The Sins of Cardinal O'Brien

I know I am a little bit late commenting the news, but I could not stay silent on that one. I blogged about Scottish Cardinal O'Brien before, when that Catholic barking dog that is called a priest said that ''aggressive secularism'' was a threat to this country. Now, he had to resign to his position as archbishop and will not take part in the election of the next pope, because if allegations of sexual misconducts... against fellow priests. You can read about it here. One word: pathetic. Granted, those are allegations for now, but it is not like such allegations are rare and have been proven wrong very often in the past. Let's just say now that if they are proven right, this puts his stupid accusations into a whole new perspective: we know he is already a fundamentalist and a coward, he would be now a hypocrite.

Le soir tombe moins vite (anecdote)

Février est sur le point de se terminer (demain c'est déjà le dernier jour) et je me suis rendu compte d'une chose en prenant le train du retour ce soir: le soir commençait à peine à tomber. De retour dans ma petite ville tranquille, une vingtaine de minutes plus tard, il faisait nuit, enfin pas nuit noire, mais le soir était tombé. Tout de même, lorsque j'ai quitté le travail à 5:30 jusqu'à 6:50, j'ai eu droit à vingt minutes de lumière de début de soirée.

Another Viking image

I am uploading this image because... Well, because. Amazon sent me an email recently, an automatic one, offering me to trade this book, Gods & Heroes from Viking Mythology, for something else. I was borderline offended. I bought this book, a rare gem, because I wanted to read it in original English and because I wanted to own a copy. Why would I want to trade it back for something else? If I wanted to just read books I buy, then I wouldn't buy them but borrow them from libraries. And this one, as I said, is a rarity, a forgotten treasure. I wouldn't give it back for an empire. And to top it up, it has gorgeous illustrations by Giovanni Caselli, which I want to show here, because I don't want them completely forgotten either, so I upload them here, to immortalise them so to speak. In this image, which I struggled to photograph, you can see the god Loki, disguised as a hawk (he ''borrowed'' goddess Freya's coat), flying over a giants' feast in Jotunheim. It is the hall of Gerröd and I let you find more about the story. Until then, enjoy the minutiously detailed depiction of Viking life Caselli draw. Luscious, beautiful, and a good enough reason for this post.

Je mangerais des pâtés à la viande

Ceci est un billet sur un état d'esprit récurrent. Février achève, il fait froid, c'est un temps misérable dehors, me semble que ce serait le temps de mettre au four des pâtés à la viande et de les manger avec une salade crémeuse et des olives, comme vous pouvez le voir ici. C'est le temps des mets consistants et riches. Les pâtés à la viande font partie des mets qui m'ont fait survivre lors de mes premières années d'université. L'avantage avec eux, c'est qu'ils sont bons tout le temps, ou presque: quand il fait froid, même quand il fait frais l'été et qu'il pleut, on peut même les manger froids. En fait, j'en ai mangé des jours d'été chauds sans m'en plaindre.

Et comme ce billet est trivial, j'espère qu'on commentera beaucoup dessus. Je m'en inspirerai peut-être comme question existentielle.

The Clue/Cluedo Mansion

I have blogged before about Clue/Cluedo, in fact I did a post in French about it last year. So Cluedo, or Clue as we call it in America, was my favourite board game as a child. I always played Colonel Mustard, for various trivial reasons: I loved the dark yellow colour of the pawn, yellow was in fact one of my favourite colour as a child, I thought a military officer was a cool alter ego, and I always loved mustard. He was also the male character that moved earlier in the game, he was second after Miss Scarlet.

But I am not blogging about the characters today. After I blogged about English countryside and crime last week, I just thought about the Cluedo Mansion. THE Mansion. As a child, I thought it was the coolest place ever and the best hideout for a badguy, the best setting for a crime, the best place to spend a weekend too. All rolled into one. I have stopped reading whodunits years ago, but I remember what got me into them when I was younger. It was not the stereotypical characters but the setting, those remote English houses. And I received this image of them from Clue. The mansion or manor (what is the difference?) has many rooms set for leasure: the library, the ball room, the billiard room. It has a piano, so if one of the guests can play you have music, or in my case someone to accompany me while I sing. And it has secret passages! More than one, which is against Ronald Knox's Ten commandments of Detective Fiction. But this is game and wish fulfilment, not "proper" crime fiction, so the place is allowed such abundance of secret passages. It is really a dream house, especially if you have a dark side...

