Life's Not So Hard

The typical work day in an art gallery is not severe. Though for some reason my alarm clock (cell phone) went off an hour late, I still had no problem fitting in the leisurely morning I've grown accustomed to, the French term for which translating to 'fat morning'. Arriving at the gallery at 13h30, I was quickly put to work in the reserve stock room preparing large format photographs for a potential buyer, the cultural director of the city of Rennes. This did involve me windex-ing each work, which struck me as somewhat menial, but as the day progressed, I realized that such a task is fundamental this type of work. My boss was as or more physically involved in the labor as I was. I like to think that this calibrated the two of us, or more simply, that we bonded over our labor. 

What I really want to say is that immediately after closing the gallery (at 19h00), I was able to just stroll into the adjacent arrondissement and catch a fantastic concert. Ah, the Parisian lifestyle! I saw Animal Collective, a fairly well known New York art/noise group, at le Bataclan. I didn't even have a ticket, I was just lucky enough to bump into a nice guy willing to sell me his friend's ticket for the advertised price. I might have bought a ticket before they were sold out, had any of the friends I asked expressed interest. No matter, everything worked out, and I'm so glad for having gone, albeit alone. 

While I wouldn't have called myself a great Animal Collective fan before the show, I knew that the type of people associating themselves with the band would be closer to my type. Simply from the address of the concert hall, I knew in advance the type of audience to expect. It was French-hipster heaven! To set the record straight, I'm not a hipster. I don't own a single pair of neon-accented high-top Nike's. I'll just tell you what I saw: A lot of beards, a lot of thick-rimmed (at times non-prescription) glasses, a lot of hoodies (no doubt American Apparel), a lot of smokers, lots of beer, a lot of bad haircuts, and a whole lot of lingering irony and sarcasm. I really ought to make some hipster friends here so I can compare them to my hipster friends in America. 

As I don't listen to Animal Collective save for the rare occasion, I was lucky to find myself in a slight resurgence of interest. There upcoming album has been well received, as it has already leaked on the internet, and the bloggers are, as usual, expressing how they feel about it, and the DJs are remixing it (quite likely at this very moment). Their set was good, perhaps a little more than an hour of trance to noise to nonsense music. As I write this several hours after the fact, my ears are still ringing from the venue's acoustics. And I'm glad! I have missd Kenyon, where you can open your door and play your music as loudly as you choose. Tonight's mild deafness will probably make up for an entire semester missed blasting my music at Kenyon. The encore number was familiar. Take a look. 

   Here's the same song in mp3 format.

Animal Collective - My Girls