Daily things: flare, Swans concert, Seeming, holidays in Ambierle

Health

It's been very hard for me to write lately. I've been feeling very poorly for the pat week or so. Last weekend was pretty bad, I was feeling like I was about to faint constantly, had a pounding headache and had trouble coordinating my movements and even knitting. I reached the bottom on Monday when I couldn't sit or stand up on my own. I'm so grateful for Math being here and taking care of me, especially in these moments. I'm getting gradually better. I saw my GP on Wednesday, and she said it could easily be explained by the heat wave (hotter than we've had in 50 years I think). My BP was 9/6, which is a record for me I think. She still told me to try going to the Swans concerts in the evening (I really expected her to advise me against it). And so I did! It was difficult getting pumped enough to go (but Clémentine was there, which always helps A LOT) and once I was at the venue it was actually very pleasant. I found a spot where I could stand or sit and I just let the music drown me.

Music

It was a very powerful experience. I have to admit I don't know the Swans that well. I was curious and I'm very happy I went. They're very impressive live, although the sound wasn't the best at the venue (well, I know it's their thing to be super loud too, thank fuck for good quality earplugs. It was still a bit painful with them on, and a lot of people in the crowd weren't wearing any. I can't. Even.)

Summer is a bit quiet, apart from festivals, which I don't feel I'd be able to do just yet. We're going to see Miss Kittin & The Hacker in August and I think that's about it for now.

"SEEMING: "Worldburners Unite (Pandemic Mix)"" (Watch on YouTube)

The new Seeming is out this morning (how did it happen at 9am Paris hour? That's amazing) and it's downloading at the moment. Two songs were released in the past few days and I'm beyond excited. (Also, what's with the super slow bandwidth rn?) 

Out and about

I arrived yesterday night at anatsuno's. Travel was fine. I was in first class but of course (happens every time) I was assigned a seat with no table at all. Thankfully a passenger swapped seats with me, but WTF SNCF?

Watching

I could take my computer out and rewatch Soylent Green. I hadn't seen it in maybe 20 years. I remembered It fairly well still. The opening in particular is fantastic. I couldn't help making connections between the “furniture women” and the wives in Fury Road (particularly the drama around that terrible comic book prequel). We're told explicitly very little about the “furnitures” but a lot can be inferred from context and the numerous juxtapositions of scenes taking place in wealthy homes and scenes depicting the living conditions of the lower class. And even if the main protagonist is far from perfect and is taking advantage of the system (he's very similar to Deckard that way) I can't help but wonder if many people in the seventies, when the movie was released, thought that the women had it good and didn't have a reason to want to escape. Seems like mainstream storytelling in general is getting more and more explicit, in the sense there is little room for the ambiguous and points need to be dumbed down and stated clearly over and over again. And I wouldn't qualify Soylent Green as a particularly subtle movie to begin with. I'm not sure I'm making a lot of sense, but that's all I can manage for now. It's very frustrating at times to be riddled with brain fog all the time and to feel my cognitive functions decline in such a measurable manner. Anyway.

Food

We had dinner last night at Le Prieuré, in the village. It was quite good, although the service was strange. They're trying hard to be posh and formal but fail at the most basic things, like taking bookings properly or showing a little flexibility to please the customer: like, they have this cheaper menu only on Thursday nights I think? Which is why we went that day. John was more interested by à la carte dishes, and they told us that either the whole table could take the special menu, or noone could. I mean, why? There's no reasonable explanation for this, apart from the fact that they want to coerce people into paying more.
We didn't let these little things dampen our mood though. Food was lovely though. Not the most original or exciting, but well prepared meats, tasty desserts (there was a green apple crème brûlée, very interesting and delicious). We also drank a fair amount of wine, got pretty merry and it was loads of fun.