Une autre citation (américaine) tirée d'Arvida

J'ai déjà cité Antigonish, l'une des mes nouvelles préférées d'Arvida. Je la cite à nouveau, en fait ce qui suit la première phrase, ou incipit, de la nouvelle:

''J'aurais dû dire: l'Amérique est une mauvaise idée qui a fait beaucoup de chemins. Une idée qui a produit des routes interminables qui ne mènent nulle part, des routes coulées en asphalte ou tapées sur la terre, dessinées avec du gravier et du sable, et tu peux rouler dessus pendant des heures pour trouver à l'autre bout à peu près rien, un tas de bois, de tôle et de briques , et un vieux bonhomme planté debout en travers du chemin qui te demande:
-Veux-tu bin me dire qu'est-ce que tu viens faire par icitte?''

Description exacte et en la lisant, je me demande bien ce que je répondrais. Ca vous est arrivé de vous le demander, d'arriver quelque part sans savoir pourquoi vous y êtes venu? 

The smell and sight of snow

I know it was had been forecast, it still came off as a pleasant surprise: it snowed this morning. A light, crisp, dry snow that did not settle. But it was lovely to watch. I opened the window to smell it. I am ridiculously sentimental like this, but it does not snow very often and very much around this time of year, when February is getting near its end. A modicum of winter when it is still time for the season.

Je veux ce bouquin

J'ai trouvé cette photo (encore une fois) sur la page Facebook des Bouquinistes. Le Saguenay autrement et Abécédaire du maire a été écrit par Pierre Demers, le même homme qui a fait l'appel à la bombe lorsque l'Auditorium Dufour a réouvert avec ce nom stupide. Un geste tout aussi stupide et infantile, cela dit à lire Demers en entrevue son bouquin dit bien des choses justes sur le maire Jean Tremblay, ce bigot ignare et un (gros) brin dictatorial. Sur son français de cuisine, notamment, sur l'à-plat-ventrisme des médias locaux, dont Le Quotidien, Pravda régionale, sur la profonde ignorance de Jean Tremblay. C'est bien simple, je veux ce livre comme livre de chevet.

Agony and solace of a working day

Quick post before bedtime, which I will use as a sort of catharsis. I got ridiculously busy today at work, after a bad night of sleep, which I thought would make things worse. They didn't exactly get worse, but I felt clinically dead by the end of the day. I had to stay late too. I had a short and late lunch break. In the middle of the day, one of my colleagues was going to the shop and asked us if we needed anything: ''Sandwich, crisps, chocolate, a Coke?'' I said: ''Just a line or two''. This is a great unknown line if there ever was one, and it illustrates my state of mind. It made people laugh too.

But there were some bright sides to it, little things that cheered me up. Well, one thing: there was a pound coin when I arrived at my usual seat in the morning train. I will buy myself a treat with it. It's not as cool as a Swaziland coin, but still, it did brighten my grey day. When I mentioned on my Facebook wall the hard day at work, my brother gave me a YouTube link to Matthew and Son. I never gave much attention to this song, but just thought that it really illustrated working life pretty well. If there was a song about my day, there would be the coin and craving of chocolate in it. But I hope you enjoy this song, that you find solace in it for every hard day of work.

Question existentielle (172)

Je ne pense pas avoir posé cette question existentielle jusqu'ici. J'espère que non:

-Comment se fait-il que les billets de blogues les plus triviaux sont souvent les plus lus et les plus commentés?

Deliver us from the crows...

Boy, some people should grow a thicker skin! The British Humanist Association published this piece of news, from Brentwood Essex, about a scarecrow that was deemed offensive by some Christians because it was seemingly on a cross, crucified like, well, you know who. I don't get it. Isn't the scarecrow simply waving its arms to scare the darn birds? I mean, that is its job, its function, as a scarecrow. And since it has to be steady, of course the arms would be maintained open by a piece of wood. Well, that is my take on it anyway, the offended Christians were literally building a straw man and being scared by it. And even if it was offensive... There is no law against this, neither should we apply censorship to some very mild (at worst) display of blasphemy. I love scarecrows, how creepy they can be (I blogged about it), I have no sympathy for those who wish to put this one down.

