Gaston, Guadalajara and Harvey Pekar

I finished all the application documents I had to send to various French universities. I did it at work: it was kind of hard to be able to justify it, between two meetings, and without hiding the huge stack of papers on my desk that I had to put in tiny enveloppes. I thought I was not going to make it, but, ffffew, I think I did it. I didn't dream, did I ?

A French colleague left the USA branch today and we had a farewell lunch. It was kind of fun, and I began to drink a little bit to warm myself... and the atmosphere. I tried to explain the stories of Gaston Lagaffe and how Fantasio, his boss, always fails to make his customer Mr. Demesmaeker sign business contracts. I begin to find some similarities between Gaston and me sometimes. I'm just not as slim as he is...

After all this (useless?) paperwork at home, I finally reserved some time for me to watch Sideways, the wine impregnated movie by Alexander Paine (Election and About Schmidt). Just great. French people will appreciate the poetic celebration of the pinot noir (even if we, Frenchies, don't care so much about the cépage as what really matters in French wines, at least for me, is the magic combination of grapes - as for Bordeaux - that a château can do. I don't necessarily want to know if it is a chardonnay or a pinot or a doppleschlingerpruttleschtunk.)

I really liked the acting of Paul Giamatti that I already found amazing playing Harvey Pekar in American Splendor. All the characters are really touching. And in a way it showed me that at least some people appreciate a certain savoir-vivre. Only in California ? Well, I don't think so, but...

Other American movie I really appreciated, with vibrant actors: The station agent. Slow, moving, great actors, little budget. Just the kind of cinema that I like.

Top 5 slow motion American movies I've seen in the last months:
- Sideways
- Station Agent
- A straight story
- About Schmidt
- In the bedroom

La barbe qui pique

Fffff. J'ai passé tout le week-end à travailler ou à faire semblant, les yeux rivés à mon écran de laptop durant quasiment 48h. Et j'ai même pas fini ce que je voulais faire. J'ai l'impression de revenir 2 ans en arrière quand je finissais mon PhD. On avance à une vitesse de fourmi, oscillant entre le perfectionnisme, la procrastination et le stress de ne pas finir. Bref, na na marre le feu follet. Na na marre.

J'ai encore rêvé d'une ex qui m'annonce qu'elle est enceinte. Cela fait plusieurs fois : sa présence me hante. Je me débarasse de cette ombre pendant quelques mois, puis poutch l'affect ressurgit avec d'autant plus de force. Gnnnnnnark. Faut que tout ça change !

Mon chat reste toujours à moins de 2 mètres de moi. Il me met des poils partout le bougre. Un jour je mourrais asphyxié sous les poils de Jules. Atchaaa !

MTApost

Yeah this time I'm trying the commute-blogging: I'm writing my post from the MTA train that connects Manhattan to my suburban city of Tarrytown, Westchester County, NY. 10:09 pm. It seems to me I've already spent thousands hours in my life in such trains. Hum. Suburban life. Jim Carrey in "Eternal sunshine of a spotless mind" manages to re-seduce his pink-haired girl thanks to MTA, so who knows what could happen to me ? hum ?

After a joyful Friday afternoon in the MOMA, I'm going to have a busy Easter week-end because of the mass of work I need to produce to (perhaps) prepare my come back to France. I'm going to apply for several positions as professor in various French universities, and therefore need to prepare a few documents to prove that
(i) I'm the best researcher of the universe,
(ii) I'm the best teacher of the world, and
(iii) that it's inevitable that those guys hire me as their new star researcher.

Well, all those things only happen in my dream, and basically dealing with both the chronic poverty of the French research system and its internal politics probably requires more than one Nobel prize. And no need to say that I don't have one! But no pain, no gain, or qui sera sera, I have to give it a chance.

Today, I found funny that everyone says "happy holidays" whereas everybody's going to go to work next Monday. Althoung being one of the most religious of the planet, USA barely considers Easter Monday as the most important Christian day of the year. Dollar is our common god. Period.

NickHornbysm

Top 5 of the most played artists in my iTunes playlist [01.18.05 - 03.24.05] :

1) Dominique A
2) Lali Puna
3) Chet Baker
4 ) The Killers
5) Bang Gang

Top 5 songs [01.18.05 - 03.24.05] :
1) Interpol - Narc
2) Archive - Sleep
3) The Killers - Smile like you mean it
4) Ladytron - Blue Jeans
5) The Killers - Somebody told me

Top 5 Artists of the week [03.17.05 - 03.24.05] :
1) The Arcade Fire
2) Daft Punk
3) Lali Puna
4) PJ Harvey
5) La Varda

USPS

Une enveloppe toute fine. Un seul timbre français de collé dessus. Je ne me souviens plus combien coûte un timbre commun. De toute façon, ma mémoire s'est arrêtée au 2F20. Et de toute façon, il n'y avait pas assez pour faire passer l'Atlantique à ces quelques grammes.Mr le facteur en a voulu autrement.

Une drôle d'inscription 0.02/0.55 est écrite en haut à gauche. Mon nom et mon adresse ont été écrits maladroitement. Écriture tremblotante, mal assurée. Une rature sur le ZIP. Ma mère m'écrit cinq lignes et conclut par "je suis fatiguée". Derrière cette phrase entendue tant de fois, je n'ai pas encore réussi à décrypter l'adjectif qualificatif attribut "fatiguée". Elle a encore perdu mon adresse.

La chanson du moment, quitte à céder à l'euphorie des gentils gens indie: Backseat des Arcade Fire. Aime particulièrement le passage de 2:00 à 3:30. On y détecte bien le point d'inflexion. Régine Chassagne est d'origine Haïtienne, ainsi que le cuistot de la cafète. Je lui parle en Français. Il m'appelle le roi David. Je me marre. Ça cause Anglais et ça parle sandwich autour. Mais je continue à parler Français. "Mets moi des carottes," et bientôt, bientôt, je rentrerai chez moi.