HELLO, MAY I HELP YOU ?

i finally "signed" my new contract of employment, a few minutes ago. and i'm nothing but glad about it.

on october the 1st i'll start my new career as a comics seller in a new bookshop in Dijon (which will open in november), and i'm quite happy about it, cause my new boss and i both agreed on the main things (money, money, money, money, money, hours, money, money, money, and money).

i'll speak more about it pretty soon. for 6 weeks i'll work with some good friend of mine in Besancon (hello Grimmy), and after that, Dijon. which means loads of work, as there's already some big bookshops there.
but i got another month of vacation before it, while i'll try to focus on 1) doing nothing, and 2) read mountains of baaaaad french comics that i'm supposed to know if i wanna sell 'em. 8)

"I'm going to use you like a hand puppet!". thanks again, mum... h, mister Ceransky. 8)
i see that when you're not ICQing while at work, you're also finding great stuff on the web. thanks for it.

DRUM'N'BASS LOVAH UNITED.

yesss ! finally they did it.
the little crew of motivated and decided french drum'n'bass heads are currently releasing Le Break, a dj tools kindalike, the very first french one, with stuff that all of you jungle/drum'n'bass dj's (or just breakbeat oriented openminded people) will have fun to play with.



i duno who did the cover art but it's just awful. 8)
the bunch of freaks under this project are just people who like the music, not especially in the business field, but definitely more from the dj'ing/producers french area, and since "the beginning" for any of them ; along them are dj Nem, Steve Arguelles, or Cristalo, but i wanna say a big BIG UP (and respect too) to my man Alcor who do shit-for-the-ears for... heck, for too long by now. so having his stuff on some wax is nothing but huge. now Alcor, i'm waiting for some full tracks from you, dirty asshole. 8)

Le Break is a LP full of good shit and is available through Philippe at Venus [phone (0033)1.55.89.0909/ fax (0033)1.55.89.0900] or online here.

FREE STUFF FOR TODAY.

- NewYork City Blackout as photographed by John Wehr. nice shots, interesting and differents view from the people on the ground view.

- still on the "those stuuupid residents of the united states of america can do it, they realy can" topic, some news from our pals David H. and Gary C., circa uh, let see... 1980 something, uh ?



don't they look soooo pretty ?
arf.

- "...Because, really, as long as you're sexier than the 20th century's greatest monster, you're doing pretty OK."
is that all that we can wait from the web ? i don't think so, but god, how fucked up could be the dangerous minds you can go through while pranking online... this one, for instance, ask on a humorous mode if he can "compete with Hitler?". Gasp. sounds like a +5000 clicks a day routine...

- something metallic and beautiful to see one day.

- stupid of the month. how's that, i'm rude ?

- or is it him ?



well, time to go. to sleep. for hours :
tomorrow i see my (maybe) soon-to-be boss.
new job.
more comics involved.
more money, too.
means loads of new shit.
and loads of gooood news.
have a nice day, ladies and gentlemen.

IT'S A STICKER WORLD WE'RE LIVIN' IN.

ohhh, what a great link. thanks mister Ease. 8)
in fact, it's quite disturbing :



one, friends from the local bookshop told me that "Stick'em up", some book (about guess what, stickers, yeah right) my pal Alcor asked me to find for him, has finally arrived. i've gived it a try, and it looks pretty good. Alcor, as you're not on ICQ today, you must know it : your book is here. 8)

two, yesterday night, while re-watching "Marathon Man" (Schlesinger's 1976 classic), i got some immediate tooth ache, don't ask me why. 8) so i decided to go stick a little in my nice quiet little old town. i came back after a 80 minutes run, around 3 am, and gooood, it was good. i think you'll find these very stickers soon on the Sticker Nation link above.

three , so the following link will launch your poor soul in the twisted post-graff-neo-vandalizm-sticking madness, which is one of the last so-perfect so-pretty artform i've seen in ages. Sticker Nation is a nice door to start with. loads of nice stickers, great places, everywhere... so of course, there's already some pieces from KRSN, Akroe, Bansky, and many many more. check this out in the next weeks for some personnal uploads, uh uh uh.