Les Bouquinistes et le monde

J'ai téléchargé cette photo sur la page Facebook des Bouquinistes. Ils ont deux globes terrestres, paraît-il. J'ai décidé de mettre la photo sur Vraie Fiction parce que ça fait un bail que je n'ai pas mis les pieds dans une vraie librairie. W.H. Smith, ça ne compte tout simplement pas. Dans une vraie librairie, il y a un vrai choix de bouquins, il y a des grands classiques, des ouvrages controversés, des trésors oubliés, il y a des choses d'ici et d'ailleurs. Les Bouquinistes, c'est une vraie librairie, c'est un lieu de culture dont la région a bien besoin et qui fait qu'on n'a pas que des choses à envier aux autres. Il n'y a pas de librairie de même valeur dans les environs, c'est dire comme Chicoutimi est une ville choyée, tout au bout du monde qu'elle est. J'ai aussi décidé de télécharger cette photo ici parce que la librairie a représenté une vraie ouverture sur le monde pour moi et je trouve que cette photo l'illustre bien.

Italian breakfasts (an anecdote)

I have blogged before about Italian breakfasts. For some reason I thought about it today, maybe because my breakfasts often consist now of sweet things. Italian breakfasts are sweet, high in sugar and well, decadent. From my experience, they often consisted of Nutella spread on bread slices, figs, Amaretto biscuits (in the morning!) and sometimes... Well, sometimes heavier things. So today I remembered one particular Italian breakfast, after a night out in Bergamo, when my closest Italian friend, her boyfriend and some friend of theirs brought me to a bar that was serving Guinness. It had been a hot Italian night, lots of Guinness had been drunk (for some reason the Italian guys I knew then really loved Guinness, they couldn't stop drinking it, even in a heatwave, I might make it the topic of a post one day). So the next morning, I was nursing a powerful hangover at my friends's place. There was breakfast. It was a chocolate cake. "Heavy cake", as my friend said, seemingly satisfied that we had such filling breakfast. To this day, I do not understand how I could eat such piece of cake with the state my stomach and head were in. But I did, because I survived. And since then, I don't find it weird when I occasionally crave chocolate cake or blueberry pie or dessert in the morning. I still share a certain taste for shameless gastronomical Italian decadence.

Le cardinal Ouellet: qu'on m'explique

Je reviens encore sur le cardinal Marc Ouellet. Alain Dubuc a chroniqué sur le sujet récemment. En général, le texte est très critique sur le cardinal, cela dit il énonce une énormité: que l'éventuelle élection de Ouellet aurait des éléments positifs pour les Québécois en tout cas. Les raisons avancées par Dubuc? Ouellet a une perspective québécoise sur les débats contemporains qui touchent l'Église et il est encore une homme énergique. Ah, bon. Puisque le chroniqueur lui-même qualifie Ouellet de réactionnaire, je ne comprends simplement pas en quoi ça amènerait que que ce soit de même marginalement bon. Un réactionnaire québécois comme pape, ça voudrait dire des obscurantistes revigorés par l'un des leurs à la papauté, un vieillard aigri et arrogant qui est contre l'avortement même en cas de viol, mais est prêt à pardonner les prêtres pédophiles. Et qui aurait une tribune de choix pour répandre son venin sur la société québécoise dont il déteste la modernité. Je suis bien plus d'accord avec Pierre Foglia, qui a qualifié avec raison Marc Ouellet d'intégriste. Et je ne vois pas ce que ça aurait de bon, qu'est-ce que Marc Ouellet a à apporter à quelque débat que ce soit. Qu'on m'explique en quoi cet homme est utile.

Sherlock Holmes on English countryside

I have been watching The Copper Beeches, the Granada Sherlock Holmes TV series episode adaptation of The Adventure of the Copper Beeches. You can read the original story here. Which I have not read yet. But I remember watching the TV episode as a child and it had a lasting impression on me. Not so much the plot, but an observation Sherlock Holmes makes about English countryside. Here it is:

''“Do you know, Watson,” said he, “that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there.”
“Good heavens!” I cried. “Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?”
“They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”''

I usually read and watch crime fiction set in an urban environment. But this reminds me that evil dwells in the most pleasant environment. 

