The coolest electric train display

I thought I would blog about something different than my acting class for a change (but I will do more about it soon). My dad sent me this Youtube video about the railway network of Miniatur Wunderland.As my readership knows, I am since childhood crazy about electric trains. But of course, even the best LGB train we have cannot beat this whole display. I miss the time when we used to put the family electric train in the basement and have it run on a complex railway. We lacked the background they have in this place, but our imagination did the rest anyway. Watching this video brings back so many childhood memories.

Question existentielle (25)

Une question qui me revient chaque année:

-Que faire pour rendre novembre intéressant?
 

Finding intellectual challenges

More things are happening in Manchester in the near future, I learnt from the Anthony Burgess Foundation. I feel the need to travel there these days more and more, and do my pilgrimage, and/or my Odyssey. I miss this a lot. Not travelling to be a tourist, but going to some event like this, a lecture or a seminar, where I can use my brain: thinking, rambling on something useless yet fascinating (art, literature, etc.). I do acting (next class tomorrow! I cannot wait!), which I think is triggered by the same longing.

I like my job enough, even when I find it difficult. It is a good working environment, I have good colleagues, it pays the bills, etc. I cannot complain about it. But it is not exactly an intellectually challenging job. I didn't have one like this since my time in Liverpool (which is partially why I have such affection for this city). And I miss this aspect of it a lot. I blogged about this almost at the exact same time last year. I miss teaching, studying and debating about literature. A man (or a woman) is what he does. With the acting, I can be, at least to a degree, an artist. I also miss being an intellectual. And I wonder what to do to be an intellectual again.

Sagesse domestique et culinaire

Je sais que j'écris souvent sur la bouffe quand je blogue en français ces temps-ci, mais le quotidien m'inspire. Ce soir on a mangé une soupe avec des toasts, un truc simple qui se prépare vite. Je dis "simple", mais rien n'est simple dans une cuisine étroite comme celle qu'on a. Et on a un grille-pain qui a de l'âge et qui brûle les toasts très facilement. Qui plus est, on a un détecteur de fumée très chatouilleux. Donc, les toasts étaient légèrement brûlées, ce qui a suffi pour que le détecteur se mette à sonner. On a quand même mangé les toasts, qui étaient mangeables. Ce qui m'a fait penser à ce que ma mère me disait quand on était enfants et qu'on avait des bouts de nos toasts qui étaient brûles: "Le brûlé, ça fait chanter". Elle le tenait de sa mère ou de sa tante, je crois.

Cops

Right now I am watching a documentary on Channel 4, Coppers, about well, the UK police force. It is a world I am both foreign to and familiar with. I first got into the police world through fiction, via the crime novels I was reading, then the TV dramas I became a fan of. It probably really started with Omertà at home, when I really started to be interested about the work of police officers. There was also the gang war of the 90s which set Montreal ablaze, and which made me more aware of the admirable work of the SQ and the SPVM (except that muppet). I blogged about it here. I became fascinated with real crime history and crime news.

A friend of mine, an army officer, once told me, when I was unemployed, that I should consider a career in the police force, since I was so much into it. It was a ridiculous suggestion. Police officers are to me what birds are to ornithologists: a subject of study and observation, but nothing I could ever think to be a part of. I love to go to crime museums (I dragged my wife to the one in Vancouver), I once chatted with two patrol officers of the SPVM in a café and asked them what type of guns they had (I learned that the SPVM cops have Walthers, the SQ ones have Glocks), I can question a police officer in details about police procedure, ranking, etc. I am fascinated with the little details of a cop's life, the lingo they use, the uniforms, the reports they have with the medias, with the judiciary, etc. I think I could write a convincing picture of police life, if I had the discipline to put my mind into it.

Un club sandwich

Hier, ma femme et moi sommes allés dans un restaurant local. Et un vrai, pas une chaîne dont les Anglais sont hélas parfois un peu trop friands. C'est un des meilleurs restaurants de la ville et ce n'est pas hors de prix et il me fait penser à ces genres de bistrots européens que j'affectionne beaucoup. On y a mangé des sandwiches avec des frites et je me suis permis un club sandwich qui, comme mes lecteurs le savent peut-être, est pour moi LE sandwich parfait. Ca devait bien faire quatre ou cinq ans que je n'en avais pas mangé.

