Jet Setters?

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Now, I woudn't want you to think that we're jet setters or anything, but last night The White Stripes rocked Paris, and we were there...

We found out about the show online and purchased our tickets via the internet using something akin to French Ticketmaster, without the extra charges! ; ) Anyway, we arrived yesterday evening in Paris and with a bit of detective work, helped by good 'net research ahead of time, we a) found our hotel, b) found the ticket office branch conveniently located on same block of our hotel, c) found the ticketmaster-like desk at the music-books-electronics store, d) picked up our prepaid tickets using combination of credit card/passport/secret confirmation code, e) found our way to the venue 'Le Zenith', f) found a seat (general admission for all 6,000 of us), and g) of course, enjoyed the show.

Interestingly, Jack White mentioned twice during the show that he was dedicating the performance to the Marquis de Lafayette, and there was a statue of said patriot(?) near the back of the stage. Unlike Pete Sampras, White didn't even attempt to address the crowd in French, but the audience seriously ate up the peformance none-the-less. In short, Jack and Meg rocked and French people clapped and danced and smoked, even though the arena was a non-smoking area.

Not going to be able to post photos, but we have some good ones from Stockholm and Uppsala. Thanks very much to our gracious hosts Elin and Fredrick. We had a couple fun nights out on the weekend, Friday evening to hear a friend of Fred's spin. It wasn't dancy stuff, this was indie/American roots/Swedish stuff. Really good time. My assessment of the Swedish music scene, at least as we experience it is that there is a huge interest, that there are lots of influences from the US and England, and that there is also this huge home grown music scene, including lots of people you music fans may have heard of, and lots you haven't. Fred shared a lot of his MP3s with us (and we were able to reciprocate using somekind of software hack to pull tunes off of our ipod onto Fred's computer), and a lot of what I was able to harvest are Swedish musicians singing with the style and even partly the accent of American alt-country musicians...

Anyway, Saturday night it was Elin's sister's boyfriend's birthday party. Not a big group, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. Conversation, at least from where I sat, ranged from music to movies to politics to hockey. I told this guy that I was moving to Denver and his first question for me was whether or not this was _because_ I was a fan of Peter Forsberg. Okay, so I hadn't ever thought about it, but apparently he's a _Swedish_ professional hockey player. Also, Swedish hockey fans were loving it last year during the NHL strike because so many professional players came to play in Sweden. There were seriously big names playing for 2nd division teams apparently.

So, a great time in Stockholm. Cold weather has arrived there, for anyone thinking of paying a visit. The were at 2 degrees C the morning we left.

Today in Paris we did the cathedral trifecta: Sacre Couer (sp?), Trinete Church, and Notre Dame. Speaking of Notre Dame, I was happy to see that 'SC' beat them last weekend. Sorry about PSU losing to Michigan, but hey, UVA over FSU, great win!

Bye for now. Sherry sends here best. We haven't had the wine here, but the bread and pastries that we've had have been tre-tasty.

Oh yes, one more thing. Elin wanted to make sure that we passed a hello on from her and Fredrick to Sherry's family and friends.

-Cory

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Comments

[fav aunt]

not jet setters
they carry suitcases on this kind of journey.glad to hear you got in good music. ed will look forward to add'l dwnloads from you. not me. hows it feel nearing the end any thoughts

[Mom]

Sweden
Sounds like you had a great time visiting Elin. Send our best to her and her husband. We miss her too. Can't wait to see pictures.... Guess you really enjoyed The White Stripes (you got to see a little america there, didn't you?) Can't wait to see you and good luck in Switzerland Cory . Sounds like a wonderful place to visit (hee, hee!!) Love ya! Mom

[Rawley]

the marquis
Good for Jack White. He's one of my favorite weirdos. I helped draft the legislation that made the MdL an honorary U.S. citizen -- a rare title! The NSC nixed the idea for a signing ceremony w/W, because relations with the French were quite icy at the time (Iraq). So I never got to meet the Prez.

[ed]

hack
You are totally going to have to tell me where you got it.