Question existentielle (171)

Je regardais The Big Bang Theory plus tôt ce matin et il m'est venu une question existentielle:

-À votre connaissance, quel est l'objet le plus geeky qu'un adulte peut posséder?

Insert text below

It happens sometimes, usually this time of year actually, I find little or no inspiration to blog. Which is strange, since I started blogging in February. Well, I say this, and it can happen any time of year, or almost, when I suddenly have a blank mind. So yes, if I blog sporadically, it is because my mind is blank.

Bleu (la photo du mois)

Le thème de ce mois-ci était "bleu" ce qui devrait être simple pour un Québécois francophone.  Et en fait, il m'a donné du fil à retordre (encore). Je voulais une photo récente et originale Et puis, j'ai eu un flash: pourquoi pas Officer Blue? C'est la décoration que j'ai la plus bleue, je l'ai depuis 2007, il m'a été donné gratuitement. Et qu'est-ce qui a de plus bleu qu'un policier? Surtout avec le nom de baptême que je lui ai donné.

Vous pouvez voir ce que les autres blogueurs ont trouvé aux liens suivants:

Tuxana, Mclw, Agrippine, Louiki, Alice Wonderland, Cara, Ori, Fesse fouille, Olivier, Alban, Cath la Cigale, Cekoline, Skipi, Zaza, La voyageuse comtoise, Solveig, Cherrybee, Une niçoise, Angélique, Lauriane, Coco, Carole In Australia, Ava, Le Mag à lire, Eloclemence, Akaieric, E, Calamonique, Nora, Les voyages de Lucy, Emma, DelphineF, Gizeh, Arwen, Homeos-tasie, Carnets d'images, Chat bleu, Juriste-in-the-city , La Parigina, Leviacarmina, Nataru, Mamysoren, Cocosophie, Galinette, Stephane08, Gilsoub, Photo Tuto, Akromax, Isaquarel, Lo, Bestofava, A&G, La Flaneuse, scarolles-and-co , Lavandine, Les voyages de Seth et Lise, impolitique, Eurydice, Sophie Rififi, Kyoko, Pat Québec, Djoul, Pilisi, Violette, Les petits supplices !, La Fille de l'Air, El Padawan, Mimipetitesouris, Annick, Xoliv', Nie, François le Niçois, David et Mélanie, Viviane, A bowl of oranges, Anne Laure T, Caro, Cindy Chou, Dame Skarlette, Renepaulhenry, Champagne, Caro from London , Happy Us, Testinaute, Fanfan Raccoon, Chloé, Karrijini, A'icha, Cynthia, flechebleu, Sephiraph, The Mouse, Wolverine, Laure, Sébastien, Lyonelk, Anne, Chris et Nanou, Laurent Nicolas, Un jour une rencontre, La Messine, Sinuaisons, Guillaume, magda627, Hibiscus, Lucile et Rod, Marmotte, Blogoth67, Cook9addict, Krn, Xavier Mohr, 100driiine, J'adore j'adhère, Dr. CaSo, Thalie, Nadezda, Caprices de filles, Josiane, Batilou, Cricriyom from Paris, Tambour Major, Kob, Céliano, Filamots, Alexinparis, Christeav, LisaDeParis, Elodie, Frédéric, Lau* des montagnes, Julie, Céline in Paris, LaGodiche, Nicky, Les bonheurs d'Anne & Alex, Flo, Mistinguett, Caterine, Louisianne, Dorydee, Cessna, oui !, The Parisienne.

The Background of James Bond

I recently rediscovered the official website of the movie Casino Royale. Apart from the usual promotional stuff, there is a lengthy backstory of James Bond, written in the form of reports to MI6, which is an updated yet strongly inspired by his literary one. Back in 2006, when I was eagerly waiting for the movie to be released, I had as much fun listening those to these reports than watching the trailers. A lot of effort has been made in the modernized James Bond biography. Of course, since then Skyfall explored Bond's past, but it is Casino Royale that started it. I love the biography as it gives dimension to the character. Action heroes seldom have dimension, and while James Bond was developed in Fleming's works, it rarely showed on screen. Things are different since Daniel Craig took the role. But anyway, this was my geek moment of the week, finding this still available. Listen to it/have a look at it and tell me what you think.

