ryyannon

VADE RETRO SATANAS!

I'm used to the pettiness of French media. It comes with the territory here. I've never really equated the French with French media - as seen in the distinction between the two I made above. What 'bothers' me goes far beyond what a few slimeballs decided to schedule for viewing in France on and around 9-11. But like I say, useless to go there.

Not to mention one-hour work days due to the seven-hour R/T bike commute!

Holy Jesus H. Tap-Dancing Christ on a Surfboard! Repeat the same old saw enough and people will start accepting it as reality. Did no one bother to click on the link to Canal Plus that I gave at the end of my post last week? If you had, you would have seen that the program about the murderous and rape-crazed G.I.s in France during WWII shown on Channel 3 was just a drop in the bucket, the tip of the iceberg, the top of the enormous turd that had been squeezed out onto French television screens during the period leading up to and through 9-11. The point had been amply proved that none of this could have possibly been "a faux pas": as usual, the French media was falling all over itself doing what it does best - insulting America at a particularly sensitive moment. Of course, it's too late now to see this amazing slap in the face if you didn't do it when I posted it - it's all been taken down since. How effing convenient those who insist on repeating that this was just a small and nearly insignificant incident. As I posted then: "Here's the link to what the French saw concerning 9/11 - a selection from all French channels: the 'Zapping' of 12/09, which is a roundup of images appearing the day before. For still more on the callousness of Condi Rice, the stupidity of Americans, and Hurricane Katrina as a metaphore for Bush's presidency, see the Zapping of 11/09. " <a href="http://www.canalplus.fr/c-infos-documentai...-c-zapping.html" target="_blank">http://www.canalplus.fr/c-infos-documentai...-c-zapping.html</a>? "Another major French cable channel - Plan

Good girl. You did right.

Yes, it's the truth. You have to understand this: YOU have heard of Phillipe Starck (a Frenchman) before. These people - and let's be clear - this is not a "No dark sarcasms in the classroom/teacher leave those kids alone!/One more brick in the wall" type of school: this is the number one private electronics engineering school in France. These 'kids' are in their early twenties. They are French. And to a man and a woman, they've never heard of Phillipe Starck. If this weren't enough, I know more about microelectronics and information technology than they do - and I was a Humanities major. As for being good at what I do, I think I'm the best, naturally. Why do I tolerate this situation? It's simple, in a French sort of way: they've got me by the cojones. I have to work for them to be able to teach at the University - which is a great place with great students, teachers - everything. It's the price I pay (the price demanded by weird French legislation) to be where I want to be: my head in the clouds and my feet in the mud.

I thank both you and Pix for feeling concerned enough by these issues to contribute your input....which I've read with interest - but like I said above: I'm out of this thread. There's just too much to even begin responding to. Not just in questions of 'right' or 'wrong' opinions, but the even more laborious task of repositioning the whole debate into more objective contexts - a task beyond my energy, not to mention my limited abilities to employ a rational - rather than an emotional and anecdotal - line of logic. I'm most at ease in irony and absurdity - neither of which I care to employ when discussing these past, present and future tragedies, victories, or necessary readjustments of geopolitical realities - depending on one's point of view.

I never resort to anything less than telepathy anyway. Here's an anecdote that might lift your scratched sapphire/crapped-out iPod spirits: after a rapid search on Google for "Wabi-Sabi" and some of the links contained in the results, I based two classes today on the concept and some of its ramifications. There's actually an international movement of programmers (Agile Alliance) which claims to be influenced by the concept http://www.agilealliance.org/home and well as a current of design philosophy http://documents.stanford.edu/Traumwerk/29 and doubtlessly still more. As one thing led to another in my presentation (aided by an overhead projector and an Internet connection), I waxed enthusiastic on what I saw to be other applications of Wabi-Sabi, including the whole "intuitive" philosophy behind Apple's operating systems, iPods (uh....sorry about that), and by some sort of serendipitous leap of free associations, the French designer, architect and funny-man, Philip Starck!

It apparently is Bin Laden, plus some sophisticated lip-synching software - or so I've read. If you watch it with the sound off - which I haven't done - the trickery is more obvious. BOO! Yeah, we should all live so long.

Miss Barrett, could you now try cutting off your little finger? It's just a test, but I'm curious.

I'm scared.

Into beauty, not perfection.

A few lilght scratches on a crystal are like the fine lines that accentuate the beauty of a woman's face: you can relate to that, can't you, Miss Barrett? Something that looks too new, too perfect, lacks a bit of life, don't you think?

It's just slightly faster than the Bugatti Veyron. I like the Veyron....

Not to worry: it's just Uncle Nosferatu: (Stop moving the goal posts, Vicky - you know that this was the photo being referred to!)

In the future, just wear your sapphires, rubies and emeralds when playing with your fake watches: shimple good shense, dahling

"But Les Guignols are a rip off of Spitting Image!" For sure, but they're all we've got - and they do a good job of being funny and insolent. It took ages for this type of humor to make its way past the censors and onto French television - and then only because Canal Plus was the first privately- run (and not State-run) channel. If it weren't for exceptions like this, we'd all be watching the French equivalent of "Leave It To Beaver" and the "Ozzie and Harriet Show" for eternity.... And now that I think of it, not even the French equivalents: the original American series in endless re-runs!

I think the sharpest humor is on a show called "Les Guignols" (The Puppets) on the cable channel Canal Plus. Even when they satirize Bush and the U.S. - which is often - I just have to laugh. Some examples: Stallone and Bush clones singing "We F.uck The World" - a parody of "We Are The World"... They're no less tender with their own politicians, such as when they ridiculized President Chiraq in the "SuperMenteur" ("SuperLiar") sketches for weeks on end. The dialogues will be probably be unintelligible to anyone not speaking French, but the images speak for themselves....

Mouiii... Problem is, ain't rpractically no one around here is gonna understand those vids....

@sulone88: Great avatar, wonderful vid, already upgraded membership - you are a class act!

The sexiest women are waiting...

You know what remains to be done, Miss Barrett.

edit/delete Nah, you didn't see what you just saw. Move on, folks - nothing to see here....