Metro, Boulot, Dodo

Je suis epuisee! I got in late last night from a drink with Charlie, Chris' friend from Brooklyn. I met with Charlie late at night because my phone interview with MIA got pushed back to 9 pm, Paris time. Btw, I naively thought my recording equipment would work with the phone in Chris' apartment. I had a moment of near-panic and Nadia saved the day. I was given my interview time quite last-minute and when I went to check my gear, I had that terrible dawning realization that I'd left it until too late. My digital recorder and all its little accessories were not compatible with Chris' phone (if you hate reading electronic device manuals, try it in another language!). On top of that, I had no idea that August 15 is a national holiday. The French love closing their stores as much as we love 24/7. I called up Nadia and she taped a lav mic to her home phone et voila! Somehow, out of nowhere, I scored the best audio person in the city.

After a chat with MIA where her cell cut out three times (that's ok!) and some transcription, I met with Charlie and we had a few drinks. He's an artist's assistant, or at least, that's his day job. He makes his own art, too, and he showed it to me on his iPod. I'm glad I like it because otherwise, what do you say? How often does a stranger show you their life's work, the thing that is most important to them? Do you just say, "Oh! Cool." Anyway, toothpaste never looked so good.

Charlie told me a little about Jin, the artist he's assisting here in Paris and I hope they'll let me drop by the studio sometime. I'd love to see it in person and they're right by my school. Charlie also told me that he used to assist Jeff Koons - I don't even know much about art and I was super impressed.

After I got in last night, I Skyped with Isaac for a little while. He reminded me by email (he is very gentle about corrections!) that the French say, "Tu me manques" instead of "Je te manques" which immediately made me feel silly but slightly awed. Firstly, I feel dumb to have worded such a basic feeling incorrectly ("I miss you") but also, "Tu me manques"? That's pretty presumptuous! "You miss me!" I like it. You do miss me, right?