Souviens-toi que tu es poussière...

...et que tu retourneras à la poussière. Nous sommes le Mercredi des Cendres, je tiens à le rappeler. Et il fait un temps misérable ici, c'est donc un Mercredi des Cendres très circonstanciel, qui ressemble singulièrement à un Mercredi des Cendres. C'est incidemment le début du Carême, que je ne respecterai pas cette année (il m'arrivait de le faire, par défi personnel, pas par dévotion), pour cause d'écoeurantite aiguë de catholicisme, même culturel. Depuis l'annonce de la démission du pape, je me sens profondément anticlérical, je veux dire plus que d'habitude.

Le Mecredi des Cendres veut également dire que le compte à rebours vers Pâques est commencé. Pâques arrive tôt cette année, un peu trop tôt à mon goût. Je crois que c'est partiellement parce que c'est une fête mobile qu'elle n'a pas et n'aura jamais la popularité de Noël. Et le compte à rebours qui commence avec le Mercredi des Cendres, il est gris, froid, misérable.

The Fall of the Vatican

Well, it is maybe not exactly the Fall of the Roman Catholic Empire just yet, I do enjoy writing a dramatic title for dramatic purposes, but I do think this is another of a long, steady decline of the Catholic Church. I am of course referring to the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. The full text of his resignation here. I think very little of him, even though I do share his love of cats and Mozart. I suspect that he is getting senile. I should be happy about his resignation, which shows that the choice of a pope has nothing to do with any higher power: if he had been chosen by God, then God would have made him strong enough to carry on until his death. Ratzinger was chosen because he was a staunch dogmatic Catholic, because he embodied the contempt for modernity and humanism the Catholic Church has. But I learned that cardinal Marc Ouellet, from Québec, might become the next pope. And I was less happy. Because Ouellet is maybe worse than Ratzinger, more backward and as he is younger he would also spout his rubbish for longer. I often blogged about him in French over the years, it is ironic now that he makes front news.

On Facebook, reacting to the news, my youngest brother said: ''Delenda Vatican'', which is a pseudo Latin rephrasing of the old maxim by Cato the Elder. ''The Vatican must be destroyed''. Figuratively of course, I wouldn't destroy the Sistine Chapel. It is a good enough invocation to count as a great unknown line. Whoever the next pope will be, there is little chance he will modernize the institution, will start a real, honest dialogue with secular humanists (considered at best suspiciously by the Church) or by atheists like myself (Ouellet finds us dangerous), will start considering women and homosexuals as human beings or will genuinely try to make amend for the sex crimes many of their priests committed with the complicity of the institution. I fear Benedict XVI might be the lesser evil. So yes, Delenda Vatican, you bet.

L'hiver ici et ailleurs

Je bloguerai sur le pape plus tard ce soir. Je ne veux pas écrire deux billets sur le même sujet. Je voulais écrire un autre billet sur la neige, alors le voici. Il a neigé hier et aujourd'hui. Ici, en Angleterre. Et tout fonctionnait comme normalement, je n'ai même pas eu de retard de train, on n'a pas eu à quitter le travail en milieu de journée. Je n'en reviens pas. Il y a eu une énorme tempête aux États-Unis, il a neigé sur le Québec, me suis-je laissé dire. J'ai l'impression qu'on a un vrai hiver partout. Ma question: neige-t-il ailleurs? Parce que si c'est le cas, c'est vraiment l'hiver.

Space Pirate Captain Harlock

This will not come as new for my French speaking readers, but I am a big fan of Captain Harlock, which I discovered as a (very young) child growing up in Québec. He was called Capitaine Albator in the French speaking world, because for some reason Captain Harlock was deemed sounding to close to Captain Haddock. I am most familiar with the 1978 TV series, where he used to fight the Mazones. I also watched as a young adult Arcadia of my Youth, which I thought was beautiful. I discovered on Facebook from a friend (the father of my godson) that a new movie featuring Harlock will be released this year. I don't know how easy it will be to find it, but I am eager to watch it, although of course I am anxious it lives up to my childhood expectations. I have uploaded here the teaser. There is nothing overtly original in it, but I wonder if you can see people from my generation find the character so appealing.

