Vincent B is Roland Barthes

J'aime la couleur rouge, les plages, les stations balnéaires en hiver, Bergman, Resnais, Carpenter, Jim Carrey, les stations de ski en été, le Chateaubriand, Barthes Foucault Homère Ovide de Quincey, Candy S. P., les vélos simples et colorés, la crête iliaque les pieds et les chevilles, les cheveux longs ; à Anvers, la civette ou même juste le bord du Scheldt au mois de novembre, les cafés ; à New-York, tout ce que je déteste à Paris ; le laid, le bizarre, l'irritant, la pornographie, l'ennui, les très mauvais films très bêtes, Tokyo, l'Etna, le Stromboli, les bateaux-taxi, le cépage nero d'Avola, le thé english breakfast bio, les hôtels beaux ou moches, les décibels, ce qui est composite. Voler les petites cuillers. Réaliser qu'une fois cette liste — composée de quelques constantes et de beaucoup de variables — terminée, commence un travail pas si long que ça au bout duquel presque tout sera faux.

Je n'aime pas la petite robe noire, la voiture noire, la chaussure noire, le costume noir, la peinture noire, les installations noires, l'exotisme, la droite, l'érotisme, le chic, les journaux, les magazines, la déco, le mobilier de J. Prouvé, les cinémas, les poils, l'intelligible, les mails collectifs, m'adresser à plus d'une personne.

(Photo: Andy Warhol)

Roland Barthes was a Picky Freak

Roland Barthes had a wonderful voice. I realized when I discovered his famous 1977 classes at the College de France in Paris are available on podcast. His course "Comment vivre ensemble" is challenging to follow, you can tell it was aimed at an audience familiar with both the scope of the subject (semiotics of litterature) and his work. But it's just as fascinating as his litterature.
I heard his voice again when a friend sent me a recording of Barthes reading his "J'aime, je n'aime pas" text in which he lists things he likes and dislikes. He sounds like a regular picky freak when in fact he thereby tries to demonstrate how his ordinary self is made up of boring details like any other individual, yet these details can create either "complicité ou irritation" in others. I have asked friends to send me their own "J'aime, Je n'aime pas" (soon and little by little featured on PF) and having read some, I can say Barthes made his point.

J'aime : la salade, la cannelle, le fromage, les piments, la pâte d'amandes, l'odeur du foin coupé (...), les roses, les pivoines, la lavande, le champagne, des positions légères en politique, Glenn Gould, la bière excessivement glacée, les oreillers plats, le pain grillé, les cigares de Havanes, Haendel, les promenades mesurées, les poires, les pêches blanches ou de vigne, les cerises, les couleurs, les montres, les stylos, les plumes à écrire, les entremets, le sel cru, les romans réalistes, le piano, le café, Pollock, Twombly, toute la musique romantique, Sartre, Brecht, Jules Verne, Fourier, Eisenstein, les trains, le Médoc, le bouzy, avoir la monnaie, Bouvard et Pécuchet, marcher en sandales le soir sur de petites routes du Sud-Ouest, les Marx Brothers, le Serrano à sept heures du matin en sortant de Salamanque, etc.

Je n'aime pas : les loulous blancs, les femmes en pantalon, les géraniums, les fraises, le clavecin, Mirò, les tautologies, les dessins animés, Arthur Rubinstein, les villas, les après-midi, Satie, Vivaldi, téléphoner, les choeurs d'enfants, les concertos de Chopin, les danseries de la Renaissance, l’orgue, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, ses trompettes et ses timbales, le politico sexuel, les scènes, les initiatives, la fidélité, la spontanéité, les soirées avec des gens que je ne connais pas, etc.

(Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes, Seuil, 1975)

Place Vendôme

Hints of past grandeur.
(Photo: Marcel Bovis)

Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss will litteraly make me cry of laughter. I love his books.

Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss, (tongue twister to be read out loud)

Fox
Socks
Box
Knox

Knox in box.
Fox in socks.

Knox on fox in socks in box.

Socks on Knox and Knox in box.

Fox in socks on box on Knox.

Chicks with bricks come.
Chicks with blocks come.
Chicks with bricks and blocks and clocks come.

Look, sir.  Look, sir.  Mr. Knox, sir.
Let's do tricks with bricks and blocks, sir.
Let's do tricks with chicks and clocks, sir.

First, I'll make a quick trick brick stack.
Then I'll make a quick trick block stack.

You can make a quick trick chick stack.
You can make a quick trick clock stack.