CHECK OOOOUUUUUTTTT MY MAAAAAAN AAAADAM.

the sneaker-eater, the only guy i know who cannot leaves a town without 12 pairs of the last models, will be part of some "party".
even if MTV looks involved (hum...), i wanna grab your attention : graffiti exhibit, sounds by the Mighty Milo, with some live perf courtesy of the High & Mighty, and if you need solid fuckin shoes, the guy will probably show what he got for some exhibit he makes there.
who got more nice models ? nobody. nuff' said.
oh yeah, say hi for me. 8)



FOTB: FRESH OUT OF THE BOX
A definitive sneaker culture showcase
- where? Freight 410
- where exactly ? 410 West 16 Street [Bet 9th/10th ave.] Manhattan
- in which town ? i'm kidding.
- when ?Thursday, August 28, 2003
- when exactly ? doors open at 8pm
- how much ? $10 before 11pm
- who ? every sneaker addicts, 21 & over

OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH.....

looks cool ! and the site is pretty nice too...

I SWEAR THAT IT'S THE YEAR 2003.

too hot here for typing things about the following stuff.
or maybe it's because it's just hard to find words, simply.
thanks to Mordant Carnival and to Plums for the covering.

The Hearing on AMINA LAWAL SET TO BE STONED ON - 27 AUGUST 2003

"The Nigerian Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence for Amina Lawal, condemned for the crime of adultery on August 19th 2002, to be buried up to her neck and stoned to death. Her death was postponed so that she could continue to nurse her baby. Hearing on her Execution is now set for 27 AUGUST 2003.
If you haven't been following this case, you might like to know that Amina's baby is regarded as the 'evidence' of her adultery. The married man who raped Amina denied any wrongdoing and faces no charges.
Amina's case is being handled by the Spanish branch of Amnesty International, which is attempting to put together enough signatures to make the Nigerian government rescind the death sentence.
A similar campaign saved another Nigerian woman, Safiya, condemned in similar circumstances. By March 4th the petition had amassed over 2,600,000 signatures.
It will only take you a few seconds to sign Amnesty's online petition.
Please sign the petition now, then copy this message into a new email and send it to everyone in your address book.
Go to the web page and sign The Petition."

nuff' said. along with "fuck all this crazy bastards".

SUMMER = POSTCARDS FROM FRIENDS.



another mail art from Everland, great maestro of the humanoids potatoes, stupid postcards, and bad humor. 8)

WANDA.

In 1970, Barbara Loden, Elia Kazan's wife, did her "only" movie as a director (and scenarist, and actress).
it sounds like some Cassavetes, it smells like some Amos Kollek, and it could probably get some blood ties with many, many indy cinema from the french "nouvelle vague" to some 80's stuff, to contemporain indy scene. but it's from 1970.
you'll find the taste of despair, the taste of blank uppercut, the taste of these seventies were many things falled appart for years in the so wonderful united states of america, where capitalizzzm and then-so-cool-shit from the same range were slowly puttings thousands of people in the same giant hole ; not really a criticism, more something which feels like a kick in the stomach, a hand tended at you, but only for showing you something not really nice.
at first, when going out the theater yesterday night, i was quite disappointed of what i saw, cause many reviews of this movie re-release were arguing about its feminist side, which is something i didn't find that much. Wanda is a movie who insist that even if you could think that shit happens sometimes, long could be the road for showing you how deep you can fall into ; disillusion, state of anti-grace, call it what you want. Wanda is a movie to watch.
oh yeah, and Michael Higgins is awesome, too, in the role of Norman Dennis.

CLUMSY, A NOVEL BY JEFFREY BROWN.

well, it's ben a while since i wanted to get my hands on this book. i missed the first edition and well, after a few months late, i finally got it. so i spent the weekend trying to find the perfect time for reading it, and holy shit, what a book. once again, thanks to Top Shelf for books like this.



the conference where Clumsy is playing is more about the Tomine/Chester Brown/Seth/Clowes one, as Jeffrey spend the whole book tryin to depict by his memories some moments with his erh, lover.
it's nothing but things we probably all lived or thinked about, but it's done quite briliantly, and, as wrote Grant Reynolds, "Clumsy is the typical boy-meets-girl story, and believe it or not that's exactly what makes it so great".... you'll be able to find 365849+ (like this one, or this one here, or this one again) others comments from the same enthousiasm if you googlize a little ; Brown's made big impression with such books, and the following in his artwork is pretty good too ; i'm not "a lot" into the art. it seems that Brown want to stick to the basis trading of emotions, and it's working perfectly, i gotta admit.

there's a little Jeffrey Brown interview here, and on his website, there's an explanation of his way of seing "art to the people" through The Holy Consuption, the kind of crew he form alongside John Hankiewicz, Paul Horneschemeier and Anders Nilsen.

