A friend of mine send me this article today from the Australian Jewish News (yes, virginia, there is a niche publication everywhere for everything). During the recent election in France, there was no fuss or even mention of it - that I saw, anyway - but France's new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, apparently has a Jewish heritage. His mother belongs to the Mallah family from Salonika (Greece) who, in the 15th century, escaped the Spanish Inquisition (good for them!) and emigrated to Provence, France before proceeding to Salonika. Many of the family members hid in Marcillac la Croisille in the Corrèze region, western France, during World War II but many Mallahs who stayed in Salonika or moved to France fare far worse. In fact, 57 family members were murdered in concentration camps including one, Buena Mallah, who was the subject of medical "experiments" in Birkenau. In any case, this makes Sarkozy's victory last Spring seem particularly beneficial for France. To have elected a Jewish man as president merely half a century after Vichy's (at best dubious and at worst complicitous) acquiescence to the Nazis is remarkable. Good for them. (And, by the way, if you are ever in Paris, be sure to go to the the Deportation / Holocaust Memorial behind Notre Dame, on the Ile de Cite. It's the simplest, quietest memorial or museum I've ever seen and, perhaps as a result, is deeply moving.)

Labels: france, good ideas, politics

In books about Paris or that are set there, mention is invariably made of one or another arrondissement. If one is thoroughly in the know, this is automatically informative because each area has its own persona just as do London's Soho and NYC's Tribeca and all the other named neighborhoods of those great cities. Arrondissments, however, are something of a mystery to non-Parisians. The entire city of Paris is quite walkable (40 square miles total (for perspective: San Francisco=47 sq.mi., Boston=89 and Manhattan=20)) and those cities' neighborhoods are all so distinctive, with their names helping to understand them. Paris' arrondissements' numbers tell nothing, however, so étrangers don't have much to go on. Now comes along the gracious proprietor of ParisDailyPhoto, who by the way does far more more on his blog than display a photo each day, and provides a succinct explanation:

Paris is divided into 20 districts called arrondissements, numbered from 1 to 20 in a clockwise spiral like an escargot (snail) starting from the centre (the île de la Cité and île Saint Louis). Each arrondissement has its own culture... I will come back to that one day!

Now I can't wait for his descriptions.

Labels: blogs (others'), france, places

After a nice note from the self-described "ne'er do well" proprietor of Thunder Pig, I revisited with complete success after my early inability to get in. Its banner greets you with a gorgeous panorama and it's both visually and navigationally comfy. Plus, there's bunches of interesting comments and commentary. You gotta love the internet, don't you? Seriously. I mean, you can spend lots of time with people in Oklahoma, France, California, North Dakota, Florida - to name some of my favorites - and now, South Carolina, all just by clicking a little plastic device. Anyway, do visit Thunder Pig.

Labels: blogs (others'), france

1. Began at Regular Life, introduced with Emerson's statement that "Life consists of what a man is thinking of all day," a lovely conceit for the author's reflections. The steadily staring owl and the adorable boy are alluring, and the various essays are always interesting. There's humor and insight, true feeling and lots of adventures with his family. One feels one is visiting an old dear friend.

2. Jumped to I am a Cheeseburger because it reminded me of the magnificent young adult book, I Am the Cheese (have you read it?). This blog is written by a self-described "verbose and profane idiot living in Canada, spinning yarns and peeing time" which sounds pretty self-serving to me (heh). Apparently he writes stories and pulp scifi novels about robots and spaceships, for a living, one presumes, in addition to those that are spun on the site. Quite entertaining and worth the visit.

3. To Poppy Cedes which is written by a techie woman who is passionate about cats and cheese, so she's clearly on the top of my personal list. I presume she knows - owns, no doubt - the first Wallace and Grommit movie wherein they take a "cheese vacation" to the moon? Since she likes Britcoms, I wonder if she realizes that there are actually brochures and planned cheese holidays in the U.K., something that delights me, I must say, even if they don't go to the moon. Yet. Her posts are amusing and quirky and her reading ranges from Camus to Blume, and Groundhog Day and The Office are in her list of favorite movies, so she is someone I would probably like even though she liked The Da Vinci Code.

