Zazie will probably never be known in the English-speaking world, but in native France, she is something of an institution. She is especially effective as a vocalist and lyricist, more than a musician. At first listen, many of her earlier albums (“Je, Tu, Ils” in particular) seem like generic French Pop, and they may have been so, but in her later years (the singer is now in her mid-40s), Zazie discovered a side of herself that bordered on near mysticism, and all of her work since then has been highly creative and really, really good.

2004’s “Rodeo” is one such album. Its an eclectic mix of pop-rock songs with an Eastern Influence. Zazie’s fascination with India, in particular, influenced the making of the album, and it shows. On the plaintive ballad “La Pluie et le Beau Temps” (“The Rain and the good times”), she evokes a wistful combination of The Beatles and Feist. On “Lola Majeure” she turns up the action quotient a bit more, and the stunning “Doolididom” is made for singing along to. Zazie knows a good tune when she hears it – and this album has those tunes in spades. There is something about a girl singing in French, and even better when every song is SO different – the genres here vary from soul, rock, fusion and just good old fashioned regular pop.

Zazie’s Indian Fascination also resulted in her most recent album, 2007’s “Totem” being as good as it is. In fact, do try to get the Rodeo Special Edition (CD+DVD) from Amazon’s French website – the DVD is an hour-long film, set completely in India, with Zazie performing each song in a lavish Bollywood-style mounted production. They must have spent a bomb on this – we have Zazie worshipping in a temple, impressing a young Indian Prince with her highly stylized and choreographed dancing, and ultimately getting drenched in the Indian Monsoons while singing about lost love. This is much more beautiful than my descriptions, so do yourself a favor and pick up the Special Edition of this album – its really worth it!

If you liked this, do check out her “Totem” from 2007, and another underrated album, “Zen” from 1995. All of her albums are essential purchases, in my opinion.

1. Dolce Vita
2. J’Aime J’Aime Pas
3. Excuse Moi
4. Toc Toc Toc
5. Pluie et le Beau Temps
6. Lola Majeure
7. Rodéo
8. Slow
9. Doolididom
10. Sauver le Monde
11. Oui
12. J’Arrive

Vous l’avez compris, il faut en plus donner un titre le plus long possible au billet de la chaîne de musiques pour laquelle Férocias des Peuples du soleil m’a tagué :

“List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your life. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.”

Voici donc les morceaux qui me bottent particulièrement ces temps-ci.
Enjoy your trip (women only) :

Et hop je file le bébé à 7 gusses : Nemo, Thierry Lhote, Desirade, Toréador, Olympe, Crise dans les médias et Rome en images.

It struck the female DG immediately when she looked at the photos she snapped with Lumio (her trusty Lumix camera): How many times had she captured the male DG in his red jacket (it’s always cold at UCSF – or almost always) and blue UCSF cap looking at the just taken MRI of his brain. Today the news – delivered by longtime UCSF neuro-surgeon Dr. Michael Prados, who they had not met before – was good. The tumor area continued to diminish. As  Dr. Susan Chang has expressed before: “We’ve stunned it.”

That was really the second good news of the day. The female DG had an appointment with physical therapist extraordinaire Heidi Engel, who pronounced her surgically-repaired Achilles tendon good enough to start walking (but, of course, not overdoing.)

Because the male DG’s appointment for an Avastin infusion at UCSF Mt. Zion was hours away, they went down the hill in an easterly direction and found themselves in France. Well, it really was Cole Valley but eating lunch at Zazie was a darn close approximation as was their trip to Say Cheese, where in addition to picking up an assortment of goat cheeses for their at home picnic dinner tonight, they stumbled upon a hard-to-find 2005 Burgundy, a Gevrey-Chambertin (just a “villages” but a treat nevertheless).

Je suis simplement fan. Et il y a beaucoup trop de titres ! Je prends les plus connus, je pense… faisons consensuel. Et  j’en mets cinq. Et puis c’est tout.

