Sunday, November 30, 2008
Noir Désir -French Rock Group
Noir Desir - Marlène
Saturday, November 29, 2008
George Sand - French Novelist & Feminist
Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant (July 1, 1804 –June 8, 1876), best known by her pseudonym George Sand a French novelist and feminist.
Sand's reputation came into question when she began sporting men's clothing in public — which she justified by the clothes being far sturdier and less expensive than the typical dress of a noblewoman at the time. In addition to being comfortable, Sand's male dress enabled her to circulate more freely in Paris than most of her female contemporaries could, and gave her increased access to venues from which women were often barred — even women of her social standing.
Also scandalous was Sand's smoking tobacco in public; neither peerage nor gentry had yet sanctioned the free indulgence of women in such a habit, especially in public (though Franz Liszt's paramour Marie D'Agoult affected this as well, smoking large cigars). These and other behaviors were exceptional for a woman of the early and mid-19th century, when social codes—especially in the upper classes—were of the utmost importance.
Her first published novel, Rose et Blanche (1831), was written in collaboration with Jules Sandeau.
Drawing from her childhood experiences of the countryside, she wrote the rural novels La Mare au Diable (1846), François le Champi (1847–1848), La Petite Fadette (1849), and Les Beaux Messieurs Bois-Doré (1857). A Winter in Majorca described the period that she and Chopin spent on that island in 1838-9.
Her other novels include Indiana (1832), Lélia (1833), Mauprat (1837), Le Compagnon du Tour de France (1840), Consuelo (1842–1843), and Le Meunier d'Angibault (1845).
Further theatre pieces and autobiographical pieces include Histoire de ma vie (1855), Elle et Lui (1859) (about her affair with Musset), Journal Intime (posthumously published in 1926), and Correspondence. Sand often performed her theatrical works in her small private theatre at the Nohant estate.
In addition, Sand authored literary criticism and political texts. Her most widely used quote being, "There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved."
She was known well in far reaches of the world, and her social practices, her writings and her beliefs prompted much commentary, often by other luminaries in the world of arts and letters.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Answer to Yesterday's Guess Who
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Comédie-Française
The Comédie-Française or Théâtre-Français is one of the few state theaters in France. It is the only state theater to have its own troupe of actors. It is located in the Ier arrondissement of Paris.
The theatre has also been known as the Théâtre-Nautique and as the théâtre de la République. The best-known playwright associated with the Comédie-Française is Molière. He was considered the patron of French actors; however, he died seven years before the birth of "la maison de Molière", as the Comédie-Française is often styled.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painter,sculptor, and filmmaker. Fernand Léger initially trained as an architect from 1897-1899 before moving in 1900 to Paris, where he supported himself as an architectural draftsman. In 1909 he moved to Montparnasse and met such leaders of the avant garde as Archipenko, Lipchitz, Chagall, and Robert Delaunay. His major painting of this period is Nudes in the Forest (1909-10), in which Léger displayed a personal form ofCubism—his critics called it "Tubism" for its emphasis on cylindrical forms—that made no use of the collage technique pioneered by Braque and Picasso. In 1910 he joined with several other artists, including Delaunay, Jacques Villon, Henri Le Fauconnier, Albert Gleizes, Francis Picabia, and Marie Laurencin to form an offshoot of the Cubist movement, the Puteaux Group. Léger was influenced during this time by ItalianFuturism, and his paintings, from then until 1914, became increasingly abstract. Their vocabulary of tubular, conical, and cubed forms are laconically rendered in rough patches of primary colours plus green, black and white.
Stéphane Grappelli -Famous French Violinist
Stéphane Grappelli (26 January 1908 – 1 December 1997) was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt. It was one of the first (and arguably the most famous) of all-string jazz bands.
Stéphane Grappelli "Tiger Rag"
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Quick Phrase of the Day - Is This A Private Beach
Monday, November 24, 2008
Quick Phrase of the Day -It Is A Common Expresson
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Monthly Welcome To All The Newcomers
Thanks for the nice responses to my site. For all you newcomers, the reason for this blog is this:
1. For me to keep studying my French.
2. For you to learn with me at a relaxed & non structured pace. (No grades or report cards :)
3. I will not teach unnecessary phrases or words that you will probably never use if you visit France (such as drain-pipe, soil, grasshopper, oboe, etc). We will only concentrate on words & phrases that we would need if we go on a vacation to France.