4. Next to Grenouille Plus because I love the French word for frog (almost as much as the word for umbrella - parapluie). There's not a single word spoken here as it's all images. This blogger has other sites, too: Des Chapeaux (replete with hat images), Le Ramoneur de Bourg (chimney sweeper images), and Agence eureka (images of all kinds of things, perhaps surprising juxtapositions). They're idiosyncratic and quite appealing.

5. On to The Crime in Your Coffee, unable to resist the title and curious to know if it refers to evil deeds or caffeine. Which I still don't know because, problem is, this one's in German and for me that's prohibitive. So back to Poppy Cedes and on to Potatoes in the Mist which is a nifty surprise. Today's cupcake and brownie pictures are so clear that I feel as if I had too much dessert. Bearette has begun knitting (congratulations!!) and her seed stitches look quite nice. This is one of those personal blogs and it's quite enjoyable. I look forward to more, I must say.

Which is all there is for now. Have a hoppy week!! :)

Labels: blogs (others'), france, reflections

Since I've been whining and complaining recently in this spot, I'll throw in a little more by way of explaining why I'm watching a movie at 2 a.m.

First, I'd found this amusing template - usable only in Classic as many are - and was fussing with it early this morning when The Great Hand of Headaches swooped down and thwacked me hard upside my - well, yes, upside my head. Blessedly, I've had only one previously that I know was a migraine, about fifteen years ago, and this was another. Boyoboy. They are, without equivocation, nasty business. You can't get up without feeling woozy and you can't lie down without your head hurting. You can't mindlessly watch tv or stare out the window because a glimmer of light is physically painful. You can't read because you can't see and, anyway, getting any light to read would hurt. You're hungry and sense that eating would help but you don't want to eat lest you get sick. You feel as if too much caffeine may be responsible yet you know that caffeine is reputed to help. You desperately need aspirin or advil but you can't get up to get it without . . . back to #1. If I knew what I did to make this happen, I promise I would never do it again. I used to think it was about drinking coffee on the way to work but I don't do that any more.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Somewhere around 6:30 or 7:00 this evening, the rotten gloomy cloud on my head lifted and I joyously downed a bowl of soup, some French bread, some yogurt and a salad. Food can be a glorious thing when you felt as if you'd never live to enjoy anything again. (Who's melodramatic? Who?! I'd sure better never get . . . well, never mind, I won't temp the poltergeist-ish gods who amuse themselves by listening in on such things.) So then, after fiddling with French homework and laundry and a bit of neatening up, a movie turned up that'd slipped past me when it came out. One of those near-nuclear-holocaust movies, this in a submarine, Crimson Tide stars Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington and James Gandolfini. It's produced by Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer, than whom few tell more gripping stories (CSI, Pirates of the Caribbean, Cold Case, Without a Trace, Close to Home, etc. - Bruckheimer and Numbers, Hostage, The Gathering Storm, Top Gun, etc. - Scott). It's not especially original nor as deliciously tense as some mutiny stories, but the acting and photography are marvelous. What pushes it over the top is the Hans Zimmer soundtrack, complete with men's chorus at just those moments when you are holding your breath anyway (and nice touch that an important character is named "Mr Zimmer"). If you enjoy a fairly old-fashioned war movie with Oscar-worthy cinematography and sound, be sure you catch it.

Labels: about me, france, movies

1. Stepped off at present simple. Sporting two rather attractive blackbirds atop the banner, one seemingly pecking curiously at the other, it's written by "Badaunt" (bad aunt?) who says she's "from NZ, and now live[s] in Japan, teaching English to reluctant university students". Her tale today of visiting a Japanese hospital and learning about breast cysts. Like many of us, she decided to leave well enough alone, adding that "anyway, I'm thinking that if I grow these things big enough maybe one day I'll end up with cleavage!" Good luck with that. (I had horrible bronchitis one year and the doctor assured me I'd end up with a nice sexy gravelly voice. Ha.) Her tales of New Zealand and her ruminations on it, and on many other things, as well as her photos, make for a good visit. Besides, I have to love anyone who manages to write about doilies interestingly and ends up saying "I adored my grandma".

