Back from Paris

Ola la, here is my glorious return from the French capital. There I was - Boris (the "s" is silent) in Paris(another silent "s") for a kick-ass 4 days vacation in the city of love, lights, luxury, fashion, style,great-looking women, snobs, bitchy people, garlic, Champs-Élysées, Eiffel tower, Arc de Triomphe, Sacré-Cœur, Louvre, Moulin Rouge, Montmartre and....Paris Hilton(dear Lord, NO!!!)First of all - I'd like to thank all my friends who made my stay in Paris such a wonderful experience ...so thank you Christophe, Vyara, Ergen, Florent, Anna, Bjòrn, Ylva, Alex and of course you Mr Sarkozy (real pleasure talking to you and Carla) :)

So, let's start... How can someone describe Paris. For starters: IT'S BIG!!! Huge avenues, parks, buildings, which shelter the small romantic streets of the Latin Quarter and Montmartre. Paris is a city full of everything - culture, business, romantics, fashion, history. monuments....so much that it's scary. Someone once said "If you are tired of Paris, you are tired of life". I was tired all right, after 3 days of walking my feet hurt like hell but hey, I am still quite fond of living. Apart from playing the stupid tourist, running around taking pictures and then eventually reflecting upon what I saw, I spent a good deal of time meeting people and visiting places - some clubs, restaurants and night locales. So yes, I got a small glimpse of what Paris life is like and how Parisians live (or whatever they do)Of course I wouldn't be Boris if I don't bitch about it so there are some things that stuck me as unpleasant:
- Paris is not cheap, actually it's quite costy, prices are not low...I mean IT'S EXPENSIVE. Starting from transport, supermarkets, restaurants and the sky-rocketing housing rents. Not a really good place to be if you are poor.
- Apart from some nice elderly ladies that God sent to me to give me directions, I found most of Parisians a bit rude. They push each other in the metro, tend not to say "hello" (or bonjour in their case) and I spotted several people pissing in public places...and I thought that a specialty for Brussels (duh!). Anyway, that excludes my friends I met, just some random observation looking at the people on the streets.- It's quite claustrophobic and full of people - maybe I got too much used to quiet and stlylish Torino but crowds can be quite stressful. Honestly I don't have the impression it's an easy to live in city. And most night clubs don't have air-conditioning. HELLO, ANYONE, heard about the 21st century?
As usual pictures available HERE. There are few photos from me cause I believe if someone takes a picture of you, he is stealing your soul...right...I was mostly alone on my sightseeing.

The profound effect of classical music on cats

One cat is doing Wagner, guess which one? :)

Pics from Madrid

Apologies for the delay- finally my pictures from Madrid.

Movie time

Besides going climbing (initially thought as walking) in the Alps, I had a a long weekend where I enjoyed the sinful pleasures of staying home and being lazy. Sue me, I am an information worker, I need my time off. Not to make it sound so bad I cleaned and watched some movies that made an impression.
The 1st one is a an old black and white Italian classics called "Il Sorpasso"("The Easy Life") starring the famous Italian actor Vittorio Gassman . The plot of the movies centres around the two main characters - the assertive, talkative and adventurous Bruno(Gassman) and the shy and insecure law student Roberto(Jean-Louis Trintignant). In a rather comic and suspicious way they meet and they start a journey with a Lancia Aurelia convertible (a funky thing at the time) throughout Italy inspired by the pushy Bruno. If you check the film in Wikipedia it says "It is poignant portrait of Italy in the early 60s when the economic miracle" was starting to transform the country from a traditionally family-centered society into an individualistic, consumeristic and shallower one". What it struck me with was the fact that Italy in 1962 is not so different from the one I know 46 years later. With risks of insulting my Italian friends, there is a contradiction that lives in the Italian spirit - the desire to be famous, interesting, successful in the eyes of others and at the same time the inability to overcome your background, the problems you have created in life and deep-rooted prejudices. I warmly recommend this movie to all Bulgarians as well because this is something that happened to us in the last years...

The other two movies I saw are in the "sick, pervert and kinky" section and you if are pregnant, conservative or a lost soul that came across my blog, you can stop reading NOW...
"Savage grace" is a film about a spoiled, rich American family that tries to hide its problems by travelling in fancy vacation places in Europe. The Mom (Julianne Moore), the son and the dad indulge themselves in all kinds of sexual practices including bisexuality, incest, adultery and partner swaps. Besides being strikingly aesthetic, the movie is actually sad and depressing making you think about the importance and priorities of life - that often behind glamour, success and beauty there is loneliness, cruelty and alienation. And actually the sickest of the sick is the film called "The Piano Teacher" . The mid-age piano professor Erika spends her life between her students that she secretly detests and her obsessive and dominant mother with whom she sill lives with. She is unable to express emotions and demonstrates her formidable intelligence through the music of Schubert and Schumann. But behind her cold mask there is a deeply sexually disturbed and confused woman that has an obs session with being beaten and humiliated. The movie reaches some high extremes when her student Walter falls in love with her and tries to win her love. At first Erika intimidates him with her sick fantasies but then she falls in the web that she has created becoming both a physical and an emotional victim. A rarely disturbing film that aims to show you that being too smart, often means you are the one with the biggest delusions.

