rapports de sexe.

27 Juin à 19h30 BILINGUAL ENGLISH FRENCH READING WITH Double Change vous invite à une lecture de Elaine EQUI et Daniel POZNER. A l'occasion de la parution de Trois mots. Daniel Pozner en fera une lecture accompagné de Sarah MAHE-CARMONA aux percussions. BIOS : ELAINE EQUI a publié de nombreux livres de poésie dont Voice-Over qui a remporté le prix San Francisco State Poetry Award, Ripple Effect: New & Selected Poems, pré-sélectionné pour le L.A. Times Book Award et le Griffin Poetry Prize, et, plus récemment, Click and Clone. Les textes d’Elaine Equi ont paru dans de nombreuses anthologies ainsi que dans des publications comme The Nation, Poetry, The New Yorker, et plusieurs éditions de The Best American Poetry. Elaine Equi enseigne à New York University et dans les programmes de Master of Fine Arts de The New School et du City College of New York. DANIEL POZNER est l’auteur de plusieurs livres de poèmes, notamment Pft ! (Le Quartanier, 2009), Les animaux de Camin (Derrière la salle de bains, 2009), Le géographe est ailleurs (Passage d’encres, 2010). Lecture bilingue. Entrée libre. www.doublechange.org AT: GALERIE JÉRÔME POGGI + OBJET DE PRODUCTION, 115/117, rue La Fayette – 75010 Paris - Tél. : + 33 (0)9 51 02 51 88 M° Gare du Nord ou Poissonnière – Parking Vinci rue des Petits Hôtels http://www.galeriepoggi.com

 

27 June: An evening of POETRY and MUSIC to close off the month of Marche de la Poésie’s around the marché events. The final magical evening of the Festival de la Périphérie in which Ireland was particularly honoured during the Marché de la Poésie will take place at the CCI. Poetry by Harry Clifton, Vona Groarke and Derek Mahon and sweet music will be followed by a buffet under the stars, sheltered by the enfolding wings of the historic old Irish College. AT: The Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5, rue des Irlandais, 75005 Pars--RESERVATION STRONGLY RECOMMENDED FOR ALL EVENTS. For more: www.centreculturelirlandais.com

 

27 June 19h30-00h00 Paris Lit Up Open Mic every Thursday. Rotating hosts Jason Mc Gimsey, Kate Noakes, Emily Ruck-Keene. AT: the historic home of French Slam poetry, Culture Rapide, at 103 Rue Julien Lacroix, 75020. Featured reader this week is Claire Dyer.

 

28 juin 17h, SALON LITÉRAIRE – THÉODOR STORM, accompagnée d’une diffusion du film. L’auteur de la biographie du poète, Jochen Missfeldt, présentera son livre « Du Graue Stadt Am Meer – Der Dichter Theodor Storm in seinem Jahrhundert ». Le salon sera tenu en langue allemande. Une interprétation simultanée sera assurée. – Goethe Institut, 17 avenue d’Iéna, 75116 Paris, Métro ligne 9, Iéna, entrée libre.

 

28 June (ALL DAY) Intoxication 2013 (at Granville Barker room, 4th floor, University of London Institute in Paris, 9-11 rue de Constantine, 7th arrondissement, Paris (Métro: Invalides). This conference considers the relationship of intoxication to writing produced both in French and in France. Panel Topics include: Intoxication in the Nineteenth-Century, Paris, Capital of Intoxication, Poetic Intoxications, Dipsomaniacal novel(ist)s, Biopolitical Intoxications and Critiques of Intoxication in Theory and Politics. Simone Paterman (Université Paris VIII), will lecture on ‘L’abstinence créatrice. Les errances de Jack Kerouac et d’Henry Miller à Paris’.

Visit: http://intoxicationinparis.wordpress.com

 

29 June—REID READ annual poetry translation seminar closes the season for many locals with an annual event, often in the lovely garden at Reid Hall. This year will feature readings by a number of French and Anglophone authors. Details will be posted soon.

