Paris in the early days

It’s been a month and a half since my last post, and that time has been full of traveling, work, frisbee, and friends. This weekend will be my first in Paris since…March, maybe? CVPR in San Francisco was a blur due to a deadline smack in the middle, but we managed to finish, the paper got accepted, and I got to see my brother and his family for Father’s Day.

The weekend after we returned from California, we went to Grenoble, where Fredo did his studies, and visited with his best friend. Grenoble is gorgeous, this small valley tucked underneath the towering Alps, and there is tons of hiking and skiing close by. La Bastille overlooks the city from the north, and makes for a nice hike with pretty views. As it happened, a fanfare festival took place the weekend we were there, and so we went up Saturday night and listened to brass bands play far above Grenoble.

Back in Paris, we had a picnic by the Seine, a summer tradition that I have yet to do enough of this year. It’s always funny how the tourists come by on the Bateaux Mouches and take your picture. Fredo brought out the LEDs for light painting and we had a great time creating surreal images. (Nice Notre Dame in the background, too.)

The next weekend we left for Prague, where I played Worlds with YAKA, the French women’s team. Prague is a beautiful city, maybe even more beautiful than Paris, and I’d really like to go back and explore more. More pics here.

As for the championship, we finished 22nd, which is where we were seeded. A disappointment – there were at least two games that we should have won – but an incredible experience. I don’t know if I’ll ever get back to Worlds, or even Nationals, but if this is it then it wasn’t a bad way to go out.

I had one very bad night/morning of traveling; we got back to the apartment really late, the cat was unhappy, I had to get up at 5 am to go to Oxford and give a talk, and it was my birthday… It all worked out fine, I got some sleep on the train, but I ended up feeling pretty sick for 2-3 days with a classic summer cold. No pictures of Oxford, they’re on the other camera, but it’s beautiful and seems like a really cool place to go to school.

Back in Paris for essentially just the 14th of July, we planned a big picnic for watching the fireworks, but unfortunately it rained, hard, all day. Instead we went to Guillaume’s and had a nice potluck dinner; pictures here.

On the 15th we left for Chamonix’s wedding in New York. It took place in a beautiful penthouse overlooking the Empire State building, and Chamonix made a gorgeous bride. We also took the time to visit with Claire and Deirdre, good friends from Seattle who are about to get married. They have the cutest dog in the world, hands down.

We were chugging away on the Internet often, in search of an apartment. And I think everyone should know this by now, but I got a postdoc at MIT, in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences department; I’ll be doing object recognition. It’s for a year with an option to extend. My start date is September 20th. The plan is to go to ECCV in the beginning of September and then basically leave immediately after for Boston. After visiting New York, Fredo and I went to Boston for some work (for him) and essentially a full week of looking for apartments. And we found one! In Back Bay, just across the bridge from MIT, so still walking distance to work. Though I will need new boots (Emily…)

So after that marvelous success, we headed to Wildwood for the 10th anniversary of the Yellow Subs. Fredo took massive amounts of pictures, a selection of which can be found here. We played the 3-1 division and went undefeated, winning the tournament for the 5th time in 10 years! It was amazing to see my friends and play beach ultimate, and I’m really looking forward to living close to Emily again.

Until the big move, there’s a mechoui, a visit from Meredith, a frantic attempt to see all the things in Paris I’ve missed, French class, and (of course) work. Not to mention ECCV, in Crete – computer vision researchers do really know how to pick their conference locations. That’s the update, see you when I get back state-side!

I leave in an hour or so for San Francisco (CVPR and my brother) and have yet to pack, but I got up at 4 am to work so I’m feeling virtuous enough to send this out. Summer mix, mostly pop, some of it French, a teeny-tiny bit of indie indulgence. Enjoy! (Linked on facebook or email me.)

