High Contrast Grey.

The bar I have come to find as being my favorite in this town I was told has a 60s night every last Friday of the month.  I put on my black skinny tie. I look at my outfit in my reflection on the metro but still feel more 30s than 60s. The last Friday fell into the time frame of spring break and so the bar was dead in comparison to how I usually see it. Turn tables in the basement turning little obscure 45s. Pretty people in vintage clothing. Dancing in the basement, I keep trying to get out of the way for others meeting their friends and end up dancing next to the turn tables. Front row, center. A question in French about my bondage belt. I have no idea what the specifics of the question are and mutter some things. Agree. And start dancing again. The metro ends at 00.30. I look at my watch and decide 'fuck it.' The bar starts closing at 00.40. We hang out in the street. A huge crowd. Slowly dispersing. "After party chez moi!" We walk up a wooden staircase. P...

A tradition I developed back in Seattle was that I would go for a long walk and admire the beauty of the city. October 2007 I go for a walk on Capitol Hill. Its raining hard. I put Hang Me Out to Dry by the Cold Wars Kids on repeat. Or rather I just pushed the back button each time it came to an end. A faulty download that ended a few seconds short. Mid breath. Last word lost. Thankfully the nights have started warming up again and allowing me to walk and see them once again. Cloud cover trapping the heat. The stars become lost and replaced by the street lights above. I have loved wandering Rennes at night. The inspiration it provides. The way the light dances off the buildings. The way the cobbled streets shine irregulary when wet from the latest rain. The mixture of colors of lights. The complex beauty that is a city at night. Where people are either illuminated by the lights around them or shrouded in darkness. The idea that one can become lost. One thing I have n...

It seems that none of the architecture, nor the city planning is straight in France. The nights have been cold and where the ability to take reference photos of Rennes at night was presented, I had to cut it short as my fingers began to freeze so much that even the simple operations on my camera became difficult. J’ai lu une article sur le sujet de… I have a feeling that when I return that all these photos that I have taken will become my lifeline for artistic inspiration. I still have 800 some photos left on my SD card.. it feels strange that I will have not cleared the card for almost a year by the time I return to the states. A collection that I hope to never lose.

Classes have started up again, although I am still not feeling the realization of that fact. For some reason it seems that none of the classes are interesting this semster and I am having the hardest time trying to figure out which classes to take. Like a psych class where the information is interesting as it talks about the linguistics of language, but is in the third year so I lack all kinds of background in different studies that the other students already have. Dropping names of researchers like rockstars. On the upside, I think I finally found “my bar” in Rennes. Le Sambre. Wood walls. Red velvet. And old pictures all over the walls. The music doesn’t fit, but not everything is perfect. At least it is more just better rock music than something like top 40.

The bus was 50 minutes late and I just walked the way home. By the time it came I had already reached the university and decided to just walk the rest of the way. I found a tagged no parking sign in the process. Water damaged and broken, soon to be decorating my wall. The city is always more beautiful at night.

It seems so easy to go bar hoping when all the bars share the same building.. I was informed of a new way in which to get cheap drinks. By going to the casino they give you three free drinks for playing on their machines ($5 minimum they say, but just walking behind where the tender can see can make that a $1 minimum for three drinks). I figured out by setting the ISO on my camera up to the highest setting that I can capture pictures in darkened settings, like inside bars at night. Time for some fun to be found with this new knowledge… This helped in me getting some pictures for my photography assignment due tomorrow. Just need three more pictures and one more different camera/lens.