C'est La Vie, Sarkozy

I was leaving a local live music thing the other night with friends when one of my friends in the car said, “who’s that guy?” She was talking about a stencil on a stop sign. I live in a very arty town, pregnant with artists, making portraits, kinetic sculptures, creative people practically leaving art on the side of the road, in the street, obstructing normal traffic flow. Ceci n'est pas une stop sign, it’s ART. Even so, we were all sober enough to be collectively curious, so we flipped a bitch and doubled back to take a look.



“Marcel Duchamp,” I said, without thinking, like it was my own name. “That’s Marcel Duchamp.” On the stop sign, Duchamp’s disembodied head was in the center of one of his rotoreliefs, his cheeks elongated and sunken, more Voldemort than Duchamp, but there he was, only suggesting that we stop. “You may stop, or you may collide, your choice.” I was a little surprised that the surrealist was sitting cross-legged, on the edge of my tongue like that, and even more surprised that the girl with the unassuming English degree, who’d just swallowed two shots of Jameson (neat) could produce an art history factoid like a retired professor, sans peep. I babbled about the surrealists, Duchamp’s Ready-mades, WWI and Kurt Schwitters on the 4-minute ride home. Thank God for them it was a short journey.


Got me thinking about learning French, tho. The thought is IRRITATING, isn’t it, but somehow. . . inevitable. If I could speak French, I could say ever so eloquently. . . well, I could say a lot of things, eloquently, things that in English, sound like a roaring piss. This is as close to French as I can get right now.





à la mode - unique stuff with urban appeal





Oohh la-la. I love à la mode, and there’s plenty to love: bright and handy bags, light switch covers that make getting turned on and off a lot of fun, and pendants that say it all. à la mode is sophisticated, without taking itself too seriously, which I love-- the image embedded, resin pendants especially. "I'm not listening," "Oh Please,"and "No Whining," on sterling silver chains are defiant and fun, good-natured and stingy.






I can imagine President Sarkozy's new bride, Carla Bruni, wearing an à la mode pendant while meeting the current US President and his wife. "Oh Please" seems right for the occasion. C'est Bon!