1. Help Myself (Nous ne faisons que passer) by Gaëtan Roussel. I discover French pop by paying attention when the girls sing along to something in the minibus.
2. California Gurl by Katy Perry (Ft Snoop Dogg). I have a crush on her, though I don’t think she’s very talented.
3. Tell ‘Em by Sleigh Bells. Albums I love so far this year: The National, Jónsi, Sleigh Bells. Pretty different, too. If you hated Crown on the Ground (ahem, Fredo), you’re sure to detest this one as well. If you loved it, go buy the album!
4. XXXO Remix (Dirty)(Produced by Rieces Pieces) by M.I.A. Ft Jay Z. New M.I.A. out soon; this is no Paper Planes, but it’s very pop (for better or worse).
5. Tightrope (Featuring Big Boi) by Janelle Monae. She is damn good, best new hip-hop artist I’ve heard in years. I need to listen to more.
6. Non non non (Écouter Barbara) by Camélia Jordana. This is the non-winner-but-better-singer from Nouvelle Star, which is France’s American Idol. So, their Jennifer Hudson. Who almost made this mix as Glee made me really like that Dreamgirls song.
7. Airplanes Ft. Hayley Williams of Paramore by B.o.B.. OK, I realize this song is horrible. But this is a pop mix, and it is certainly very popular right now.
8. Dancing On My Own by Robyn. Swedish pop star, lyrics are sad, chorus is terribly catchy.
9. Despicable (Freestyle) by Eminem. This song isn’t on the album (it’s an overdub of a Drake song apparently) but Eminem is at his best when freestyling. This is E circa 1999, way better than all his singy stuff recently.
10. Drunk Girls by LCD Soundsystem. And now into the indie pop section. I was going to put on All I Want but I couldn’t call it pop with a straight face.
11. Living In America by DOM. It’s upbeat, so it qualifies.
12. Wait and See. by Diamond Rings. I don’t know this band at all but they’re “getting some buzz in the blogosphere”, to use a tired phrase. I like the song and I like the period at the end of the song title.
13. Dieu m’a donné la foi by Ophélie Winter. She’s pretty famous here, and blond and beautiful according to the Internet.
14. Open Your Heart by Madonna. You know that episode of Glee with all the Madonna songs? The mashup with Borderline and Open Your Heart made me realize that Open Your Heart is a much better song.
15. Defying Gravity (Glee Cast Version) by Glee. Let’s be honest, we’re all a little worried that Glee is only going to last one more season max. And frankly, the writers seem lost; after all the drama of Season 1 Part 1, Season 1 Part 2 was a little boring. Also Will’s wife was basically the best character ever. But we’ll always have the songs to buy, in $0.99 quantities immediately after the episode ends…[side note: Ben Lerner introduced me to this song 3 years ago and I'm tagging him to ask what do you think of the Glee version, and of Glee in general?]

Ça fait longtemps que j´ai écrit…et je pense que la plupart des lecteurs sont américains (bien que je reçoive le spam en français maintenant) donc je vais continuer en anglais.

Just a small update: work (as always) and travel and practice and dinners with friends are how I’ve been filling my days. I went to Su Wu’s wedding in North Carolina and saw bunches of friends, with a brief stop in Pittsburgh to visit Jessers, and last weekend went to the south of France with Fredo. He took lots of lovely photos, as always, which you can look at below:

Pittsburgh

North Carolina

Nice

More to come, eventually, and lots of trips await: Malta this weekend, London (tournament) next, then probably Dijon, then Amsterdam, then to the States for CVPR and my (too-big!) nieces, then Prague, then Chamonix’s wedding…and hopefully by July, it will be sunny and warm in Paris.

It is April in Paris and I am a cliché, having become part of one of those couples in the metro that I used to hate on, holding hands and snuggling and disgustingly happy. (I used to wish that I could, for once, see a couple fight on the street, since you really can’t walk 50 meters here without seeing some couple making out. Then I did see a fight, and it made me extremely uncomfortable.) In any event, all this cheerfulness – the sunshine, the lovely apartment, the contented cat, the awesome team, the fantastic dinners every night – makes for one uplifting mix. (Jónsi helps, too.) Lots of stuff from Pretty Much Amazing, Aaron’s blog, and the usual sources. Oh and Drew. Whom I miss dearly.

1. Go do by Jónsi
2. Rocket by Goldfrapp
3. I Am Not A Robot (Passion Pit Remix) by Marina and the Diamonds
4. Crave You by Flight Facilities
5. It’s Fun To Smoke Dust (Queen vs. Pastor Gary Greenwald vs. Midfield General) by Lobsterdust
6. Window Seat by Erykah Badu
7. Generator ^ Second Floor by Freelance Whales
8. All to All by Broken Social Scene
9. Something Good Can Work (Ted & Francis Remix) by Two Door Cinema Club
10. Pieces of You by Wolf Gang
11. Fixed by Stars
12. Afraid of Everyone by The National
13. Last Call by Elliott Smith
14. Boy Lilikoi by Jónsi
15. I Am Not A Robot by Marina and the Diamonds

Linked on facebook or email me.

For more pictures, go here

La rue Broca n’est pas une rue comme les autres. Si vous prenez un plan de Paris, vous verrez – ou vous croirez voir – que la rue Pascal et la rue Broca coupent à angle droit le boulevard de Port-Royal. Si, confiants dans cette indication, vous prenez votre voiture et enfilez ledit boulevard en espérant tourner dans l’une ou l’autre de ces rues, vous pourrez cent fois de suite faire la navette entre l’Observatoire et les Gobelins vous ne les trouverez pas.

Cette rue est courbe, étroite, tortueuse et encaissée. De par l’anomalie spatiale que je viens de signaler, bien qu’à chacune de ses extrémités elle débouche sur Paris, elle n’est pas tout à fait Paris. Peu éloignée, mais sur un autre plan, souterraine en plein air, elle constitue, à elle seule, comme un petit village. Pour les gens qui l’habitent, cela crée un climat tout à fait spécial.

– Pierre Gripari, La socière de la rue Mouffetard