Steve Jobs Tribute: "Steve & I"

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Steve & I ~

Steve & I, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Three days ago I published a post called Love Me, Love My iPhone on Paris & I, which I'm including discretely in this posting too.

I created the Paris & I blog in February 2010, in a wave of excitement created purely by my new iPhone and the possibilities I spied for releasing more of my creativity. i even decided to never use the capital 'i' and stuck to that for about a year.

My first modest post was called Don't Pass Me By, as the sleek little device in my hand recorded my daily grind and transported me far beyond it.

Two posts later I tried to explain my thinking behind my new blog with an item entitled To Top It All. The adventure had begun. And for some reason it still seems as fresh as it did 20 months ago.

One photo a day, with a written commentary, every day for 20 months. I passed the 500 mark ages ago. I've found, perhaps, my ultimate channel of artistic expression, and it's almost entirely thanks to my iPhone that I've done so.

This name Paris & I has three significations, and they're all based on the 'i'. Paris can look after herself I reckon!

The first 'i' is the part of 'me' in every picture and every text. The second 'i' is the eye I use to initially register my impressions. And the third 'i' is a hommage to a company, and the man behind it, which has allowed me to finally focus my creative energies in an incredibly satisfying way.

You probably won't have guessed it, but the company's Apple and the man is Steve Jobs.

And the funny thing is I never liked Apple computers and never felt inclined to buy one in a million years. PC man me. To be honest, I had nothing against them, it's just that I started on PCs and couldn't be bothered learning more stuff just to do the same thing differently. But the iPhone changed all that.

And funnily enough, that sneaky little device even managed to eventually sneak into my Paris street pics on more than one occasion. And more than deserved every guest appearance. I've included a few samples from the last nearly two years throughout this article. And then there are the self-portraits. You've helped me map the labyrinth of my life. And i needed that. Thanks Steve.

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2011 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Gaz À Tous Les Étages

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Gaz A Tous Les Etages ~

Gaz À Tous Les Étages, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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I hesitated before publishing this, because it's against my principles to simply reproduce someone else's art without adding anything original, visually as well as textually. But in the case of this advert for an exhibition at the Bibliotèque Forney I'll make an exception. And I did crop and play with the cools just a little...

The reason I like this poster is that I spend so much of my life wandering the Paris streets with my head raised, eyes scanning all those little blue plaques, in the hope of finding a new one that doesn't just say "Gaz à tous les étages" like the vast majority do, this phrase has become highly symbolic for me.

As two matters of interest, firstly the exhibition is about the domestic revolution brought on by having on tap gas on all floors of modern buildings, and in the street too, leading to heating, cooking and lighting innovations.

And secondly, yes, there are a few intriguing variations on the "Gaz à tous les étages" theme still present on the Walls of the French capital. If you read me religiously they'll all be revealed in one way or another!

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2011 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

They've Got Balls

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ They've Got Balls ~

They've Got Balls, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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At the risk of speaking about the weather again, we almost needed the 'pompiers' (does that come from 'pumpers' I wonder?) to dowse us down again this weekend, as the last of the French heatwave rolls on by.

Google Translate doesn't help much either: sapeur is 'sapped', sapeurs is 'fire', pompier is 'fireman', and pompiers is 'fire department', it says. I'm not convinced. And as for sap...

OK, the last one makes sense, but as for the rest, your guess is as good as mine. Of course, I could do an in-depth bit of research into it but hey, you have access to the internet just the same as I do, right?

Personally, I'm just as interested in all those little red touches outside their building here in the 7th as in the etymology of their nomenclature. That discrete little line of scarlet tiles just beneath the ledge; the slightly macabre deep red soaking of the cuneform indents of 'SAP-POMPIERS', and of course that delightful lamp, now sadly burnt out and soulless, but nevertheless enchanting.

The omnipresent 'RF' completes the scene and, as often, this official building, along with many schools, swimming pools and public baths, manages to be just a little different from the surrounding architecture.

And I haven't even mentioned the legendary 'Firemen's Balls' yet, which take place every year and draw great crowds of admirers... ;~S

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2011 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Dry With Scattered Showers

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Dry With Scattered Showers ~

Untitled, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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If you've been reading me for a while, you'll know that, despite the best British genes' intentions in the world, the weather is not one of my topics of predilection. I don't know, maybe it's that saying 'It's hot today, isn't it?" on a hot day seems somewhat redundant, despite the obvious social oiling function it clearly performs. Or maybe it's just that if it's raining when I open the door to go out I take an umbrella if I have one, but as often as not don't just to experience the elements; but discussing them at length isn't really my thing. Perhaps I don't have British genes after all.

Whatever, I'm now going to do just that. Today was October, October I tell you, and we were sweltering here in the Paris region as though it were a hot mid-summer's day.

Err, that'll do, won't it? I've done the weather now, got it off my chest, so to speak, and can get on with something more interesting. Oh, you want more? Want me to live up to my heritage and not deny my roots? Well, ok. The afternoon's challenge, at a garden party of some sort, was to keep moving the picnic blanket every few minutes to stay in the shade as that old rogue the sun relentlessly rounded the tree top again and again to keep our sweat glands in business.

The sartorial tendencies? Oh, you know, summer frocks, shorts, flip-flops, that sort of thing. Accessories? Sun cream and wide-brimmed hats for the little ones. The menu? Cold, cold drinks, salad and ice-cream.

