ohh sweet carnival!!

As the script-writer’s strike is at its height, I am going to present you another specialty of Martinique: the carnival!!The carnival season begins few weeks after New Year eve. It begins slowly with parade every Sunday up to the “jours gras”.During this first period of carnival’s preparation, we elect the carnival queens. They are 3:  the mini-queen, a young girl, the queen, and the queen-mother. The criterion of selection is the originality of their costume. For example, there is a mini-queen. .

 In Martinique, carnival sets 4 day with very specific traditionsFirst, you need to know the origins of this event. It’s a tradition coming from slavery. It happens just before Lent and during this period people can be free and enjoy as they want. We can wear what we want. Most people are sexy and rude at the risking of shocking (or in order to…) . Slaves also took advantage of this period to criticize the colonist. We keep doing this: during carnival we use caricatures to sneer at what happened during the year. So Carnival really begins with its “jours gras” on Sunday:

 - “shrove Sunday”: It the first day that everyone can see the queens. They parade into the streets .Many people come to look at the parade, but the best thing to do is to participate. There are floats with music and walking groups. The walking groups are compounded of musicians with drums, “ti bois”, cha-cha, trombone and many other wind or percussion instruments. The musicians are followed by a crowd singing mockeries full of curse words.  Everyone is dressed up even the public, nevertheless there is no special costume.It’s also the first day of parade of VAVAL: the carnival king. It’s a huge statue, satirizing an important event of the year. 

-“shrove Monday”: It’s the burlesque weddings’ day! We organize “real” ceremonies with processions. But men wear the wedding gown!! And women are the husband. There is also a false mayor or priest. 

-“shrove Tuesday”: it’s the red Devils’ day.  They are scary. Everyone is dressed with red and black or dress up into red Devils.     -Ash Wednesday: in Europe it’s the beginning of the Lent, but in Martinique, the Lent begins the next Sunday after carnival to give people time to recover. But Ash Wednesday it’s the end of carnival. On this day, we burn Vaval. It’s a mourning day because it’s the end of revels and freedom. Everyone wears black and white clothes . We make the party during all the night, watching Vaval burning in the Fort-de-France’s bay. 

Of course, to enjoy at the maximum, we go to parties every night (and drink a lot of alcohol). 

 The carnival is the best event in the year according to me. We can say and do whatever we want. People are very closed and enjoy  together: drinking, singing, and dancing freely in the streets.

 www.dailymotion.com/related/95255/tag/carnaval/1.

Richard Rogers + Architects

There is a very interesting exhibition in the Centre Pompidou : “Richard Rogers + Architects”.

Richard Rogers is a famous british architect. He’s known for his theory about “dense city”. He claims that city shouldn’t be part in different district with different functions. The city should integrate in the same district offices, home, shops and administrations. He also invents environnemental, modular or transparent buildings.

In France, he’s known as the Beaubourg’s architect.

The “Richard Rogers + Architects” exhibition presents the work of Richard Rogers and his associates: from the first projects completed with Norman and Wendy Foster and Sue Rogers as part of the Team 4 practice in the 1960s to current projects with the firm of Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners. This retrospective is also an occasion to retrace the design of the Centre Pompidou in the 1970s.

The exhibition is organised around different thema, which are very important for him : legibility and transparancy, envionnement, urban project etc. You can see models and technical files about each projects. Some models are even animated. It’s a very interesting exhibition.

It take place til the 3rd March 2008.

Here’s examples of his projects :

Palais de justice, Belgique

 european courtof human rights, Strasbourg

Millenum Dome, London

Kings dock, Liverpool

If you want to know more, you can go to his website : http://www.richardrogers.co.uk

Nwel in Matinik

In consequence of the scriptwriters’ strike in the US and this Christmas time, I will talk about how this great period happen in Martinique. Indeed, it’s different from the French Christmas.

First, from the beginning of the Advent, we prepare Christmas with the “Chanté Nwel”. During this celebration, we meet in order to sing canticles, eat and drink Christmas’ specialties presented after. We sing French and Creole canticles punctuated with funny ritornellos to enjoy this moment. Of course, there are instruments like drums to set a good mood. 