Qu'est-il advenu de la Royale de l'Anse?

Je me pose parfois la question. Qui se souvient de la Royale de l'Anse-Saint-Jean, des Brasseurs de l'Anse? La microbrasserie a fusionné il y a plus d'une décennie déjà. Je sais que la Folie Douce a survécu, mais je crois que les autres produits sont disparus, enfin la plupart. Tout ce que je trouve sur internet date de quelques années, sur le site du roi déchu. L'Illégal, qui était la bière la plus populaire à l'époque (j'avais à peine 18 ans), je ne crois pas qu'elle ait survécu non plus, malgré son nom provocateur. En ce qui concerne la Royale, c'était sans doute ce qu'a donné de meilleur le projet de monarchie à l'Anse-Saint-Jean. La bière était délicieuse, une ale anglaise classique (mais pourquoi importer le houblon d'Angleterre, comme le dit le site?). Je me demande si la recette a survécu et/ou si la bière a changé de nom. Si vous avez des informations, dites-le moi.

A beard and the passage of time

As I have been on holidays for a week, I have not shaved for a week. I get lazy like this when I am on holidays, especially when they are impromptu. I have therefore an almost fully grown beard. I enjoy having a beard, from time to time, but something struck me: I have a good deal of grey hairs in it. I knew I was greying, but it is always more striking when you can see it in a beard. So my greying beard is my new Memento Mori, just like the anti-wrinkle cream I received for free the last time I bought... after-shave. It does not put me in a foul mood like the free anti-wrinkle cream, which was something offered because I was now labeled as belonging to the market of middle-aged suckers, but still. Bottom line: I am not getting any younger. I still won't shave until tomorrow.

Question existentielle (170)

Cette question existentielle est inspirée d'une question posée par Les Bouquinistes sur Facebook. La question originale était celle-ci: ''C'est vendredi! Que lirez-vous pendant cette fin de semaine glaciale?'' Je crois n'en avoir jamais posé de semblable.

Voici donc ma question existentielle:

-Que lisez-vous pendant une fin de semaine glaciale?

Molly Malone on the balcony

I know it is not St-Patrick's Day yet, not even any time soon, but hey it's Friday so how about some Irish music? I love old classics revisited, this is one of them, from Balcony TV, which I discovered on YouTube. More on the program here. Anyway, this is Molly Malone, sung in an operatic way on a balcony on Dublin. I find brilliant the idea of singing on a balcony whatever comes to your fancy. And singing or listening the officious Dublin anthem in Dublin is always irresistible. It is the third time I upload the song on Vraie Fiction. There will be more.

Des muffins au déjeuner

Photo prise dans Dropbox, pour un billet un brin trivial. J'ai mangé des muffins au bleuet de Marks & Spencer pour le déjeuner (j'essaie de ménager mes réserves de beurre d'arachide) . C'était bien, quand on les réchauffe ils perdent leur goût de parfum. Mais je m'ennuie des muffins au gruau que l'on fait à Chicoutimi. On les a fait ici il y a déjà longtemps, j'en avais profité pour donner la recette. Enfin bref, ça me prend parfois, des appétits de muffins.

Scottish Island Caretaker (job advert)

This might be of interest to some people, you never know. I thought it was quite interesting, in any case. My brother mentioned on Facebook this job opportunity published on the Daily Mail in Scotland: caretaker for the remote Inchcolm Island and its abbey. Isolated, with long periods of solitude, images of The Shining automatically come to mind, in a gothic horror setting. On the plus side, there is little opportunity to spend the money you earn, you have a whole island to yourself and the site is obviously gorgeous. If you can survive the cabin fever, retain your sanity and not go on a murderous rampage Jack Torrance style (''you are the caretaker, you've always been the caretaker'') the first time you see another human being, there is enough material there to write your own horror story. In case anybody reading is interested.

Un peu d'accent saguenéen

Je cherchais sur YouTube quelque chose sur l'accent saguenéen. Je n'ai rien trouvé de vraiment intéressant, sauf ce court extrait d'un reportage avec Michel Barrette. On dirait que je tombe toujours sur lui quand je veux bloguer sur l'accent saguenéen. Comme je l'ai dit cette fois-ci, il semblerait que les Saguenéens ont vraiment l'accent chantant. Pourtant je ne l'entends toujours pas dans ma voix.