I GOT SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU.so yeah, please, read this. and answer, me, too. 8)

well, many people told me (well, when i say "many people", you understand, right...) that the fact that this blog is in english is pretty bad for them ; they ask me about a french version, and if there were only one comment on this fact, i'd leave it in some place of my so empty head.
but the fact is that it's not a one-comment and that's all. so, of course, i'm beginning asking questions to me, myself, and i.
and by checking the stats of this blog :
1. France 5818 71.9 %
2. United States 831 10.3 %
3. United Kingdom 295 3.6 %
4. Canada 239 3.0 %
5. Germany 128 1.6 %
6. Belgium 69 0.9 %
7. Australia 59 0.7 %
8. Spain 41 0.5 %
9. Netherlands, The 33 0.4 %
10. Sweden 33 0.4 %
Unknown 160 2.0 % / The rest 385 4.8 % / Total 8091 (yesssss!) 100.0 %
it's no matches that i'm pushing my brain to new limits only for writing in english for... french people ?
heck. at first this blog was supposed to help me to learn more english skills, but i doubt that it really works, not that much, for sure. i'm learning more by reading others' ones. 8)

on the other hand, some good friends from UK or US or whatever always told me that it's cool to read my shit in english : they don't know french language ; maybe they got to learn it, even only for this blog, uh ? 8)

anyway. here's the deal.
i'll start a big vote campain about the future of this blog. if you got strong ideas about it, feel comfortable to tell me so at my usual email adress. those who don't have it can use the contact above this blog ; i'll take care of the bigger number of french versus the minority of the english readers who come around, of course, and we'll decided together what to do of this piece of numeric crap.
what you think about ? just use a few seconds for sending me "we still want some francais" or "let's keep it in english", please, and i promise that i'll burn candles for your name.
after all, i just cannot decide it alone, so why not asking you, eh ?

other solution : you're lazy, you don't work and you're bored to death, you speak french and english, and you're ok for taking care of a english version of the french blog i could do.
of course, i'll pay you mountains of money, you'll meet with fortune, fame, alcohol, cocaine and women, and you won't regret it, never, ever.

thanks for your time.

HARVEY AWARDS, 2003. AND VERTIGO NEXT SHIT. AND YOUR MONTHLY DOSE OF ELLIS, TOO.

nuff said. 8) the hairy Moore made some hold up. some decent and authorized hold up :

"The winners of the Harvey Awards were announced Saturday night at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City.

Best Writer: Alan Moore (for Promethea).
Best Artist: Eduardo Risso (for 100 Bullets).
Best Cartoonist: Jeff Smith for Bone.
Special Award for Excellence in Presentation: Krazy and Ignatz (Fantagraphics).
Best New Series: Rubber Necker by Nick Bertozzi (Alternative Comics)
Best Continuing or Limited Series: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill ABC).
Best Single Issue or Story: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II, #1 by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill (ABC).
Best Graphic Album of Original Work: The Cartoon History of Universe, Volume III by Larry Gonick (W.W. Norton).
Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work: 20th Century Eightball by Daniel Clowes (Fantagraphics).
Best Anthology: Comics Journal Summer Special (Fantagraphics).
Best Inker: Jaime Hernandez for Love and Rockets.
Best Letterer: Todd Klein for Promethea.
Best Colorist: Dave Stewart for Hellboy.
Best Syndicated Strip: Mutts by Patrick McDonnell.
Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation: B. Krigstein, Volume 1 (Fantagraphics).
Best Presentation of Foreign Material: Lone Wolf and Cub (Dark Horse).
Best Domestic Reprint Project: Krazy and Ignatz (Fantagraphics).
Best New Talent: Nick Bertozzi for Rubber Necker.
Best Cover Artist: Adam Hughes for Wonder Woman.

ladies and gentlemen, a few other news from the united states of america best comics inprint, DC's own Vertigo :

"Grant Morrison has signed a two-year exclusive deal with DC Comics, it was revealed at the Vertigo panel at Comic-Con International on Friday. Morrison, whose recent work includes The Filth at DC and New X-Men at Marvel, will end his New X-Men run with #154.
Morrison's new book, Vinanarama, is described as "an Islamic, sci-fi love story." It will launch next spring."

"Writer Andy Diggle and Enrique Breccia are teaming on Swamp Thing: Bad Seed, a six-issue mini-series. When the long-forgotten Sargon the Sorceror dupes Tefe into battling her own father, it's up to John Constantine to intervene before all of humanity is caught in the crossfire."

