Christmas In Paris 2005

Christmas In Paris 2005

Saturday December 24, 2005

We saw a billboard for an exhibit at the Museé de Musique museum on the unfinished works of John Lennon.  As I type this, the Tribute concert to George Harrison is on the BBC next to me.  Its a day of dead Beatles.  In the photos, which we were forbidden from taking, I got a pic of the transcript of "Working Class Hero" for my buddy, Rich.  

This was obviously a Yoko Ono installation.  It had things from the old Indica Gallery show that she met John Lennon at.  That was the old John Dunbar gallery (Marianne Faithful's ex-husband).  There was the ladder to the ceiling with the magnifying glass to look at the word "yes" , which by the way was rumored to be how the band named Yes got their moniker.  It had the board that asked the patrons to pound in a nail.  Marsha did.  It had a large bed from the "bed-in" to lay on and watch parts of the film "Imagine" featuring the event.  They had the hardware from Abbey road studios, they had the Sgt. Pepper duds, they had great sound systems, they had old people walking around trying to remember what was so special about a group of four guys from Liverpool.  We were two of them.

It is Christmas Eve, and families of mums with teen daughters, parents with barely teen boys carrying skateboards, and some of us wonder where all the years have gone.  The music is still great, the ideas are universal.  At the end of it all, there is a tree with a table off to the side.  The table has tags with string on them.  You are invited to write a note and hang it on the tree.  "Have a safe walk home" was all I could come up with.

We finished up the display and decided to stop at a brasserie for a spot of wine at about 4:00pm.  My lovely wife, who could never finish a glass of alcohol when I met her, years back, now enjoys a splendid rosé.  When the waiter returned with 2 glasses of the stuff, and after half of it was consumed, her response was  "Even with the buzz from the medication, this wine tastes bad."

As the evening wore on, we watched "Grumpy Old Men", a BBC series that features many grumpy old men discussing various topics.  Tonight's was "Christmas".  One of their grumpy old men, the one that made me aware what the show was about, is Rick Wakeman.  All of these old codgers echoed my thoughts on mince pies, brussel sprouts, last minute shopping and over-zealous light displays that eat up the electricity.  Some things are universal.

Quote of the day from Marsha  "I'm not drunk, I just feel good."   We did Italian food that night, and talked a group of kids into coming in to the restaurant to eat.  It was an active corner of the quarter, and early mass had gotten out by the time that we staggered over past the church.