I will not dwell on grammer, or thousands of verbs and every possible past present and future combinations that they teach in the books. My purpose is to learn needed words and phrases so we will not stumble around Paris trying to find someone who speaks English. We will not be fluent in french from this site, but we will be able to somewhat communicate to people when we get there. Where I work we have thousands of tourists visit our store, and they do not speak perfect English, but I can understand what they are trying to communicate to me. That is what I want to be able to do if and when I ever go to France.
As I am a beginner also, Any comments, or suggestions, or corrections will be greatly appreciated. Email me anytime at RoyBurstiner@gmail.com even if you want to practice your french writing. We are all here to help each other.
So in the meantime, everyone have fun with this blog, practice the phrases in your head all day long, & enjoy. -Roy
Les Deux Magots
The name of Coffee "Les Deux Magots" was originally the banner of a new store that once occupied the same location. This shop, founded in 1812, was originally 23, rue de Buci, at the corner of the Rue de Seine, was transferred in 1873 due to expansion-ment, place St-Germain-des-Pres. From that time testify to emphasize the two statues that adorn the room of the institution.
Around 1885 the new store gave way to a coffee liqueur in this together. Verlaine, Rimbaud and Mallarme, among others, took then used to meet them.
Café Les Deux Magots has always played an important role in the cultural life of Paris.Established in 1933, Le Prix des Deux Magots mark his literary vocation. Frequented by many famous artists including Elsa Triolet, André Gide, Jean Giraudoux, Picasso, Fernand Léger, Prévert, Hemingway, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, among others, he welcomed the Surrealists led by Andre Breton, well before the existentialists who did the best nights of the cellars of the neighborhood.
Today the world of arts and literature are also the borders of fashion and politics.
Café Les Deux Magots is proud to be one of the oldest cafes of Paris: the service has retained its original character. The servers, dressed in black and white according to tradition, serve some drinks (wine, champagne, spirits, whiskey) to the client, with presentation of the bottle. They also serve chocolate prepared from the ancient tablets melted in milk and coffee, like in real pots made smoking at the table.
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a classic play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution. The story is a precursor to the spy fiction and the superhero genres, where a hero hides under a mild-mannered alias.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Tour Montparnasse - Montparnasse Tower
Tour Maine-Montparnasse (Maine-Montparnasse Tower), also commonly named Tour Montparnasse, is a 210-meter (689 ft) tall office skyscraper located in Paris, France, in the area of Montparnasse. Constructed from 1969 to 1972, it is the tallest skyscraper in France and the ninth tallest building in the European Union.
Friday, November 21, 2008
English Lesson
David Grimal - French Violinist
More recently he won the European Community Prize-1996, the European Radio Union Prize-1996, and received the 'Crédit National" Fellowship Award. He was also honoured as the Classical discovery of the MIDEM 1997.
He has performed as un soliste and in chamber ensembles in Switzerland, Japan,Korea, Hong-Kong, Taiwan, New York (Lincoln Center), Vienna (Musikverein), as well as on the main stages in Paris (Theatre du Chatelet, Theitre des Champs-Elysees, Auditorium du Louvre, Radio-France ...) and in such festivals as Ravinia, The Casals Festival in Porto-Rico, Menton, Festival de Musique en mer, Radio-France Montpellier. He has given radio and television performances on various European channels.
Dissonances & David Grimal - Mozart
Jean-Gaspard Deburau -Shhhhh
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Philippe Decouflé -French Choreographer
Philippe Decouflé (born Neuilly-sur-Seine, October 22, 1961) is a French choreographer, dancer, mime artist, and theatre director. As a child he travelled extensively around Lebanon and Morocco, before learned his skills as a teenager at the Annie Fratellini Ecole du Cirque and the Marceau Mime School. While frequenting Parisienne nightclubs he discovered and was attracted to contemporary dance, and he eventually moved to the Centre National de la Danse Contemporaine in Angers to study under choreographer Alwin Nicolais. After briefly working as a solo dancer, he formed the Découflé Company of Arts in Bagnolet in 1983, moving it to a former electrical works in the Parisienne suburb of Saint-Denis in 1995.