 

See you next month! – Jacqueline Leahy

The Philip K. Dick European Science Fiction Film Festival to Come to France : call for submissions

This fall, French Sci-fi fans are in for a treat: three days of events in honor of Philip K Dick are planned in Lille, France from October 25-27, 2013 at the famous L'Hybride Cinema venue.

Festival organizers are issuing a call for submissions in science fiction and horror features and shorts. Writers and panelists will be invited to participate.

Philip k. Dick was the visionary author of behind such film classics as:

• Blade Runner (1982), based on Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,
• Total Recall (1990), based on the short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", 
• Confessions d'un Barjo (1992), titled Barjo in its English-language release, a French film based on Dick's non-science-fiction novel Confessions of a Crap Artist.
• Screamers (1995), based on Dick's short story "Second Variety",
• Minority Report (2002), based on Dick's short story of "The Minority Report", 
• "Impostor" ( adapted twice: first in 1962 for the British anthology television series Out of This World and then in 2002 for the movie Impostor)
• Paycheck (2003), , based on Dick's short story of the same name.
• A Scanner Darkly (2006), based on Dick's novel of the same name. 
• Next (2007),  loosely based on the short story "The Golden Man".

 to name but a few. I

For more information see:  The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival Expands To France by france.broadwayworld.comA three-day event will mark the first of many worldwide gatherings in the beautiful and historic Lille, France from October 25-27, 2013 at the famous L'Hybride Cinema venue.

 

A three-day event will mark the first of many worldwide gatherings in the beautiful and historic Lille, France from October 25-27, 2013 at the famous L'Hybride Cinema venue.

Read more about The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival Expands To France by france.broadwayworld.com

 

French cultural icon Bernard Pivot debates impact of English in French universities w Peter Gumbel, Vincent Berger

 

Will allowing French universities to teach some classes in English endanger the French language?

Debate (in French) on Arte with Elisabeth Quin, Renaud Dély, Nadia Daam, Bernard Pivot, Peter Gumbel, and Vincent Berger.

(sorry, Arte seems to have removed the video today.)

 

Bac 2013 English orals - what grade for French politicians?

In 2013 French high school students must pass an oral exam in English. Many are terrified.  Judging from the performances of the highest ranking French policians, they shouldn't be.

President François Hollande (an HEC - ENA - Sciences Po grad who got a 16 in English on the ENA entrance exam - and who signed a personal letter to Barack Obama "friendly")

 

President Nicolas Sarkozy

 

 

 

 

 Prime Minister Jean- Pierre Raffarin.

 

Will Peugeot die?

 
Five  billion euros in losses in 2012, 11,000 layoffs in France planned by 2014, saddled with overcapacity in a shrinking European car market, how long can asset sales and French government aid keep PSA - and the tens of thousands of suppliers that depend on it - afloat?

Car companies have been saved before. But France's industrial policy is in stunning disarray. Worse, Europe is wary.

What future for France's automaker?

A short press review.

Bloomsberg Businessweek

Fiat, Peugeot Miss Out as Europe Auto Sales Gain Fri May 17, 2013

Peugeot Sees Europe Car Market Stabilizing at Low Delivery Level Wed May 22, 2013

Peugeot Unions Back Job-Cuts Plan as European Deliveries Decline Mon April 29, 2013,

Peugeot Settles With CGT Union on Terms of Factory Shutdown (1) Fri May 17, 2013,

Peugeot Restructuring Plan Faces In-Depth EU Antitrust Probe (2)Thu May 02, 2013, 8:1

 

European Commission investigates Peugeot state aid Thu May 02, 2013

Europe's Carmakers Want to Shrink. Unions Stand in the Way Thu March 07, 2013,

Layoffs at Peugeot Signal France's Deepening Problems Thu July 12, 2012,

 

La Tribune

Le marché auto français toujours en panne en mai

Les immatriculations de voitures neuves en France ont reculé de 9,5% sur les trois premières semaines de mai, selon des chiffres officieux. Renault plonge, malgré le succès de sa marque roumaine à bas prix Dacia. Peugeot reste quasi-stable 

La Commission européenne ouvre une enquête sur PSA

Bruxelles veut vérifier si les aides accordées par l'Etat français au constructeur automobile respecte les règles en vigueur dans l'Union. 