Eccomi qui….dopo le fatiche della (seconda) mudanza, ho cambiato casa, beh questa nuova situazione mi piace, e spero che qualcuno posso davvero leggere le mie parole e i miei pensieri. Tocca presentarsi, per chi non mi conosce, beh in me condividono varie identità, che ben mi rappresentano: la pestifera Zazie (non a caso immagine di questo blog, già perché nelle vecchie versioni nella url c’era scritto proprio ask for zazie, chiedi di Zazie), la triste Adèle h., l’incompresa Amélie, e beh, la sommatoria di tutte quante dà la chica de bolsillo o la fille de poche, una ragazza tascabile del titolo….così piccola da metterla in un taschino, come una moderna – meno odiosa – minù famosa per essere una vecchina rompi con il suo cucchiaino gigante…o una moderna sissi (alta solo 1,40 cm). beh, per ora è anche troppo… lasciatemi riprendere dal mio personale infinito jet-lag….

“Questi aveva trascorso anni alla ricerca della donna giusta, una donna dolce e minuta quanto lo era la sua cara nonna scomparsa, un donna tanto piccola da poter stare in un taschino“.

Da Gatto nero, gatto bianco di Emir Kusturica (1998, tit. or. Crna macka, beli macor).

Bisoux,

la fille de poche

(originally posted on 03/01/2005 – modified on 12/10/09)

Bisoux,

la fille de poche

Après une assez longue inactivité sur ce blog (plus d’un mois), du à mes activités « in the real life », rattrapages de partiels, boulot, écriture du mémoire (rendu le 17/08 et soutenu vendredi prochain à 14h…), je suis de retour, et pour un retour en douceur, je reprend la rubrique « j’aime cette chanson » avec un extrait de l’émission « Rendez-vous en terre inconnue ».

Ici, ce n’est pas tellement la chanson que je veux vous faire partager, (j’aime bien mais ce n’est pas ce qui tourne dans mon MP3), mais plutôt le contexte dans laquelle elle est chantée. L’objectif de l’émission, pour ceux qui ne l’ont jamais regardé, est d’envoyer une star ou personnalité bien connue, dans une contrée lointaine parmi une population soumise aux contraintes et caprices de la nature. Ce n’est pas la dernière avec Gilbert Montagné, que je n’ai pas regardé mais qui apparemment valait le coup d’œil (Hein Gilbert !), mais la précédente avec Zazie, de son vrai nom; Isabelle de Truchis de Varenne, qui se rend chez les Korowai, un peuple Papou qui vit encore dans la forêt de l’archipel Indonésien.

Cet extrait ou Zazie leur montre ce qu’est une guitare et joue pour eux est assez bouleversant, alors bien sur, il y a les caméras et le scénario de l’émission mais c’est tout de même émouvant et d’une fraicheur particulière. Vous remarquerez aussi Frédéric Lopez, l’animateur, un peu ailleurs… Normal juste avant il fume l’espèce de calumet avec les Korowai…

Les Korowai vivent en extrayant de la farine d’arbres qu’ils abattent et replantent pour assurer la subsistance des générations futures. Un peuple qui vit en se nourrissant de vers, d’insectes et de poissons. Un peuple qui parle une langue particulière, à tel point qu’il a fallu que la production recourt à deux interprètes : Korowai-langue locale, puis langue locale-Français. Et allez leur demander à eux s’ils sont pour ou contre la taxe carbone !

in 10 minute ma car la motoare ca e vineri seara ce dreacu!

Last Friday, New York Times ran a good Op-Ed on Healthy San Francisco, entitled A Public Option that Works.

Healthy San Francisco is a comprehensive health care program that provides access to affordable medical services to an estimated 60,000 San Franciscans who aren’t covered by other government programs. The program is funded partially by mandated employer health-spending for employees- either pay for private insurance, pay into medical-reimbursement accounts or pay into the city’s Healthy San Francisco public option.