2. After trying three links that were dead, very old and dead, I hit on Letters from the Editter, described as "self-indulgent opinion pieces. Also an expat - logical, since birds of a feather probably do hang out together - Editter is in New Zealand where, one assumes, she is an editor plays riffs on her job. The header photo is a charming pile of big colorful letters, reminding me of the banquet in The Phantom Tollbooth when they eat their words. The photo tour of South Island is absolutely stunning and makes me want to buy a plane ticket right this second (except that it's one of ttcgitw's birthdays Saturday). Not sure if I like the sea photos or the four-leggeds better, though. She covers a wide range of observations, almost all of them hard to leave.

3. Next to petite anglaise, written by - you guessed it - another woman in Paris. Her story is startling (casual blog writer > fired for writing on her blog > front page story in U.K. newspaper) and her attractive blog definitely drew me in. Since one of her favorite books (she spells it 'favourite', of course) is by Enid Blyton, and since she lives in the center of Paris, I figured it had to be fun at least. Actually, it turns out to be terrifically written and another one of those blogs where you start reading and find yourself paging through lots of days' reports. I particularly like her dissertation on writing.

4. Thence to Le Blagueur à Paris, mostly because I like the name (a joker in Paris) whether or not one thinks it's oxymoronish. There are many amusing raconteur-like posts, all worth perusing. One is brought up rather short by a post about whether her blog's name should be feminine (la blagueuse) or masculine, as it is now, but be warned that there is a startling photo - one might even say it borders on pornographic - but it turns out that it's a Courbet and is in the Musée d'Orsay, so be offended if you want but accept that it's not what it seems at first. And it certainly gets a reader's attention. As do the food pictures (yum!) and comments about delicious things like galette de rois.

5. Final stop for today is The Paris Blog (hey, might as well make geography the common thread, right?). A "blog with Gaul" (get it?!), it's visually attractive (ecru background, simple graphics) and includes a sidebar with apartments to rent by the week or month, so this one has to be tagged, that's for sure. Turns out this blog is a group blog about life in Paris, written in English, and with more than two dozen contributors most of who are expats although a few apparently are French. Laurie is the blog's editor and she's doing a terrific job if my excitement means anything. It's been written up in the Wall St. Journal, This French Life, and even posted on about.com. The photos of various people and places, and the snippets of thoughts make it a grand guignol though without anything horrible happening. In particular, check out the post on ghost metro stations or the one on a new film about Edith Piaf or the hilarious short piece on nasalness in speaking French and English.

So that's our trip for today. It was very European and I'm dizzy from the quick rides, but it was fun. See you next week!

Labels: blogs (others'), france, places, reflections

Update 3/11/07 - After a very nice note from the "ne'er do well" proprietor of Thunder Pig, I revisited with complete success. Its banner greets you with a gorgeous panorama and it's both visually and navigationally comfy. Plus, there's bunches of interesting comments and commentary. You gotta love the internet, don't you? Seriously. I mean, you can spend lots of time with people in Oklahoma, France, California, North Dakota, Florida - to name some of my favorites - and now, South Carolina, all just by clicking a little plastic device. Anyway, do visit Thunder Pig.

1. Kicked off today's hop at Spiced Sass, one of my favorites. Ligneus is never boring, almost always amusing and witty, and frequently spot-on (as he might say). His observations about the various Democrats and Republicans currently in the running are cogent and worth musing on, though he failed to mention Chris Dodd, one of the ones I find most puzzling from a skirt-chasing point of view.

