I found you (again)

I came across a French poem by Jacques Prévert (1900-1977) back in the 1990's (high school? college?) and was so moved by it that I remember writing it down in many of my notebooks. I even tried memorizing it, with feelings, haha! Well, I thought about it this month and decided to 'Google' it (french poem/cups/sugar/cries). Today, I HEART Google...

DEJEUNER DU MATIN (French) BREAKFAST (English)

Il a mis le cafe He put the coffee
Dans la tasse Into the cup
Il a mis le lait He put the milk
Dans la tasse de cafe Into the cup of coffee
Il a mis le sucre He put the sugar
Dans le cafe au lait Into the cafe au lait
Avec la petite cuiller With the little spoon
Il a tourne He stirred
Il a bu le cafe au lait He drank the coffee
Et il a repose la tasse And he replaced the cup
Sans me parler Without speaking to me

Il a allume He lit
Une cigarette A cigarette
Il a fait des ronds He made rings
Avec la fumee With the smoke
Il a mis les cendres He put the ashes
Dans le cendrier Into the ashtray
Sans me parler Without speaking to me
Sans me regarder Without looking at me

Il s'est leve He stood up
Il a mis He put
Son chapeau sur sa tete His hat upon his head
Il a mis He put
Son manteau de pluie His raincoat on
Parce qu'il pleuvait Because it was raining
Et il est parti And he left
Sous la pluie Under the rain
Sans une parole Without a word

Et moi j'ai pris And me, I placed
Ma tete dans ma main My head in my hand
Et j'ai pleure. And I cried.

Where's the Love? Pre-weekend drama

My sister and I stayed home yesterday morning to catch the live telecast of the American Idol Season 7 Finale. Call it a Poor EQ Moment, but the suspense from the previous night's show was killing us. Both finalists did so well that we couldn't tell who would win the fight and take home the title (Sorry, I just read so many allusions on this finale being a boxing match that I just had to get that out of my system, hehe) Suffice it to say, we were ecstatic to learn that 'our' David prevailed c/o 12 million votes more :D Waiting with bated breath now for his post-Idol album.

During my free time that followed, I surfed the net for articles and images on the AI Finale. Aside from my bookmarked favorites, I googled a bit to see what else was out there on the subject. People were talking about how this was a better finale than the previous Season (Almost the equivalent of watching Sophia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette"). IMHO, I really enjoyed the Season 5 finale (Taylor Hicks: "I'm living the American dream, people!", Me at home: Sniffles of joy) It came to my attention though that maybe out of 10 online articles only two mentioned that a (little known) Canadian artist named Bryan Adams performed with the Top Six guys :( No photos either...this one is from http://debasish.wordpress.com (The travails of Access Denied surfing).

Nostalgia aside, Bryan Adams' music is great (driving music) and his skin seems to have improved since the 1990's (although this could be attributed to technical matters such as camera angle, lighting, etc.). So I'm a little bummed out that his AI performance was mentioned on a music fan site, but clearly missing from an established entertainment site (Clue: EW) which dedicated four pages to the finale—with paragraphs on Donna Summer and George Michael plus a parting question on the Jonas Brothers (Jonas who? Just kidding!)—as well as a photo album on the event (It seemed that every guest performer had a picture except for Mr. Adams).

Sigh.

Anyway, I must agree with shellybean of www.curlio.com who says, "Okay I will be honest, once Bryan Adams took the stage this became the best finale in AI history. Bryan Adams could 'sing the phonebook' as far as I am concerned. That man is AWESOME! (enough school girl)"

To end (useless information that may one day save your life), www.wikipedia.org states, "

Adams released his new album 11 internationally on March 17, 2008. The album will also be released in the U.S....on May 13, 2008. The first song released from the album is called "I Thought I'd Seen Everything". Adams also is planning a 11 days in 11 cities tour to promote this album...Many critics consider 11 his best and most successful album since the groundbreaking Waking Up the Neighbours, released in 1991.

On May 21, 2008 Adams sang on American Idol during the season finale, joining the top six males in a medley of his songs. His appearance coincided with the US release of his latest album."

Happy weekend, keep smiling and God bless!

Kewl ;)

From the 2008 Time 100 Most Influential People Issue (12 May 2008), yahooey!

Summer activities

As the month of May crosses its mid-point, I find myself contemplating on the Summer 2008 my family and I gave my niece. We tried to fill it with fun-filled activities such as swimming lessons, baking sessions, DVD viewing, car rides, visits to the vet with Maximus the Destroyer, family breakfasts/lunches/dinners, sleepovers and much more. I'd like to think that we did okay, but I'm determined to make Summer 2009 more enjoyable and educational for her.

Here are some photos she took with my mobile phone over the Summer ;)

I liked the last the last five lines of this Neil Gaiman poem ;)

The Day the Saucers Came

That day, the saucers landed. Hundreds of them, golden,

Silent, coming down from the sky like great snowflakes,

And the people of Earth stood and stared as they descended,

Waiting, dry-mouthed to find what waited inside for us

And none of us knowing if we would be here tomorrow

But you didn't notice it because

That day, the day the saucers came, by some coincidence,

Was the day that the graves gave up their dead

And the zombies pushed up through soft earth

or erupted, shambling and dull-eyed, unstoppable,

Came towards us, the living, and we screamed and ran,

But you did not notice this because

On the saucer day, which was the zombie day, it was

Ragnarok also, and the television screens showed us

A ship built of dead-man's nails, a serpent, a wolf,

All bigger than the mind could hold, and the cameraman could

Not get far enough away, and then the Gods came out

But you did not see them coming because

On the saucer-zombie-battling gods day the floodgates broke

And each of us was engulfed by genies and sprites

Offering us wishes and wonders and eternities

And charm and cleverness and true brave hearts and pots of gold

While giants feefofummed across the land, and killer bees,

But you had no idea of any of this because

That day, the saucer day the zombie day

The Ragnarok and fairies day, the day the great winds came

And snows, and the cities turned to crystal, the day

All plants died, plastics dissolved, the day the

Computers turned, the screens telling us we would obey, the day

Angels, drunk and muddled, stumbled from the bars,

And all the bells of London were sounded, the day

Animals spoke to us in Assyrian, the Yeti day,

The fluttering capes and arrival of the Time Machine day,

You didn't notice any of this because

you were sitting in your room, not doing anything

not even reading, not really, just

looking at your telephone,

wondering if I was going to call.