Il me vient parfois comme ça des rages de viande. Vivre avec une végétarienne ne me dérange pas du tout et la viande ne me manque pas en général, puis ça me vient soudainement, quand j'en vois au menu. Je n'ai pas été déçu avec le club que j'ai mangé hier. Il n'étais pas aussi bon que ceux que je faisais à Montréal, mais il était quand même délicieux, le bacon bien qu'anglais était croustillant et salé à souhait. Petit détail amusant: il y avait un oeuf cuit dur aussi dans le mélange. Pas mauvais.

Et je serai servi côté viande lors des vacances de Noël: les hommes de la famille ont tous décidé qu'on irait manger une fois Chez Georges. Pour ceux qui n'ont jamais visité Chicoutimi, c'est LE steak house de la ville, tellement que quand un gars de Chicoutimi dit qu'il va "au steak house", ça veut dire qu'il va Chez Georges. Les deux sont synonymes. Ca doit bien faire cinq ans au moins que je n'y suis pas allé.

Acting and mayonnaise

I will try not to turn this blog into a lesson by lesson chronicle about my acting class, but I promised I would dwell on it and it kind of made my Wednesday evening. So here it is: why knowing how to make mayonnaise matters in an artistic journey.

So last Wednesday, for my acting class, we had to tell about something we knew very well (in my case, I thought about making mayonnaise and then tell people about something we knew nothing about (I picked up plumbing). Of course, when I talked about plumbing it was ridiculous, but I talked about making mayonnaise with confidence: you need about a cup of oil, two or three spoons of lemon or vinegar (but I prefer lemon), an egg of course, some mustard for the taste (I use Dijon), then you... Well, you get the drift. I was good at explaining how to make mayonnaise. The teacher mentioned it after the exercise: I managed to make people see, feel and taste the mayonnaise (and boy was I ever proud to talk about mayonnaise!). This is what we do in acting, our character live in a context and we have to make it believable, we have to feel it. If the play is set during winter and it is cold outside, we have to feel the cold, the dampness of a room, the smell of the place, etc. This is what good actors do. This is what I aim for.

Novembre se grise

Mea culpa, je crois que j'écris ce billet simplement parce que je suis tombé sur un bon titre. J'essaie d'écrire aussi peu que possible sur le temps qu'il fait, mais je ne pouvais pas rater l'occasion d'utiliser un titre comme celui-là.

Alors donc, il y a de moins en moins de feuilles sur les arbres. C'est comme si elles avaient attendu que l'Halloween soit passée pour tomber. Ajoutons à cela que la pluie est revenue en force aujourd'hui. L'automne n'a plus les couleurs des flammes, mais celles de la cendre. Novembre prend donc des teintes désespérément grises.

Acting again: first impressions

So yesterday I had my first acting class. Well, I had acting classes before but this is the first acting class of this course. And it is the first I had in six years. I don't want to write a long post now, I will blog more about it and in more details later, although I don't want this blog to be only about this acting course. Here are some first impressions:

-I knew acting was very physical, but I never felt it as much as yesterday.
-From Montreal to here, it seems that acting students fit into similar categories, they are almost stereotype: the nice elderly lady, the aspiring youngsters, the shy student who does it to get some confidence, the semi-pro ones who should really carry on and of course the pathetic failed actor who did not develop his talent when he should have had (that would be me).
-Being in a a large, old room with lots of history and character sure makes the experience all the more enjoyable.
-Knowing how to make mayonnaise can be a useful way to learn about acting (yes, I will blog more about that).

Je ne lis pas assez

Ou, du moins, je lis trop lentement. C'est du moins la dure constatation que j'ai faite récemment en revenant de chez moi: le voyage en train est trop court pour que je lise en me rendant et en revenant du travail et le soir je suis trop fatigué pour vraiment apprécier. Il me reste les fins de semaines, mais encore là je lis assez peu. Trop peu en tout cas.

