Bye Bye Mr Dreyfus

A few days ago, Francis Dreyfus, the father of my dear friend Chloé, died of cancer. A larger than life character, he created his own independent music production company, FDM, which went on to become hugely successful. His passion was jazz, and he paid tribute to this genre's masters in his critically acclaimed Jazz Reference collection, in addition to producing many an extraordinary contemporary artist. He loved art and mint-flavored candy. He adored his 3 daughters, Julie, Chloé and Laura. He will be missed.

In My Suitcase (2)

On airplanes, on the Thalys between Paris and Amsterdam, in the garden at Lafitte, this past month I had a lot of time to read:
War and Peace, a treasure I discovered many years ago, but which I was thrilled to read again in the acclaimed translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky; I loved it all over again, and was smitten with Natasha Rostov anew - dear, dear Natasha...
La vie rêvée des plantes, a cryptic and haunting modern Korean novel by Seung-U Lee - I just adore its cover!...
Jacques Drillon's tribute to the great harpsichord player and baroque music specialist Gustav Leonhardt, whose parents gave him a choice after dinner every evening when he was a child: to help do the dishes or practice his instrument: he soon became a virtuoso...
Doris Lessing's The Grass Is Singing: set in South Africa her first novel is a tale of frustration, heat and murder...
The letters of Marguerite Yourcenar, 1951-1960 - the author of the sublime Mémoires d'Hadrien, her erudition, her lawsuits, her adoration for animals...
More letters: those my dearest Colette wrote to her lover Missy; Colette's genius for writing comes through spontaneously, so fresh and whimsical...
Sam Savage's novel Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife tells the story of a wise rat who lives in the basement of a used books store, and devours his way, both figuratively and literally, through books that transform his life... Books have also transformed mine; they are my haven and a path towards more knowledge.

A Hat And A Tee From The Flea Market

Twice a month, a flea market takes place on Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica. Some sellers offer superb items - one of them, an old Japanese man, brings back ancient kimonos, obis and fabrics from Japan.

I had been wanting to add a summer straw hat to my collection for some time, and I instantly fell for this exquisite, 1920's-like hat, with its wide satin ribbon and its smart asymetry - somehow it reminds me of the hats Meryl Streep wore in Out Of Africa. It happens to be a vintage Armani, which I snatched for $20.

I also bought a red tee that pays tribute to my dear, dear Billie Holiday... Her broken voice, with its textured emotions, has always haunted me. I strongly recommend one of her lesser known albums, Songs For Distingué Lovers, which features such classics as Stars Fell on Alabama and a song I adore, I Didn't Know What Time It Was.

Art And Music In Los Angeles

As TVs around the world feed us Beverly Hills 90210 and Baywatch, it's easy to imagine the Los Angeles area as nothing but a place obsessed with breast enhancements, and peopled with tanned airheads.
But really, the city is an art & music treasure trove, especially regarding vibrant contemporary creations. One of the reasons I wanted to experience LA was actually the presence of Esa-Pekka Salonen at the head of the LA Philharmonic - with bold energy, he has transformed "classical" music concerts. Sadly, Salonen will be leaving at the end of this season...(The LA Times pays tribute to him here)
A couple of days ago, I discovered Zipper Hall at the Colburn School of Music; the building is filled with art, and I especially loved the mobile pictured here: a whimsical and colorful creation, it is set up and lit so as to project a graphic shadow against a white wall. Isn't it great?


Los Angeles is also the city of Peter Sellars, the great opera stage director and one of the living person I would most love to meet; you can watch this genius, with Salonen, discussing Stravinsky, here.

M83 And The LA Phil

Months before I moved to Los Angeles, I read about the eclectic, modern programs that the LA Philharmonic's musical director, the great Esa-Pekka Salonen, offered the audience. Breaking away from the repertoire, the orchestra indeed often plays scores by all kinds of young composers, and I was very excited to attend those concerts. I love it when cultural institutions break with tradition!
Last night, for the first time, I headed for the home of the LA Phil, a fab and crazy structure designed by Frank Gehry, for a very special event - the orchestra had invited M83, a French rock/pop/electro group that usually performs in nightclubs. After the orchestra played one of my favorite works, Debussy's La Mer, Anthony Gonzalez, the leader of M83, headed for his Apple computer and electronic gizmos to play songs with the orchestra - magical vocalist Morgan Kibby joined them for one song. It was lyrical, noisy, moving, polished and fun all at the same time.
To celebrate the event, KII Arens designed a limited edition poster (above) that now graces my room with its bright colors.

An Evening In Silver Lake

Before heading to Spaceland on Tuesday for a concert, I stopped by Lamill Coffee, right across the street. This super cool restaurant and café, with its sleek design and candles on black lacquer tables, offers gourmet coffees in addition to fresh fare. I had the Love Potion, a yummy "tea sangria" or blend of teas infused in cranberries, elderberries, rose hips and hibiscus, as well as an expresso con panna, served with a generous dollop of homemade whipped cream. Sadly, they were out of brioche doughnuts... I guess I'll have to go back! I also need to try their orange-infused capuccino.