Even as the sun went down, blinding us in a way it never seems to in true mid-summer, we were struggling to stay out of the heat.

And then, true to the real time of year, the chill set in immediately, ready to lay a heavy layer of condensation on the grass like it had done in the morning. How long this heatwave is going to last I don't know because, as I said, listening to people telling me it will be dry with scattered showers (or is it other way round) isn't my definition of a particularly worthwhile use of my life.

People here in Paris are certainly making the most of the exceptional conditions though. The streets are full of dazed tourists and locals, not quite sure what to make of it but determined to give it a go anyway.

I'm lying actually. I couldn't help overhearing someone say this freak heat is going to break next week and we'll be back to the usual autumnal experience, which is fine by me. I like autumn. Is it my favourite season? It could well be, it could well be...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2011 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Love Me, Love My iPhone

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Love Me, Love My iPhone ~

Love Me, Love My iPhone, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Why watch soaps and satires and series of people acting out seriously subjugated lives, when all you have to do is hop on the metro, or the RER and you've got the whole tapestry of heaving human hilarity laid out before you for your delectation. And it's real, terribly wonderfully, woefully, terrifically real.

A woman on my train going into Paris a couple of days ago was doing her full make-up routine - the lips, the foundation, the blusher, the mascara, the works, all the while chatting away to her friend across the way as the rest of us buried our heads in free rags, held on desperately to metal poles and in my case stared in wonder at this ostentatious creature who had invited us, for one morning only, into her private grooming routine.

She started the journey as a plain Jane, but lo! From the ashen beginnings of early morning weariness a bird of paradise arises, bright and glowing, technicoloured, ready to meet the day head on, and we witnessed the transformation. It was a miracle, I say, and I was there; I saw it happen!

I caught her eye as I was sniggering to my travelling companion about her, and I think she was pissed off, but I'm not sure. But still. Is it right? Would she gouge the grime from under her nails too or clip them, carefully placing the detritus on her knee or in a tissue or carelessly casting it onto the floor like elderly odoriferous Africans occasionally do? Is that ok? Is it I who should feel ashamed for daring to pierce her private preening bubble with my gaze?

Does it matter? Am I over-reacting? Should I get a life? Should I keep my nose down and butt out? Or should I slip into the seat opposite her and start attacking my nasal hairs with tweezers? These are the questions which matter, I'm inclined to feel.

Thankfully my journey's are generally less stressful, although blood pressures can still rise regularly, particularly in these Indian summer heatwave daze of end Sept / early Oct with those good old record temperatures causing short skirts and sandals to come scurrying back from oblivion to test young (and not so young) men's titillation thresholds once again.

Sorry if I've rubbed anyone's sensibilities up the wrong way, but you know me - just saying what's on my mind and it's not my fault if my daily grind gives me more food for thought than a thousand episodes of your toxically canned laughter emitting sitcom. Still friends anyone?

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2011 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

This Is A Stick-Up

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ This Is A Stick-Up ~

This Is A Stick-Up, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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When the cat's away the mice will play.

Or in this case, while the boss is taking their August off the underlings will use up all the office supply of Post-It notes. The inventor of those things must have tears in his eyes.

Coz you see, all the colour you're looking at in them thar windows is nothing but little slips of paper, skilfully placed, to make up a logo, a landscape or a funny face.

It's this summer's craze and the city's gone nuts over it. Just a few days before the company stationery manager gets back and does the same.

And seeing as the weather-o-meter seems to have got stuck in mid-August, maybe this cheery contagion will stay up with the temperatures for a few days more.

37 degrees max in Paris today, September 29th... WHAT?!!

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2011 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Stab In The Dark

iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Stab In The Dark ~

Stab In The Dark, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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I've never really understood the news. Can someone explain to me why the most important thing to fill our heads with every minute of every day is how many people have been killed and how?

There was a recent tweet which brought this home to me just now. The person is purportedly a 'Paris lover' but his or her tweet was simply a direct link to a newspaper report about a guy who had been stabbed in Marseilles or somewhere.

Why? Why on earth would I want to know about that and why on earth would someone think that I would. Why is it worth spending time hammering out those 140 characters of misery and loathing. What are we supposed to do with that particular piece of information. How will this enrich our lives? What can we do about it? What is the tweeter trying to achieve?

It's a mystery to me. Much more understandable is the plethora of messages announcing the pending 'Nuit Blanche' here in Paris, where there are numerous light displays and weird and wonderfully obscure artistic illuminations to gaze and goggle at.

I'm going to miss it. Having moved out to the sticks, I'm missing quite a few city centre events these days. Still, it tends to be variable in its interest, with some truly beautiful creations, and others just so-so. Plus you have to get home somehow, which isn't always easy. But at least it's all a bit more enlightening in the nicest possible way than knowing now that a guy has been stabbed in Marseilles.

As my friend Anon said to me once:

This troubled world is sighing now;
The flu is at the door;
And many folks are dying now
Who never died before.

But I just don't need to know about most of them.

Have a great White Night, and don't let the bed-bugs bite. Sleep tight, sleep tight, and don't set yourself alight. My bedtime ritual incantation from about 40 years ago, and I guess it'll do me for now.

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2011 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.