The food: 

Christmas’ food is very typical of French West Indies. As you will see the pork is the main character of this meal. J

 Starter:

- “patés”: it’s a kind of bakery. In a pastry, we put a stuffing made with pork.

- Blood sausage with some bread

- Christmas’ ham: it’s a big pork’s leg part oven-baked con sugar

 

Main course

- Yam: a big tuber 

  - angole’s peas

 

 - Pork’s ragout

 

Dessert

- Yule log

- Blanc-mange coco and other creole desserts  

The drinking is very important in Martinique.

- The Shrub: We let Orange’s or Mandarin’s peels dip into rum during one year or more. Then we add some ingredients to make it a bit sweeter.

- The coco punch: made with rum and coconuts milk. 

Of course, we begin sampling this drinking before Christmas. 

In Martinique, we don’t have fir trees.

Our Christmas tree is the beefwood. We cut branches that we decorate.

Tribute to Maurice Béjart

This morning died a great man Maurice Béjart.

I’m not only interested in soap, I’m fond of dance and espacially classical dance. That’s why I want to write about him.

 Maurice Béjart, born in Marseille the 1st January 1927 was a dancer and a choreographer. He belonged to the dance company of “Opéra de Paris”. But he isn’t known for his qualities of dancer. He’s known as a famous choreographer. He founded in 1954 the “Ballet de l’étoile” company and in 1960 he founded the “Ballet du XXieme Siècle in Brussels.

His main choreographies are :

• “L’oiseau de feu”,
• “The Nutcraker”, an adaptation of the famous classical ballet and inspired of his own story,
• “Symphonie pour un homme seul”
• “Le sacre du printemps”
• “Le presbytère n’a rien perdu de son charme ni la splendeur de son éclat” on the music of the group Queen
• “Le Boléro”, one of his most famous choreography : a man is dancing topless in the center of a round red table and around women are dancing. The first who has danced it, is Jorge Donn a famous dancer. Here’s an extract danced by Jorge Donn himself.

During his career he received a lot of price.

 I don’t know what to write else. If you have any question don’t hesitate to ask.

Penguins are everywhere

Have you noticed that since a while there are penguins everywhere ? You can find them in movies, on TV, on the internet. There are also food.

I wonder when did this phenomena start ??

Penguins in movies 

I remember when I was a kid there was a cartoon with penguins called “Pingu”.

Now penguins are more sophisticated. They have their own movies like “La marche de l’empereur”, “Les rois de la glisse”. They escape from the NYC Zoo in Madagascar. They sing in “Hapy feet”. All these movies are not so terrific especially “Happy feet”. That’s why I put an extract here to illustrate how much this film isn’t good.

Penguins in food

I’m sure you know what I’m going talk about : Kinder Pingui. This is a cold cake with chocolate and frothing.

Penguins on the Internet

There are lot of website where you can play with penguins. For example there are the famous games of “Yeti sport”. You have for instance to throw penguins as far asa you can. You can play baseball with a penguins instead of a ball. Here is the link to play it : http://www.flash-mania.com/fr/php/theme/yeti/index.php

You can also play with the pingouins of Kinfer Pingui on this website : http://www.kinderpingui.de/ (I’m sorry this site is in german…)

Do you know also Tux? Tux is the mascot of Linux. The trend is to create new “Tux” like this one for example.

Here is the link to find them and create them : http://www.crystalxp.net/

Dexter

Can a serial killer bethe hero of a soap ?

Can a serial killer kill only serial killers ?

Can a serial killer be a cop ?

Can a serial killer have a normal life ?

These are questions asked in Dexter. Dexter is the name of the hero of the soap. He’s a serail killer and a cop in the same time.

For his job, he’s a”blood specialist”. He analyses blood which is on scenes of crime. He can tell how dead people die, when.

But he’s blood-addict. He needs to kill. To avoid killing common people, his dad taught him to kill bad people.

The plot of the first season is to find a serial killer who challenges Dexter. It was on Canal + last summer. The season two must be on canal + too.

Here is a trailer.

I like this soap because there is a lot of blood and the hero is not at 100% good.

House MD : AGAIN !

As last week, few of you knew House MD, I find a streaming video. It was make by a fan.There are scenes from different episodes. The first one comes from season 1. House M.D presents himself. I think it is a good portrait of him . All is said. We learn about his drug addiction, his leg pain.