At the tiny club Spaceland in Silver Lake, I fell in love with He's My Brother She's My Sister, a very original group that features a tap dancer in lieu of rhythmic section (how great is that?), a double-bass, an exquisite singer in a floor-length flapper dress - barefoot and with feathers in her hair like a forest creature heading for a party, and more surprises.
Their folky, swinging songs are catchy and textured, a sheer joy; listen to "Tales That I Tell" on their Myspace Page. I'm a fan.

But the real star of the show was Miranda Lee Richards, a Californian folk pop songwriter and singer whose voice and songs are just luminous. Her album Light Of X was released this month to critical acclaim. It was a treat to hear her in such an intimate venue.

My Dear Dmitri

My mum has a lot to do with my passion for Russia. When I was 9, she took me and my sister on the Trans-Siberian, from Beijing to Paris via Moscow, and I was dazzled by the beauty of the Baikhal Lake, the kindness of Russian people to us kids, and the local little girls' bows in their hair... When I was 12, mum gave me a copy of Anna Karenina... A few years later, she allowed me to discover Dmitri Shostakovich's extraordinary, humorous yet harrowing string quartets. I took a keen interest in Shostakovitch: his chamber music especially, but also his life.
He was both celebrated by the Soviet regime as a national treasure, but, as a forward-thinking composer, he also lived in fear for instance when Stalin banned some of his works, like the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District - a masterpiece. I am enthralled by Solomon Volkov's Shostakovich and Stalin, a fab book with a great cover, which retraces this most unique relationship between a ruthless dictator and a musical genius.
Ironically, Stalin wanted to be a poet in his youth, when he published lyrical poems in his native Georgia. This is one of the many little-known facts I learnt in Simon Montefiore's fascinating Young Stalin. He went on to persecute many of the artists pictured hereunder, such as the great poet Ossip Mandelstam and one of my favorite writers, Mikhail Bulgakov.



If you're new to Shostakovich's music, you can start with the luminous Piano Quintet or merely the Piano Trio's dancing Allegretto, then move on to the lyrical, haunting String Quartets 7 and 8. iTunes offers great deals on some excellent recordings.

Fare Thee Well, Miss Blossom

If Ella Fitzgerald's voice was sheer sunshine and Billie Holiday's a poignant dusk, then Blossom Dearie's was the very first sweet rays of early morning; it was often said she sounded like a little girl, a birdie. A Verve artist, she was also friends with Miles Davis and haunted New York jazz clubs with her wispy voice and boyish haircut in the 50's and 60's, giving very personal interpretations of standards. Hear her sing her smooth, tender "Surrey with the fringe on top", her swinging "I won't dance" and her high speed "Killing me softly with this song".
She was one of my very favorite jazz singers of all times as well as an accomplished pianist, and on February 7 she went silent forever. It broke my heart.
And if you buy only one of her albums, go for Verve Jazz Masters 51: Blossom Dearie.

Ballets Russes, 100 Years Later

As an excellent article in the New York Times recently reminded us, the Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev's extraordinary company, gave its very first performance 100 years ago.
I have been celebrating this anniversary with remarkable books. Speaking of Diaghilev is a collection of interviews with all kinds of people, from supreme prima ballerina Tamara Karsavina to dancers Serge Lifar and Ninette de Valois, conductors Ernest Ansermet and Igor Markevich, who were all involved with the Ballets Russes.
I also read Choura, the memoirs of ballerina Alexandra Danilova, whose exquisite face and superb legs you can admire in these pictures. A student of Vaganova at Theater Street and later Marinsky dancer, she was also the second wife of Balanchine. Her recollections of Saint-Petersburg during the 1917 revolution are as engrossing as her tales of working with Massine, Coco Chanel, who designed costumes for the company, Balanchine, Stravinsky, Alicia Markova and many more.


I also just ordered Bronislava Nijinska: The early memoirs, an autobiography of Nijinsky's sister and a choreographer who famously staged Stravinsky's Noces. And I have my eye on John E. Bowlt's Moscow & St. Petersburg 1900-1920: Art, Life, & Culture of the Russian Silver Age...

Cat Power Concert

I've been listening to the music of Chan Marshall, aka Cat Power, since the mid 1990's, way before she was this famous, but it was the first time I saw her perform - at the baroquely decorated Avalon in Los Angeles, with its carved columns and red lights. For a rock and roll touch, I wore red lipstick, my silver jeans, layered black and white tank tops and a pair of Converse.

Maybe I was expecting too much, but the concert was something of a disappointment, despite her beautiful voice and her very fine musicians. She never addressed or even looked at the audience, never seemed to want to give. She paced the stage back and forth, moving awkwardly. Much to my astonishment, she sang "Lilac Wine" by my dear, dear Jeff Buckley. That was great.
I did like the opening act, a trio called Entrance Band, with their super cool bass player, Paz Lenchantin. She rocks.

