Pieces of Eight

Steve Caratzas has tagged me with this meme thing.

"The assignment: To write about certain topics in blocks of 8."

I've added two questions, so that there are now EIGHT. (Symmetry!)

8 passions in my life:

La Reina

jazz
poetry
French music
Spain
film
football
Luvin'

8 things to do before I die:

Spend time in Buenos Aires
Spend time in Ireland
Do the Camino de Santiago again
Learn French
Learn to play the piano
Play (on the piano) and sing Fats Waller songs
Figure out what I want to be when I grow up
Finish this bloody post

8 things I often say

What?
I don't understand.
That's interesting.
You've never seen _____?!?!?
Te quiero
What about turkey burger?
Brooklyn Lager
Oh, for Christ's sake, TACKLE the guy!

8 books I read recently

Jonathan Gould - Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America
Stephen Colbert - I Am America (And So Can You)
Robert L. Mitchell - The poetic voice of Charles Cros: A centennial study of his songs
William Rees (ed./trans.) - Penguin anthology of French poetry, 1820-1950
Kenneth Rexroth - One Hundred Poems from the French
Lee Server - Ava Gardner: "Love Is Nothing"

Mark Maske - War Without Death: A Year of Extreme Competition in Pro Football's NFC East
Thomas Merton - Zen and the Birds of Appetite

8 films that mean something to me

Ran
Top Hat
To Have and Have Not
Holiday
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Pierrot le fou
Christmas in Connecticut
El Espíritu de la colmena [Spirit of the Beehive]

(And for 8.5 . . . 8 1/2)

8 songs that mean something to me

Bob Dylan: "Blood on the Tracks"
John Coltrane & Eric Dolphy: "Spiritual"
Jerry Jeff Walker: "London Homesick Blues"
Lester Young: "Blue Lester"
Fats Waller: "My Very Good Friend the Milkman"
The Beatles: "Tomorrow Never Knows"
Maurice Ravel: "Pavane pour une infante défunte"
George Gershwin: "Rhapsody in Blue"

8 living people I'd like to have as dinner guests

(Taking for granted that La Reina would be co-hosting . )

Charlotte Gainsbourg
Jim Jarmusch
Subcomandante Marcos
Juliette Gréco
Hank Jones
Penélope Cruz Sánchez
Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso
Bob Dylan
(or Willie Nelson if Bob seems like he's gonna get all aloof and nasty that night.)
(or Tom Waits if Bob's gets all aloof and Willie's too stoned to find the house.)

8 people who I'm passing this on to

I don't even know eight people to pass this on to. How about 4?

Liam
Jeff
Crystal
Garpu

The Muse of Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Juliette Gréco: Il n’y a plus d’après

"Juliette Gréco's career was played out against a backdrop of Bohemianism and existentialism in the glittering café society of the post-war years. In the heyday of Paris's buzzing Left Bank, when Sartre and Camus used to sit and discuss philosophy in the Café de Flore, and young French teenagers hung out all night in the wild jazz clubs and cabarets of la rue Dauphine, Gréco rose to fame as the face of France's New Bohemianism."
From her biography at RFImusique.com

She sang songs written by French poets and writers such as Robert Desnos, Raymond Queneau, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jacques Prévert.

Was imprisoned by the Gestapo.

Starred in Jean Cocteau's classic film, Orphée (1950), as well as in films by Jean Renoir, Jean-Pierre Melvile and John Huston.

The song "Il n’y a plus d’après" was written by French singer and poet Guy Béart, father of the actress Emmanuelle Béart.

Juliette fell in love with and almost married Miles Davis when he came to Paris in 1949. She reminisced about their relationship in a Guardian article last year.

"In spite of her international star status, Juliette Gréco would remain true to the political ideals of her early days. Indeed, the singer would seize every opportunity to speak out against oppression and use her fame to defend human rights' causes. One of the most famous instances of Gréco's political outspokenness was when the French star performed a concert in Chili while the country was still under the military dictatorship of General Pinochet. Taking to the stage in Santiago to confront an audience made up of soldiers and top-ranking generals, Gréco would launch into a repertoire of openly anti-military songs. The performance proved to be a complete fiasco and Gréco was practically booed off stage - but the singer was immensely proud of her personal act of resistance."
RFImusique.com

One of my friends saw Juliette in concert in Rome. Perhaps he will recount the tale.

Her voice encompasses millions of poems.
Jean-Paul Sartre

Juliette Gréco & Miles Davis – Paris, 1949