At a time he talks with doctor Wilson about Stacy. She’s her ex wife. We can also see Cudy M.D. It’s a  brown-haired woman.

Enjoy it !

Don’t worry!! I’m not going to tell you the end of season 4. I’m not going to tell any end. It’s a bit less funny and interesting, but I’m just going to do a sum up of the episodes I’ve already seen and write the kind of morals Mary-Alice wants to transmit us. 

- Episode 1: Now you know 

A “new” family has moved into Mike’s house; Susan meets up with an old friend who had dashed off Wisteria Lane. Fairview’s citizens are surprised to hear about what really happened to Edie. Lynette is keeping her cancer a secret and trying to live her life as usual, but she keeps struggling against her chemo’s effects. Susan goes to see her doctor about her irregular periods and learns a big fresh. 

- Episode 2: smiles of a summer night

  

 “There is nothing more deceptive than a smile, and no one knows this better than people who hide behind them. Some flash their teeth as a polite warning to their enemies. Some put on beaming faces to keep their tears from falling. Others wear silly grins to mask their fears. But then, there is that real smile which is actually genuine. It’s the smile of the person who knows his troubles will soon be over.” 

In this episode, Susan forbids her daughter July to go to a party in order to show Mike that he really takes part of the family. In hideaway, Susan lets July go to the birthday party.Lynette brings into question Gaby’s friendship, because she refuses to keep company with her during her chemotherapy sessions.Edie threats Carlos of revealing the existence of his offshore bank account if his refuses to marry her.Bree has already some problems with Catherine (the mother of the new family) who seems to be as perfectionist as she’s. Bree discovers her new rival hides a big secret. 

- Episode 3: The game

 

“All children love games, but children grow up and then they find new games to play. They pretend to be well, so their family won’t worry. They lie to their lovers about where they go in the afternoon. They invent stories to hide the truth for their friends. Yes, everyone has fun playing games; “right up” until the moment… someone gets hurt.”

  Here, Bree acquaint her friends of what she heard in the Mayfair’s house. Susan organizes a charade party for her neighbors. The desperate housewives invite Catherine in order to get her drunk and discover her secret. This evening is full of rebounding, because Stella, Lynette’s mother, give herb to her daughter to help her with her chemo. Gaby is jealous because of Carlos. Her new husband, the mayor, learns about her former relationship with her underage gardener.    

Desperate housewives

I think you have already heard about DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES. It takes place in Wisteria lane, in the US. In this soap, we can discover one of the loveliest of suburbs where people live in perfect houses. But in this neighborhood which seems so quiet, everyone has a secret. They pretend to be friends, but this soap shows as far as you can go to preserve your family and your life…

There are currently 4 seasons. In the third:

 - Suzan (who’s said to be the principal actress), the irresponsible mother of July, a model teenager, at last get married to mike.

 

  - Lynette, mother of 4 disruptive children, discovers she has a brain tumor. She doesn’t want to tell it to people. But her pain colloquial mother learns about her chemo and sees a way of helping her once in her life. She takes residence at the Scavos’.

 

  - Bree… ex Mrs. VAN DER KEMP, and current Mrs. HODGE does what she has always done: save face and protect her family. She pretends to leave in honeymoon with Orson in order to hide her daughter’s pregnancy. When she comes back to Wisteria Lane, she professes to be pregnant and that Danielle has decided to study in Switzerland. 

 - Gabrielle: ex Mrs. SOLIS, and very new Mrs. Victor LANG. Victor is the mayor of Fairview, and intend to become Governor. This new candidacy doesn’t please Gabriel. Whereas he promised to forget this idea, Gabrielle creeps up on him talking with his father about using Gabrielle to get Latinos’ vote. Disappointed, she finds refuge in a room where Carlos, her ex husband, is drowning his sorrow in Champaign. They kiss. 

- Eddy BRIT: During Gabrielle’s weeding, Carlos, Eddy’s new “boyfriend”, discovers she hasn’t stopped taking her birth control pill. He is very disappointed and hungry, because he stays with Eddy only to have a child. He breaks up! So, she decides to commit suicide.

Soon, the sum up of episope 2 season 4

Guess what it is