Paris 1976

Bio, Photographs

With the grain master.

This journal seems to have hit a bit of a film streak recently, so here’s more of the same.

In the 1970s, the height of the 35mm film era, Ansco made a film named GAF500 which was a color slide film rated at a nominal 500 ASA. Given that most slide snappers were using Kodachrome II (25 ASA) or Kodachrome X (64 ASA) at the time, this was quite a statement.

The film’s fame owes much to the work of French photographer Sarah Moon who jumped on its creative possibilities which perfectly matched her impressionist – nay, pointillist – photography style. Pointillisme was originated by that most special of French painters George Seurat in the 1880s. Dots of color replaced continuous tones and the results were electric. Maybe his finest work is ‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’ from 1884 and you have zero excuses for not seeing it for it resides in all its magnificence in The Art Institute of Chicago.


La Grande Jatte in Chicago. The canvas is huge at 7′ x 10′.

At this time in my life I had already long decided to abandon dreary, failed England, where I had grown up and graduated in 1973 from University College, London, and had my eyes firmly set on the New World and America, a reality that came to closure in late 1977. But having been an ardent Francophile for the past 15 of my 26 years on earth, a visit to Paris was first called for. I had already devoured Proust’s magnum opus ‘Remembrance of Things Past’ not once but twice, had enjoyed a passionate affair with Impressionist painting, based on my readings of John Rewald’s magnificent books, and had maybe two hundred of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s images committed to memory.

What causes this flashback is not any great love of tea or madeleines (I dislike the first and rarely eat the second) but rather my son’s trip tomorrow to Paris with his school as part of his French studies. He will stay ’embedded’ with a French family – no English allowed! – for two weeks, half in Strasbourg, Alsace on the German border, the other half in Paris. Strasbourg with its overweening Germanic culture leaves me cold, but Paris ….

Returning to the Divine Sarah, I packed one roll of GAF500 on my trip in 1976, much inspired by her work. The rest was all TriX which is about all I used back then. Why mess with perfection? The greatest monochrome emulsion ever made. I doubt I had taken more than a handful of color snaps in my life a that point, but I did find GAF500 in my Leica on the obligatory trip up the Eiffel Tower and one of the snaps made there came out rather nicely, the essence of all that is French, looking into the fine restaurant atop the Tower.


Atop the Eiffel Tower. Leica M3, 35mm Summaron, GAF500.

So the next three weeks I will be living vicariously through my boy, Winston, whose namesake WSC was once asked how he managed to tolerate DeGaulle’s endless grandstanding in London during WW2. “He is my cross of Lorraine to bear”, WSC replied. Expounding on his theme, he added that a world without French culture, cuisine, couture and women would be a far worse place. Churchill wisely chose the south of France for his retirement, abandoning drafty, cold, rainy Chartwell to the tourist hordes. Here’s more of the same:

That week I spent in Paris was magical and I do not recall taking one bad image. This trio from the Tuileries Gardens about sums it up:


Tuileries Triptych. Leica M3, 35mm Summaron, TriX.

May Winston have as good a time.

Vive La France!

6am run

Photographs

The best time of the day.

The merits of a 6am run on the old Airhead are many.

The croissants at the local parlor are warm and fresh, the roads are empty and the high desert air is cool and dense, much to the delight of the air cooled boxer motor and that of its rider.


Croissants, anyone?

The 900cc motor purrs harmoniously at 4000rpm – 65mph in 5th – and after 28 years of riding her I can make the shift from first to second in silence. 50% of the time. The other 50% is met by the most fearful crunch as you check the mirrors to see if maybe some of your ‘box has departed the machine for the highway. Getrag of Untergruppenbach (but of course) made this gearbox and to this day Getrag transmission innards grace everything from Ferraris to BMW Minis. The first-to-second crunch, rumor has it, is nowadays notable for its absence – the last Airhead was made in 1995, mine is a 1975 – but I count The Crunch as just one more of the secret delights of ownership. Especially when you accomplish that rare silent shift.

Gearbox longevity seems unaffected by the crunching and, absent a new clutch at 50,000 miles, the ‘box has proved to be perfectly reliable, having its own oil reservoir, as does the shaft drive to the bevel gear at the rear wheel. This is proper engineering design for it affords the opportunity of using dense oil/grease for the gearbox (80W/90) compared with the much lighter concoction (15W/50) indicated for the motor. Air cooled engines disdain modern 0W/20 witches’ brews. And the inevitable attention the old bike generates when you pull up anywhere is from a welcome collection of aficionados, not from the Harley set. Come to think of it, maybe that really is the best part of Airhead ownership?

iPhone6 snap.

Mise en place

Dining, Photographs

Everything in its place.

German, the language of killing, would have that expression as alles in ordnung. The French mise en place adds charm and subtracts brutality with none of the functional coldness of the English ‘everything in its place’. The beauty of French is at one with the quality of their cuisine.

Mise en place is quite my favorite part of cooking a meal as it forces order without discipline, generating anticipation without apprehension.

Here’s the setup for mussels and clams with garlic and fettuccine – as simple as it gets; the red peppers add a touch of zest in the broth:

The charming end grain checkered cutting board at left comes from Vermont, the last repository of American craftsmanship.

The shaved Parmesan is absent here, as is the white wine in which the shellfish are cooked. A Benriner mandoline is the best way to shave hard cheese into paper thin slices – but watch your fingers! Japanese make fabulous cameras …. and cooking tools. As for the white wine, this is strictly a bottom shelf choice.

iPhone6 snap.