Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!!!, It's finally 2007, who knew it would come. I did. Usually after 6 comes 7. I only pray that after a 2006 of war comes a 2007 of peace. It would be more impressive to expect that.
Never the less, the changing of the year was a great one. This holiday season, I was in Paris. I have been in Paris for 5 whole months now, almost 6, and it seems like just yesterday that I left LAX. And in 6 months time, I will be back. Crazy huh. I was touched by home this Christmas by my brother Mathieu who came out to see me and spent 2 1/2 weeks with me running around France, and Paris.
We spent the first couple days sight seeing in Paris. I took him to the Notre Dame and around the Latin Quarter. He was impressed and a little culture shocked by the European way of life, style, and dress.
We spent Christmas eve on a train going from Paris to Tarbes, a little mountain town the Pyrenees. My good friend Pierre lives down there only minutes from snow covered mountains. Pierre's house was warm and friendly. The old wood and cluttered yet arranged objects and random items on his mantle piece above the fire place and in the kitchen reminded me of my house in LA. It wasn't just a house, it was a home, and became our home for the next 5 days after that.
His town was a little farm town just north of Tarbes. The roads were quite and the air was filled with the sound of cow bells. One afternoon, we saw a farmer and his son herding the cows into their pen. It was classic. The night sky was filled with stars, millions, so many, we saw parts of our galaxy. It's a nice galaxy folks, it really is.
Each day was all about waking up and eating for 4 hours strait. The day after Mike arrived (Mike is a buddy in Paris), we spent all day at the table. We ate Frois Gras, turkey, salmon, drank wine, potatoes, had cake. We just ate and ate and ate. Other days we snowboarded. I kept tripping out on the idea that I was snowboarding in another country, something I had never thought possible after countless seasons at Big Bear in California.
The only draw back was the snow was in bad condition. The reheating of the Earth, better known as Global Warming, caused and early spring for sounthern France. This made everyone a little sad. Pierre's friends all gazed up at the rocky and bare mountain top and sighed.
We also spent our time playing poker and the new Nintendo Wii. Nintendo Wii is a new video game console that requires it's players to use a motion sensitive remote control to play games like gold, tennis, bowling, base ball, pool, and more. For example, in tennis, you must be standing up and making the motions as if you were really playing tennis. You can even put effect on the ball depending on how hard you hit it and if you turn your wrist. We've come a long way since Duck Hunt.
My brother and I came back to Paris and did more sight seeing, but now with more people than before. Sad to leave the country side and my good pals, we returned to Paris and met my buddy Yuko, who I was in Spain with, and her friend Amy. Yuko and Amy stayed at David's vacant apartment. In exchange, they cooked for my and my brother. So as you can see, we ate good the entire time of his stay. My friend Meghan had a bunch of friends in town too, as well as my friend Henry, so there were big groups hanging out all the time.
We spent New Years at the Trocadero which faces the Eiffle Tower. We waited in the rain for a midnight spectacle. But when the hand struck 12, nothing, and I mean, nothing happened. Paris had canceled the fire works show due to a terrorist threat in Madrid, but even Madrid had a fire works show. Bummer.
I tried to show my brother everything after that. The Louvre, the Eiffle Tower, the Arc, Pére Lachaise, etc.... But there is too much to see. Also, we were going out at night and waking up late, like men do. We saw all we could with the day light we had.
I was very happy to have him hear and it was sad to see him go. There was part of me that wanted to get on the plane with him and see my land again. But not yet, not just yet. He means a lot to me though. He has grown up so fast and impresses me with his maturity andintelligencee. Like most 16 year old boys, he has a lot ofaggressionn to take care of. I can't say that my family doesn't sometimes cause thataggressionn to surface, but like I told him, we must find the source of what makes up angry, and deal with it from there. Don't attack it, embrace it and discover who and why and how it exists.
I love my brother and honor his friendship. I can't wait to hang with him again.
After he left, I got back to school. I made a short film for a class. Our topic had to be about eggs. So I made a Trainspotting esque film about a addict who freebases and gets high off eggs. It took me a week to film and edit. Ii worked hard on it and thatpaidd off. It felt good to get back into the creative process of film making. I felt real again, alive. I felt goooood.
Speaking of feeling good, RIP God Father of Soul, and RIP Father of my God Father. Two great men died this winter. Was one in my family. One was not, but your classy nature andconsistenttrhythmm has always inspired me.
Something special happened to me last weekend. I can't go into too many details, but it was something that had never really happened to me before. At least , not that fast, and not that strong. All I can say is that it was beautiful and like fires that start fast and burn bright, they are quicklyextinguishedd, even if they don't want to be.
Song for the moment: "Do I ever cross your mind," by Brian McKnight.
Cheeezy, I know, haha.
Well, I best get back to work, and play. They say it might snow, but we will see. I'll post new pics soon, though there are some from the tales above on my Facebook. Please enjoy. I love and miss you all. A + (A plus tard= see you later)