2. Tried to go to Thunder Pig because I like its name but I got the oh-so-familiar blogger.com error bX-vjhbsj, whose meaning seems to escape the helpers as much as the rest of us.

3. So off to Asymmetric which loads way too slowly for the impatient among us but is worth taking a look at. A relatively new blog (October 2006), its author says that he "found myself thouroughly fascinating [and] realized . . . that people all over the world can benefit from these same trenchant and thorough (yet pithy) observations; hence, this blog." As a matter of fact, his subjects are widely varied (computers, Cuba and religion to name a few) and the blog is definitely worth visiting. Choosing to sidestep the more controversial of those topics, I clicked on . . .

4. The Liberty Film Festival site. Apparently this is the web page for Hollywood's Conservative Film Festival - who knew there was such a thing!!? See how interesting bloghopping can be! There's all kinds of information about showings of different films that are outside the usual purview of film festivals, not to mention most viewers. And the site is kind of fun being BRIGHT red and all. Of course, like most non-blogs, this is not a good one for taking a hop from, so back to Asymmetric and over to . . .

5. a blog that I would never in a million years have gone to without bloghopping, namely, A Templar Knight. Apparently this blog was created about six months ago by someone who is "a knight within the Priory of England and Wales". I'm not sure if he's kooky, but he writes well about all kinds of cultural topics. He is a teacher living in Wales with numerous articles and poems published in both English and Welsh. He is humorous and quite observant. Give it a look.

That's all for today. Enjoy!

Labels: blogs (others'), france, politics, reflections

Today I started off at Laura's Miscellaneous Musings, noting her comment that "It's time for this country to fully embrace Martin Luther King's dream and get past color-based politics and racial separatism". I agree. Times have changed, witness Obama being taken completely seriously as a candidate, so it's time to cease separatist activities like the Congressional Black Caucus. They were necessary and helpful, but it's time to accept that we've changed.

2. TV Shows on DVD. A compendium site, not a blog. Laura (see #1) has mentioned this site before but I've never visited. It's a place where you can vote for shows you'd buy on DVD, and how you'd want to buy them. It also lists DVDs that have already been released (old, new, classic and cancelled shows, no less, as well as what's about to be released). Plus, they tell you where you can buy them. Great resource!

3. Blog associated with #2 called (guess!) TV Shows on DVD Blog. It's been in existence since December 2005 so I guess I've been thoroughly out of this loop. Anyway, the blog is the personal comments of the folks who maintain #2. Fun to scroll through.

4. Yikes. Only two links on #3 (its own (see #2) and its Flickr photos), so there's no go-to-able link, thus stopping my rule #3 in its tracks. Back to #1 and off to Farmgirl Fare. Susan displays photos (like the fabulous black and white cat trying to get through a wire fence (one wonders whether it met with success) from a 240-acre (!) farm in Missouri where she moved after prep school, college, businesses, etc. The site won the Best Food Blog (Rural) for 2006 and has a handy "welcome to the site" page which is informative and interesting. Descriptions of seed starting, recipes, things to buy, ways to cook and store what you grow, etc., etc. A terrific site that will get more of my time, that's for sure. (Hmmm, chocolate biscotti . . . .)

5. On to These Days in French Life, written by Riana, "a food-driven, travel-loving American residing in the south of France with her French husband". Great photos and descriptions of the countryside and life in France. Check out that kitchen! She studied engineering until calculus did her in even though she'd done well in AP calc in high school. (Sounds awfully familiar tho' my intended major was physics, abandoned for the same dreadful reason in favor of philosophy, believe it or not.) I need a lot more time here.

Well, now I have food and travel lust with avengence, so it's a good thing I'm done for today.

