Archive for the ‘culture’ Category

Americans Dominate the French Food Spirit Awards

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
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Two Americans, a Franco-American, and an Italian were recently honored at the 2010 French Food Spirit Awards.

The French Food Spirit Awards was founded in 2002 by the French organization L’Association Nationale des Industries Alimentaires (National Association of Food Industries) to promote the spirit of French food culture throughout the world. Its manifesto endorses values that it declares essential to this spirit: product accessibility, preservation of nature, product quality, entrepreneurship, scientific research, and regional diversity.

The jury was comprised of three Americans, seven French, one Japanese, and one Luxembourger. Representing diverse areas of endeavor—including journalism, science, photography, and gastronomy—they selected four prize winners from a field of 175 candidates from all over the world. Their decision was made on the basis of the candidates’ contributions to the understanding of French food culture and the values upon which the Food Spirit Awards are founded.

Each of the winners was presented a Daum crystal trophy.

The first award ceremony took place on December 16, 2010 at the Italian Embassy in Paris, where the trophy was presented to Paola Bonfante for her work on the sequencing of the genome of the black truffle of Perigord, a fungus that is an important part of French food culture.

Max McCalman (left)
Jean-Pierre d'Estienne d'Orves (right)
Photo courtesy of French Food Spirit Awards

The second award ceremony took place on January 27, 2011 at the Robert restaurant, located atop the Museum of Arts & Design in New York City. There, the Secretary General of the French Food Spirit Awards, Jean-Pierre d’Estienne d’Orves, praised cheese advocate Max McCalman’s role in promoting artisanal cheeses in the United States.

Two other trophies were presented in private ceremonies. One went to Ariane Daguin, founder and CEO of D’Artagnan Inc. This company is a distributer of top-quality pork and poultry products, including foie gras, for which she played an important role in introducing the product into the United States. The other went to Meryl Streep for her outstanding performance in the movie Julie & Julia. The jury concluded that her role in the film was a tribute to everyday French gastronomy.

Having lived in France for eighteen and a half years, we have come to appreciate the cuisine of this country and the enthusiasm that the French display for their products. We are pleased that three Americans have been honored by this organization, and that, thanks to their efforts, all Americans can enjoy the French food spirit!

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We participate in Wanderfood Wednesdays. Head over there to explore food from around the world!

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A Fantastic Performance by Willie Colón

Sunday, October 10th, 2010
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Willie Colón
Photograph courtesy of Festival Ile-de-France

The 2010 Festival d’Ile de France music series ended on a hot note today with a packed audience roaring its approval for the performance given by Willie Colón and his salsa band.

The concert was scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m. at La Cigale, an auditorium located in the Pigalle district. I arrived at 4:45 p.m. and could see the entry line stretching way down boulevard de Rochechouart. My heart sank at the prospect of not getting a good seat, as they were not assigned. First come, first seated!

When I entered the concert hall, it was worse than I had imagined! All of the seats were taken and the ground floor was packed with a standing-room only crowd. I made my way to the top balcony and stood in the aisle behind a row of occupied seats. By hoisting myself up on a ledge and clinging precariously to the back of a seat I could see over the heads of the spectators and get a fairly clear view of the stage. This awkward position did not seem to bother a great number of young spectators who were perched in the same way, but the acrobatic posture fatigued me and I had to let myself down to the floor for solid footing for most of the concert.

Nonetheless, it was a fantastic concert of Latin songs, sassy brass, incredible keyboard technique, and effervescent drums. Although Mr. Colón addressed the audience only in Spanish (he is American-born of parents of Puerto Rican descent), the majority seemed to understand him. When he welcomed the presence of spectators from Colombia, great shouts of acclamation erupted!

Thank you Festival d’Ile de France for your fabulous series of concerts this year. I attended three of them: Baaba Maal, Kahled, and this one, all of which I blogged about. Until next year’s festival!

