French Gameshows vs American Gameshows

Okay, let's just get something straight here. I thought American Gameshows were pathetic...but French games shows?! You have got to be kiddi me! I feel the levels of my intellectuality draining by the second. The humor is so low that it makes a three year old child laugh. Not to mention the people that are chosen for these poor remake American Gameshows are the least cultured people in all of France. They use all of their lifelines within the first 4 questions and they still get the answers wrong. I have a theory...the French choose these dummies to be on their show because they know they will get the answers wrong and leave not winning any money, that way they never have to write a check! Can I get a second opinion on this scientific theory? Well, I'm changing the channel to France 5 (the bilingual channel: French/German) so I can gain back my cultured mind since I lost about half of it watching these idiotic Gameshows...Five minutes of watching these redonculous shows was five minutes too long. Oh yeah, did I mention that these shows are paid for by the STATE (government-- tax dollars)?! Oh mon dieu!

One Month Left: Once a Boy, Now a Global Citizen

I cannot believe I leave Paris in one month. Where has the time gone? The amount of entertainment and site seeing that I have done these past few months are astronomical. Within my first month I said I had enough memories to last me a lifetime. Well, now it being my 3 month anniversary living here, I have about 3 lifetimes worth of memories and stories. Three months ago I made a list of places I wanted to visit, about half of that list is crossed off. I figured that I have enough places to visit on my list to go to one place each day until December 16th (my last day in Paris). Reading all of my posts, emails, and Facebook status' are one way to experience what I have been doing, but nothing beats all of the pictures I have taken and hearing the stories directly from my mouth. The level of maturity I have endured is astronomical. I now understand the meaning of life and my purpose. My hopes and dreams are within reach, and within the next month my adult life begins as I close the chapter of my adolecense young adult life. I am now, a global citizen.

Comédie-Française: Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard

As we all arrived to the Comédie-Française dressed in our best: tux, top coats and hats, diamonds, pearls, and furs on a brisk autumn evening, we felt the history of the Theatre as we walked through the antique doors and welcomed by the marble stairwell with the wedding cake-like moldings covered in gold leaf as we took our seat center stage in the orchestra. (costs a fortune, but worth every penny). The Comédie-Française or Théâtre-Français is one of the few state theaters in France. It is the only state theater to have its own troupe of actors. It is located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The theatre has also been known as the Théâtre-Nautique, the théâtre de la République and La maison de Molière. It inherited the latter name (English: House of Molière) along with the dramatic venue of the best-known playwright associated with the Comédie-Française, Molière. He was considered the patron of French actors. He died seven years before “La maison de Molière” was rechristened the “Comédie-Française,” and it continued to be known popularly by the former name even after the official change of name. The Comédie-Française was founded by a decree of Louis XIV on 24 August 1680 to merge the only two Parisian acting troupes of the time, the troupe of the hôtel Guénégaud and that of the hôtel de Bourgogne. On the death of Molière, the troupe of the hôtel Guénégaud had formed by a merger of the Théâtre du Marais and the Troupe de Molière. In 1680, the repertoire consisted of the collection of theatrical works by Molière and Jean Racine, along with a few works by Pierre Corneille, Paul Scarron and Jean Rotrou. Two years after the amalgamation of the dramatic companies, they received a royal grant of 12,000 livres per year; and seven years later they took as their name their present designation of “players of the Comédie Française.” Its first building was housed at the Hôtel de Guénégaud. The Hôtel de Guénégaud Theatre was Molière's dramatic institution, and had originally been an old theatre where miracle plays had been presented as early as 1543. Thus the Comédie-Française may be said to have an unbroken tradition reaching back to the days of Molière, and to have had theatre connections for more than a century previous to the death of the great dramatist in 1673. On the performance of Joseph Chénier's anti-monarchical play Charles IX in 1789, violent political discussions arose among the performers, and ultimately they split into two sections: the Republican party, under the young tragedian Talma, establishing a new theatre under the name “Théâtre de la République,” on the site of the present building in the Rue de Richelieu; while the Royalist section took the title “Théâtre de la Nation.” On 3 September 1793, during the French Revolution, the Théâtre de la Nation was closed by order of the Committee of Public Safety for putting on the allegedly seditious play Pamela, and the actors were imprisoned though gradually released later. On 31 May 1799, the new government made the salle Richelieu available and allowed the actors to reconstitute the troupe. The Comédie-Française today has a repertoire of 3,000 works and three theaters in Paris (salle Richelieu, next to the Palais Royal; théâtre du Vieux-Colombier; Studio-Théâtre). Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (February 4, 1688 – February 12, 1763), commonly referred to as Marivaux, was a French novelist and dramatist. He is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century, writing numerous comedies for the Comédie-Française and the Comédie-Italienne of Paris. His most important works are Le Triomphe de l'amour, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard and Les Fausses Confidences. He also published a number of essays and two important but unfinished novels, La Vie de Marianne and Le Paysan parvenu. The Game of Love and Chance (French: Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard) is a three-act romantic comedy by French playwright Marivaux. The Game of Love and Chance was first performed 23 January 1730 by the Comédie Italienne. In this play, a young woman is visited by her betrothed, whom she does not know. To get a better idea of the type of person he is, she trades places with her servant and disguises herself. However, unbeknownst to her, her fiancé has the same idea and trades places with his valet. The "game" pits the two false servants against the two false masters, and in the end, the couples fall in love with their appropriate counterpart.