And here's a new trick, Mr. Knox....
Socks on chicks and chicks on fox.
Fox on clocks on bricks and blocks.
Bricks and blocks on Knox on box.

Now we come to ticks and tocks, sir.
Try to say this Mr. Knox, sir....

Clocks on fox tick.
Clocks on Knox tock.
Six sick bricks tick.
Six sick chicks tock.

Please, sir.  I don't like this trick, sir.
My tongue isn't quick or slick, sir.
I get all those ticks and clocks, sir,
mixed up with the chicks and tocks, sir.
I can't do it, Mr. Fox, sir.

I'm so sorry, Mr. Knox, sir.

Here's an easy game to play.
Here's an easy thing to say....

New socks.
Two socks.
Whose socks?
Sue's socks.

Who sews whose socks?
Sue sews Sue's socks.

Who sees who sew whose new socks, sir?
You see Sue sew Sue's new socks, sir.

That's not easy, Mr. Fox, sir.

Who comes? ...
Crow comes.
Slow Joe Crow comes.

Who sews crow's clothes?
Sue sews crow's clothes.
Slow Joe Crow sews whose clothes?
Sue's clothes.

Sue sews socks of fox in socks now.

Slow Joe Crow sews Knox in box now.

Sue sews rose on Slow Joe Crow's clothes.
Fox sews hose on Slow Joe Crow's nose.

Hose goes.
Rose grows.
Nose hose goes some.
Crow's rose grows some.

Mr. Fox!
I hate this game, sir.
This game makes my tongue quite lame, sir.

Mr. Knox, sir, what a shame, sir.

We'll find something new to do now.
Here is lots of new blue goo now.
New goo.  Blue goo.
Gooey.  Gooey.
Blue goo.  New goo.
Gluey. Gluey.

Gooey goo for chewy chewing!
That's what that Goo-Goose is doing.
Do you choose to chew goo, too, sir?
If, sir, you, sir, choose to chew, sir,
with the Goo-Goose, chew, sir.
Do, sir.

Mr. Fox, sir,
I won't do it.
I can't say.
I won't chew it.

Very well, sir.
Step this way.
We'll find another game to play.

Bim comes.
Ben comes.
Bim brings Ben broom.
Ben brings Bim broom.

Ben bends Bim's broom.
Bim bends Ben's broom.
Bim's bends.
Ben's bends.
Ben's bent broom breaks.
Bim's bent broom breaks.

Ben's band.  Bim's band.
Big bands.  Pig bands.

Bim and Ben lead bands with brooms.
Ben's band bangs and Bim's band booms.

Pig band!  Boom band!
Big band!  Broom band!
My poor mouth can't say that.  No, sir.
My poor mouth is much too slow, sir.

Well then... bring your mouth this way.
I'll find it something it can say.

Luke Luck likes lakes.
Luke's duck likes lakes.
Luke Luck licks lakes.
Luck's duck licks lakes.

Duck takes licks in lakes Luke Luck likes.
Luke Luck takes licks in lakes duck likes.

I can't blab such blibber blubber!
My tongue isn't make of rubber.

Mr. Knox.  Now come now.  Come now.
You don't have to be so dumb now....

Try to say this, Mr. Knox, please....

Through three cheese trees three free fleas flew.
While these fleas flew, freezy breeze blew.
Freezy breeze made these three trees freeze.
Freezy trees made these trees' cheese freeze.
That's what made these three free fleas sneeze.

Stop it!  Stop it!
That's enough, sir.
I can't say such silly stuff, sir.

Very well, then, Mr. Knox, sir.

Let's have a little talk about tweetle beetles....

What do you know about tweetle beetles?  Well...

When tweetle beetles fight,
it's called a tweetle beetle battle.

And when they battle in a puddle,
it's a tweetle beetle puddle battle.

AND when tweetle beetles battle with paddles in a puddle,
they call it a tweetle beetle puddle paddle battle.

AND...

When beetles battle beetles in a puddle paddle battle
and the beetle battle puddle is a puddle in a bottle...
...they call this a tweetle beetle bottle puddle paddle battle muddle.

AND...

When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles
and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles...
...they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle
bottle paddle battle.

AND...

Now wait a minute, Mr. Socks Fox!

When a fox is in the bottle where the tweetle beetles battle
with their paddles in a puddle on a noodle-eating poodle,
THIS is what they call...

...a tweetle beetle noodle poodle bottled paddled
muddled duddled fuddled wuddled fox in socks, sir!

Fox in socks, our game is done, sir.
Thank you for a lot of fun, sir.

Fall in Paris

Fall is coming.

(photo: Alfred Stieglitz)