The take-away of the piece is that the shared-responsibility model “has not led to the kind of job losses many fear” nor has it “crowd[ed] out private options.” This week, Zazie and Medjool, exemplified the spirit of shared responsibility, breaking ranks with Golden Gate Restaurant Association and requesting that the U.S. Supreme Court reject the association’s appeal of the mandate. In the amicus curiae, Zazie and Medjool state that the plan enables them “to act responsibly by providing health insurance coverage for employees while maintaining their ability to compete economically.”

The Times piece concludes by stating that “the positive changes in San Francisco provide a glimpse of what the future might look like if Washington passes substantial health reform this year.”

We should be so lucky.

I had so much fun this weekend there simply was not a moment to spare for the mountain of housework I *should* have been doing.

Well that’s just tough.

The highlights…

Lunch at Zazie on an unusually warm day. We sat in their secret garden and dined on their poached eggs doused in heavenly hollandaise. I’m not even a fan of hollandaise but this is so sublime and lemony and creamy that it leaves you weak.

I also met my virtual twin Jen – horsewoman / event producer extraordinaire. Though she just returned from the Bahamas and is off on a horse vacation in Greece next week. So perhaps it’s just me wishing we were twins. That’s her on the right enjoying a fabulous Zazie dinner in the secret garden.

The coffee scene at Farley’s in Potrero Hill where we met @hoverbird and learned a ton about Kindle, the iPhone, Twitter and other fabulous technologies. Plus Patrick’s a charmer. We got to talking after he appeared with the most yummy looking bagel and lox. “Oh, you can get that next door,” he said. It was as tasty as it looked.

Saturday afternoon was spent at the barn playing with Now Voyager. I know you’re all probably tired of hearing it, but I have the BEST horse! He’s such a character. And he’s beautiful. And so fun to ride. We have a ball. Denise and I were all set to venture out onto the trails but were foiled by closed gates and high horses so we stuck to the arena.

Chick movie-night with my homegirls from the barn. Julie and Julia was a delightful movie (Meryl Streep is a force) and dinner afterwards was super fun. A big shout out to Anke, Paula, Charlotte and Denise for a great time.

Cycling in Marin. Though thinking of the $400 ticket a friend of a friend got in Marin for running a stop sign on his bike slowed me down! I’m spoiled by all my riding in stop-sign free Half Moon Bay. We started in the fog – discovered glorious warm sunshine in Fairfax and returned to foggy Sausalito. 30 miles!

In between there were Dexter Season Three episodes to watch, Team Fatty Livestrong Philly updates to track (strong turnout!) and books to read.

Ah life.

Personnellement, je suis accro de la musique ancienne et rétro mais si la musique est bonne, il faut l’écouter sans regarder la date de ‘naissance’. Malheureusement, les radios (et comme ça les gens) ‘préfèrent’ la sorte médiocre de la musique.
Maintenant, je voudrais vous présenter mes chansons favorites des chanteuses françaises d’aujourd’hui.

1. Carla Bruni – Quelqu’un m’a dit : La meilleure, une voix molle et une mélodie qui emménage dans ton coeur

Je vous propose encore: Le toi du moi, Raphael, L’amoureuse, You belong to me

2. Pauline – Il n’y a que toi: A cause du refraine

En plus: Je vis ma vie, L’ordre des choses

3.Hélène Segara – Je vis pour elle (en duo avec Andrea Bocelli): simplement magnifique

Bis: La chanson d’Anastasia (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tey1l0egz6E), On ne dit pas, L’amour est un soleil

4.Zazie – Na: Une chanson drôle avec un élan incroyable.

Même chanteuse: Je suis un homme, Vue du ciel, Jet lag

Celles qui m’attendent: Berry, Barbara Carlotti

Bonne écoute, Salomè

■ À l’occasion de la sortie de l’album « Caféine » de Christophe Willem lundi prochain, voici une interview de lui qui date de deux ans déjà, à l’époque où le jeune homme sortait son premier album : L’Inventaire.