"Neil Gaiman will co-write a new The Books of Magic monthly series with television writer Si Spencer. With Lucifer artist Dean Ormston illustrating, The Books of Magic will relaunch early in 2004."

"Vertical is a 64-page special by written by Steven T. Seagle and illustrated by Michael Allred and Phillip Bond that's just 4 inches wide and 22 inches tall. It's the story of Brando Bale - a young man covered with cuts, stitches and bruises from his many leaps from high places in an attempt to find God - and Zilly Kane - a teenager who dreams of fame and finds Brando instead."
(shame shame shame on me, i did nothing but p'n'c from Comics Continuum above...)

ladies and gentlemen, a few other news from the united kingdom, country of the best comics writerzzz :

- flash. mob. the next 2 fuckin words that you will not be able to miss while around so-called civilized planet earth.
readers of my planetoidesque blog will not be surprised ; they know that writer Warren Ellis is somewhere before anybody else ; that's probably part of his success (check this last and recent interview he did for Technoccult.net back in January). this, and his sick ideas, too. 8)
soooooo... still from his Bad Signal mailing list....

"Xeni Jardin once described something to me as "teh suck." For no good reason, it makes me laugh whenever I see it. My friends have started to adopt it.
The London Flash Mob was teh suck.

At 6.17, the organiser appeared in the pub to distribute the script for the mob. We were to descend on a sofa shop, point at sofas and say "Oh, what a sofa!". Without using the letter O. No-one seemed to know where the shop was. By bizarre luck, I bumped into a woman called Bev who knew my name without knowing my face or who I was (someone had forwarded Bad Signal to her without explanation and with bits clipped out, by all accounts), and by even stranger luck, she lives over the road and knew where the place was. We took off, and the entire pub seemed to follow us.

Bev works in peace activism, and knows a lot about things I don't know enough about. The flash mob appealed to her, I think, because she's arranged similar things in years gone by for purposes of political activism, before we had the term "smart mob."
We arrive to find the media all over the place -- and the sofa shop closed for the night. It's nearly 6.30pm, after all. Journalists are running all around the mob -- which is bloody huge by this point -- and I count five camera crews. And a drive-by by the police.
Devices waved in the air by the dozen -- phonecams, digicams, camcorders, PDAs, you name it. All shorts and shoulderbags. (I look bloody horrible in shorts, so no. Don't even consider it. Move on.)

Someone's inside, on an upper level, trying to film the gathered mob without being noticed. Someone loudly pointed him out, and he tried to hide behind a net curtain.
Okay. *I* loudly pointed him out.

Anyway. We're here, the shop's shut. Which would seem to have fucked the flash mob, which is supposed to be about the appearance of spontaneity, right? Well, then, the shop opens. In fact, it seems to open specifically to let the flash mob in.
Media hordes. Shop opening specially for a spontaneous mob. Right.
Barely half of us get in. Bev and I just get to the first sofa past the doorway, when, bang, it's 6.40. End Of Mob time. There's a round of applause -- that seems possibly for the benefit of the camera crews -- and it's done. Bev's asking me to sit on the sofa with her, a hundred sweaty Londoners have just noticed the only thing between them and the door is me and the cameraman behind me... fuck it.
I backed out and took a few shots of the dispersal.

Entirely too many people came up to me during this to tell me they were here because they'd read about it on Die Puny Humans. That was weird.
I say goodbye to Ian King, a DPH news-finding reg, and to Mark Eris and the band Arkam Asylum, who were playing tonight and I didn't get there which pisses me off but I'll see them next time because I like them. Bev's hooked up with a friend, Michael, and they ask me round the corner for a drink. At this point, I give
up on the notion of writing a full account of the flash mob on-site.
Fuck it. I want a drink.
Michael's also involved in the democratic activism trade, and he also knows many things I don't, in addition to being a nice bloke.
However, pieces of conversation allow him to dope out my full name. And, in an extremely unusual moment, he gives it "You're Warren Ellis, aren't you?" Bev looks at him like he's gone mad. Mike's got all the bloody TRANSMET books, hasn't he? Reads DPH every day. This is extremely weird for me. The thing about working in comics is that you're really Not Famous. At All. It was strange enough when the girl at the local Chinese recognised me off the television. That kind of derailed the conversation for a few minutes, until, I think, it became clear that I really wanted to talk about the work they're into. It helped that Bev remained totally baffled by it all. The high point was Michael producing a lip-balm stick packaged for US troops in Iraq. It was branded AMERICAN STRIKE. I have a photo on the phone I'll check later. AMERICAN STRIKE LIP BALM. Glorious.