He has worked for the Lyon Opera Ballet, and choreographed the music video for New Order's True Faith. It won the "Best Music Video" prize at the 1988 BRIT Awards, while his advertisement for Polaroid won a "Silver Lion" prize at the 1989 Venice Film Festival. On the back of these successes, he was selected to choreograph the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1992 Winter Olympics, in front of a global television audience of over two billion people, the 50th anniversary Cannes Film Festival in 1997, and a parade for the 2007 Rugby World Cup in Saint-Denis in Paris.
"SOMBRERO"
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Château de Marly
The Château de Marly was located in what has become Marly-le-Roi, the commune that existed at the edge of the royal park. The town that originally grew up to service the château is now a dormitory community for Paris.
At the Château of Marly, Louis XIV of France escaped from the formal rigors he was constructing atVersailles. Small rooms meant fewer company, and simplified protocol; courtiers, who fought among themselves for invitations to Marly, were housed in a revolutionary design of twelve pavilions built in matching pairs flanking the central sheets of water, which were fed one from the other by prim formalized cascades.
The château is no more, nor the hydraulic "machine" that pumped water for Versailles. Only the foundation of Jules Hardouin-Mansart's small château, the pavillon du Roi remain at the top of the slope in Marly park.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Answer to Yesterday's "Guess Whose Sculpture This Is?"
Tony Dow, best known as the actor who portrayed the Beaver's big brother, Wally, on the 1950s family TV series "Leave It to Beaver," will soon have one of his abstract sculptures on display at the Louvre. But the sculpture isn't going to be permanently installed next to the Mona Lisa or anything: It will be part of the annual Societe National des Beaux-Arts exhibition, held at the Carrousel du Louvre, an exhibition hall within the Louvre. Dow has been an artist and had been sculpting and painting since his teen years.
Answer To Yesterday's Guess Who
Monday, November 17, 2008
The Paris Air Show
The Paris Air Show (Salon International de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace, Paris-Le Bourget) is an international trade fair for the aerospace business. It is held at Le Bourget airport near Paris, France every odd year.
The Paris Air Show traces its history back to the first decade of the twentieth century. In 1908 there was a section of the Paris Automobile Show dedicated to aircraft, and from 1909 there was an Air Show, held at the Grand Palais. There were four further shows before the First World War. The show re-started in 1919, and from 1924 they were held every two years. The shows were interrupted again by the Second World War, and they re-started again in 1946. Since 1949, they have been held in every odd-numbered year.
The shows continued to be held at the Grand Palais, and from 1949 flying demonstrations were staged at Orly Airport. In 1953, the show was relocated from the Grand Palais to Le Bourget.
Guess Whose Sculpture This Is
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Claire de Lune - Poem by Paul Verlaine
Votre âme est un paysage choisi
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
Jouant du luth et dansant et quasi
Tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques.
Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur
L'amour vainqueur et la vie opportune,
Ils n'ont pas l'air de croire à leur bonheur
Et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune,
Au calme clair de lune triste et beau,
Qui fait rêver les oiseaux dans les arbres
Et sangloter d'extase les jets d'eau,
Les grands jets d'eau sveltes parmi les marbres.
Your soul is like a landscape fantasy,
Where masks and Bergamasks, in charming wise,
Strum lutes and dance, just a bit sad to be
Hidden beneath their fanciful disguise.
Singing in minor mode of life's largesse
And all-victorious love, they yet seem quite
Reluctant to believe their happiness,
And their song mingles with the pale moonlight,
The calm, pale moonlight, whose sad beauty, beaming,
Sets the birds softly dreaming in the trees,
And makes the marbled fountains, gushing, streaming--
Slender jet-fountains--sob their ecstasies.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Étienne Bacrot - French Chess Champion
Monday, November 10, 2008
Plastic Bertrand - French Singer
He was born in Brussels of a French father and Ukrainian mother. At the age of nine, he became a singer and drummer in the Buffalo Scouts Band, a group he formed with the Boy Scouts, who performed covers of Rolling Stones songs. He later formed a band called The Pelicans who performed at parties, later changing their name to Passing the Time, extending their act in bars, clubs and at festivals along the Dutch and Belgian coast.
Plastic Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi