Aleksandra # 17 - Paradoks

Śpieszmy się kochać, ludzie tak szybko odchodzą. (Hurry to love, people leave so quickly.)

- Father Jan Twardowski

Będziemy kochać się bardzo powoli, delikatnie, żeby zostało jeszcze coś na jutro. (We will love each other slowly, tenderly, so that something will be left for tomorrow.)

- Marcin Świetlicki

Aleksandra # 16 - Un'altra

What is it with music that throws you around whether there is space or not, forgetting fatigue and inhibitions, blisters and boyfriends? At three am the band begged us the audience to go home.



Here is one explanation to the power of music, provided by Christian Lindberg, Swedish composer and conductor.

"We were dancing monkeys long before we were talking individuals. The root of language is rythm and once we get the rythm in our blood, a hundred bodies can gather force in one voice and body, build pyramids or march in sync towards death or victory over the enemy. Rythm, dance and music are the basis of all interplay, most beautifully expressed in the large choir or symphony. With its help, we feel the sphere of music and perceive the essence of humanity."

JULIA # 34 - Written in lipstick, my last night in Paris

So what's the plan for tomorrow? When do you finish class?
Let's finally pick up my lunch tickets and try the sushi place down my street.

Then let's cry together cause for some reason we seem to have been a bit sad lately.

It's easy since it's not happening.


Baby. You're hyperventilating.
My voice is gone.
I want to discuss last night with you.
You were so pretty.

Back home now.
Sweden is beautiful, but not so cold and people are shorter than I remember.
I must have grown in Paris
I'm sorry for not allowing you to help me with my bags, but it would have been more than I could handle.

We're cool cats. And cool cats are meant to stick to each other.

MARIA #14 - HIT AND HIDE

I have faded blue nailpolish on my middle fingers, just to flip people off in a more colourful way.I don't do it much but when its saturday night and I am working and some shitfaced twofaced whatever is trying to get my attention by grabbing or screaming, its a good thing. I started liking chilisauce, and olives. I can never see my floor for all the clothes that cover it, and i excuse myself for it way to often. Someone once told me to stop saying "I am sorry", I guess I am just used to being misunderstood.
the unknown is taking over. its like waves of discomfort and uncertainty, uncertainty can be a good thing, uncertainty keeps me interested and awake. but there is a limit. I need my sleep too, to be in the know.
would be coolers, potatoes, bananas and jazz. hm.

good night for now

JULIA # 33 - And folks like me on the job from 9 to 5

It takes me 28 minutes to walk to work and it’s downhill almost all the way.
The way back takes only 19 minutes, despite the fact that I need to climb the whole of Götgatsbacken.




Happy are those who go to work


Happy are those who are on their way back home

Wall paintings, Gdansk, Poland

JULIA # 32 - TURKEY!

For some reason there have been loads and loads of people from Turkey on our blog lately. And that makes us very happy!
Viva Istanbul! Viva Turkish food!
(Ever since I was in Alanya ten years ago, I've been dreaming about this amazing meat that was served in a ceramic pot. That was the first time I got full for real I think. )

So, you're all more than welcome to our little space!
But I can't keep myself from asking - what brought you here? It says that you guys were googling 'Julya Aleksandra' and landed on pictures of me and my sister climbing the Eiffel tower with a ladder. But what were you looking for really? And who are 'Julya and Aleksandra'? Pop stars? Tv cooks? Mistresses of the Turkish President? Your contribution to the Eurovison song contest?

Please, I'm really curious now!
If you help me, I'll promise to buy this and wear it at work for one week!

Ida #22 Papi

Ja.

JULIA # 30 - Surfing the day away

To recommend ones favourite web pages feels very 90's, but so does chatroulette and chatroulette is amazing.

My three favourite web sites for the moment:

Ideas worth spreading
because i like to learn new things, so I can try to impress boys when I'm drunk and fail to seduce them and eat too much the next day and feel bad, but comfort myself saying 'at least I'm smart'.

Prisondate
because eveyone loves a bad boy, and as I'm spending most of my time at my internship or smoking under the kitchen fan, I don't have time for a real relationship

Cuteness overload
because I have a sensitve side too and need to see a dancing elephant baby every once in a while to endure the day.

Dancing Baby Elephant Plays Harmonica | Viral/Other | SPIKE.com

Aleksandra #15 - El hueso de la risa

So, on Friday, a friendly thief stole my bag with wallet, phone, the lock, the stock and the barrel. At least he was considerate enough to do the move after 5 am, so we had the time for many feasty hours, dancing, dancing, dancing together and alone, rocking and rolling, shaking our behind, dancing on one leg and to the left, pogo style and nightclub two step. We did not do the hustle.

Anyway. Drunk and happy friends cheered me up and so did the taxi driver and the cleaning lady and Cams baked buns with cardamom, apples and masse-pain because I like (elle, pas) and told me jovial stories of her time at the bakery. Do you know the secret of parmesan? Or the theory of yeast bubbles?

C squashing cardamom pods without a mortar











Then we invited the others to have some buns and drank coffee, smoke cigarettes and read in bed, all in the same big bed. All you need is love.

