Rather than attempt to talk about my month in Paris or the film that is underway about the trip to Sicily with my friend and her family, I'm going to tell you what's cool.
Christian psychedelic is cool.
Let me tell you about my purchases at this shop on Rue de Belleville. It was this Chinese two-dollar type shop, but it wasn't particularly two dollar. In the bottom of the window, an image caught my eye. A few days later I knew I had to buy it, so I returned in the snow and bought a couple of these Jesus pictures. When you look at the picture from different angles, you see a different image. I shall upload a picture another time. I was spending so long deciding which images to get and the shop dude went to the back to get me more and kept showing them to me. Then after I paid, I walked out and then this Chinese dude who was standing outside the shop was yelling at me in Chinese and I didn't understand and I thought he was talking to the shop woman and probs saying how weird I was. But then I realised.
Oh yeah, and they had a wooden backing and gold-painted frame, and even though they were made of that processed wood, I had to declare at Australian customs.
In continuation of my in-depth details of places around the world, I shall tell you about this random place in Paris. I went there because I wanted to eat pho and looked on the internet and found there was this place called Dong Huong, which apparently is the best as it was recommended on Lonely Planet website. But, dude, the service! Everyone else was served quickly. I had to get their attention to come to take my order, my food took ages, which it shouldn't have since it was a bowl of soup, and they took ages to clean the bowl away eventhough I indicated it to them, and then I had to keep getting their attention and asking for the bill. And it took ages. And then I had to wait for my change. Chicken pho is often not the best option, but I thought I would get it because I prefer it to beef and because they had a special northern selection and chicken pho is a northern thing. It wasn't the best option, but then again, I didn't eat anything else there. Also, as it was considered a well kept secret, those who consider it a secret were there. Id est, White People. But it wasn't all bad!! It was pretty cheap and authentic and didn't taste of MSG.
So, this road was called Rue Louis Bonnet, and there is actually an exit from Belleville station directly on to it. Which is good. Because you come out and then you are on this street full of Vietnamese restaurants. What I noticed were several Vietnamese sandwich bars, which I have not seen in Australia.
The second time I went to this part of the 11th, I went to have pho at Restaurant Tin Tin, which I recommend. Also, they had a small portion option, which made me very happy because then it means I can almost finish my serve. On the menu they also had all this other cool looking food and cha kway teow pictures and it actually looked not just authentic but delectable. And the ambience was better.
Then, in the snow, I went back to buy the Jesus pictures from Rue de Belleville. One crosses from the Vietnamese street - Rue Louis Bonnet over Blvd de Belleville to Rue de Belleville. Here are some pictures of some random stuff from that part of the 20th. It was really weird because it was a bit of a Chinatown on this one street, but not in a trendy way. And there were these vans with graffiti on them, and people selling vegetables and the streets were lined with Chinese men in black jackets and smoking while it snowed. And then up the road it became more middle eastern.
- The not so good pho ga. Also, I feel weird when I eat egg and chicken in the same dish.
I think I have discovered that the claim that you are can't get good Asian food in Paris and its ghettos is not true. "Restaurant Asiatique - pho, Thai food and sushi" is not the be all and end all.
So what does this have to do with Christian coolness? Ahh, you may have noticed in my pictures some Christian stuff that was randomly in the 20th jut after the Chinese restaurants.
Weird and cool right?
So, Christian psychededelic. This does not mean wearing bracelets with virgin marys from Sportsgirl. Since when was that a thing. You've got to have guts to do that ironically, like, you've got to be the type who can do the whole feigned post-ironic thing.
This look is wearing rosaries that are meant to be on the wall or in your pocket, as necklaces. Yep. Also, here's some music I'm into:
1. I don't want to go into depth about how saying how this music makes me feel cool to be Australian when I gets totes aggro about people feeling "proud to be Australian". But seriously, an Australian Catholic nun made this music in the 1960s:
2. This Singapore 1960s group called October Cherries (or the Surfers, before they changed to October Cherries) is way cool, just like in that "Jesus was was cool" song.
That's it for now.
Actually, no it is not. You need to know the difference between true Indie Christian coolness and the taste of the congregation/masses. Here are acceptable types of Christian music for Indies: Anything that is not modern, id est, not "Worship Music", Christian pop or hip trendy church stuff. Hymns and old stuff are fine. Thee sixties is always great because it's a way progressive period.