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Celebrating Raï with Khaled and his Friends

Sunday, September 26th, 2010
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Maurice El Medioni (left), Khaled (center), Abdelhoued Zaim (right)
(c) Discover Paris!

The organization Festival d’Ile de France has been giving a spectacular series of concerts since September 5. I had the opportunity to hear Baaba Maal on September 11 (see my blog of September 12). Last Friday night, I heard Khaled and his friends at the Cirque d’Hiver. This concert was devoted to raï, a musical form that developed during the 1930s in the coffee houses and cabarets of Oran, in Algeria.

I was not sure whether I would even like this type of music, but, because the event promised a great line-up of raï stars, I figured that I had better get there to see for myself what it was all about.

The Cirque d’Hiver is a circus venue, built in Paris in 1852 and inaugurated by Prince Louis-Napolean . Today, it is still used for circus performances, as well as concerts. I imagine that France must have been a nation of small people at the time that the performance hall was built, because the seats are quite narrow and restrictive. My knees pushed against the back of the seat in front of me, and I had trouble placing my feet flat on the floor. During the show, however, I became so absorbed by the music that I largely forgot my discomfort.

As soon as Maurice El Medioni, the first performer to appear on stage, played his opening notes, a great roar arose from the audience, followed by shrill ululating. That high-pitched, trilling sound was an unmistakable signal that most of the spectators were Algerians or people of Algerian descent. It was also an indication that they knew that some wonderful music was about to be played!

Maurice El Medioni, a pianist born in Oran, is a specialist in Judeo-Arabian music. After he played the first number, he announced that it was a pure Andalusian melody. I found the music enthralling, even dreamy.

Cheba Zahouania
(c) Discover Paris!

Then, just as El Medioni began another tune, the star of the show, Khaled, appeared at the top of a grand stairway to the wild acclamation of the audience. For the rest of the show, he would dominate the stage, singing with three other stars as they appeared in sequence. If Khaled is known to Americans, it would be for his popular song Aïcha, which came out in 1996. He sang this number, but for the most part his songs were in the rolling, rhythmic style of raï that sounds, to my ears, like wailing. This wailing sound is the reason why I thought that I might not enjoy the concert, but here, with it being performed live, I listened with fascination.

The three other performers were Cheb Sahraoui, also born in Oran, who was the first raï artist to tour North America; Boutaïba Sghir, who sings popular styles of raï; and Cheba Zahouania, one of the great female voices of this musical genre.

Toward the end of the show, the orchestra—consisting of musicians playing drums, bass, keyboard, accordion, guitar, derbouka (a percussion instrument), and oud (lute)—performed a number of melodies. One of the tunes sounded just like Latin jazz—all that was lacking was the brass!

By the end of the show, spectators were swaying in their seats, waving their arms, and dancing in the aisles. It was a great musical performance!

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Celebrating the End of Ramadan with Baaba Maal

Sunday, September 12th, 2010
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Baaba Maal and Aliou Diouf, Drummer
(c) Discover Paris!

I first heard Baaba Maal sing many years ago on Afropop Worldwide, a radio program dedicated to promoting popular music from Africa. At the time, I greatly appreciated his music, but over the years other interests drew me away from listening to it. Just recently I learned that he would give a special performance in Paris celebrating Korité, the conclusion of the Islamic holy month of fasting. With my interest in hearing him sing rekindled, I quickly purchased tickets.

The performance was sponsored by Festival Ile-de-France, a cultural organization that brings music from throughout the world to the Ile-de-France region. Intriguingly, the performance would be held on the stage of the Académie Fratellini, an organization that teaches circus performance arts. This would be a great occasion to hear the great singer from Senegal!