Réunion décevante entre PSA, l'Etat et les syndicats, sur l'avenir du site de Rennes

La troisième réunion tripartite sur l'avenir du site de PSA à Rennes a été jugée très décevante par la CFDT. 1.400 suppressions d'emplois y sont prévues. Certains redoutent mettent une fermeture du site à terme. 

FT 

Apr 24 2013 15:59 BST Peugeot pledges to curb cash burn as car sales plunge

PSA Peugeot Citroën suffered a 10.3 per cent decline in first-quarter car sales because of plunging demand in Europe but insisted it could still halve the rate at which it is burning through cash. But the ailing French carmaker warned that it would need to embark on further "operational initiatives"By James Boxell in Paris

May 17 2013 23:36 BST Car sales drive European stocks near five-year high

Car sales figures helped auto companies lead European stocks higher this week, and move closer to a five-year high. The data, released on Friday, showed sales ended an 18-month falling streak in April. New registrations in the EU rose 1.7 per cent compared with a year earlier. Renault rose 17By Conor Sullivan

The Economist

PSA Peugeot-Citroën’s troubles - Running out of road - Another dire warning for Europe’s carmakers

 

Zero Hedge

Germany's Revenge: Peugeot German New Car Registrations Collapse by 41%

Peugeot (the large French car manufacturer) have plunged year-over-year. Now down over 40% in the last ... Montebourg, Montebourg : my Ministry for a Peugeot!  No problem.  The French No problem.  The French ... Peugeot--1 month to assemble and 35 months break time. High frequency High frequency commenting..You ...

Story - Tyler Durden - 03/04/2013 - 12:24 - 66 comments - 0 attachments

Peugeot, Its Record High Default Probability, And A Brief Primer On Corporate Viability Under Socialism

past few weeks: namely the case study of emblematic French automaker Peugeot , which just happens to ... nearly doubled from 29% to 52% in a few short months. Yet what is it about Peugeot that is interesting - ... May after pledging to block a “parade of firings,” said July 14 he would lean on Peugeot to rework ...

Paris failing to protect tourists from pickpockets and other criminals

The unwritten rule among Paris bloggers is not to "burst the bubble". For many visitors - especially Americans - Paris represents a gorgeous dream, and a visit here is often a culmination of considerable effort and expense, in search of a glimpse of a better, more beautiful, higher way of living.  It is, among those who write regularly about France, considered cruel and unnecessary to undermine these innocent desires.

However, a dear friend of mine was recently pickpocketed for the second time on a bus, joining the thousands of tourists who get robbed every year in the capital, often by criminal gangs that work openly using the same techniques again and again, risking - giving the vagaries of the French justice system - basically nothing.

In fact, if you have a free moment, you can take a ride on the 1 line and watch the youngest pickpockets at work. Or, if the sun is shining, enjoy the sight of teenaged gangs relieving happy, jet-lagged tourists of their wallets with the famous fake petition trick around the Comédie Française.

These attacks on defenseless tourists are so common that they rarely even make the news - unless, as yesterday, it is a member of former president Clinton's inner circle who is attacked. (On the Champs Elysées, withdrawing money from an ATM, with the old "distract the target with a fake petition" ploy)

"C'est un vol à la tire, comme malheureusement il y en a beaucoup à cet endroit", selon une source policière, quotes le Figaro in today's "Un conseiller de Clinton dépouillé à Paris.

Earlier this week it was a Chinese film mogul who complained about the lack of security in France. After his room was robbed at a Pierre et Vacances in Cannes, he said the manager offered no help whatsoever, abandoning him to figure out how to deal with the police and papers on his own. A treatment which so outraged film industry people that Hollywood Reporter picked up the story (see China Film Group vice president Zhang Qiang had all of his luggage stolen from his rented Cote d'Azur apartment, leading the senior exec to tweet: “This film festival is not worth mentioning!”)