Crimes and places (and Deon Meyer)

I was thinking about this post about the Swaziland coin that ended up in my pocket, and wondering where I had heard of Swaziland before. And then I (re)discovered, or remembered that it is mentioned in Blood Safari, the crime fiction novel by Deon Meyer I am reading at the moment. Boy I can be clueless. Deon Meyer is high on my list of crime writers, although not nearly as high as George Pelecanos. I follow him on Facebook, where I learnt he is shooting a movie in Loxton. Loxton is also, incidentally, mentioned in Blood Safari. I have now a strange feeling of familiarity reading about those places, one because I have a coin from there as a lucky charm, the other because I can now see on Facebook all the pictures the author has the kindness to share with his readership. Crime fiction suddenly takes a different colour, texture, something more palatable, if that makes any sense.

Le solarium

Petit billet nostalgique et un tantinet trivial. En fait non, je dois admettre en toute honnêteté que le sujet du billet est profondément trivial. Ceci est une photo du solarium de mes parents à Chicoutimi. En fait c'est là où mon père entreprose un bon nombre de ses orchidées. C'est aussi un endroit idéal pour lire ou pour passer le temps. J'ai pris cette photo en février 2012. Le solarium est assez impressionnant en hiver, on sent une proximité avec les éléments tout en demeurant à l'intérieur.

A Pinewood Studios anecdote

I don't know why, but I thought today about my personal experience with Pinewood Studios. I say experience, it was not exactly an epiphany, although it was a bit of an officious a pilgrimage, as it is an institution of British movie making. I did not stay very long, but here it is.

So a few years ago, in early May, I went to an interview in Pinewood Studios. I was very excited, not so much because of the job, which was temping, but because I was going to be where James Bond movies were shot, and maybe even work there, although obviously it was not for something nearly as glamorous as a James Bond movie, the series was in hiatus at the time anyway. It was quite moving walking around the place. I took a few snapshots with my old phone, which are now sadly lost. After my interview, which had gone very well, I was famished and I had my lunch in one of cafeterias there. It was a clean, glamorous place, especially for a simple cafeteria. The food however was pricey. And it is there that I had by far the best chicken sandwich I ever ate. It had chutney for condiment instead of mayonnaise. The meat was carved on the place, right in front of me. Two thick slices of multigrain bread held the filling. The sandwich as far as I remember, cost the price of a whole lunch. But it was worth every penny.

I did not take the job because it was conflicting with a job I still had and I had already found better opportunities. The people doing the interview were gracious when I refused it, which almost made me regret it. I do wonder sometimes about it, if I would have enjoyed it there just because of the settings. I do also find it strange that my most vivid memory of Pinewood Studios is the chicken and chutney sandwich.

Question existentielle (169)

J'ai un torticoli qui me gâche la journée un peu, étant en vacances impromptues. Cela dit, je remarque que souvent, quand je suis en congé pour une raison ou pour une autre le lundi, je me sens assez peu en congé et j'ai comme un sentiment de mélancolie. D'où ma question existentielle:

-Comment se fait-il que le lundi peut être si mélancolique même lorsqu'on est en vacances?

The Detective Tales cover for February

I have decided to upload the monthly cover picture from Detective Tales early on. I thought about which one to upload since January, but nothing came to my mind until now. It was difficult to top the brilliant one I uploaded last year (from the February 1937 issue). Last month I chose a sober one, so this time I decided to go for something melodramatic. This is from the issue of February 1939. You have the (private eye?) hero punching square in the jaw a doctor/chemist holding a scalpel, while the damsel not so much in distress shoots at a mostly unseen gun holder. Another badguy, a doctor or a chemist, in any case probably a mad scientist, is holding a huge vial of chemicals (acid?) and is about to hurl it on the hero. The setting is a lab, they are maybe making some drugs there. Or maybe biochemical weapons. This could for a story bordering on the science-fiction genre. In any case, I love how filled with details this cover is.