Christophe Willem vient de sortir son premier album, L’Inventaire

● 3 août 1983 : naissance à Enghienles-Bains (Val-d’Oise). ● 1990 : débute le piano. ● 1997 : se consacre au chant jazz, puis au gospel et, enfin, au blues. ● 2004 : joue dans Alive, avec Richard Anconina, et participe à la BO du film. ● 2005 : sa soeur Sandrine l’inscrit au casting de Nouvelle Star. ● 8 juin 2006 : gagne Nouvelle Star. ● 16 avril 2007 : premier album, L’Inventaire.

“ Je suis assez barré, mais constructif et perfectionniste ”

Pour ce premier album, vous avez travaillé avec plusieurs artistes, dont Zazie, Philippe Katerine et Valérie Lemercier. Comment se sont déroulées ces collaborations ?
Christophe Willem : Très très bien. Chacun a écrit et composé pour moi, puis j’ai chanté et fait des essais. On a amélioré les maquettes des chansons au fil du temps. Avec Zazie, on était dans son studio, chez elle. Plus on se connaissait et plus les textes qu’elle écrivait me correspondaient. Certains des artistes ont posé leurs voix sur les chœurs.

Pourquoi vous a-t-il fallu autant de temps pour sortir l’album ?
À la fin de la Nouvelle Star, on a fait une tournée qui a pris du temps. Du coup, je n’ai commencé l’album qu’en septembre. Je suis très perfectionniste et je ne voulais pas le bâcler. Il a d’ailleurs été retardé plusieurs fois.

Vous dites que cet album doit s’écouter en entier et plusieurs fois pour mieux le comprendre. Pourquoi donc ?
Parce qu’il faut l’écouter attentivement, dans l’ordre, pour parcourir le chemin de L’Inventaire. Les histoires racontées dans chacune des chansons forment un tout. Il y a beaucoup de métaphores. Cela crée un petit côté autobiographique qui aide à mieux découvrir qui je suis. Les musiques qui accompagnent les textes sont assez variées d’une chanson à l’autre… En effet. Je n’apprécie pas de style de musique en particulier. Dans l’album, on passe donc de chansons douces et poétiques à d’autres plus électro. Cela permet de varier les ambiances.

Appréhendez-vous les réactions de vos fans ?
Je suis assez pessimiste là-dessus. Je pense que mon album va les décevoir. Je suis assez barré mais très constructif, l’album correspond à ce que je voulais, mais peut-être pas à ce que les fans attendent… En effet, les gens attendent quelque chose mais ils ne savent pas forcément quoi !

Restez-vous en contact avec les autres finalistes de la Nouvelle Star, vos concurrents de 2006 ?
Oui, je sais à peu près ce que chaque ancien candidat fait. Chacun de nous s’est lancé dans des projets musicaux vraiment différents. Du coup, il n’y a aucune rivalité ou jalousie entre nous, tout se passe très bien.

Entretien réalisé par Thomas Suinot

Site Web officiel de l’artiste : www.christophe-willem.com

Clip du single Berlin.

■ À propos de cet article : C’est ma première « vraie interview de star ». Le premier jour où je suis arrivé à Paris, j’ai débarqué dans la rédaction de l’actu/Mon Quotidien, on m’a dit : « tiens, va chez M6, ils projettent un documentaire sur Willem, chope une interview, prends la ligne une, en 25 minutes tu y es, dépêche toi ça commence dans un quart d’heure », BAM ! Je m’empresse d’aller sur le net pour savoir qui est ce « Willem » (et aller sur mappy choper un plan) et je découvre qu’il s’agit du gagnant de l’édition 2006 de la Nouvelle Star (je ne regardais pas la télé à ce moment là et suivais peu l’actualité du petit écran). Arrivé dans les locaux d’M6, j’ai un peu halluciné : petits fours, salés-sucrés, alcool, sodas, cocktail et tout le bordel, putain c’est la première fois que je voyais une « conférence de presse » aussi classe. Alors évidemment je me suis retrouvé au milieu d’une cinquantaine de journalistes… qui pétaient tous plus haut que leur cul, qui ont tous déjà tout vécu et tout fait, qui sont « in », branchés et totalement « vip », et ben… Quelle bande de cons… Malheureusement, aux conférences de presse similaires auxquelles j’ai pu assisté par la suite, je n’ai trouvé que ce genre de brochettes d’humains prétentieux et soi-disant « meilleurs que les autres ».

