Photography in Paris: Eugène Atget … then and now.
From the New York Times
Photographer Ed Alcock discusses how he went about taking contemporary images of Paris by following the examples of Eugène Atget.
Here’s the video from the NYT:
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How odd … 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 … odd numbers, aren’t they?
This is a remarkable word … odd … How odd!
We often use it in the same way as the French use the word “bizarre” … How strange! How unusual! How funny! How peculiar! How unexpected … How odd it is!
What an odd thing to say …
And here’s another … obviously everyday way of using it …
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Newsletter: 15 October 2010
How’s your memory doing these days?
What a question! And an easy question it is. “Forgetting is a temporary loss of consciousness.” But what are the sorts of things we forget?
One of the most obvious is the answer to the question … Where?
Where did I put my … keys? glasses? watch? wallet?
The generally accepted solution to this problem is retracing your steps. Where did you have it last? Where did you see it last? Follow your footsteps backward.
How can we improve our memories?
By using them! That sounds so obvious, doesn’t it? Here’s an exercise you can try at any given point in the day. I use it as a technique in language learning and in speech training but its use is effective in our native languages as well: Stop whatever you’re doing and think about where you are, what you’re doing, who you’re with. Now think back to what you were doing just before the “now”… and before that .. and before that … until you get to some point such as waking up in the morning.
Remembering has to do with the past.
Being conscious of the past … is a real memory trainer.
Try reviewing your day before you fall asleep! Backwards. You’ll be amazed at how extraordinarily rich it was. If there was a particular moment you want to recall, think of the environment, the colors, the scents, the details and the overall picture. We perceive SO much!! Unconsciously. Bringing it up front, so to speak, shows us how much we really did observe.
The incredible side effect of this exercise is that, by reviewing events, we put words and images together. And we improve our vocabularies by activating passive, latent knowledge.
There’s another wonderful advantage to being conscious of everything that’s happened: Not only can we learn from … our mistakes, the human mind is perfectly capable of … a selective memory. We can choose to forget! What in computer lingo is called “deleting” … or what used to be called “erasing.”
Have a wonderful weekend … and may it be a happily memorable one!
Maybe with … A glass of wine …
And thanks for reading The Paris Savannah Connection.
Mark
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Howards End
Something you may enjoy!
A. O. Scott reviews James Ivory and Ismail Merchant’s adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel starring Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins.
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What the British say on Sunday mornings …
Thank you, Gisela!
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October 9, 1779 – The French, supporting American Independance, attempt to defeat the British in Savannah.
Chase Anderson and Christine Tudor kindly contributed this article. A bit of Franco-American history!
Savannah, Georgia —
Before dawn. October 9th, 1779 — Thousands of French, American and Haitian troops assemble under cover of darkness for what is to be a surprise attack on British forces who had captured Savannah one year earlier. Little do the Allies know – spies have already warned the British. Before dawn the eerie wail of bagpipes drift toward the Allies through the fog. The British had brought in their fiercest troops — the 71st Highlanders.
At the first light of dawn — Admiral Comte d’Estaing, against the advice of his top officers, launches the assault. The drummers beat the command to charge bayonets. They emerge from the fog. The French vanguard surges forward toward Spring Hill redoubt. The British spray them with musket fire and grapeshot–pieces of scrap iron, nails, bolts, steel blades, and chain. One French officer writes — “we were shoved back into the swampy ground on our left — Half of us were killed or left stuck in the mud.The Allied troops, helpless and exposed to deadly musket and artillery cross-fire, are butchered in the ditch. The moment of retreat, another officer writes later, “with the cries of our dying comrades piercing my heart is the bitterest of my life.”
The two sides observe a four-hour truce to collect and bury the dead and to retrieve the wounded. 151 French are killed and 370 wounded, 231 Americans killed and wounded. The British lose only 18 killed and 39 wounded. For the Allies, Savannah is the bloodiest battle of the war, a Bunker Hill in reverse. d’Estaing prepares the retreat, marches his troops back to the French ships, leaving many unmarked French graves behind, loads his guns and equipment aboard, and sets sail for the West Indies and France.
The Battle for Savannah was considered to be a major defeat for the Franco-American Alliance but the French sacrifice in blood for American liberty will never be forgotten by Americans who still breathe the air of freedom and remember those French who purchased it in blood and money. This Saturday, a public march honoring the Franco-American troops at Spring Hill will commence at dawn near Spring Hill in Savannah — an annual event hosted by Savannah’s Coastal Heritage Society. (http://www.chsgeorgia.org/home.cfm/page/Calendar/Date/10.09.10/Event/324.html)
A Savannah-French walking tour, honoring the historic French presence in and influence upon Savannah is in the final planning stages. The tour will be led by Parisian born, Christine Tudor. Christine also conducts Savannah history tours in French for visitors seeking a tour in their native language.
Contact: Chase Anderson
Savannah Cultural Heritage Tours
savannahpathways@gmail.com
(1-912-508-1234)
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mots amis ou … faux amis …
(à traduire en français … un volontaire? )
When I first began teaching English in France, I heard an expression I had never encounterd before: False Friends. What in the world could that mean? Only a Frenchman would know … that he meant look-alikes or even worse, imposters or traitors!
There are quite a few words which, in French and in English, have the same or similar spellings, maybe the same roots but which are not used in the same ways in the two languages. As with wild mushrooms … some look-alikes … are dangerous.
If you hear a Frenchman say “actually” in English … you can be suspicious. The word slips into a sentence easily and isn’t illogical in most cases. If the Frenchman knows that the word means “in fact” and he uses it that way … that’s fine. BUT if he thinks that “actually” is the faithful translation of the French word “actuellement” … we’re mistaken and into … look-alikes: A fair translation of the idea of “actuellement” would be “now, at the present time.”
We are thus facing not just two words but two different concepts.
The French word, actuel, expresses a concept in TIME; the English word actual expresses the concept of fact, of ACCURACY.
Misunderstandings are born of … assumptions. Beware of look-alikes!
Fortunately … “false” friends aren’t the only kind … There are thousands of real ones, those you can count on, including the TV series …
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susceptible
Et en français … que signifie le mot “susceptible” ? Comment est-il utilisé?
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