Monique and I arrived early to enjoy a buffet-style dinner served by a charitable group called La Femme aux Milles Bras. Monique ordered poulet boucané, alocco (fried plantains), and a dessert of beignets of coconut and ginger. I chose the shredded carrot and corn salad, beef maffé (made with peanut sauce) and alocco, and a milk-based dessert called déguié. The food was simply presented, but quite tasty! During the dinner we noticed that many African men were dressed in colorful boubous. The women wore clothes that were even fancier—they sported colors that would rival those of the bird of paradise flower!

Nattily Dressed Concert Attendees
(c) Discover Paris!

After this informal dinner, we left the hall and entered the circus big top. This is a fabulous structure built out of wood that holds 1,600 spectators. For the musical performance, though, it looked to me as if only half as many tickets were sold, so that there would be nobody sitting behind the performers. I would guess that about three quarters of the audience were wearing the beautiful Wax Hollandais fabrics that we had seen during dinner.

A big cheer went up when Baaba Maal came out on stage. During the course of the concert, he was joined onstage by six other musicians who comprised his band.

What was truly surprising about this concert was not the music, which was a joy to listen to, but the reaction of the audience to Maal’s presence on stage. People came up to dance in front of him, to leave money at his feet (presumably in response to the plea that he made for Africa’s children at the beginning of the concert), to touch his hair, to be photographed next to him, to try to convey messages to him, and to bow before him. During the entire concert, I found that the main attraction was not Maal’s music (the reason that I had come), but rather, this vision of dozens of people who came onstage to try to engage him in some way.

Spectator Dancing on Stage
(c) Discover Paris!

There were times during the concert when Maal and his band were literally mobbed by fans! Several bodyguards, including a particularly burly one who remained on stage at all times, had a devil of a time warding off people who wanted to take a close-up picture of Maal or of a friend who came up from behind to stand next to the singer. The musicians were apparently used to this adulation because they did not flinch, miss a beat, or falter at any time during the performance.

I found this spectacle rather distressing, as the view of so many people coming onstage to get close to Maal distracted from his masterful musical performance. In my mind, there was a real danger that the adulation could quickly degenerate into pandemonium. But Maal and his band remained cool during the whole performance.

Towards the end of the performance, his bodyguard scooped up the money that lay at Maal’s feet and stuffed it into a bag.

We left the concert early to catch an early train home. We were surprised to find that we had to pass through a phalanx of police massed outside the gates to leave the concert grounds. A large crowd of people was waiting peacefully in the street beyond them. I wondered, “Is this a normal gathering of the forces of law and order after a concert?”

As we made our way to the train station, we could sense no trouble brewing. We had an uneventful wait at the station for the train’s arrival, and an equally uneventful ride back to Paris.

Thank you, Baaba Maal, for your wonderful music!

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Festival France Noire

Friday, May 21st, 2010
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The film festival France Noire – Black France opens today at the Forum des Images located at the Forum des Halles in the heart of Paris. The event has been organized by four university professors, including Arlette Frund (Université de Tours), Trica Danielle Keaton (Vanderbilt University) Tracy Sharpley-Whiting (Vanderbilt University), and Maboula Soumahoro (Université de Tours). It promises to be a rich and rewarding experience, as it treats three important themes: how blacks perceive themselves in France; how they perceive France as a country in which they live; and what kinds of intellectual, cultural, and artistic communities have developed among the black communities there.

We had the honor of being invited to attend a pre-festival reception and screening held at the American ambassador’s residence last night. Two documentary films were shown. The first, entitled Un Siècle de Jenny (directed by Laurent Champonnois and Dederico Nicotre), is a tribute to Martinican singer, actress, and activist Jenny Alpha. The second, entitled Noirs, l’identité au cœur de la question noire (directed by Arnaud Ngatcha), treats the thought-provoking question of how French men and women of African descent perceive themselves in French society.

A film about the African-American experience in Paris in the early part of the 20th century will be shown this evening at 9:00 p.m. Entitled Harlem à Montmartre, it was produced by Dante J. James, a filmmaker from Durham, North Carolina.

La Mariam
By Alexis Peskine