She is travelling somewhere

I'd visited Amy in the summer of 2010.

We shared a delicious salad.

A journey to MACON and Avignon.

She was walking toward Le Rhone.

at Porte St DOMINIQUE = GoogleMap: 43.947528, 4.800028


How many sunsets were coming and going. However, the river still flows away.

The Voice

Invitation to join an Amy friends group following the TV show The Voice. It's been three years now that this group has been gathering together in front of the television at photographer Marc Attali's place on Saturday nights.  

Amy joined them for last years 2013 series where a man with a extreme stutter, won against all odds. 

A meal followed by four hours of shouting, dancing, singing along, commenting on cosmetic surgery, singing abilities, choice of song and judges eccentricities. A glorious cacophony ! This night, the three judges are picking their teams. In these competitions they sit looking away from the singer. Only listening to the contestants "voice".  If they like what they hear, they push a button and their chair jerks around to face the singer . 

If more than one judge "turns" then they each have to explain what they think they can do to help the singer improve or bring out hidden qualities and so advance in the competition. 

Judge Mika

Each judge chooses 15 singers for their group. Each judge will have a kind of co-coach : Kylie Minogue, Gerald DePalma...

The Franch Canadian "Garou" 

They then choose two, sometimes three of their team to go up against each other in what are the "battle sections" of the competition. After each battle, each judge chooses who they want to continue working with. They are looking for singers that the judge thinks have a possibility of winning the entire competition. And it's brutal. 

The women, judges and contestants alike all wear the shortest of dresses and the highest of heels. Either that or the tightest of jeans. The gentlemen all wear stuff that looks like they have gotten up late and had to rush out to catch the bus, throwing on a leather jacket over their tee shirt and jeans. Hair mussed up. All of the guys except judge Mika, a dandy if ever there was one.

No one is very old with the exception of one judge...who seems like quite a father figure. It is he that takes a chance on the guy singing Nessun Dorma from Turandot...as well as one of the older contestants singing a Barbara Streisand song about being a woman in love. 

The father figure, Florent Pagny, is frequently a target. One contestant sung a hit song for a former girlfriend of his, Vanessa Paradis. Florent? He remained rock solid looking straight out. Emotionless.

Judge Florent Pagny

Another young man took the challenge of singing a song written by Florent . But he didn't do anything with it, styling it just like the original interpreter . Mistake. Not chosen even by his hero! But take heart ! He's all of 16 years old. There is still time to work on his voice and return another year. because return they do. 

One woman failed this part of the competitions two years ago. This year she came back 30 kilos lighter, with a new outfit and haircut chasing her dream.

So to take  a very long story short...Last bus home. Here it is 3 am and I've watched Rose Fortunes, all of her in the 2013 Israeli X Factor competition competition as well as the best X factor auditions on you tube...I'm just bowled over by what I've heard. No kidding ! These folks have out of the ordinary courage. Us ? the Amy friends ? We are meeting up next week and the weeks after for the brutal "battles"'  semi-finals and the grand finale.  when France's The Voice of 2014 will be chosen. And I can't wait. Certainly the most fun I've had in quite awhile. It's been positive and she must have loved this, our Amy Ami being surrounded by this happy, demonstrative crowd. 

Esters Birthday Party !

 The Birthday Girl ! 

Or  : How to Transform A Sad Time Into something Happy and Joyous! 
I got a call from Waikwan inviting me to another friend of Amy's : Ester. It was her birthday and she thought it would be a good moment to see each other again. Share a meal. Waikwan said What about Pedro Alta ? A  Portuguese seafood place near Bercy ! Why not! 

"We should get there early as they don't take reservations and they fill up very quickly!  " 

The night before, I'd pulled a leg muscle and was kind of hobbling, feeling a bit sorry for myself. But getting there, immediately enveloped in the cacophony of happy people, that pain just seemed to disappear.

Here we all are (except me taking the pix)

Huge platters of seafood arrived. One hot and the other cold. oysters, mussels, several types of clams: razor clams (called couteaux here) praires, huge crabs, shrimp, lobsters and gambas several accompaniments including a delicious bean and rice broth : our eyes widened as Waikwan said you know we only ordered for 5! From all eight of us, a collective sigh of relief ! 

My dinner partner to my left was a good friend of Esters. She is an engineer for automobile cooling systems here in France. Has worked for the same company since doing her schooling here some 25 + years ago. I asked her what it was like to be woman in such a male dominated profession such as engineering ? 

She described coming to France, the first group of students from Mainland China. 

28 were women she said, and 80 something were men. About two thirds have returned to China and the rest are still working here.

 "Would it be any easier in China for a woman in this profession ? I asked 

"Yes, she said. "Definitely if I'd stayed in China I'd probably risen higher in the management that I have here. Here, I was the first woman engineer hired. And that thanks to a quota for hiring women."

"But I love my job. I do the research side and it's really fascinating. We work exclusively with computer models. 

Where as thirty years ago, the Peugots and Renaults might make six new models each year, now they offer twenty five. And those aren't just exterior changes.  Each machine is really very different from the others. I travel a lot both for work as well as pleasure. Now there are several other women engineers in my firm." 

It was an enlightening conversation. Once again the feeling that Amy's friends were all such interesting individuals. Very different interests but each and every one of them, really fascinating. New perspectives on so many subjects opening up in every direction ! 

And listening to my new friend, the engineer, gave me the same positive jolt as when I have gotten on a plane and the pilot was a woman...Good feeling! We gals are making progress !

On my right hand side sat Waikwan. Making sure everyone had morsels from each side of the table, wine in their glasses. She said how much she though Amy would have liked a gathering like this. I agreed! 