P.S. I am getting my movie critics degree soon so vote for me :)

The Piano

My unhealthy musical obsession goes on and this Friday I was able to fulfill another musical dream of mine and see the noted Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires. She performed the wonderful 9th Mozart piano concert (FYI, Mozart is a kinky classical composer with a frantic laughter). As things go my stay in Torino proves to be a successful musical investment as the city is full of culture and events.

Meanwhile I managed to see an old film that I remember vaguely from my childhood - The Piano. It talks of a mute woman pianist who arrives with her little daughter to New Zealand to get married for a local landowner. She is unable to say a word and expresses herself only through sign language and....her piano. She undergoes hardship and humiliation to keep the instrument close to her - starring is Holly Hunter who manages to portray excellently the pain and determination of her heroine. I find the movie quite enchanting because it shows us how people different from us have a deep and often misunderstood sensuality. The movie is set in a 19th century conservative society but if I look closely at my own country of Bulgaria, maybe not so much has changed in terms of tolerance and acceptance.

Madrid

It's difficult to describe a journey - here I am back from Madrid and the only word I can think of is "WOW". I spent 3 awesome days in the Spanish capital(I am talking about Madrid now, don't embarrass yourself). Bearing in mind I was on a business trip and I couldn't just leave the conference to go sightseeing, I didn't see a great part of the city and the few pictures I took were on the run. That BTW is not necessarily a bad thing as with time I realized I have developed the Japanese syndrome which means making 500 photos abroad and actually seeing where you have been when you get back home and see the photos.
Madrid is a beautiful city - big, classical, metropolitan and full of day and nightlife. People tend to wake up later in the day, go have fun outside and go to sleep (if they ever go to sleep) in the small hours. I can't really say which is better - Madrid or Barcelona but Spain is an incredible country. People are really outgoing, open and crazy (and that coming from a guy who lives in Italy...) and they don't miss any opportunity to have one.
A special section of this post I dedicate to my hotel Puerta America which a 5 star, 13 floor architectural miracle and any floor is different and unique. I was on the 4-th PLASMA floor which seemed a way too alien to me. I spent 2 hours sightseeing the hotel and made some awesome pictures.

The return of the jester

Trying set myself apart from the "I bring disasters" attitude, I can't help but comment the latest news from Italy. The return to power of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's richest man and media-empire mogul. For anyone not interested in Italian politics, Berlusconi has won a stable majority in the Italian parliament and is going to become a prime-minister for the 3rd time. He has also been the only prime-minister after WW2 that managed to complete his full mandate (that I will not comment as it is beyond my power of comprehension). He is noted for his controversial humour, big smile, plastic surgery, media monopoly and disastrous economic policies...a hell of a character, eh? Being non-Italian(so they say) and non-socialist you might find it rather surprising my harsh-toned criticism for him. Point is, I am not here to judge and pronounce sentences upon Italy's internal affairs ...just express my personal view.

I find it hard to believe how second-rate PR techniques, media brain-washing and ridiculous statements can convince the people of one the biggest economies in the world, a country with centuries of culture and history to vote for a man who turns politics into a TV show. What I find truly absurd is that they did that for the 3rd time after he brought nothing to Italy except international humiliation, a struggling economy and evaded reforms.

Unfortunately this is becoming a precedent in other parts of Europe as well. Poland had the Kaczynski brothers, France is ruled by the "I love Carla and promise you the stars" Sarkozy and the all mighty Boyko Borisov will probably rule in Bulgaria soon. All brilliant examples of that if people are disappointed, they tend to vote with their feet. Some time from now Italians might wake up with a terrible hangover...

P.S.
-Some of Berlusconi's most notable sayings:
I have little hair because my brain is so big it pushes (the hair) out.
-I am sorry for having said communists eat babies. But I can organise a conference in which I will prove communists have really eaten babies.
-(after the Twin Towers attack): WE should be conscious of the superiority of our civilisation, which has given people widespread prosperity in those countries ...
-He said to a German European deputy that he should take a film role as a Nazi concentration camp leader.
-Berlusconi advised a young woman, who complained that she could not find a job, to get married, since she was cute, “maybe to one of my sons, they are all rich”