M2D3: RER

Here I go again, hiatus from blogging. Again you might guess that I have been with my children twice this week on both weekends. Kids are the enemies of my blog LOL! I do have time but no longer the energy to type after spending time with them.

On Thursday, I had a meeting with my formidable Nicolas at IRCAM. The work was getting clearer by day. I am working in between two teams; Musical Representation Team and Realtime Interaction Team. They do different things and I need them both. I need both of their works combined to make some things work. They also said they have been planning to work together, but it seems they just needed someone from far, far away to make it happen, from Upper Westside in NYC for example :) Nicolas is making something that the computer program says "Mari stopped playing", by analyzing my gesture. Of course it sounds easy, but not so at all, considering musical context and situations.

In the afternoon, I was invited for tea at the home of Pierre-Yves Artaud, the professor of flute at the Conservatoire. Prof. Artaud was one time, the Director of Instrumental Research at IRCAM with Pierre Boulez' request. He lives in Vitry sur Seine and I took RER C (regional train). I met Prof. Artaud at the home of Norwegian composer Ida Heidel, whom I also met by chance at my friend and percussionist Lê Quan Ninh's concert. I am very grateful that I am able to expand my circle of friends in Paris. I had promised to send my CDs to Prof. Artaud, whom Jean-Claude Risset called "The Hero of contemporary Flutes", which I finally did. He very kindly invited me to his home. Anyway, I have researched my path to Vitry sur Seine, and knowing Prof. Artaud is a big Japan-fan, I went to Toraya, a Japanese traditional store for sweets, to get something for him. The picture is Anmitsu, Japanese red bean and jelly desert I had for the first time in months. This is possible in Paris :)

Oh and I got lost in RER C, which skipped his stop and I went back and forth from Bibliothèque Frainçois Mitterrand station. When the scenery got a little too green, I decided that it must have skipped the station; there was no announcement, no train conductor on board, and other passengers would say, "well, it usually stops" and shrugged their shoulders :) So I shrugged mine with them and dealt with it. It didn't have any impact on me since it works exactly the same on NYC subways. They decide to make express stops when they feel like it, and good luck to tourists trying to understand the heavily distorted announcements, which no one understands :) I'm 'christened' by RER, feeling at home in Paris.
Note: I wrote this entry last week but didn't have time to publish it.