In search of a character

Recently, I have learned a bit more on the acting course I am going to take. Basically, it is based on "rehearsed reading" (first time I heard about that one) and I will have to find my character's natural speaking voice, hold their thoughts, etc. I played characters before, their voice came naturally to me, but I don't know how easy it will be in a foreign language and if indeed I will not have to change perspective totally on how to get this voice. I never had much acting method in the past, only a fairly good instinct. But becoming someone else is easier to do than one thinks.

It is starting tomorrow. I can barely wait.

Question existentielle (24)

Une question qui m'est venue aujourd'hui et qui est un peu inspirée de ma première question existentielle, la seule qui n'a jamais été répondue jusqu'ici:

-Quand est-ce que c'est le bon moment dans l'année pour penser à Noël qui vient?

Post Halloween blues

As I blogged here in French a few moments ago, I am feeling a bit bluesy after Halloween. I usually feel like this, this year I feel a bit more like this: I haven't read enough ghost stories, watch enough horror movies, decorated the house enough, drunk enough Hobgoblin, etc. It is a bit of a misperception: I started reading horror stories since August, after all. But I feel like I did not do quite enough, that I did not celebrate enough. So I got the post Halloween blues. It is a long way until Christmas.

I say this, and there are a lot of things to look forward to in the near future: my wife's birthday and my acting classes. I got some news today about it and the teacher's approach. But today, I am still mourning the end of Halloween. This is the last bit of Jack O'Lantern I will put on the blog until next October. The colours of the pictures here change with the seasons. For now, it is still fiery orange.

Lendemain de fête

Nous sommes aujourd'hui la Toussaint, premier jour de novembre et lendemain de l'Halloween, une fête austère comme le mois qu'elle fait débuter et qui s'est fait éclipser par le 31 octobre. Une observation ironique: il faisait un temps superbe aujourd'hui, ça ne ressemblait pas du tout à novembre.

 Le lendemain de l'Halloween, je me sens toujours un peu tristounet, aujourd'hui plus que d'habitude: c'est lundi et j'ai l'impression de ne pas avoir assez célébré. J'ai marché dans les rues alors que les enfants passaient, mais n'ayant pas encore d'enfants et n'en étant plus un, j'étais en dehors de l'action. Je n'ai pas assez regardé de films d'horreurs, lu d'histoires d'horreur, ou en tout cas c'est l'impression que j'ai. Elle est sans doute : après tout j'ai commencé à lire des histoires d'horreur dès fin août. Mais la maison manquait de décorations, je n'ai pas fait de grande célébration, je n'ai regardé que très peu de films d'horreur. Et puis maintenant c'est novembre. Cela dit, il me reste une année pour préparer la prochaine.

Halloween

Today is Halloween, so Happy Halloween everyone. You can see above the Jack O'Lantern I carved yesterday. One eye is bigger than the other, but I think I still did a good job. I tried to make him look malevolent and devilish. I will have an entertaining day and evening, hopefully, with lots of spooky fun. So what to do when you are a grownup (and therefore lacks the vivid imagination you once had as a child) and want to celebrate Hallwoeen? The flat is barely decorated, but that's okay, the Jack O'Lantern and Grizelda are enough.

I will spend lots of time reading ghost stories (one day I might even write one) watching horror movies. Early in the evening, I will take a walk with my wife and see the children trick or treating. And for my readers who might want to have suggestion for atmospheric music for this Samhain, you can find some on this blog: here when you are feasting, here if you are into psychedelic stuff, here if you like horror movies scores, here if you want something more suitable for children and all around here if you like classical music, Christian imagery of Hell and temptation and sometimes pretty chilling music.

The Halloween Game

This is a picture of a card my niece gave us recently. It fits the topic of this post. Yes, I blogged about it before and actually at the very same date. But Halloween is coming very soon and I cannot help but feel that when you are an adult, is slips through your fingers and you cannot appreciate it as much. Like many holidays I love, Halloween is deeply rooted in childhood memories.