More Reading

I have been reading a lot lately: Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim, Jonathan Lopez's The Man Who Made Vermeers, an engrossing true story of forgery in the Netherlands during World War 2, as well as Irene Pepperberg's extraordinary memoir Alex & Me, which chronicles her discoveries about a parrot's brain and cognitive abilities.
Composer John Adams's recently published Hallelujah Junction recounts his life and musical path. With humility, humor and a penetrating intelligence, Adams examines not only his own work but also 20th century music, putting enlightening words on many things I felt and couldn't (or wouldn't dare to) articulate. If you love music or any American adventure, this is a must-read - definitely one of the best books about music and the artist's creative struggle that I ever read.

More from my dear Nancy Mitford! Many of her books are out of print, but I finally managed to get my hands on copies of her first 2 novels, Highland Fling and Christmas Pudding. Her humor is supreme, and her portrayal of the 1920's Bright Young Things so much more insightful that Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies...

I love the former's retro cover.

Poetry Books, And A Playlist

As I'm heading for a new destination, I've had to leave my Paris apartment and could only bring a few books with me, of the hundreds that I have collected over the years, transforming my living room into a library... It took me a surprisingly short time to select the ones that will be in my suitcase - all three of them poetry. Shakespeare's Sonnets of course. Sylvia Plath's musical Ariel. Sappho's fragments, in Mary Barnard's landmark translation, radiating with Grecian sun and violently shaded with the abysmal darkness of the heart.
I wish I could have brought my Emily Dickinson volume, but it was a bit weighty.
What books would make it into your luggage?

And if you're wondering where I'm off to, listen to this Destination playlist...

September 11

For the past few years, every September 11, I make it a point to wear my I Heart NY t-shirt. It's a tiny way of paying tribute to those who fell that day in NY, Washington and Pennsylvania, and also a way to say, as the song goes, We shall overcome.

I by no means intend to drag politics into this blog, but I thought that those of us who will vote in November may be interested in checking out a new collective blog, Women Against Sarah Palin. To think that a woman would necessarily stand up for women is foolish.
Let us steer clear of those leaders who think God's on their side. To quote one last song, Bob Dylan's God On Our Side: And you never ask questions, When God's on your side. (See full lyrics here, and hear it here, sung by the divine Joan Baez, live in 1966)

Purple crocuses

It's been such a long time since I last posted about flowers! So here are some crocuses that appeared one day in Lafitte - a delicate gift, courtesy of the garden.
They make me think of Joni Mitchell's song Little Green (hear it here), from her masterpiece, Blue: There'll be crocuses, to bring to school tomorrow... I adore every song on that album.

Surprise, surprises

What a wonderful surprise! I have been watering this little plant in my kitchen for months and just as I returned from Los Angeles, a few shy flowers bloomed! They're graceful and fragile as butterflies, poised against thick, velvet green leaves. It's bliss.
And they make me hum, as violets were the favorite flowers of a composer I have been worshiping for ever, Claude Debussy...

Other lovely surprises: receiving awards from Argentina's Karina (El Beso) and also Australia's Hila (Your Cover's Blown). I am a fan of both these ladies, who love books and style as much as I do... Thank you so much, girls! I wonder how I could pass these on to only a few blogs; hmmmm, I'll have to think...

On The Thalys - My Playlist

I'm on the Talys (the high speed train between Paris, Belgium and the Netherlands), on my way to Amsterdam... I bought the Wallpaper city guide for the Dutch capital, from Phaidon, a publishing company that always has beautiful graphics and photographs. They list some architectural feats I hope to visit this week.

I cannot travel without my ipod, so I'm taking this opportunity to answer to Everybody Says Don't's tag, on my current Playlist. (Only 7 tracks, that's tough!)

Bach Cantata BWV 8 by the American Bach Soloists
Violente Femmes's Blister in the Sun
Martha Wainwright's BMFA
Sonic Youth's Superstar
Alisha Chinai's Kajra Re
Aretha Franklin's I Say a Little Prayer
Blondie's Heart of Glass

Des jeunes gens mödernes

Last week, on her terrific style blog, Chloé mentioned the exhibition Des Jeunes Gens Mödernes at fashion designer agnès b.'s gallery, rue Quincampoix. The show celebrates the songs, spirit and aesthetics of the French music scene in 1978-83, a time of experimentation and hyper-creativity. Some bands had really cool names, like Edith Nylon or Electric Callas - Chloé recommends the latter's So Chic. Many musicians seemed influenced by Germany and by a kind of imaginary USSR (see the cool poster for the Centre Pompidou's 1979 show on Paris/Moscow). I'm no fan of French pop/rock at all, and agree with the statement I saw on a T-shirt today, Le rock français c'est comme la cuisine anglaise (French rock is like English cuisine)... But I liked the exhibition because it reflected a zeitgeist with a raw energy and post-punk attitude - ah, I'm a punk at heart, as you may know. To sample the music, go to the show's MySpace page.

I hope some of you checked out Uruguayan rock, with NoTeVaGustar, which I mentioned yesterday. My favorite track on the featured album is El Oficial....