Passons… J’ai donc vu un documentaire sur Willem, qui m’a permis de le connaître, j’ai ensuite improvisé des questions et le jeune homme ne m’a pas laissé un agréable souvenir. Son masque de « dandy foufou » s’est vite effacé quand je lui ai posé quelques questions « vexantes ». Comme par exemple : « Christophe, sur cet album, finalement vous n’avez composé qu’une seule chanson, et n’en avez écrites aucune ? Toutes les autres ne sont pas composées par vous, ni écrites, c’est dommage… » Voilà ce qui a eu le don d’énerver la « Tortue ». C’est con… Au lieu de m’expliquer qu’il n’avait finalement « pas le droit » de faire ce qu’il voulait (contrat oblige), il s’est emporté et est parti… Ensuite il a fait le clown devant quelques journalistes qui bavaient d’extase (ou pignaient de jalousie ?) devant lui, je ne comprenais pas pourquoi… Bref un souvenir « humainement » très moyen, mais « professionnellement » très intéressant. Ah j’oubliais : un journaliste de Télé Z m’a dragué et voulait que je le suive dans les toilettes d’M6, hum hum, sympathique tout ça…

Sinon pour info, mon premier titre, enfin citation était « J’ai peur de décevoir mes fans », je trouvais ça pessimiste mais attirant, ça a été remplacé par ce que vous pouvez lire ci-dessus. Bref je ne suis pas fan de Willem, de sa musique en tout cas, mais quand même, il a une putain de voix magique, vivement qu’il la pose sur du bon son rock !

Cette interview est parue dans l’actu du 21 avril 2007.

The field trip of the week was supposed to lead to a dreaded dining experience at the McDonald’s on Haight St.  This was sort of like a duo of grossness: firstly, it’s McDonalds (need I say more?) and secondly, Haight St. is notorious for its homeless, profuse drug activity, and general griminess.  While it didn’t seem like an enjoyable experience, it would be an experience, to say the least.  So I was ready to suck it up and attempt to eat some of that fast food I had sworn off, all for the sake of experiencing Haight at its most raw.  Fortunately, it didn’t really come to that.  Apparently my observations about the grossness of the McDonald’s on Haight were in line with the class, and we instead made the trip to the nearby Cole Valley for a higher end meal at Zazie.  Zazie is a quaint French bistro adorned in light shades of yellow and green, and I immediately fell in love with it.  The fact that Zazie saved me from McDonald’s made me love it even more.  All aglow with happiness, when I saw some of my classmates down at the other end of the table with 22oz beers in hand, I knew I had to get one for myself.  My Fischer Blonde was easily one of the largest beers I have ever ordered in a restaurant.  As I skimmed the menu, my eyes popped when I saw the word salmon.  I have found that whenever salmon is on a menu, it’s impossible for me to turn down the delicious freshwater flavor.  So to accompany my beer, I had the Salmon Grillade with citrus pearl couscous, toybox tomatoes and sugar snap peas.  Thoroughly stuffed by the end of my meal, I learned that we were, in fact, heading down to McDonald’s for dessert.  Because I had worked myself up so much about going to begin with, the prospect didn’t really frighten me.  So I gathered my courage and walked through the door with the rest of the class around me, prepared to observe the eerie otherness of McDonald’s on Haight Street.  One of the first things I noticed were two homeless men sitting at a booth around the corner from the counter where customers order, out of sight from the workers.  I also noticed that there were only two other parties seated, all of whom were obese.  I was actually surprised that the present restaurant demographic fit exactly my preconceived notions of what people who come to Haight Street McDonald’s look like.  I decided to order vanilla soft serve ice cream on a cone and further investigate this.  As I was waiting for my cone, a younger group of girls and a family entered the McDonald’s, swaying the demographic to something more suburban-esque (what were these girls and this family doing on Haight Street at night?) and less like I had imagined.  It became a typical McDonald’s with typical people.  I pondered this as I enjoyed my soft serve, and slowly my thoughts drifted to Michael Pollan and his experience with McDonald’s in The Omnivore’s Dilemma.  I remember how he commented that 13 of the ingredients from his son’s McNuggets were derived from corn.  Did my cone squeeze by without any corn-derived ingredients?  Probably not.  There was high fructose corn syrup in this for sure.  I got to thinking how surplus corn was often distilled and fermented and turned into alcohol.  Is it possible that my delicious beer at Zazie came from corn?  The ironic part is that while most of the food I eat has some sort of corn product in it, I don’t even like corn.