So anyway, back when I was a child, Halloween was not merely one night of trick or treat, it was also a long make belief game my brothers and I were playing. We had long, elaborate make belief games, this one was very developed. We called it the "Halloween game". We started playing in August, when school was about to start, so we would forget about it. I was the good guy, a sort of Zorro turned vampire/ghost hunter PJ the evil devil general of the Armies of Hell, aptly named Draco, Devadar I cannot remember who he played, I think he was a good guy. The story was simple, even simplistic: Draco was gathering monsters, witches, ghosts and what have you to take over the Earth or something of the sort on Halloween night. Every year he was failing, but just. Strangely, mankind was unsuspecting of the yearly Armageddon. And of course, the story was set in England. When we were going trick or treating, the neighbourhood was our battlefield. The decorations were real evil creatures, the Jack O'Lanterns were inhabited by evil spirits and so on. At bedtime, the story was over until next year. When I hear my niece telling us what she is planning to do on Halloween, I envy her.

Citrouille et nostalgie culinaire

Je songe sérieusement à creuser ma citrouille ce soir et en faire un Jack O'Lantern. J'aime l'odeur de la citrouille et elle réveille et moi certains souvenirs d'enfance. Alors que j'étais en deuxième année, on avait fait de la confiture à la citrouille dans la classe. Enfin, on avait coupé des citrouilles, qu'on avait préalablement baptisées (Fleurette, Georgette ou des noms stupides choisis par les filles) et dont on avait écrit les c.v (?). Ca avait été une séance dramatique, couper la citrouille en cubes: il y avait eu des coupures aussi. C'était l'époque où on pouvait utiliser des couteaux à l'école pour des raisons non religieuses. Des couteaux, du sang qui coule, c'était vraiment l'Halloween.

C'est je crois la première fois que j'ai consommé de la citrouille et que j'ai vu que ça servait à autre chose qu'à creuser des Jack O'Lantern. Je me rappelle encore du goût. la citrouille a quelque chose de fade en soi, mais pas désagréable. Je me rappelle avoir mangé de la confiture de citrouille par la suite, de temps à autre, mais pas à l'automne. C'est un fruit profondément automnal pourtant, comme la pomme. Maintenant, quand j'en consomme, c'est surtout en soupe. Ma coloc à Liverpool avait fait un potage à la citrouille particulièrement délicieux qu'on avait mangé tout le mois de novembre. C'était, avec le gin and tonic, une de ses spécialités. En général, j'aime bien maintenant ce qu'on fait avec la citrouille et la confiture qu'on fait avec ne m'impressionne pas vraiment en soi, mais je songe encore avec nostalgie à la fabrication de cette confiture. La confiture, de citrouille ou non, est aussi une nourriture très automnale, après tout.

A great unknown line from my niece

My wife told me this anecdote about our niece, she heard it from her mother (I mean my mother-in-law, not our niece's mum). The family was planning to go to a lecture together (with a child?). Obviously, our niece did not like it at all. She said to her parents: "Why would I want to go and see a lecture? I don't want to listen to a one way conversation!"

Fair criticism, I have to admit. I say this and I gave lectures in my past. But they often are one way conversations.

Une pensée sur le mot "fjord"

Quand j'étais jeune, on nous rabattait les oreilles avec le fjord du Saguenay quand on nous parlait de la région. Fjord est un mot d'origine scandinave et je me suis toujours demandé pourquoi on avait décidé de l'appeler d'un nom scandinave. Pourquoi pas français, amérindien, irlandais ou écossais à la rigueur? Cela dit, la manière dont on prononce "fjord" ("fior") a quelque chose de très rérional. C'est un mot étranger qui aurait pu être inventé par nous.

Waiting for my lines

I promised that I would blog about my return to acting. So far notthing has really happened. Eager to know if I had to prepare something before the first class, I emailled the head of the school. I hope I didn't create a fuss, but it appears that there is no preparatory work required. It is a different approach than the one I am used to. I only had one proper acting course, but we had to find a monologue to read before the first class. And of course, when I played on stage, there was already a text which I had to prepare. I am not used to this, but I find it quite interesting that I will be taken "raw", so to speak. I will have to wait for my lines. Maybe they will never come, maybe we will have to act on no particular text. Who knows?

Oh, and I remembered that I have one more play in English here: Amadeus by Peter Shaffer. I kind of hope I can use some of the plays I have here for the course.