Labels: blogs (others'), france, reflections

I never watched Sex in the City when it was on the first time and have very much enjoyed getting to know everyone in repeats, at 11:00 every night, but tonight's episode is the one that gets me upset. Baryshnikov's character has swept Carrie off to Paris in a big romantic gesture, then keeps leaving her on her own while he does what he wants, so she begins to go to museums and stores by herself (which I like to do, but that's me). At a bookstore, the staff goes wild when they realize who she is and they plan a party for her - the first time she'll have anyone paying attention to her for herself since she arrived. Then the artiste has a panic attack (passive-agressive you think?) and Carrie tries to help by skipping her party (think how those nice people were left to feel) and then Baryshnikov goes off and ignores her all night, surprise, but of course he doesn't see it as abandoning her since his ego is being fed. I realize that Carrie is a spoiled brat but I hate that he's so cold and cruel, and I almost can't watch her be alone and mistreated. Yeah, okay, the rest of the episode is good as it ties things up, but I really hate the other part.

Labels: france, tv, web design

What motivates you to do things? I've been reflecting on that this morning because I have dilly-dallied so long with my French reading that I have almost 80 pages (loose-leaf size) to read and understand, and a report on the last 20 to write before Wednesday. I chose to be in this group so it's not as if it's school that's forcing me and I'll fail some huge test or anything, but it is a little like exercise: if you let it go because you just don't feel like doing it, you're in for doing tons more just to catch up. Oo la la, quelle stupide.

Labels: france, reflections, schooling

Diane (whose blog is listed as Fall of the Empire but which I cannot find and hope she will enlighten me blogs are Diane's Stuff and Dead Guy on the Sidebar, both delightful places to visit) commented at my post about The Swimming Pool that she watches Court TV when knitting. Which made me think to ask what other people like to watch when they're knitting - or do you prefer knitting in silence and/or with music? I'll update it as people tell me their choices:

music, radio, movies (British comedies, British films, French films (no languages where I absolutely have to read subtitles, though), anything with a decent story line but not tooooo absorbing), current TV shows (e.g., The Unit, Criminal Minds, Numbers, NCIS, Shark, reruns of Becker and Sex in the City), Court TV, . . .

Labels: blogs (others'), france, knitting, things to do, tv

Having failed to persuade myself to buy ties for everyone, I've been knitting all weekend, with occasional pauses to nibble something, have a cup of tea and read stuff online. One gets surprisingly antsy doing so much activity with only hands and arms. I also go absolutely mad during marathon knitting sessions unless I watch tv or a movie. The fare on cable is pretty bad unless one likes sports or infomercials or reruns of movies that, while terrific, were broadcast last week or yesterday. Which brings me to a DVD of The Swimming Pool, a French and British collaboration written and directed by Francois Ozon and starring the still eye-catching Charlotte Rampling. With Charles Dance and Ludivine Sagnier in it, too, the watching is wonderful. It may or may not be a murder mystery but it's definitely about a murder mystery writer who is also a woman feeling scorned and abandoned. There's a great big twist which one almost certainly overlooks or, at least, forgets, until the credits roll and you think a minute and then you go "aha!". Bottom line is that it's a heckuva lot of fun and I highly recommend it. The scenery (the south of France in early Fall) is to die for (no pun intended) and makes you want to buy a ticket right now and go there tomorrow. The characters are somewhat focused on sex (hey, it's a French movie) and the only warning I'd issue is that if you don't like to see parts of bodies you dont' usually see front and center onscreen, you won't like it. As for plot, someone may or may not have been murdered and someone or several someones may or may not have murdered the dead or alive person and, furthermore, may or may not be who he or she seems to be. By the way, some reviews seem not to have gotten the point so if you read a reivew that sounds as if they saw a difficult, weird and ponderous movie, don't believe them and don't even finish the review. The Swimming Pool isn't weird or difficult at all - and you don't want to miss it. It's an absolutely terrific and fun film. And if anyone wants to talk about it in comments, I'd be glad to.