Usually, however, victims are just tourists not worth a mention and the crimes shrugged off as "normal".

Last month, in an exceptional event, workers at the Louvre shut down the entire museum, so sick they were of watching tourists get robbed and fearful for their own security (see Le "ras-le-bol" des agents du Louvre face aux vols des mineurs roumains in Le Monde)

Only a massive police presence on the streets of Paris prevents the problem from being even worse. But the "forces of order" can only do so much. Underage pickpockets are systematically released and even the most hardened repeat adult offenders rarely incarcerated for long. After long investigation, the police managed to break up an organized crime group that forced gypsy children into pickpocket slavery - and despite the severity of the crime (child slavery?) the judge accorded only the lightest sentence to the adult kingpin.(see Le gang Hamidovic jugé pour traite d'êtres humains in Nouvel Observateur)

Paris bloggers who try to warn their readers about these criminals by describing them and their tactics specifically run the risk of being criticized for being downers - or even worse and highly unfairly - racists.

But is putting our heads in the sand really the best we can offer the tourists who flock here to enjoy the City of Lights?

 

 

 

What if your moment came- and you didn't know what to do?

François Hollande was elected to the French presidency on the flamby promise to close his eyes and plug his ears and yell ee eee ee eee eee eee eee until the Dragon of  Reality got bored and went away.

Now it's been a year, and the charmingly wishful ee eee ee eee eee eee eee policy is under strain.  Instead of disappearing in a puff, the Dragon of Reality, contrary to expectations, has been devouring everything in sight. This is bad news. For France. For the left. For the President himself. No one is more stunned than Mr Hollande's supporters - who now slam him for his lack of faith. Shout ee eee ee eee eee eee eee louder, you flabby infidel! they cry.

It's like watching a theater full of children clapping frantically to save Tinkerbell, only to see her, not just die, but get hit by a bus, and thrown into a boiling poisonous river, where she is ripped apart by that awful crocodile with the clock ticking inside him.

Imagine the trauma.

This, in short, is the psychological position of the French left today.

What is the Dragon of Reality? (Or the ticking clock) Take your pick:

unemployment, or

unfunded pensions or

massive government overspending, or

a dying industrial base, or

excessive costs to employers, or

endemic corruption, or

disheveled universities, or

inegalitarian schools, or

polluted water, deadly seaweed and lost and dying bees, or repeat violent offenders, or

the unspeakable horrors of foreign languages...

Poor François. Unable to sustain the fiction that he was stupid enough to believe his own promises, he started plummeting in the poles only weeks after entering office, and, like that cool Mad Man suit guy, has only accelerated since (but way less cool).

Splat, the one word on everyone's lips, makes no sense in French, where one talks of deserts to be crossed and waiting for one's moment.

What if one's moment is here and one has not the slightest idea what to do with it?

What if one is not the right man for the job?

What France needs, more than a man of incessant action, is a calm yet steely explainer-in-chief, someone who can put France's troubles in context, carefully showing how France got into them and how France can get back out.

But for that to happen, François Hollande must first acknowledge that Reality is not the enemy - false, wishful and crazy thinking about Reality is.

Consequently, his first arrow must be destined for the hallucinations of his own political base: the people who cast their vote for him in the absurd and touching hope that believing in miracles will make it so.

His second arrow should be aimed at incompetence in his own ranks - Hollande has assembled the least experienced crew of "broken arms" we've seen in 25 years. Hardly anyone has any idea of what goes on in the private sector, how companies function, what is takes to produce, distribute and market goods and services. This lack of basic knowledge of the world is killing. Time to bring in some people who know what they're doing. 

 His third arrow should go straight to the heart of ideology. In nearly every sector - most visibly education - ideology has trumped basic pragmatism. The preference for the theoretical over the real is a traditional French disease, but under Hollande it's grown to devastating proportions.

THE GOOD NEWS is that it should be easier for François Hollande to apply common sense than it was for his predecessor: he has only his own supporters to overcome - and not an insanely irresponsible opposition.

