Seeing the Beat Generation enshrined in a museum like the Centre Pompidou can give pause to one old enough to have started reading books by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs and such fellow travelers as Lawrence Ferlinghetti … Read More
In these days of YouTube kittens and DreamWorks penguins, contemporary representations of animals often skew cute or decorative. The eye-catching poster seen all over Paris hyping the Fondation Cartier’s new exhibition, “The Great Animal Orchestra,” seemed to be a case in … Read More
A highlight of my recent trip to Paris was tagging along with Heidi as she reviewed restaurants for Paris Update. Doing so involved adapting to the unscientific Laws of Culinary Fluctuation.
When the bistro Bonvivant opened in 2015, it got great reviews. It took me a while to get there, and, when I finally did, I wondered if it is standing up to the reputation of its early days
Three young food-loving entrepreneurs recently opened a new kind of restaurant in Paris as a springboard for talented new chefs. Its name, Fulgurances, is a reference to lightning: they hope to strike their customers with a lightning bolt of joy every time they encounter a new chef.
François Ruffin is being called the French Michael Moore, and for good reason. The beginning of his documentary, Merci Patron! (Thanks, Boss!), is a pure ripoff of Moore’s Roger & Me, with Ruffin going to the headquarters of the LVMH … Read More
My friend Connie felt like she was being ambushed by offal when she glanced at the menu at L’Embuscade, a new restaurant that has replaced a neighborhood institution, the anarchist restaurant Le Maldoror, of which no traces remain – nary a political tract hangs on walls that were once papered with them.
A recent article in The Guardian called the Canopée, the new roof over the Forum des Halles in the center of Paris, a “custard-colored flop.” I’d be more inclined to call it a regurgitated-custard-colored flop; custard doesn’t deserve such treatment.
Paul Verhoeven’s Elle is a scary film, not so much because of the sickening violence and twisted sexuality – hey, we’re used to that – or because of its use of horror-film tropes – “Don’t do that,” you scream silently … Read More
There was nothing really wrong with the restaurant Playtime, which used to occupy the space that is now home to Mamagoto, not far from the Gare de l’Est. The food was very good and the decor attractive.