Labels: france, movies, writing

To anyone who chances by today, I wish you a wonderful day yourself and whoever you are with. I love that there is this day when no one chides me for being sappy about the people and things I really like a lot, about how lucky I feel because of my children, my grandchildren (although that word still sounds as if I'm talking about someone else except that the girls are so fabulous and I wouldn't dream of them being anyone else's descendants), my job, my manager (who deserves a post of her own one of these days), the firm for which I work, two terrific new friends, my best friend (we've been friends now for - gasp - more than three decades), my bf's children and their fabulous children, my French class and the others there, my fabulous stove and oven. Okay that's a long enough litany. But it is a great day for allowing oneself to take positive stock without feeling silly.

Labels: france, reflections, s.p.e.e.d.ing

Watched The Spanish Apartment Sunday evening. It's about a young French man about to embark on his financial career when he's told he'll do much better with more knowledge of Spanish language and economics, so off he goes to Barcelona for a year's graduate study in both. He leaves behind a wispy girlfriend and a hippie-ish mother and embarks on plenty of adventures - amorous and otherwise - with the friends and acquaintances he meets in Spain. The other roommates in said apartment are from England, Italy, Germany, the U.S. and Spain, which allows for plenty of observations about human nature, all dressed up in a slightly goofy, well made and quite charming movie.

Labels: france, movies

How is that the French language is so gorgeous and expressive, and such fun to read and speak, although French politics are confused and confusing, and some French people are so arrogant and smug?

Labels: france, reflections

I feel discombobulated and at sixes and sevens today, to use an old-fashioned colloquialism. The weather is part of the problem: it's been raining off and on for a day less than a week and I'm sick of it. No doubt I should invest in one of those lamps but I'd much prefer this incessant grayness to just stop. I seem to always feel a bit of a let down after several days of visitors even though I'm happy that they (came and) left. I'm distressed about the whole media thing with arresting John Karr without any discernible factual reason to do so (confessions of a crackpot being neither factual nor dependable reasons). I'm distressed that I didn't get my French homework done on time even though the instructor is away until Thursday and perfectly glad to accept it then. I'm annoyed by my hair being too long to be short and too short to be long (you know how that is) and not something I can do much about since my favorite stylist is the one who wrecked it this time. It's annoying that Blogger is still not running smoothly (it took 20 minutes to load the template a minute (ha) ago and although it's a bit better than yesterday I mean, come one, shut us out for whatever time it takes to fix it but don't leave it like this. Maybe Runway's episode tomorrow will perk me up. Or tonight's dinner of bowtie pasta. Something will. Hey, aren't you glad I shared?

Labels: blogs (mine), france, runway, whining

Many many congratulations and much bowing to Jim Hall, father of Devradowrite, who has been appointed a Chevalier of France. She writes about it here, with fitting and daughterly delight and pride. One of the most enjoyable of James Lipton's celebrity profile shows was the one where he was appointed a French Chevalier. I hope DDW and her father enjoy the experience as much as Lipton did.

Labels: blogs (others'), france, people

Somehow it seems amusing that today is the 21st anniversary of both the resumption of regular Coke and Greenpeace's sinking by French agents. Plus, it's Proust's 135th birthday. (Madeleines, anyone?)

Labels: france, juxtapositions

Today, the day before the 62nd anniversary of Battle of Normandy, it is appropriate to note that in a month, on July 17th, we can also observe the 103rd anniversary of Harry S. Bingham IV's birth. Who is that, you ask? Well, he is a thoughtful and decent man, someone we should all know about and emulate (h/t and thanks to Wide Awake Cafe). He is the kind of man who made June 6, 1944 possible.

Bingham's flashy biography includes a mother, Alfreda Mitchell (granddaughter of Charles Tiffany, the founder of Tiffany & Co.) and a father, Hiram Bingham III (U.S. Senator and governor of Connecticut, an archaeologist who discovered the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru in 1911 and upon whom Steven Spielberg modeled Indiana Jones). Bingham graduated from Groton, Yale and Harvard Law, and entered the foreign service third in his class, serving first in Peking, China. By 1936 he was a U.S vice-consul in charge of visas, in Marseilles, France, putting him right where one Varian Fry found him in August 1940.