 

 

Literary Events, Readings and New Books in Paris May 2013

This month, news from Peter Gumbel, Barry Kirwan, Nancy Kricorian, Roderick d'Entrac, Cathy Altman Nocquet, Douglas Kennedy, Nathalie Bassand, Edward Rutherfurd, Ann Saul, Rupert Thomson, Elena Nesti, Rosemary Flannery, Elliot Perlman,  Elena Nesti, Ben Fountain, Kate Noakes, Jerome Charyn, Linda Lappin, Roy Lisker, Margaret Aldridge, David Barnes, Alice Boatwright,  the Over 50s contest, the Prada contest, Moving Parts, Paris Lit Up, the Paris Prize, the Novella Contest, and more…  (update in progress)

 

NEW BOOKS from Paris Writers

 

Eden's Revenge by Barry Kirwan, the thrilling third book in The Eden Paradox Series ("“Brilliant plotting, sizzling action, awe-inspiring aliens")

 

Paris to the Pyrenees : a Skeptical Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James by David Downie  ("Motivated not by God, but by nearly everything else, American author David Downie traveled hundreds of miles on foot across France." NPR)

Elite Academie: Enquête sur la France Malade de ses Grandes Ecoles by Peter Gumbel, also available in English as France's Got Talent (May 15); From the bestselling author of They Shoot Schoolchildren, Don't They?

 

Paris to Provence: Childhood Memories of Food & France Ethel Brennan and Sara Remington ("partly a travelogue and part cookbook.. beautifully photographed")

 

Five Days by Douglas Kennedy ("a brilliant meditation on regret, fidelity, family, and second chances")

Paris Night by Roderick d'Entrac ("a highly topical thriller")

 

NEWS: Alice Boatwright's Collateral Damage received the Bronze Medal for Literary Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. The award ceremony will be on 29 May in New York City.

 

Selected Literary Events in Paris this May

 (for more events - especially poetry, music, bilingual readings  and literary in French - please see the excellent Paris Readings and Events)

Sunday, 5th May 2013 at 7.30 pm MOVING  PARTS presents presents 3 one-act plays SES PLUMES COMME DE LA NEIGE by Nathalie Bassand with YANNICK ROCHER, GEN SHIMAOKA and PABLO DIAZ,  BITE  THE  APPLE by Elena Nesti with KRISTINA DEKENS and CARLINE LEMIRE, and CHANGING TABLES by  Elena Nesti with JOLAINE BEAL at Carr's Pub & Restaurant 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries

 

May 5 and 6:  The May Used Book Sale The Library’s first-weekend-of-the-month book sales are getting bigger and bigger.. Most books at €3, €2, and €1! For details on how to donate books to the Library, see the Book Bags & Book Donations page on our website. American Library in Paris

6 May 7 pm: Rupert Thomson on Secrecy Shakespeare and  Company

 

May 6th – Danger – Spoken word  Open mic/scène ouverte: Performance poetry. Lire vivant. Poésie sonore. Stand up. Monologue. Stories. Beat poetry. Spoken word. English. Français. Your own original texts. Old texts from Rimbaud to Dr Seuss, Beowulf to Gil Scott-Heron. Chacun a son mot à dire. Make the words come alive. Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Sign up from 7.30pm in the bar. Poetics start from 8.30pm underground. Check out the Practical info page for more info.

 

Tuesday 14 May   19h30 Ben Fountain presents Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. American Library in P aris

 

Tuesday 14 May  3-5pm  Rosemary Flannery will speaking about her book, Angels of Paris,  upstairs at La Pierre du Marais, Corner of rue des Archives and rue de Bretagne  75003.   3:00 - 5:00pm. 