Now I am trying to make Camilla take an appartment with cuisine non equipée across the street so that Vincent and she gotta come here every evening for dinner.

the secret to fabulous food is fat, sugar and expensive spices







steam from the oignon soup flowing to the dough (C's invention)











buns, piroger, empanadas, rogaliki - beloved child has many names

Carolina# 9 Which way do you chose to get to the metro?

It is already first of March and here goes my second chance of getting that metro-travelling-card to a reduced price. Ever since January I’ve been planning on buying it from March. I’m not just saying that. I planned on buying it, I really was. I am an honest person, people act chocked to learn that I don’t already have one. I don’t want to loose this honest aura that makes me look the guards straight in the eyes and in a jedi-mind-trick kind of way make them ask especially not me to see my ticket. I was going to buy it, I really was. Now I’m not so sure anymore.

Creativity is born in doing things differently. It makes the synapses in the brain click in new exiting ways. Or something. I sometimes brush my teeth with my left hand instead of the right and right one. I put a shirt on with front back and try to button it up. I paint eyes on my chin and pretend my face is up-side down. I imagine creativity comes from not having the card.

Off course it’s a bit tricky getting around without it. But when jumping the gate, sometimes wearing high-heels, it gives me a boost of energy. Ridiculous? Maybe, but I tell myself, Baby. There ain’t no mountain high enough, you will always find a way of passing your obstacles.

I was planning on buying the card, I really was. But now I’m not so sure. I’ve been fine without it the past two months. Haven’t I?

MARIA #13 - CONTORT

I have been ill pretty much once every two weeks since december when I went home to Sweden over christmas. People always conclude Sweden to be a pretty much frozen country all year long, but truth is I haven't seen a "white christmas" for at least 3 years, and if it has been slightly snowing it has always faded in the days to follow. this year, however, the apocalyptic snowgods of russia (corny I know) went our way with the most freezing weather I have ever experienced. it was very difficult for me to even leave the house as my skin almost instantly goes red and dry as soon as it any kind of minus degrees going on. anyways, I got sick, pretty much the second I landed, and it kept on keeping on until now. yesterday I went to se James Chance and les Contorsions, which was awesome, he looks like an evil character from like snoopy or something (as in a typical 40's style gangster). totally not human, a charicature of himself.

Either way it was a very amazing show, but it was sweaty and messy (someone threw a wineglass at me before the show had even begun) and my illness couldn't really handle that so I retreated to the back after about an hour of crazy dancemoves from James and a hell of a lot of moshing in the audience formed moshpit (yes...) about 5 inches from where i was standing.

in any case, after this I decided I've had enough of this cold from outerspace (or russia or wherever) and I am now resorting to the last know measures I can think of. Chicken soup. thats what people always associate with illness, so i figured it had to be associated with it for a reason. so right now i am boiling various vegetables, onion, garlic, ginger and chicken in a huge pot in my kitchen. it looks a little something like this:


I am also about half my way through todays breakfast, consisting of two bags of kiwis and a family pack of orange juice.


since i have been sick for quite a while now, this is what has been taking over my (formerly known as) food cabinet. oh well. if this doesn't work... i don't know what will...

JULIA # 29 - VIVA ANDREA CREWS!

Parisian Fashion
Louis Vitton, Givenchy, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent. All great brands with a long history. They have amazing budgets, hierarchies and well-tried rigid routines.

Parisian Fashion

Andrea Crews. Is much different. And even though many believe that fashion is not art, not even culture but advertising, Andrea Crews crosses the limits. Andrea Crews is a collective run by Maroussia Rebecq. They create. Everything. That you can come to think of.





One incident that one of their interns told me is about Andrea Crews social work. They go out to schools in the Parisian suburbs and have work shops with the kids, encouraging them to express themselves.
One boy redesigned a ‘I <3> London' t-shirt into a ‘I fuck London' one, with loads of drawings on it. Maroussia fell in love with the t-shirt and wanted to have it in a collection. The suburb boy was one step from becoming a designer. However, the teachers didn’t approve of the message conveyed and wanted to send the almost designer to have a talk with the Principal. The other kids protested – it was Maroussia who had drawn attention to the t-shirt, she should be held responsible. And so Maroussia had to go explain the t –shirt to the Principal.
What is special about this story the kid got positive feedback for something he created. It’s a way of showing that creativity is an alternative

Their models are not only beautiful, but first and foremost - alive. They are artists, dancers with personalities that shine through at the catwalk. All rules 90-60-90 cm are left miles behind when the models are stage diving at the end of the show, one after one.

(After the fashion show autumn 09 it was so easy to ask for cigarettes, everyone was just so so so so happy and filled with energy)

The reason for me writing this article is that Andrea Crews might get evicted from their current location. They have occupied the shop where they now run their business. It’s located at Place Pigalle, next to the bar "Dirty Dick" and opposite, according to rumours, Jean Paul Gaultier’s flat.

What Andrea Crews does is not charity and the general rule is rents are made to be paid. But at the end of the day, Pigalle would be a much more sad place without them. Countless artists have gained priceless experience Andrea Crews. They are an alternative way to art and fashion in a city that’s rather known for its conservatism and burdened by its traditions.

The world, Paris and especially Pigalle needs Andrea Crews. So please spread the word and show your support

Here is their facebook group for instance:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1192384438&ref=search&sid=666811827.2255837985..1


All the pictures are taken from their website:
http://www.andreacrews.com/