Centre Pompidou on 11 cubed

On 11-11-11 at 11:11:11 (coincidence, huh? And yes, I made my wish) I purchased my ticket to enter the eye catching Centre Pompidou. The famously known postmodern architecture "eye sore" which was built in the center of Paris in the 1970's. Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano and Gianfranco Franchini are responsible for this functional design which enabled them to create huge uncluttered space inside by moving all the service sections outside of the building –elevators, stairs, water and air ducts, escalators are all outside. The concept of the building was to be inside out, and upside down. The architect’s goal was to show the public how a building functions and color-coded the different areas – the air pipes are blue, the water pipes are green, the escalators are red, the electricity is yellow. It houses a museum, restaurant, cafe, movie theater, book store, boutique, and a library. Of course the special exhibitions don't allow any cameras, so unfortunately the only images I have of these exhibitions are the memories I burnt into my little brain. The five exhibitions that e museum was hosting was Cyprien Gaillard (21 septembre 2011 - 9 janvier 2012) Edvard Munch (21 septembre 2011 - 9 janvier 2012) Le Blobterre de matali (1er octobre 2011 - 5 mars 2012) Green attitude (8 octobre 2011 - 8 janvier 2012) Yayoi Kusama (10 octobre 2011 - 9 janvier 2012). The Edvard Munch exhibition was spectacular of course. Although having to wait an hour for them to open the exhibit, and then another almost 2 hours to get into the room (only a few people were aloud in the room at a time), that by the time I got in there I got to the point I couldn't even appreciate the artwork because of the high security hovering over our backs making us so uncomfortable that we leave so they can let the next group of people in. Fr those who are not familiar with painters, Edvard Munch was the painter who painted the famous painting called, "The Scream." after that I featured down to the Yayoi Kusama exhibition. By far the most interesting. To save you all you non-artsy folks out there, Yayoi Kusama experiments with a wide arrange of mediums from oil on canvas to a more contemporary medium where the viewer not only can see the artwork, but they get to experiment the work by walking directly through it as she uses water, lights, mirrors, and of course, what she is most famous for: her polka dot obsession. Yayoi is still alive today, locked up in a looney bin where she still creates her tedious masker prices. The Museum has an impressive collection of over 59,000 modern art works from the Cubism, Fauvism, Surrealism, Dadaism schools, featuring artists like Derain, Braque, Matisse, Picasso, Chagall, Kandinsky, Miró and covering a period from 1905 to date.