For our last ESF trip we travelled to Cole Valley to go to Zazie.  I have been to Zazie before with the oh so beautiful Samantha Blackburn for brunch but dinner was a whole different experience.  We all sat at one long table to enjoy our last meal together, we chatted and ordered some drinks as we waited to order.  Sam and I decided to split the flank steak in a brandy cream sauce , which is clearly the way a dead cow is meant to be cooked, topped with portobello mushrooms with asparagus and mashed potatoes.  

We also got a side of the mac and cheese (which was one of the best things I have ever put into my mouth, I think Sam only had 2 bites).  

Zazie only uses free-range, antibiotic and hormone free meats, and you can really taste the difference in the quality.  It also feels great eating a piece of a dead animal that was honored when it was alive, instead of abused and almost manufactured.  I started really paying attention to what I ate after I read the book Skinny Bitch, I had a strong reaction to it and starting eating vegan.  Reading in detail about how cows, pigs and chickens were treated, and how they were slaughtered disgusted me to the point where I was sobbing uncontrollably and refused to eat any animal products for 2 years.  Now, this was when I was in high school and my mom supported this lifestyle and actually did it with me, so I didn’t have to worry about prices or availability, and it was fairly easy.  When I went to college, trying to eat vegan in the school caf was almost impossible, so I started eating meat again and didn’t think too much of it.  After reading Michael  Pollans book Omnivore’s Dilemma, I expected to have the same reaction and was extremely surprised when I didn’t.  In his book he describes in painful detail the unnatural and inhumane treatment of cows in feedlots; how they are basically forced to eat processed corn to fatten them up to the point where there livers are abscessed , there muscle is marbled with fat, and can barely walk because their legs do not support their weight.  He also gives grueling details about how they are tortured into giving up their lives for our consumption.  While doing research for this blog post I went on Youtube and was re horrified by the mistreatment of cows, pigs and chickens, and will be giving up commercial meat until I can afford to eat free range meat.  I have always been a animal lover and have had pets that give up their love for me, I feel I can at least respect animals by eating ones that haven’t been murdered.  

Needless to say, we ate it all.

After dinner we ironically went to McDonald’s for dessert, and I am usually all for McDonald’s.  I think that everyone hates on it because it’s fast food and there is a stigma about fast food after the film Fast Food Nation came out in theaters in 2001.  But its the epitome of capitalism, of America.  Every other corporation exploits and manipulates people just like McDonald’s does, so what’s the big deal? Why is it that when I say “I want McDonald’s” peoples reactions are along the same lines of disgust and repulsion? Maybe its because they have seen the horrible videos on Youtube I unfortunately just viewed.

I took this picture of the sprinkler system in the McDonald’s parking lot, they obviously need to repair their irrigation system, I mean we are suffering from a water shortage and drought…come on! 

Some music from Australia, Norway, and France that I will be enjoying on my way to Gol. They are all worth a listen.