It All Ads Up

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ It All Ads Up ~

It All Ads Up, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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I've been slowly but surely getting into old Paris posters, postcards and pics. I had a stint on e-Bay a while back where I got a few for not very much but they tended to be reproductions and not the genuine articles - you have to watch out for that.

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I haven't got enough money to get into the hobby big time though and there are plenty of people out there who have already cornered the market as it were. I'm one of those people who hate a) not having the whole collection and, b) not having as many as everyone else. That probably says a lot about my personality - spoilt, selfish, capricious, egotistical, rapacious... - but I have found a great way of getting around the problem: I don't collect things any more. It's cheaper and much less stressful.

Well, I still do, kind of. I've discovered so many wonderful images of old Paris through Google that there's not really any need to actually 'possess' them these days. And even the nature of 'possessing' something is changing. Having the image on my computer, or just access to it, and then sharing it on feels pretty much good enough for me.

There's a real charm about the old ads but often an inherent sexism - and occasionally colonial condescension - from other times, where a woman's life would only be complete and perfect with the latest 'hi-tech' kitchen appliance or cleaning product. Come to think of it, some of today's ads would leave you feeling that things haven't changed much - check out all those shiny ladies with their shiny faces in their lovely shiny homes serving their happy shiny families or sitting on shiny cars...

And why not...

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

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© 2013 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Kentucky Fried Conundrums

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Kentucky Fried Conundrums ~

Kentucky Fried Conundrums, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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There's something about KFC which I can't quite put my finger on. I'm not sure whether I love it or loathe it.

There's that worrying rumour that they can't call themselves Kentucky Fried Chicken in France either a) because it isn't from Kentucky or, b) because it isn't actually chicken. Or not as we know it, Jim. That's one thing.

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The other thing is the Halal deal. They say that the reason KFCs are very popular with the North African crowd is that their chickens are killed according to Islamic law. Of course, we now know that an entire factory can be 'blessed' by one dude doing the necessary once, which is fair enough. And I don't particularly want my tasty K. Fried. C to have been sacrificed by having its throat slit whilst facing Mecca any more than the next (non-religious) guy.

And yet it tastes so darn good. Always has.

What to do, what to do. Probably just enjoy the icicles and get on with it. A Choko'poire sounds vaguely throat-gagging, although it's really just a chocolate and pear sauce covered ball of ice-cream and biscuit bits, if the pic's to be believed. Can ice-cream be Halal? Would you have to sacrifice the cow? As you can tell I'm out of my depth, so I'll let it go. Enjoy the snow!

And why not...

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

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© 2013 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

The Gold, It's In The...

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ The Gold, It's In The... ~

The Gold, It's In The..., a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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For some reason this shot reminds me of buried treasure, or at least the suggestion of some. Perhaps because there's a dude who dangles a magnet over one of the sunken columns trying to attract some of the coins previously carefreely deposited by rich romantic fools... Maybe because it reminds me of the last scene from The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, where the treasure is in one of the hundreds of graves...

Which is convenient because, you see, I happen to have received a very interesting message. Just when I though I'd seen them all, along comes this gem, which I'm going to reproduce here in full. You may roll on the floor and laugh your f***ing ass off, if you so desire. I kid you not... let the fun begin:

Hello Friend

My name is Master David Ofori, the son of Chief Ofori iron and mining export, my father married three wives and we have so many disputes in our family that he shared his access accordingly. As the son of the first wife they wanted to kill me so I and my sister Linda Ofori ran into the refugee camp. But before we finally ran out of our village we came across our father's storage secrete room and have now in my possession 150 KGS of Gold which I have tried to move out from our village and lodge in a security house now and we need a financier to help us ship it out for our benefit.

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Once you contact me I shall give you details of what is included in the box and for your assistant in any way to save our dear lives and to move this property out, you shall benefit 50 KGS of gold which is almost $45,000 per kilo while the rest of 100 KGS goes to me and my sister. Please be fast because we are now in a hide out for our security and there is no much process but only to process the shipment or sell it to a company who has agreed to pay us cash so we can invest the cash in overseas where we want to reside.

All I need now is a Foreign Trustee and For your information, I have a proper contact with the Bank of Africa here who is only permitted to transfer any huge amount of funds and if you are having any business transaction or investment here in Africa which means I will be willing to have the funds invested into it so you can manage it for me and my sister while we further our education. I also have contact in the Bank of my father where we can open a Foreign Account Free of Charge for the transfer and we will not spend much. I really want us to get to know each other for future business investment.

Please contact me back urgently on this email: davnlinda222@e-mail.ua.

Your Friends

David and Linda

I think 'my friends' Dav 'n' Linda would have got an 'F' in a 9-year-olds' English composition class, don't you? The incongruities are eye-watering, aren't they (grab that gold, baby). I'd dearly love someone to write back to them with a 'serious' proposition but, sadly, it ain't gonna be me. You know what to do...

And why not...

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

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© 2013 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

City With A View

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ City With A View ~

City With A View, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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This particular picture is pleasing for one very good reason: you can't see the enormous bland panelled structure they've build on the square in front of Notre Dame to celebrate its 850th anniversary. It's hiding behind the buildings on the left.

It's a bit like the reason pictures of the Eiffel Tower taken from the top of the Montparnasse Tower are great because you can't see the Montparnasse Tower in them.

Talking of high-up view points, these are my favourites: the top of the nearest tower we can see in this picture, the top of the steps at Sacré Coeur, the roof of Galeries Lafayette (and in the past La Samaritaine), the top of the staircases of the Pompidou Centre, and the belvedere in the Parc des Buttes Chaumont.

