I'm Old Fashioned

But I don't mind it. These old songs, old B&W films, bigger than life melodramas, big bands playing swing music - they do it for me in a way I can't explain. They make me swing.

New Qoute

Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

French classical author who is best known for his maximes, epigrams expressing a harsh or paradoxical truth in the briefest manner possible. A cynical observer of Louis XIV's court, La Rochefoucauld mostly saw selfishness, hypocrisy, and weakness in general in human behavior.

Would he have a different view on humanity these days? have we changes much in the last 500 years? I think not. Just like our predecessors, we mostly know what's right, yet choose wrong.

Social Graces

I have come to realize there is a direct connection between the reduction in the numbers of smokers and the rise in those of cell phone users. One bad habit is replacing the other.
Just think about it - both have the same effects on a social and personal level:
Where once it was cool to smoke, now it's cool to be occupied with a cell phone.
Both are equally annoying to the observers/listeners/second hand inhalers.
Both have an effect of taking a break from life, into the other side of the phone, or into the pleasure of finishing a cigarette.
Both are incredibly addictive.

I'm abstaining.

Murdered Innocence

Two acquaintances meet in the shop, a writer and an opera singer. After the initial surprise of all of us, I talked about the break in. One asked if much was taken. I said that the thing which matters most is my lost innocence. "I knew her before she was innocent" laughed the writer. I'm still trying to understand such a concept.

Confessions

I must admit that one of my favourite things to do in the shop is listen to people talk about their love life. It makes me think about all that's good in life.
One of my lovelier customers told me he's in love with a beautiful girl, and the way he described her confirmed that: he talked about her skin, small imperfections, her gait, her art. They are very young, it's wonderful. He asked for some advice. I told him to be always kind, most of all when things start getting complicated and shadows we all carry inside are revealed.
He bought 2 items that are normally not something he would wear. Thank you, lovely girl. He looked very good wearing them.
Change is good, isn't it?

Moving On, New Quote

It takes time to recover after being violated. I'm not quite over it yet.
I think the biggest damage was done to my soul. When i started this project, I was optimistic, full of positivity and love to everyone who came into my shop. These days I feel different.
The door is now barred. The window is still in progress.
I'm made to think about security, when I don't want to. I keep thinking - what's to protect here that's so important? a few used clothes, what's the big deal. Still, keeping thieves out seems essential somehow.
This is the pipe they used to break the door. I think it's quite beautiful.

It's time for a new quote: this one is for Remembrance Day, and for violent people everywhere:

Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself.
Lao Tzu

Aftermath

The shop was broken into last night, around 2 am. A heavy iron pipe to the door window. Neighbours heard it, thought a car had crashed.
They got in, took almost everything from the glass cabinet, tried on some leather coats and shoes and left with what they wanted.
This damage breaks not only my finances, but my spirit as well.

I Walk a Little Faster - Fiona Apple

A Fabulous Find - Helmut Newton Portraits

I found a book of Helmut Newton portrait photography at the St. Lawrence Antique Market this afternoon. I had a poster of his when I was a young woman, the first picture I ever framed for my own walls. I look at his images with different eyes now that I'm (just a little) older, I love their direct sexiness. I don't care that he objectified the women in the photographs, and I don't think they cared either.

Introducing - Ginger and Fred

Our new members of the family, cute as buttons, 2 months old. The excitement in the house is palpable. Our younger son is enthralled by them. The older one isist on the names: Mustafa and Jacuzi. Whatever works, I guess.

I Want A Year Of Beauty

Such as this:

Jiri Kylian - Petite Mort (1st. part)

Blessings For a New Year

I read this somewhere this morning. Perhaps we'll be able to embrace these notions, globally as well as personally:

Evil is boring. Cynicism is idiotic. Fear is a bad habit. Despair is lazy. Joy is fascinating. Love is an act of heroic genius. Pleasure is our birthright.

Oh, to live for a good book (about death...)

Paul Auster :: The Invention of Solitude
(click on the post title to reach a thoughtful review of it).

My mother sent me this book, translated quite well, and as I started reading it I was distracted by thoughts of her, how she read it, in her precarious state of health these last few years, and what went through her mind as the words dissecting a parent's death coincide with her own thoughts about what remains of her life.

Here is a short quote:
Most lives vanish. A person dies, and little by little all traces of that life disappear. An inventor survives in his inventions, an architect survives in his buildings, but most people leave behind no monuments or lasting achievements: a shelf of photograph albums, a fifth-grade report card, a bowling trophy, an ashtray filched from a Florida hotel room on the final morning of some dimly remembered vacation. A few objects, a few documents, and a smattering of impressions made on other people. Those people invariably tell stories about the dead person, but more often than not dates are scrambled, facts are left out, and the truth becomes increasingly distorted, and when those people die in their turn, most of the stories vanish with them.

A disappointment

A few days ago I left someone (a very reliable and nice person) to tend to the shop while I went with my son to shop for school supplies.
While I was away someone switched the price tags of an expensive item and bought it for 1/4 of the price.
It pains me to think how careless someone could be to do that in such a small shop. Does he not understand that this is coming out of my own, very shallow pocket? I'm not part of some big corporation that would not miss it. Does he not understand that small businesses like mine can't survive such practices?
I just don't get it.

For all the coffee drinkers in the world - enjoy!

This has nothing to do with anything at all. But it made us all laugh so hard, I thought it is the right thing to share with fellow coffee drinkers, where ever they are.



It's a song of the French band Oldelaf and Mr D. from their LP L'album de la maturité. The movie clip has been directed by Stephanie Marguerite and Emilie Tarascou.

Lyrics translated in English for the blog http://french-kisses.blogspot.com/