A short trip to Lyon

Life works in mysterious ways. Shortly after I published an article about Olympique Lyonnais goalie, I received a rather unexpected invitation from a friend to spend a day in Lyon. The initial idea was to drive a vintage BMW car in a specialized garage in the outskirts of the French city for repair, then return in the evening after the vehicle got fixed. Lyon is a city where I feel totally at home, plus it's only a one hour and half drive from Geneva. Needless to say I said yes. I knew we wouldn't have a lot time during the day to visit anything, so we agreed on some little shopping and a sight-seeing tour of the Stadium of Gerland, just to take some pictures and remain in good soccer mood. But before I post about this in particular, here are some shots of Garage Massot.

(Speaking of pictures, I am not particularly pleased with my latest post on Lausanne. The photo I choose was stolen and didn't reflect the atmosphere of the city that day. At all. Taking and posting my own pictures motivates me a hundred times more than pillaging others. It also seems to encourage me to blog more. Note for the future.)

The above-mentioned car at Garage Massot on Friday, 26th of March, 2010.
That piccie was taken around 7pm, hence the blue-ish auto settings

Opposite view : the garage main entrance

As I stepped into the garage owner's office, my eyes came across that pair of hypnotizing eyes. Those must have cast a spell on us, for we had to come back to the garage half an hour after we left. Sun had indeed set by the time we hit the highway and we suddenly realized that the car front lights weren't working anymore. Oh yeah, we freaked out

A short trip to Lausanne

I went to Lausanne last Wednesday to meet some old friends and discuss my current and upcoming film projects. Business trips in a different city are good, for they push you to develop your sense of orientation.


With an hour to kill before my first appointment, I decided to visit FINA Headquarters. It didn't seem far on a two-dimension map. I just forgot center Lausanne was built on a slope and anything but flat. Visitors there should make a note as to which plane of elevation they are on and where they want to go, or they otherwise find themselves tens of meters below or above the street which they are trying to reach. Which is exactly what happened to me. I found myself lost (or thought I was... :)) in a maze of terraced dead end streets and had to go back before getting late. Anyways, it wasn't a complete waste of time. Weather was crap but Lausanne residential area near the lake is just so beautiful and so much quieter than Geneva...

I later joined freelancing cameraman and editor Pat at his place. He worked on several occasions with RED cameras and editing systems. I heard terrible anecdotes on RED and I never really thought of using it as a possible option, but after watching one of Pat's demo and listening to his experiences, I am seriously reconsidering it. I mean, why not? We'll see.

Second appointment was sound engineer Wolfgang. I worked with him before, on Metastruments. Like Pat, it was nice seeing him again. Wolfgang just founded a new studio and according to the amount of absent calls he received on his cell, it's a success and more and more clients keep coming in. We talked about his projects and mine. And like Pat, he seemed pretty open for a future partnership.

Trip ended up well, and in the evening, on my way back to Geneva, I recalled all the insightful conversations I had that day. I realized how good it felt to have in-depth conversations about film projects with people. Oh wow, I miss that...

Healing the space within (2)

(continued from previous post)

Like I wrote earlier on, I have undertaken to an extensive and rather radical house cleansing since early December.
It began with a bookshelf which I thought needed to go, then the century-old dust I found stuck behind it, and ended with reconsidering in a split second my entire apartment setting. Oh, well, I had been there already. Rearranging one closet for the sake of spring cleaning, while hoping I could do the same about the rest of the place which never really felt completely like home, since I moved in eleven years ago. Except this time, I knew I had the right energy to complete the task.

While there is still work on the treadmill, I started noticing changes, not only in my environment but also inside of me. True that, stored objects induce memories and emotional energies as well, that can attain a life of their own and become entities. In my case, these entities weren't negative or positive. They were just outnumbered and more than I want to take. Strangely enough, this clearer vision I had about what was going wrong in my place directly reflected on my own state of mind and why I had so many difficulties lately working on my film projects. Yes, time to heal the space within before anything else...

Does this sound like a new year resolution? I think so :)
By the way, happy new year to you all!

Healing the space within (1)

Funny how an artistic job (and the full-time dedication it demands) can sometimes appear as rather lame excuse to give up or neglect down-to-earth activities such as eating, taking a simple walk and visiting friends or relatives. I have stopped blogging and working on movies for almost three months now. Not that I didn't have anything to say, on the contrary. I just HAD to take care of some more private aspects of my life. Such cleaning up and doing full refurbishing of my house.

Frustration of not finding writing inspiration peaked last November as I resumed the launching of Susu-prod website. I was just so craving for action but instead of a sudden burst of creativity, I compulsively started throwing things away from my place. I just realized that the old stuff I have been storing for a decade, was literally making me sick, especially since I hadn't been traveling outside my area that much and therefore been exposed to it on a regular basis. And what I mean by "old stuff" isn't just the dress I never wore but clung onto, but the past thoughts, emotions or actions that were held there like dust imprinted on the walls, floors and furniture...

(to be continued)