I haven't written for a while now, and that's mostly for two reasons: A lack of motivation, and a lack of material.
But now with a true highlight and an afternoon off, here we go:
The following is the story of a legendary face off between two self appointed members of the literary intelligentsia at the Sorbonne, both of whom are my classmates.
Currently, I am taking a great class on literary criticism with a quite nerdy but really nice guy who publishes science fiction utopian books in his free time. And it was in his class that this literary clash took place - one that was so dramatic it made the “Thrilla in Manila” look like Mexican backyard wrestling.
It all started with a harmless presentation. What made it great wasn't its subject ( Roland Barthes vs. Raymond Picard, for those of you who care about content...) but rather the presenter: a misunderstood literature genius with a weird unplaceable aura somewhere between Woody Allen and Jack the Ripper. He always has a kind of neurotic, restless look on his face, definitely knows his shit, but you can't help but think that it's only a matter of time before he brutally slaughters someone, or everyone. As he finished, his opponent - an English choirboy, erasmus student just like myself, with slight nervous tics - jumped in the ring.
Unlike myself, this student is a very religious man, which is evident by his consciously wearing a golden necklace and angel pendant and equally so as well by his unconsciously blessing himself with the sign of the cross every 3 minutes. His french is close to perfection and he definitely knows about literature, as he is hardly ever without a book.
All of this set the scene for a vivid argument over two very firm, well informed and conflicting opinions. Again the discussion itself wasn't the essential part. Maybe it was groundbreaking, but I have to admit they lost me about 4 minutes in. Either way, half an hour of these two characters taking perfectly worded swings at each other, left the professor in utter desperation, and that was just priceless. And as if that wasn't enough, both of them having quite large heads gave the whole situation the flair of an intellectual real life Beavis & Butthead episode making for an incredible experience.
Although I have to say the fact that I am the only guy in that class, apart from those two raises more questions than I ever needed answers to.
Greetings from the still uninformed but very amused critic
"The smoking dog"
Champs Elysées
Zidane vs. Materazzi
Why would you put something like that up in Paris?
That's what he thought too: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2228004/Marco-Materazzi-tweets-picture-Zinedine-Zidane-statue.html
Centre Pompidou
And finally a proper picture of the Eiffel tower