May 15th from 3:30-5pm Cathy Altman Nocquet will sign her book Write Outside the Lines AT  L'Emile Booksore in Paris ave Emile Zola in the 15th 


Wednesday 15 May   19h30 Nancy Kricorian reveals the Armenian immigrant experience in Paris in All the Light There Was. American Library in Paris

15 May 7 pm:  Ben Fountain on Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk Shakespeare and  Company

 

Friday 17th May 7:00pm Elliot Perlman on The Street Sweeper. Shakespeare and  Company

Tuesday 21 May   19h30 Jerome Charyn tells a tale of Emily Dickinson in The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson. American Library in Paris

Wednesday 22 May   19h30 Ann Saul presents and discusses the work of Danish-French artist Camille Pissarro in Pissarro's Places. American Library in Paris

Thursday, May 23rd 6 p.m. POETS Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar & Cecilia Woloch will read their work in conjunction with the University of Southern California’s The Poet in Paris Program, directed by poet and long-time part-time Paris resident Cecilia Woloch. Entrance is free with one drink minimum! AT La Pierre Du Marais, 96 rue des Archives 75003/ M: Arts et Metiers or Temple

 26th May MOVING PARTS play reading Roy Lisker's "Commerce and Illusions" Carr's Pub & Restaurant 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries          

Sunday 26th May 6:00pm Carol Ann Duffy, one of the most important and best-loved voices in contemporary British poetry AT Shakespeare and  Company             

27 May SpokenWord!– open mic/scène ouverte: performance poetry, stand up, monologue, stories, beat poetry, sketches, songs, spoken word. Primarily in English but open to all languages. Your own original texts or favourite old texts – from Rimbaud to Dr Seuss, Beowulf to Gil Scott-Heron.  Sign up in the bar from 7.30pm for your 5 minutes of fame. Poetics begin underground from 8.30pm. Make the words come alive. Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Run by David Barnes & Alberto Rigettini. http://spokenwordparis.org/ 

 

 

28 May at 7 p.m. POETS LIVE invites you to an evening of poetry and image, with an English poet, a Swedish poet and a Swedish photographer—the reading, as always, will be in English.  Come at 7 p.m. for a drink at the bar, the reading will begin at 7.30 (on the dot), downstairs in “le cave.” AT: Carr’s Pub, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris, Métro: Tuileries

 

29th May 6pm Philosophers in the Library at Shakespeare and Co. on the shifting meanings of the concept of law. Join a conversation led by Gregory Bligh, doctoral student in legal philosophy at Paris II and the French child of English parents, for an exploration of law, rights, and fairness in two very different languages. AT: Shakespeare and Company, 37, rue de la Bucherie, 75005. M° St Michel or Cluny la Sorbonne. http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/

 

30 May  19h30-00h00 Paris Lit Up Open Mic night every Thursday (in English  or other languages.  Sign up all night, but first come first served from 19h30. Starts at 20h with rotating hosts Jason Mc Gimsey, Kate Noakes, Emily Ruck-Keene. AT: the historic home of French Slam poetry, Culture Rapide, at 103 Rue Julien Lacroix, 75020. For more or to see whether there are featured themes and readers: http://parislitup.com/ai1ec_event/paris-lit-up-open-mic/?instance_id=9261

 

30th May – 1st June International Conference on Vladimir Nabokov The Enchanted Researchers Society, also known as Société Française Vladimir Nabokov, is organizing its first International Conference in Paris.  The conference is free and open to all. Please register if you wish to attend. For further information and registration, please visit their website at: http://www.vladimir-nabokov.org/ Each day’s events are held in different places, so do consult their site AND “register”—many free events require your name on a list.

 

Intriguing Calls for Submissions and Nominations:

 

 

Calling all fiction writers 50 and older! Huff/Post50 is seeking short-story submissions. 

Prada is  launching a short story contest, with a 5000 euro prize. Details here http://www.prada.com/fr/journal/terms?cc=GB … (rather legalistic submissions rules)

Call for nominations: THE AMERICAN LIBRARY IN PARIS BOOK AWARD will be given to the best book of the year in English about France or the French-American encounter. NOMINATIONS:   The deadline for the nominations for the Award is June 1, 2013.