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And what about low-down views, I think to myself. Well, I'm particularly fond of the ups and downs of the Père Lachaise cemetery, as well as the ups and downs of the Parc Montsouris. It seems like I have a certain something for ups and downs, doesn't it?

And for completely flat, I suppose I'd have to say the banks of the Seine around the islands, cliché that it is. And the Luxembourg and Tuileries gardens with their iconic chairs are always a pleasure, as is the much quieter Palais Royal garden. Not forgetting the classic Parc Monceau.

But perhaps my favourite thing of all is wandering around aimlessly between these places, keeping a look out for the odd new sculpture or statue or happening of some sort or another. Is your favourite place given above or somewhere completely different? Maybe you favour a lesser-known more local park to your neighbourhood like the Parc André Citroen, the Parc Kellerman, the Parc de la Butte du Chapeau Rouge, the Parc Georges Brassens or the mouthful of the Parc Clichy-Batignolles-Martin Luther King. Or perhaps you prefer one of the more modest squares or places too numerous to mention.

Then again, if you're one of the 0.1% of the population who consider the Montparnasse Tower one of the shining architectural Parisian accomplishments of the 20th century you'll undoubtedly appreciate the Jardin Atlantique, affording a splendid view over said edifice. Over to you!

And why not...

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

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© 2013 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Black & White & Burnished All Over

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Black & White & Burnished All Over ~

Black & White & Burnished All Over, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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You will let me know when you're starting to get really sick of Paris snow pictures, won't you? I only have about five left which I haven't commented on yet, and a Paris photo shoot is coming up this weekend, so hopefully new material will be on its way shortly.

Poor old Dalida must have had enough of it anyway, with her utterly inappropriate attire for the time of year. This shot is at the other end of my 'most popular shot ever' or something near it, taken from the other end of Rue de l'Abreuvoir - watering trough street - showing that cute little pink house, inventively known as 'La Maison Rose' - the pink house...

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Someone pointed out that one, well, two parts of her don't seem to be suffering from the cold so much, thanks to the continual caressing they receive from enthusiastic if disrespectful snappers from the world over. This is true, but because I seem to always end up getting to this point every time I publish a pic of her I'll stop the story there.

It's funny, though, with the help of a little post-processing, admittedly, that the picture is almost black and white, apart from the aforementioned rubbed bits.

I should probably focus a bit more on statues than I do. There are so many wonderful ones around the city. My problem, though, is always that I'm aware I'm simply recording someone else's art, with is practically anathema to me.

What I generally try to do is make the statue look like an actual person and try and record them as though I were taking a portrait of them. This doesn't quite work here, because for one thing you can see that her torso is stuck into a hefty piece of granite. And secondly she's utterly armless, which isn't the most flattering of characteristics for a diva such as her.

Anyway, enough waffling, I'll be on the lookout for other statues to personify in the near future, although in the 20th, where I'm heading on Sunday, it's more likely to be graffiti which catches my eye, and my lens. Watch this space.

And why not...

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

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© 2013 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Yellow Red Blue

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Yellow Red Blue ~

Yellow Red Blue, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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This picture inspired a poem, look, here it is. I wouldn't rate it amongst my best, but the words needed to get out there, and so they did.

There was something about the colours. The red symbolising passion or perhaps anger. The yellow for cowardice. And the blue, although it doesn't look blue in the photo, for sadness. The blue bit, I think, is around the word Saint-Georges and the metro number.

The rhyming pattern is a bit unusual, as is my mood right now. It goes:

a a
- a
b b
c c

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It's probably been done before, but I can't remember having done so myself. It's nice to try something new. I tried to include heaps of things which shared the colour, either literally or metaphorically, in each verse. You'll have to see for yourself if it works or not, but I didn't want it to be too obvious. I don't want to treat my readers like idiots or babies, and it's nice to work stuff out for yourself too.

Mind you, I didn't write about letter boxes or metro signs either, so the influence of the picture on the poem is purely symbolic with those three primary colours. It's a shame the blue didn't come out. But then in the processing of the photo I was going for an over-saturated, constrasty, 60s or 70s type of feel. That works except it should probably have been a bit more washed out after the over-saturating, if that isn't a contradiction in terms. It's all good. Just got to keep on producing. That's the discipline.

And why not...

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

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Nonesuch Nonsense

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Nonesuch Nonsense ~

Nonesuch Nonsense, a photo by Paris Set Me Free on Flickr.

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Imagine you receive a letter. You open it. Inside is another envelope, stamped and addressed to someone who is unknown to you, of the opposite sex. There is no message inside, no return address, and you don't recognise the writing, but the second letter clearly contains something. And it's marked 'URGENT' and 'CONFIDENTIAL'. Would you send it on? Or open it. You could not open the letter without it being obvious you had done so.

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Another thing I can offer you is the chance to discover Spell and O Children by Nick Cave or the equally sublime Let England Shake, The Glorious Land and On Battleship Hill by P J Harvey. And if you're listening P.J... well, you know.

Don't say I didn't warn you. Don't say anything; words are such sorry soldiers... (all hail the minor chord)

And finally, back by popular demand, well, err, just me, like, y'know. Me and my dog, doing me and my doggish things. Found a bone. Fixed the printer. Scratched my balls, despatched my scrawls... Now there's a post for the anthology!

Consider it a snapshot I let slip out. I'm done with coherence - what's so great about coherence anyway. I think there should be more totally incoherent posts like this one, the world would be a less coherent but immeasurably happier place, I'm convinced of it.

By the way... did you open the letter? What was inside?

And why not...

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

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© 2013 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.