Trends in contemporary art, music, and clubs

I've been doing many things recently, especially meeting more French people from my classes. The classic stereotype that the French are cold to foreigners has some sense in that they haven't usually come up to me to talk, but once I've started conversations people have been very friendly. Everyone seems to want to come and study in New York for some stage in their education; Boston has elicited some recognition, but mostly people ask whether it's near NYC, and are very surprised by the fact that it's 4 or 5 hours driving distance away. (One girl asked me if Harvard was in Washington DC.)

Last week, I went with AYA to an contemporary music concert, which was an homage to the late Italian composer Luciano Berio. It consisted of original solo compositions for each of 13 instruments, which showed off the possibilities of each instrument, and some pieces by Berio himself. It was very experimental, and despite being intellectually interesting, it was grating on the ears after a while. My favorite piece featured the trombonist and started with him turning in a circle and saying "This... is definitely... a trombone" in English with a Portuguese accent, and later had him announcing flights of trombone fancy with inventive titles like "bubbling sulfurous water".

I saw Marie-Antoinette the other night, partly because of my continuing curiosity about my neighbor and partly because I wanted to see it. I really liked it- it was self-consciously frivolous, and portrayed the waste and cagedness of her position very nicely. No new news on that front.

I visited my old host family from my Winsor exchange to Paris in 10th grade the Saturday before last; they invited me over for a very nice lunch. It was great to reconnect with the entire family (they have three kids), and also reassuring to learn that not much had changed, except that the kids had become more mature. Marie-Philippine (who is a year younger than me) told me some interesting stories about her lycee, and later in the week she came over here and we shared music on our computers and discussed good places to go around here. We have some differences in personality, but we get along very well.

On Friday night, Alexia from AYA had free tickets to go to a club on the Champs-Elysees, and I was curious and decided to check it out. The club (Club de Duke) is apparently pretty famous, because an hour or so after we arrived, the rapper P. Diddy's bodyguards started clearing the way for his entrance. And so, on my first time in a club, I got to meet P. Diddy. (It's a hard act to follow for any further club experiences.) I didn't have anything to drink, and was mostly observing the atmosphere, with its masses of scantily clad women and blinged-out men, really loud music, lots of grinding, and colored spotlights. It was cool to watch the DJ mixing the music. P. Diddy rapped a little bit, and then he was just dancing in the most exclusive part. After a lot of waiting, I finally got past the bouncers to try to talk to him, but I don't think he heard me. I don't exactly see the point in spending hours and hours in a club, but I had a pretty good time. Afterwards, I went back to Alexia's place, and we talked about French social class structure and how religion affects American politics, until the metro opened again at 6 AM and I could get back here. Needless to say, I'm still catching up on sleep.

Today I went to FIAC, a huge gallery exhibit where all the Paris and some NY and London galleries can expose their work and get more sales in the Grand Palais. Besides contemporary artists, some galleries had older works, including Picasso, Mondrian, Le Corbusier, and more, and it was interesting to see some of the new trends and ideas in art. Unfortunately I was only able to get in for an hour before it closed because my class ended late. But it was very cool. That's it for now!