Une photo pour février

Non, non, ceci n'est pas la photo du mois. J'ai trouvé cette photo dans des vieux fichiers sur le plus vieil ordinateur. Elle date de février 2008. Je ne crois pas l'avoir publiée jusqu'ici et pour cause: elle est plutôt moche. Mais c'est le problème du mois de février en Angleterre (et souvent ailleurs): tout est plutôt gris, brun, beige. C'est ce que je vois quand j'ouvre les rideaux. Le thème de la photo du mois est "bleu". Je me demande bien où trouver du bleu ici. Il faudra être inventif. D'ici là, voici une photo pour le mois de février.

Catwoman's theme

I thought about uploading some more music here, for the heck of it. I am a huge fan of Batman, he is my favourite superhero. I love the Batman trilogy Christopher Nolan made, the movies are my favourite superhero movies, bare none. I like The Dark Knight Rises a bit less than the previous two, mainly because it is the ending of the story, but there are a thing or two that I enjoy less than the movies that came before.That said, it is still a quality movie. And I LOVE the score by Hans Zimmer, by far the best superhero movie score, again bare none.

So this leads me to Catwoman. The character is great, a morally ambiguous antihero, cat burglar and femme fatale. And she is a cat-lover like me. I even sometimes prefer her spin-off comic books series to the Batman ones. I really loved the take Nolan had on Catwoman, and Anne Hathaway is so natural in the role she seems to have just burst out of the comic books' pages. Catwoman is never referred to by her nickname in the movie. So the title of my post should be "Selina Kyle's theme". All the same, we know who the character is. The theme is a beautiful, subtle piece that is full of feline attitude, first aloof and mysterious, with a bit of menace, then becomes nervous and agressive.

La Chandeleur

Cette photo a été prise par mon filleul, ce qui explique qu'elle est un peu croche. Mais elle n'est pas si mal pour une photo prise par un enfant de six ans (à l'époque il avait six ans). C'est la photo d'un chandelier suédois. Je la publie ici parce que c'est aujourd'hui la Chandeleur, le jour où "l'hiver passe ou prend vigueur", le jour où l'on allume des chandelles (ce que je n'ai pas encore fait) et où l'on mange des crêpes (ce que j'ai fait au déjeuner).

Je fête peu la Chandeleur, mais j'aime tout de même la souligner depuis qu'une amie française m'a expliqué la tradition française de manger des crêtes le deux février. Je ne suis pas particulièrement un amateur de crêpes en temps normal, mais autant en avoir envie le jour de la Chandeleur. Et j'ai des réserves pour demain en plus.

Swaziland currency

Sometimes the most unexpected thing end up in your pocket or, in this case, your (my) wallet. Today I went to the local sweet shop to treat myself with chocolate. I bought one sterling pound worth of chocolates. When I gave (what I thought was) the sterling pound coin to complete the purchase, the girl at the till told me it was not a sterling pound coin. In fact, it was a coin from Swaziland. Today I knew nothing about the country and now I have a coin from it. I will keep it as a lucky charm.

Le Secret de l'étrangleur (suggestion de lecture)

Parce que Film4 passe Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec ce soir, je me suis rappelé que j'avais ici Le Secret de l'étrangleur de Tardi. J'ai découvert Tardi vers l'âge de douze ans avec Adèle Blanc-Sec, ce n'est pas mon bédéiste préféré mais il demeure que je trouve parfois très plaisant de le lire. J'ai lu une de ses adaptations des romans de Jean-Patrick Manchette, je veux en lire d'autres.

Mais enfin bref, Le Secret de l'étrangleur, donc. Une histoire de tueur en série qui se passe dans le Paris de février 1959. L'intrigue est volontairement tirée par les cheveux, tellement qu'il y a plus d'une fin, cela dit c'est une bande dessinée pleine d'atmosphère, d'humour noir, de références paralittéraires au genre policier et au cinéma à suspense, influencé par Hitchkock et Truffaut (Tardi semble avoir emprunté aux Quatre Cents Coups). Si vous vous ennuyez un soir de février, je la recommande.

First day of February

I am blogging about very little with this post, but here it is, we are the first day of February and I am on a short, one week holiday. February 2013 is not a leap year, so I guess there is not much to say at the moment. Wikipedia has an interesting entry about the month. Incidentally, February was the month when I started blogging.