So French, So Roland Garros

Today, two beautiful things happened:

#1 Hyper cool thing - The Pompidu Modern Museum of Art

They had posters by the Guerrilla Girls. I loved this.


When I have kids...they will only be allowed to play with cool vintage things like this.

This horizontal urinal was entered to the New York Society of Independent Artist 1917 show by Marcel Duchamp. It is titled - Fontaine. His motive behind it was that he wanted to test a modern art committee (of which he happened to be a member of) that said they would accept anything as art for their show. So to trap them...he tipped over this urinal, signed his name (with the code name R. Mutt) on it and entered it into the show (He and Jackson Pollock would have definitely been friends). They refused to accept it under the grounds that he didn't actually make the urinal itself and therefore he could not take credit for the piece. It has had a large impact on modern art, making it so that artist did not need to be responsible for the complete creation of their finished product...more just the person behind the thought and manipulation. ... And it all began as a farce.

This is just a cool art video projection from the Pompidu. It is nearly as cool as in Gossip Girl, when Serena sets up the projections of trees for Dan's Christmas present...almost.

#2 Hyper cool thing - I went to the French Open!

Some years ago, I went to many a tennis tournament with Kristin Panarra and enjoyed absolute displays of sport etiquette and manliness. I have been missing those days, and after seeing the creme de la creme in tennis, I do not ever want to go through another tennis tournament drought.

Just look at that beautiful tennis pirate...

Fate has set me living, no more than, 3 minutes from the location of the French Open, so today I went and experienced it first hand. It was incredible. First, we had to wait in line for a very long time. Then, when they finally released the line to go get tickets, there was a literal stampede and I heard screams of pain and horror coming from the front...but I really wanted to see some attractive tennis players / pirates, so I was not deterred. When I first walked into the complex, guess who was there to greet me ... Maria Sharapova, herself. She had just finished up her match and was looking glamorous. I was unable to get a picture of her because my camera did not open quickly enough and she had just finished her match so she was heading out, but it was still pretty cool. And can I just say that she is really hot...because she is. I had initially planned on seeing Sharapova and Nadal (they played in the same stadium), but by the time we got in, Sharapova had already won and Nadal was half way through slaughtering some poor soul. So we decided to go to the main stadium and watch Safin (Russian stud) vs. Ouanna (the pride of France).


Venus was supposed to play after them but there game was so incredibly long and intense, it was already dark by the time her turn came around. I was so bummed I did not get to see Venus. But no need to worry because when we started to leave the stadium, who else walks by? VENUS WILLIAMS in the flesh!!


Again...I was not quick with the camera, so she is kind of in the distance at this point, but you can still see her. She is center stage in the white visor. And I am not saying that Venus or Sharapova ever came off as ugly or anything...but they are even more beautiful and fit in person.

This is a video from the match. I don't think you can even really see the ball on this small version, but whatever. It was just so intense. It lasted about 3 1/2 hours and they were still hitting the ball at up to 206 km/h. So many cool plays went down. And I am telling you, if you ever want to see the French get sassy, go to Roland Garros. I wish I had a real video camera and could have recorded all the mind blowing plays, but my little powershot (which Sharapova endorses, by the way) made due.

And if anyone would like to spot me 32 euro, I would love to have an excuse to buy a Roland Garros tennis ball ... that is the size of a basketball. I saw a lot of 5 - 14 year olds running around with them and I was really jealous.