Chinese New Year Paris

Chinese new year aka Spring Festival time in Paris.  I live next to one of 2 chinatowns in Paris in the 13th arrondisement.  This is an 8 minute walk from my house.



went with my aunt on a chinatown excursion to buy a hot pot thing and all the fixin's for Chinese New Year's eve.  It was delicious and the first chinese hot pot session they've ever had.  my aunt even got into the spirit and filled some red envelopes with money.  I'm technically still eligible for this because i don't have any kids yet.



Le Monde might be the biggest newspaper in France, i can't find the stats on that immediately online so you can look if you really care.  state ownership of this paper is reported at 26% so peeps question the independent-ness of their reporting which is obvious if you read it.  this is about a 10 minute walk from my house.



around the corner from le monde, a mod apartment building



centre de police du 13eme arrondisement.  the police headquarters of the 13th arrondisement, my arrondisement burned out over a year ago.  the official cause was that a data cable got pinched.  there are ridiculous things made up to cover up obvious dubious crimes commited by gangs and badies



did i find a cool cafe near my house finally?  its this weird triangle shaped space in chinatown across from pho 14.  L'Age D'Or.  Its kind of weird and funky and totally not belonging in chinatown. free WIFI yes!  if you didn't know this is clutch because most places in Paris don't have free wifi.



i can't really say it was staring me in the face for the last 6 months because its kind of easy to miss even though it's at the big main intersection in chinatown.



Matt Rota at his solo show at Galerie L'Oeil du Prince in the 17th.  Matt is an illustration buddy back in NY



I walked over to Chinatown for 30 minutes to snap some photos because its next to my house so i thought i should even though i've seen many many chinese new year parades in my day.  i took this photo by accident but after looking at it i see that i should just print out the word "PRESSE" on crappy computer paper and put it in a plastic sleeve and put on my duck face so i can have a press pass too.



I knew it was gonna be a cluster cuss so i brought my tripod and wireless remote so i could hold it high up in the air and press the remote shutter button and get some clear shots











Nad and Ornelly.  two of my best ami's in paris but they both are moving to new york :(



the best japanese food i've had so far in Paris is in the Marais inside the Marché des Enfants Rouges.  It gets my thumbs up





inside the market there are a bunch of places to eat including this Moroccan place that looked good.  they had some kind of rice thing with like 20 small over easy eggs somehow cooked on top of it all.  gotta try it sometime.



some street in le Marais



more of those top floor crazy window spaces i love so much

Belleville

(from wikipedia) Belleville (French pronunciation: ​[bɛlvil]) is a neighbourhood of Paris, France, parts of which lie in four different arrondissements. The major portion of Belleville straddles the borderline between the 20th arrondissement and the 19th along its main street, the Rue de Belleville. The remainder lies in the 10th and 11th arrondissements.

It was once the independent commune (municipality) of Belleville which was annexed by the City of Paris in 1860 and divided between two arrondissements Geographically, the neighborhood is situated on and around a hill which vies with Montmartre as the highest in Paris. The name Belleville literally means "beautiful town".

Belleville is also a big arty area but people are saying its becoming not edging and mainstream.  It's kind of ghetto.  I suppose you can compare it to williamsburg brooklyn

Aux Folies, a staple of Belleville.  

Does this appeal to you?  yea, me neither.  but there is more to belleville than this graffiti crap that you always see in belleville guides.

this is the last place i want to hang out at, a horse betting bar

very near Parc Butte Chaumont.  it is the coolest park in paris! 

"I like to walk my cat and my mental illness around parc butte chaumont on sunny days"

there are awesome trees aplenty in this park.  i can't wait to come here in the summertime!

this is at the highest point in the park.

you can see montmartre off in the distance

Rosa Bonheur is way cool cafe/bar in the park.  At night it fills up and can still go here after the park closes

this tree was greyish purple.  was it the time of day or is it always this color?

the other side of that weird shaped driveway tree.  i couldn't decide which photo was better.  do you see the kind of decisions i have to make?  these things take up so much of my time.

café chéri(e), another belleville staple.  if you walk down this street towards the metro you can see a bunch of middle aged chinese hookers.  Belleville has the second chinatown in paris which i didn't see so it looks like i will be exploring belleville again.