So, flash mob. Teh suck. But I got to meet some really interesting people. And after that, I met Garth and Rush Ennis and Dave Gibbons for a drink. So that was all right then."

CLOS.. heck... OPEN FOR SUMMER INVENTORY.

well, we're already at mid-august, and i still have 3 gigabillions of shit to do before the end of the month.
it seems like it's looks like a classic summer shema in which i fall every year.
so... here's a little update for me, of course, but also to all of those little curious who ask me (on a weekly basis) stuff that i don't have time to write to each and everyone. 8) (sorry, by the way).

- yeah, the "big comic book project" is doing well.
after a few weeks of "how to start" state of mind with "the crew", we found some kind of schedule to keep focused on ; there's many steps before having the book in our hands, of course. now, we got to be quick with all the subsidy : as i saw with my little experience with the record label biznizz, the only thing to do with the town, the department, the country, and the others who tell you that "yes, we can help you" kind of shit, is to give them some pressure.
now, try to find people to give some pressure, in any town' city hall, at mid august.
you got the point. 8(
so, i'm trying to focus on the book development ; after a few questions on the format, we decided of something quite correct ; next thing is the number of pages, as we got to deal with black and white art and 4 colors art. 8)

at the moment, we got some really motivating (and motivated) "yes" from serious people.
some names in the field already sent us some stuff, and i'm loving doing this "job". Drine told me that "it's the job i got to do: booking artists for projects, whatever music stuff or comics shit, she said, as i'm like mad while doing it and my enthousiasm is contagious". it's nice to see that what looked like a psy defect for some people can be cool for others.
anyway. along a few names from the "pro" area, we don't wanna keep on a french level at all.
the only things to stay connected with are 1, the state of mind of the story/art, and 2, the availability/will of the authors.

after all, it's nothing but another filled-with-passion idea, and if we want some quality book, there will not be much money left for the artists ; which is a shame, but it looks like a shame that nobody cares apart us : all of the people i've talked about looks interested without money behind. life's tasty, i tell you. 8)
i'm glad of it. it's slowly becoming the main reason for doing this book : people who deserve more exposure ; well, let's try to give'em some. this side of France, at least. 8)

- this french summer media event isn't the hot hot hot weather, neither is israel's wall. Bertrand Cantat killed Marie Trintignant. he's the leader of the so-called biggest french rock band, Noir Desir (nobody know if he did some Tosta-kick(*) for having such a result), and she was a loved actress, daughter of a loved actor.
more seriously ? heeeeck... i dunno ; Marie Tritignant was a cool actress, but i wasn't this much into her ; the only thing i know is that both of them were fragile on a psy level, both of them were pretty no-funny people (at least for what they showed of themselves), and, last but not least, both of them dealed with drugs, alcohol and stuff (as far as i know, but from what i've heard/read/learn from serious medias like Libe or others).
so physic violence in a relationship is a too much commun fact, and not much people cry for this usually ; but here ? well, they were stars. Cantat was (is ?) more or less an icon. so everything change.

"i never liked Noir Desir". some people will say this by now ; people (who know me) know how i didn't like "Noir Des'" at all, even if i suppose they weren't this bad in their own field (well, i'm lying : i will save, maybe, a few things from the last album, with Brigitte Fontaine, for instance).
Cantat was a violent guy ; from his artwork to his attitude on stage. A violent author, singer.
a guy for whom it was probably hard to live his life, but hey, as for many of us. having a public life, a public idendity, was something he used for fight what he didn't like (universalisation, globalisation, mondialisation, whatever, you call it). oh yeah, and i'm a nice guy : i'll not talk about the usual speech from this Noir Desir and from his singer : they shout to the biiiiig baaaad lobbies of consumering/capitalizzzm, with anger and provocation, and they're signed on Universal ; if they were really "against" something, well, these guys probably bring their eggs from the Universal bucket and started something by themselves. they got audience and lovers ready to fllow any of their moves. fuckers.
so doing what he did 10 days ago was bad, and wrong, maybe more than for "other" common people ?
it will be hard to excuse what he did, a crime, even if it "wasnt' for kill her". there's too many Maries, and too many Cantats who hit them on a regular basis. as a so-called icon, the only thing he did (aside killing Marie) (which is enough, you'll tell me...) was to, once again, break a big part of the credibility of the people called "inhabited artist" ; so as an egoist person (who's not in tears for Marie), i just feel sad for the passionned, the motivated artists for whom it's already hard to deal with life and art and public glance.

now, if you tell me that we'll never heard about Noir Desir, it's ok, let's make a deal. 8)
(*) = thanks to the flo/nico/brice crew on this one. tostakick. arf.