A month earlier, the French Government had surrendered to the Nazis, dividing France into two zones, one including Paris and administrated by Nazis and the other administered by the French at Vichy. The U.S. had not yet joined the War and did not do so until late 1941, and was for the time being intent on maintaining good relations with the Vichy government.

Fry, an American journalist determined to save all European intellectuals from the Naziis, was a volunteer with the Emergency Rescue Committee (now the International Rescue Committee) founded by German author Thomas Mann to raise funds and obtain U.S. visas for Jews, anti-Nazi Germans and others in France or concentration camps. When he arrived in Marseilles, Fry joined forces with two vice-consuls, one of whom was Harry Bingham, and eventually Bingham issued visas and travel documents that saved an estimated 2,500 lives. Among them were painter Marc Chagall, Nobel prize-winner Otto Meyerhof and philosopher Hannah Arendt. At one point he arranged for novelist Lion Feuchtwanger to be smuggled out of an internment camp disguised in women's clothing and then hid Feuchtwanger in his home until he could get him out of the country.

Unfortunately the State Department's desire to work with the Vichy government at the time led to its actively discouraging Bingham. He resigned from the foreign service and never wrote about his WWII work nor told any of his eleven children about it. A few years after his 1988 death his youngest son, William, found a bundle of letters and other documents behind a fireplace in the family home, revealing the amazing story. It took much letter writing and other efforts until 2002 when Secretary of State Colin L. Powell presented Bingham's children with a "Courageous Diplomat" award, praising Bingham's "constructive dissent." The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and Wally Findlay Galleries International, among others, joined the celebration that took place in the Rayburn House Office Building and included Chagall's granddaughter, Bella Meyer, and two recipients of Bingham-procured visas, one of whom said, "There were never enough visas, but somehow, when a Martinique-bound boat became available, Bingham produced 800 of them in 48 hours."

And on May 24 of this year, "Hiram Bingham IV, a U.S. diplomat whose unselfish actions in saving Jews from the Nazi Holocaust cost him his diplomatic career, was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in a commemorative stamp."

Labels: anniversaries, france, history

I kind of liked last night because everyone did their own thing more than on theme nights so we heard something closer to real. I've been reading the blogs, however, and they are in total disagreement about the results. One wonders whether they saw the same show! DialIdol ranks Paris last and Katharine second-to-last, which is odd since Katharine was awesome according to all the assessers I've read and my own reaction. Joker's Updates liked Katharine, although less enthusastically than I, and concluded that Paris will go home tonight because she doesn't have a big/strong enough fan base. But MTV' s blog thinks Elliott will go because "[his] songs were average. And with five left, [he's] the only one who's not a star". As for Chris, I agree with MTV that "[h]e makes everything he sings sound the same and it's an uninteresting genre." Plus, I'm really not into him as the winner because although he's very likeable, his singing bores me. I prefer real rock or real pop to his semi-hemi-demi stuff.

Dial Idol results: 1. Taylor Hicks 2. Chris Daughtry 3. Elliott Yamin 4. Katharine McPhee 5. Paris Bennett

My preferences: 1. Katharine 2. Taylor 3. Elliott 4. Chris 5. Paris

My predictions: 1. Chris 2. Katharine 3. Taylor 4. Elliott 5. Paris

Actual results*: 1: Taylor 2: Chris 3: Katharine 4: Elliott 5: Paris

*(As far as we know since they don't publish actual numbers and only actually rank the bottom person.)
Everyone has assumed that the winner would be Chris with Katharine a close second, but Elliott's voice has held up (surprisingly) well and he's lasted so long, and Taylor has such a strong fan base, and Katharine always looks and sounds good. . . . MTV may be right that it's "looking more and more like Katharine and Taylor in the finale, and what a close race that would be." Closer than other pairings, actually. So whose albums would you buy? whose shows would you go to? (Update: Graceland next week. Will Elvis be there or has he left the building?)

Labels: a.i., a.i.5, france, music