Call for entries for the CAN WRITING International, deadline June 15th. Participants email their response (1000 words max) to any exercise in Cathy Altman Nocquet's book WOTL for a chance to win freeclasses. Contact [email protected] for more info

 

 

Writing Classes and Workshops

Paris Lit Up Writing Workshop

A drop-in workshop led by Kate Noakes on the first Sunday of every month at 12h30 – 14h30 at Shakespeare and Company. Open to all. Kate provides ideas and writing prompts on a theme each month. It is not a feedback workshop. More information about the instructor blog. The workshop cost is a suggested donation of 10 Euros.

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The Paris Writers’ Group

Open to all writers, regardless of genre: fiction, poetry, theatre, journalism, essay, criticism, dreams, musical lyrics – as well as translators of any and all of the above.  Held occasional Wednesdays at Le Café Apparement, 18 rue des Coutures Saint-Gervaise, near the Picasso Museum. Sign up to the online group for notification and further details here: meetup.com/pariswriters/ The workshop is free, but please be prepared to buy a drink or something more substantial from the cafe. The group is currently hosted by John Pope and/or Helen Cusack O’Keeffe.

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Paris Lit Up Friday Writers

Monthly feedback workshop for poets and prose writers, meets at a private venue on a Friday evening to read, comment and quaff.  Invitation only group. If you have been writing for a while and think you might like to join this group please send a sample of your work and your bio to moc.putilsirap@ofni. We can’t promise there will be a space, but it would be good to know you are interested.

 

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WICE Summer Writing Classes

For information and inscriptions, see http://www.wice-paris.org/pariswritersworkshop

 

Other literary resources at WICE

• Upstairs at Duroc, an international literary and arts journal that publishes established and emerging Paris-based writers.
• Bilingual Book Group, a monthly get together to discuss books (French and English).
• Writers on Writing, informal conversations with accomplished writers to inspire and inform the art and craft of writing.
• Paris Writers’ Workshop, a summer writing workshop offering instruction from some of the best contemporary writers in the world.

 

***

Casting announcement for English-speaking and other actors from Margaret Aldridge

This autumn (September/October) we're shooting a black comedy/horror film set in the Var.  We need male and female actors.  It's low budget, so unpaid ("deferred payment" possibilities)  but all travel and accommodation will be reimbursed. Please send your headshot, bodyshot and cv to Margaret (not to Moving Parts) on :[email protected]

The main roles are as follows:

Male 40-50 suave sophisticated eccentric charismatic

Male 31-40 feral, scruffy, resemblance to Pan

Male 40-50 average all round

Male 20s    quite good looking, slim

Male 20s    boyish looking, slightly overweight

Male 40-50 Russian looking, Russian accent, overweight, heavy set

Male 20s    Good looking, French accent, wiry. Acrobatics necessary

Female 40-50  American, vague and a bit dizzy. Attractive but not overly

Female 30-40  English, bit brassy and cheap.  Good figure

Female 30s     Russian accent.  Plain but slim.

Female 20/30s Russian accent.  Gorgeous, Fantastic figure

Female 30s      Average, quite attractive, English, good legs

_____________________________________________________________________

“A BLEEDING HORSE” CASTING CALL: Looking for extras for the following settings!

TRANSLIT OFFICE

Dates: Wednesday 1st of May, Saturday 4th of May, Sunday 5th of May, Saturday 25th of May, Sunday 26th of May.

Age range: mid-twenties to early forties…

Costume requirements:  office suit and dress. Look sharp, your characters are all working for a translation agency in Paris!

ART GALLERY EXTRAS

Dates: Tuesday 7th of May, Wednesday  8th of May.

Age range: mid-twenties to mid-forties…

Costume requirements: dress chic. You’re all going to an art exhibit in Paris!

COFFEE SHOP EXTRAS

For Monday 10th of June, Tuesday 11th of June…

Age range: mid-twenties to forties…

Costume requirements: Dress casual! You’re going there for coffee or to work on your laptop!

Of course, you will all be compensated for this.

Ask for Olivia Fuchs once you get on set.

Please email; christian_delavie@ hotmail.com and [email protected] (not Moving Parts)