Francofile

Chanson Francaise Revival in my Living Room

My musical listening habits have always been eclectic.  I'm no stranger to Medieval, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic music.  Blues and sometimes even country (though not of the contemporary variety) are on my playlist.  In small doses I can groove on bluegrass, rap, rai, zydeco, swing, fado, jazz, and probably just about any musical genre you could name.  My musical taste was largely forged during the rock era, which was burgeoning about the time I came into existence.  So my default music mode was (and is) rock. 

Trouble is, rock has always been pretty much an anglo-dominated genre.  So what is a rabid francophile to listen to?  While living in France, I did as many French people do and listened mostly to English-language music, interspersed with the occasional songs by Francis Cabrel or a handful of other French singers that I found appealing enough. (A big mea culpa to my French readers for this infidelity.)  All in all, I felt about most French popular music performers as I do about American cars--they're OK, but not a product that I am going to choose when other options are available.         

The human brain must be wired such that one's taste in music changes with age.  I am enjoying music that I never would have considered listening to for pleasure until fairly recently.   Not that I have started digging the "champagne music" of Lawrence Welk reruns, but a new appreciation is emerging for things I once would have dismissed as bland variety-show fare.  I have belatedly discovered some French music that existed before my rock-and-roll heart was beating. 

So the old becomes new to these virgin ears.  For example, no one escapes the ubiquitous melodies immortalized by Edith Piaf.  But I knew them mostly as background music or movie soundtracks.  I never paid much attention to her voice and phrasing before.  They are soulfully cool beyond words.  Some tracks have annoying, jangly instrumentals, but when the purity of her vocals is allowed to shine through, it is luminous.  The Charles Aznavour of La Boheme evokes memories of living on l'air du temps in Montmartre (pre-gentrification).  The quality of his voice and his phrasing are soothing and melodic.  He sings of a time when on etait jeunes, on etait fous (we were young, we were crazy) and when nous avions tous du génie (we all had [artistic] genius).  He sings of staying up all night to rework a drawing and of trading a canvas for a good hot meal in a bistro in order to subsist. And not to glorify poverty, but the theme of la vie de boheme seems so radically out of sync with today's money culture that it gives one pause.   At one point these images might have seemed like serial cliches, but to me they derive new relevance from the contrast they pose with the prevailing ethos. No longer just part of the soundtrack playing in the background, old standards like these have become my music of choice, for the moment. 

On not blogging much

Francofile tries to regularly post fairly cogent and topical posts related to France, but this one is probably going to end up being a loosey-goosey and rambly post that has nothing to do with France.  Chalk it up to the demands of work, getting ready for the holidays, and perhaps to laziness.   At one point I was almost as prolific as the indefatigable Voix or the ultra-disciplined Elisabeth.   I was nearly as up-to-date on current events as the unsurpassed Superfrenchie.  I have been doing more lurking than posting lately, but hope to regain my blogging mojo soon.  Or I could try to be like Amerloque, who does not post all that often, but when he does, it's always a truly worthwhile read. So what are the worthy endeavors that have interfered with my blogging?  Francaise de Coeur would have an excellent excuse not to post.  She just had a baby girl (Tessa Rose) but still manages to update her blog.  The always-intriguing French-language blog Cafe-mode is regularly updated despite the fact that the resident blogueuse has gone back to school to study fashion.  During this blog downtime, I have not written a monograph, nor have I honed abs of steel, dazzled friends and family with gourmet cuisine, or created thoughtful hand-made Christmas gifts.  My excuse is, well--ahem--I don't have one.   Sometimes you  just realize that your to-do list has grown and your available time has shrunk and that you need a new modem, your car needs an oil change, your cats need rabies and distemper shots, along with a hundred other small things that all add up.  And sometimes you agree to take on something that takes 800% more time than you ever thought it would.  Unless you are really good at restoring furniture, for example, don't go on E-Bay and buy an 80-year-old hoosier cabinet that spent a few decades in someone's basement.  In any case, the to-do list is getting whittled down and this little blogging slump is about to come to an end.