Despite the chaos surrounding us, it was a decidedly positive ambiance at Pedro Alta.  Most tables had six to ten people and they were definitely there to celebrate something. 

Liling and the menu ! 

Across from me , Liling and her partner Xavier , also a painter and next to him, Marc , a photographer, another friend of Amy's. That's Ester in the blue shirt !

Afterwards several of us wanted to stay together, prolong that wonderful feeling of... well I'm not sure quite how describe it. Put simply just finding each other !  We accompanied Marc back to his place for a tea à la menthe. 

More on that at another time. I'm certain this is just the beginning of many new friendships. Thank you, our Amy ami! 

New Beginnings : Year of the Horse

Yes it's finally come. A new year. The Year of the Horse.

Big Store ! 81 Avenue d'Ivry 75013 Paris‎

Dragon acrobat preparing

Drummer and cymbals !

Tang Freres 48 Avenue d'Ivry 75013 Paris

Wanting to see what is going on in Paris, I trundle down to the 13th arrondissement on the afternoon of 30th of January.  I've waited until 4pm to go out because I keep hoping the skies will lighten but no. It is grey and very somber.
How great to find the 13th bustling with energy. Red everywhere ! Positive ! Especially the courtyard of Tang Freres and on the sidewalk in front of "Big Store" where two troops of "dragon" acrobats and loud drummers are there making quite a raucous backdrop ! The dragons, made up of fit men and women seem mischievous and joyous! The drumming and cymbals encouraging them to great heights of one, two then three ! The finalé of firecrackers leaves the crowd a bit surprised and covering their ears but smiling all the same.

A welcome invitation to celebrate with Amy friends at the home of Marc A. on the "reveillon" or night before New Year. Li Ling is going all out, cooking up a storm. Getting there an hour or two early, I find Marc a bit worried that we have too much food! Ha! He underestimates our devouring horde of foodies .

L made six very colorful and delicious dishes.

Ribs with Sweet Mango

 

New Years Sweets

 
Those New Years Sweets ?

Candied Cucumber, Lognan Nuts, Cedrat, Sweet Olives, Plums, Coconut and other unidentifiable candied vegetables.

We also had persimmons, apple pears (Nashi)  and date prunes liqueur... and the stories flowed!

Such a happy moment ! Wish you had been with us Amy! You were often mentioned and again we thank you for getting us together at one time or another.    




One nice thought is that this celebration of the new year goes on for ten days. So there will be ample opportunity to get together and celebrate more than once!

Ami Friends in Paris

An Amy (Ami) Friend : Artist Lin LiLing

Last November in the month after Amy's passing, her friends met. We tried to look at things in a positive way. Celebrate living as we remember she did, especially in her last two years.

It was a confusing and difficult time. I felt a bit like I'd been hit over the head by something very, very heavy. Each day trying to get energy to work. Something was always coming up to remind me of our lost friend. Finally, I decided it might help if I could meet some of Amy's friends. There were many that i had met only for the first time at her funeral.

One was the artist Li-ling Lin. Like Amy, Taiwanese born but now thoroughly Parisian. I ran into her one night at Paris Store, an Asian supermarket in Belleville, at the meat counter. I'd heard she was a painter but didn't know her work. So when she said I would be welcome to visit the atelier where she worked, I jumped at the opportunity. 

Li-ling assisted Amy with her knitwear sourcing company and had known quite a different Amy.  It wasn't all that easy to recognize my friend. She said Amy worked alone most of the time. Seven days a week. She helped Amy with various dossiers for her knitwear sourcing on Saturday afternoons at Amy's office in the 10th arrondissment.

 From our conversation, one thing that I came to understand about Amy was just how single minded she was when in "work mode". She almost didn't see, couldn't see anything other than her job. Such is the difficulty of starting your own business, working for yourself. But there sounded like there was some lightness in their Saturday afternoons!

Li-ling described how they would put on cd's of Jay Chou, a Taiwanese pop singer, turning up the music really loud and singing along! Unabashedly romantic and classic pop! It all sounds like quite a happy moment. Wouldn't you have wanted to join in with them?

Li-ling said perhaps if she had discovered more of her creative side, this could have carried her through all of the ugliness of her divorce, the sadness of her lung cancer. Something to consider.

Looking onto the Place St Michel 

Place Saint Michel 

Li-ling's atelier is but a few meters from the very center of Paris, right off the Place Saint Michel. Passing through two heavy doors, down a long corridor and back out into an inner courtyard, you see the open door of what was an old stable with several paintings outside. 

Paintings of these amazing women! Tattooed, or with some very contemporary detail (sunglasses!) yet resembling the portraits of Francois 1er's mistresses in the Fontainebleau style. Really striking. And I have to admit, the power of this work and of this artist was totally unexpected !     

                                                      Unlike the portraits of Francois 1ers mistresses, these women are very different. Their nakedness is not enticing, nor languid and sensual. These women have a surprising directness and frank strength! 

Seeing these portraits has made me wonder what Li-ling's experience as an Asian woman has really been here in France? She is obviously someone with strong character. Nothing submissive about her whatsoever! But I'm a little unsure of myself and it seems slightly indiscreet to be asking such things of someone that you have only just met.

So I opt for the biographical information: It's been more than twenty years since Li-ling's arrival in France. She has had several shows, both here and in Taipei. It's difficult. I get the feeling the interest for all things Chinese in the contemporary art world doesn't yet extend to women artists ! 

I came away from her atelier thinking how exciting it was to see work like this. It's highly personal, of great quality, Li-ling Lin's work certainly deserves wider recognition.

I certainly recommend reading this article by Fanny Lasserre on Li-ling Lin's painting. It offers a good overview.  You should visit LinLiling's website . And thanks to our friend Amy for "introducing" us!

-Amy friend in Paris