HOLIDAYS. CELEBRATE.

well, so once again i saw that you don't need to move on Mars for having cool and nice holidays.
Drine and I want on the atlantic coast, straight to the west, and gooood, it was huge.
as we got to save money (movements and news to come in september...), we choose the camp-site solution ; it was pretty quiet, cool, and from our place, we were able to see the ocean. cool as fuck.
i did my old asshole here, cause the place we went was some place that my grandparents used to bring me when i was a child. it was 20 years (or so) that i went there for the last time, and it was more for the memories of the nice places (and the huuuuuge beach, too) than for any nostalgia shit.
one of the real good reason to go there was to rent in some places that i went as a child : the people taking care of it decided to ask us less money, as they remembered a tiny Ju doing some bicycle around their knees in the early 80's. 8)
and for 10 days we did what we do the best : nothing. but under the sun, and with a giant tub near us.




HELL YEAH :

- if we must save one reason why Atlantic coast kills Meditterannean coast, let's keep it clear : waves.
not red flags and loads of wind, but cool enough for making us drinking enough salted water for years.

- Australian government should check our freesbee skillz. we're just fuckin good to this difficult, hardcore sport. 8)

- weather. except 2 morning pretty grey, we got nothing but sun. yessss.

- evening showers... hu... hum, sorry. 8)

- the coast. we went in some of the biggest touristic places from the coast (we knew it), and between july and august i was sure to deal with too many people, everywhere. fuck me, i was too into my south of france memories. even if there places with loads of people, there nothing to do with meditteranea coast ; way more quiet. perfect.

- seafood. fresh seafood. yessss.

- Angouleme. Drine never went here, and we stopped (one hour drive from the place we were), just the time to check a few painted walls (the Yslaire one, for example, even if i'm not this much into the man's art, i gotta to say that the wall is huge. we were livin near this one this last Angouleme festival. the place to be at night, uh), quickly checking the city looks and eating on a nice panoramic point of view on the city. we needed more time for the CNBDI and co. future plans. anyway.
*** (speaking of that, Philippe from Angouleme, if you go through this blog sometimes, please contact me as i fucked up with your phone number and cannot contact you for weeks. some news about your short movie, along other things...) ***

- heck, we even got some people in the camp-site that were cool. ok, a very few, but... not so classic in camps, uh. we had a drink with our neighbours (of course, we were into a camp after all), but we spend time with english ones, with a average one of, let see... 65 or 70 years. 8)
Gladys & Geoff were cool indeed. but we weren't here for searching new friends... the ocean, goddamn!

- reading Gaiman's "Neverwhere" for the 5th time, but on the hot sand.
makes me wonderin if any people were under it. 8)

CRAP MOMENTS :

- Drine did the whole road alone (i still don't have my driving license).
we decided to alternate speed highways and little secondary roads, which made the travel cheaper, but slower. ok, we discovered some really nice places, too. well, especially me as Drine was driving. 8)
around 2000 kilometers. she made me promise to get my license before next year. 8)
- somewhere in la Creuse, between 2 old dead volcannos, some big bird decided to fly away from a bush and we hit him with car. Drine was quite shocked, as we killed for sure this poor animal. damn, he was pretty big, and he land somewhere, after leaving his blood everywhere. we couldn't stop, between 2 other cars in this little road. i made nightmares 3 days after.
- each year i'm more and more prepared for holidays. especially this year, we forget nothing. except the long "nails" for the tent... 8(
- i was supposed to meet with a few people from the area (if a certain blogger, writer and musician, is curious enough to read this, sorry, once again...) but due to modification of schedule (Drine was supposed to go back to work later, but they called her, hotdammit) it wasn't possible. we'll see you in september, people. hopefully.

yeah, there's other plans of cheap vacations soon.

more than anything else, we find out that definitely, ocean is good for us, people from the old mountains and nearly dead forests. 8) and maybe some quiet places near oceans (if not too far away from at least one cool town - Bordeaux, for our example) should be better for us (D. & I) than the busy, touristic hook from the south. there's too many good reasons, for us, at last. we'll see.

well. you want pictures from my sunstrokes ? from us eating some ice cream on the beach ? well, there ain't.