Paris, France – 2007
Once upon a time I happened to be in Europe and, surprisingly, I was with my girlfriend (not anymore), so going to Paris seemed like the trite, romantic thing to do. And it was.
I found the people to be quite unfriendly and hostile, especially upon hearing me speak English, yet when I spoke French they snarled and spoke back in English. I got a general feeling of arrogance and self-importance from most of the people working in the service industry that I interacted with. For a city that receives significant revenue from tourism there certainly was a lot of complaining about having to serve tourists by its people. I would not go back to Paris and spend any of my own money. If I ever have a girlfriend who wants to go to said city…well…depending on how hot she is I might let it go.
Years later while traveling in Bangkok, I met a French guy named Pierre who asked if I had ever been to France. I told him I’d only been to Paris. He apologized profusely and said he hopes I get a chance to experience the other sides of France. I told him I understood. I realize every experience is unique and mine could’ve been an isolated incident.
Anyway, there were some things I truly did appreciate in Paris. The things I enjoyed most were The Lourve, a museum containing the artwork of mentally ill people from all periods of history, and watching Gypsies beg in an impressively half-assed manner at each cultural monument. Their lack of enthusiasm, counter-intuitively, was somehow inspiring. I just imagined what it could be like to live life not caring, or care less. The sense of indifference and freedom was evident in their expressions and behavior.
Sorry if you were hoping this really had anything to do with Paris…
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- Someone told me I should go see this giant, oddly-shaped triangle because it was so important culturally. We have things like this all over Texas–they suck oil and gas and stuff out of the ground–this one just sits there and blinks neon lights, giving you a headache and never fully answering your question of why people love it so much.
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- More beautiful than that famous tower, this carousel created thousands of childhood memories full of fantasy and imagination. Eventually those memories became idealized refuges for depressed adults trapped in the painful drudging of progress.
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- Tourism cities need to be careful not to get too cocky or they will end up with empty seats like this. Unfortunately I think people will misunderstand what romance is and equate it with a hideous tower that lights up at night. Sorry I am so objective and don’t interject my own opinions in much of my work…I know that might make it more interesting…but I studied journalism in college.
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- There were a lot of statues in Paris. I liked that. Here we have a statue boy looking for his statue father. He never found him and that is why this statue boy grew up to be an artist.
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- Men with machine guns guard a gigantic glass triangle. Inside nuclear art emits a captivating force of radiation on various humans who unthinkingly digest a prescribed culture.
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- If for whatever reason you wanted to look directly out the front of your Eiffel Tower-view hotel room…this is what you might see. By “might see” I mean definitely see.
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- Upon further inspection…as advertised, our hotel room actually did had a marvelous view of the Eiffel Tower…as long as you were willing to hang half of your body out of the window in order to be amazed.
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- On the street, imagining an urgent sensuality in each step.
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- I went shopping on this street Shomps L.E. Say but I left because all the stuff was too cheap and I wanted to spend way more money. Champs Elysées…I think in English that means Modesty Street.
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- This is the palace, or some building well-maintained by the Republic of France. It was where the guy who invented Neopolitan ice cream planned battles to control the dairy market in order to gain a monopoly on ice cream, which was not yet invented due to lack of methods to keep dairy frozen.
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- Self-portrait where I appear to be trapped in a building I’m not physically in, existing merely as a reflection that floats on multiple planes, anxious and homeless. :)
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- Reminded me of Star Wars and that’s the only reason I took the picture.
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- I’m a fan of tourists. I often go to places where tourists frequent in order to satisfy my fetish: taking pictures of tourists taking pictures of themselves.
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- Here the King and Queen of France walk up to their modest residence. Truthfully I have no idea what this building was; it just looked like something my family would want to see after telling them I went to Paris.
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- Gypsies wander around landmarks like the Eiffel Tower, begging in a supremely half-assed manner which involved handing a sad story wrtten in multiple languages on piece of cardboard to tourists. If you didn’t speak one language they just flipped the card over.
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- Such poetic begging…continued. I loved her Gypsy style so much.
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- Fashion sense that is way ahead of its time. While the rest of the Parisians were wearing mideval clothing and this guy was rocking denim and leather…and cuffing it!!
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- Poseidon ponders what it feels like to have a salty liquid spewed all over his glorious bearded face. Shortly after this shot he didn’t have to wonder because the water that went up came back down. If he were truly efficient he would’ve just asked all the topless chicks behind him….
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- The bustling train station in Paris. Leaving Paris was the highlight of being in Paris.
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