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What I LIKE...
Paris
- I've been living here for 2
months now. I like where I live (the 11th and the 12th arrondisements), French restaurants, French markets (when I wake
up early enough for them), dentists in France, the free language
resources at the bpi in Centre Pompidou, French films and
cinemas, French boys, daily garbage pick-up, the quick-witted,
French way of debating ... but I'm not
keen on French pronunciation, Vietnamese Chinese food, the pollution
in Paris, French pharmacies (compared with Megastore-Boots) nor
on French boulangers giving me yesterday's baguettes while
simultaneously smiling at me. In the same vein, what I miss
about the UK is what they don't have in France: 3 for 2 deals at
mega-bookshops, clotted cream, Fish and Chips, English-speaking
customer service reps I can shout at and who can at least
understand me (even if they are not listening).
Music
- I listen to everrything but these
are always in my CD wallet, along with some solid, heady opera and trance:
-
Tim Booth and Angelo Badalamenti, Booth
and the Bad Angel
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Nick Cave and Bad Seeds,
The Boatman's Call
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Fiona Apple, When the Pawn
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Beth Orton, Central Reservation
-
Annie Lennox, Diva; Medusa
-
Suede, Dog Man Star
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Natalie Merchant, Tigerlilly;
Ophelia
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Lightning Seeds, Jollification
-
David Wilcox, East Asheville
Hardware
-
Rare on Air (KCRW) Vols I,
II and III
-
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Rufus Wainwright, Wallflowers, James
Reading
- the memorable innclude:
-
E Annie Proulx, The Shipping
News
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Kazuo Ishiguro, When We Were
Orphans
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Patrick Neale, Twelve Bar
Blues
-
Christopher Brookmyre - most
of his books are mindless, easy reading, yet clever
-
Edmund White, though the
semi-autobiographical nature of most of his books makes him more of an astute
observer than a true creator
-
but Vikram Seth and David Leavitt are two
authors in a class of their own.
Movies -
top of my list on imdb.com
include:
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Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
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Amores Perros
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Ciudade de Deus
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Rules of Attraction
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Battle Royale (2000)
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Wedding Banquet (1993)
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Monsoon Wedding (2001)
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Tillsammans (2000)
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8 Femmes
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and Sex and the City and 6 Feet Under
both capture moments of today precisely.
Food,
Cooking and Travel
-
see my links.
What I DON'T
LIKE...
-
Inefficient
organisations. Includes the NHS, National
Express, train services in the UK (Why, all of British public service really)
- all laughable
-
Silly
traditions
-
Unadventurous people, including arguing
with unadventurous arguers or people who are very convinced about something..
what's the point?
-
Artists and designers who think the
world revolves around them when that defeats the point of art - top of the list
is the architect
Daniel Liebeskind. Also, much much much of modern art.
-
Taxi companies
in the UK, especially Cambridge
-
Estate Agents
-
To be
disturbed, especially not on the phone earlier than 10am, even though I
try to be civil around 11ish.. :o)
-
Librarians,
Clinic receptionists, taxi company people, though I've not made my mind
up about dentists yet...
BUT top of the list are Rip Off
restaurants that serve bad food, have small portions or bad service.
Yiwengoh@mail.com
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