jeudi 24 mars 2011

Striptease in Roquefort La Bédoule

Few may know of Roquefort La Bédoule (RLB), even in southern France, and even in Bouches du Rhone county. But any french speaking will crack a smile at this name, funny, borderline ludicrous.

My sister Nanou told me the other day of this blue collar's restaurant, down in RLB, which «offered» live striptease shows every workdays at noon for the enjoyment of its clients. While the workers and other carpenters and representative enjoy their Blanquette de Veau (veal stew) with the mandatory Quart de rouge (25cl red wine, on the table before your meal, like it or not), they are thus entertained by a show of inconstant quality.

«On christmas eve and new year's, they even have two of them!», squeeled my sickened sister.

Made me think of this «Bar à danseuses» down in Revelstoke, BC. It was the first time I got to see what we call «stripteaseuses» outside Munich, a city where I often go for work and which is well known for its lapdance joints.

Back in Revy, we were shown to the place by Alex, a young quebecois, who was excited to show us in as he heard to his astonishment that «we did not have this kind of place in France». We had a good time at the  Traverse, look like it was part of the exotism here, and an obvious stop after the day snowmobiling.

I'm sure my sister would disapprove, and I do not particularly enjoy strip clubs, but I sure was impressed by this girl dancing with lighted candles on her tits. And the beer was good too.

To come back to the title of this post, I was not aware we had such displays of flesh in France, thought it was forbidden or something. And if I should have thought it possible, never would I have gone to Roquefort la Bédoule. Naked truth.

lundi 14 mars 2011

Japan «difficulties»

Officials in protective gear check for signs of radiation
I cant help but look at various sites and informations as this country I've been led to love, where I have been riding some of the best snow and terrain I ever dreamed of, and where my girlfriend Alice lived for two years, was struck by a terrible natural disaster.


I write «terrible natural disaster», but my friend Yosuke in Tokyo answered to my concerns on facebook this morning : «Hi.Mat.
Thank you for worrying about our thing. We work hard to put ones' efforts together, and to get over this difficulty.»

Anyway, here are some of my favourite news sources about this «difficult» situation (latest to oldest) :

- (màj 23/3) lots of Maps (french mainly) on the France Culture Globe blog post : Face à la Catastrophe, recours aux échelles géographiques

- Matt from AltJapan summarized the public data available on the nuclear situation in Fukushima

- The New York Times updated its infographics explaining the failure of Fukushima with another explaining How a reactor shuts down and what happens in a meltdown

- a Q&A «Meltdown Alert on Japan Reactor» on the BBC news website

- The New York Times published an interactive map of the damage

- Maggie Koerth-Baker explains how a power plant works and fails on boing boing

- an infographics about «How the Nuclear Emergency Unfolded» on The Washington Post

- Cristine Russel/The Atlantic «What the media doesn't get about meltdowns»

- a photo gallery by my favourite info site The Guardian : Japan before and after the Tsunami 

- an impressive and insightful diaporama from The Big Picture (Boston.com) 

- an image I saved from the www.jma.go.jp on friday :



I'll update this post...