Collapse

Collapse is a non fiction book by Jared Diamond, the author of Guns,Germs, and Steel. Collapse is about the collapse of great civilizations like the Mayans, Easter Islanders, etc... there are something like 7 factors that seem to cause the downfall of societies. One that seemed to be uniform throughout was that they would cut down their trees, the soil would blow away and then they were f'd. The Easter islanders were a totally isolated island so they are the perfect study for collapse. The warlords kept trying to outdo each other by building bigger statues (Moai) using up the islands resources. The huge red rocks on top were supposed to be especially impressive. One sentence resonated with me was "What did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say while he was doing it?” His answer was something like when you're in there you don't realize it and you can't realize that you could be responsible for all this. The correlation between these past fallen societies and today are made, because we are making the same mistakes. It is great (but a depressing) read. One big thing i took away from this is, cut down all the trees and you're f'd.

Where Has Jason Been?

Where has Jason been?  the answer is working and super sick

these glorified scooters for giant man babies are rediculous

I finally got new running shoes.  it's seriously been like 2 years.  you're supposed to replace them every 6 months.  These Nike Free Run +3 shoes are as light as a feather and seem like they're made out of spandex.  So far they have been pretty sweet.  I thought i would look super cool but i look like i have special needs because i'm wearing bright blue shoes

making dumplings.  Pork and leek in one, crab and goat cheese in the other.  I guess they're frenchified 

supposedly it's on.  that's what i said a few weeks ago when i finally bought this used easel from some guy online.  and it was one.  I was steam rolling 2013 and getting sh!t done, and then i got super sick

Etienne, the guy at Sauver le Monde Des Hommes in the Marais.  I bought a few things at his store since i've been here.  they consistently have cool stuff for dudes.  He is the buyer and the operation is run by him and his mom.

Pro same sex marriage protest.  it was definitely way more fun and party like.  there was a big truck pumping out dance music at some point.

Moai for my "Collapse" artwork.  I'll post it soon

is that a cucumber in your pocket or...? (yes actually it is.  i chuckled to myself as i walked home with a single cucumber in my pocket (to make kim bap)).

theatre in the Marais

Mimi's birthday party

Mimi and Elisa

this guy is a drummer and was feeling the music is such a "white boy" way.  but it was cool cuz you could really tell he really was feeling the music and he looks like he should be in the dave brubeck quartet in the 60's.

meanwhile in Paris.... this looks like it could be brooklyn

and then after working a ton and my birthday i became super sick.  I was clocking 102.8 degree fevers.  I finally went to the hospital after 6 days and they gave me Ketek antibiotics and tamiflu.  I looked up Ketek and it said that there have been more than a few cases of it giving people liver failure and damage.  In the instructions it says a list of reasons to stop taking it immediately if X happens.  Having dark, tea colored urine was one reason, which happened to me after 1 dose.  It means it could be causing liver damage.  I went to the hospital again, which it turns out is a clinic, not a hospital.  first i went to the pharmacy and told them  and asked them to call the hospital for me.  I did this because the day before when they were giving me my prescriptions they said that the dose of tamiflu the doctor prescribed me was really low.  they called the hospital and the doctor adjusted the dose and so they were able to give me a standard box of tamilflu.  sounds like this doctor is bad.  So I like to think my plan of getting the pharmacy to call the hospital was good because when i got there they said oh you're the guy from the pharmacy and I was seen in 20 minutes, whereas the day before they told me there were no openings until the next day.  the doctor i saw before was not in that day so i saw another one that said, yea, i don't really like Ketek, you should just stop taking it because what you have is viral anyway.  he used a stethascope at least, the doctor the day before didn't.  neither of them asked me if i was taking any prescription medicines and i didnt have to fill out any paperwork at all or medical history forms.  It cost 23 euros.  Is my liver damaged now?  I FU$^%^%$%^&ing hope not!  An article in the new england journal of medicine said that it shouldn't have even been approved by the FDA cuz a lot of tests were fudged.  People out there do not take Ketek!  and as for french healthcare?  i dont know about it because i'm not on it with my visa and i went to a clinic and not a hospital.  hopefully i will never know what it's like.  so in the end i was cured with tamiflu.  liver damage maybe.  tomorrow i go back to grabbing 2013 by the balls.