I have survived Paris, and the flight home! Highlights of the trip:
1. Working. A lot. You don't want to know. On the bright side, they fed me at the Dassault Systemes cafeteria very well...French cooking really is all that, once you get used to chewing tougher beef that's raw in the middle ;-) 2. Wine. Omigod. The 20 franc bottle of french wine kicks major ass over the $10 bottles you get here. They don't export the REALLY good stuff. 3. Merguez Frite. Take a nice crusty french bun, add Merguez (kind of like a Slim Jim, only really spicy and good), a bunch of french fries, mayonnaise and mustard, and you have the premiere gutbomb a la Francais. Extra points if they deep fry the sausage and the fries together. 4. Pure Science live at the Rex. Used to wimpy 40 minute sets from a laptop in the US? This brit went mental for 2.5 hours with very catchy tech house. At one point he was rolling a joint and switching patterns on his MPC at the same time. I would love to find out more information about Pure Science. 5. Jeff Mills/Carl Cox/Sven Vath/Richie Hawtin at the Zenith. An opportunity to see Mills spin was a dream come true. And the boy delivers! Lots of ink has been spilled on Jeff as a DJ, and he is all that. What really impressed me is the steady booty dance he does when he's spinning. The top half of him is a blur of motion, and the bottom half is jacking full time, seemingly independent. 6. Meeting and hanging out briefly with Elodie Cousin, who is a very nice young woman, and her friend the other Elodie (DJ Laura Palmer). It is so nice to be in a foreign city and having at least a few folks willing to show you the ropes ... Merci plus bien Elodie! I tried to explain the english expression "twist your arm" to her and didn't get very far, but maybe it will catch on in Paris ;-) 7. Meeting and hanging with Chris O'Grady, who was a Motor DJ before moving to Paris a few weeks ago. I sorted him out for music software, so the boy is on the case making tracks. He and Emmanuelle gave me the grand tour of the Bastille and beyond... 8. The courtyard of the Louvre at night when it's lit up and the chamber groups are playing. Magnificent. 9. Meeting some label folks -- Goodlife Records from Grenoble have some very tasty tracks. I met some others but don't have all my business cards here to list them all. kent williams -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
