France Part I

03.31.05

Hey! Just got in from Paris- dead tired but I have only two days to prepare for Tokyo. I wasn't able to update my diary from out there, but I wrote the following this past Sunday---

I was nearly over my jetlag, but last night's party put me straight back on NY time- it's 6 pm and I just woke up. Last night the Euro-visions label hosted a 10th Anniversary party, first at a club called Shari Vari followed by an after-party at some guy's gigantic, very downtown NY-looking loft. The party began at 7 pm and ended at 8 am this morning, only because the cops arrived and said enough is enough. I haven't been at a party busted by cops since junior high school (when liquor + teenagers always guaranteed a bust-up). Naturally, the French cops were much more polite than their American counterparts.

Euro-visions is a French record label run by Xavier Alves, Cédric Morel, and Jean-Emmanuel Deluxe. Lotsa jazzy-cool electronica from artists like April March, the Witch Hazel Sound, Pete Aves. I met Xavier for the first time in February, when he was in NY to paint a room at the Carlton Arms hotel. We totally hit it off, and now here I am at his place in Rouen- with his cat Minux glaring at me with very hungry eyes.

Maison Tellier (soft acoustic threesome) and Bertrand Burgalat (French crooner with the world's largest glasses) opened the party with short live sets. I DJ'd afterwards- '60s girls like Martha & the Vandellas and Dana Gillespie, and plenty of Annie and Capsule- while the sweetest bartender kept me in full supply of beer (I don't think I had an empty glass the entire night). I am in love with the French- seriously everyone has been so incredibly kind and generous to me. I am totally overwhelmed. No only have Xavier and his Rouen posse taken care of me from the moment I arrived, but on the plane over I met an art director who took me in a cab from Charles De Gaulle airport to Paris St. Lazare, and then put me on a train to Rouen, and paid for everything! Ahh.... the kindness of strangers. Pascal, if you're reading this, our future night out in New York (or Tokyo!) is on me.

Moet & Chandon sponsored the party so champagne was the official drink of the evening, and at around 5 am, Xavier climbed up top to the DJ booth and doused the entire crowd with champagne. I DJ'd a second set focusing on my fave '80s trax by Kool & The Kang, Neneh Cherry, and Toto. I thought I might get booed off with "Africa," but everyone seemed to love it. Three French DJs- Antonin Gaultier (digiki) and Toma Club- came on after with laptops full of Bloc Party and Junior Senior and Nirvana. I haven't been to a party this swinging in years.

Sheila

Photos (clockwise from top left- Jean-Emmanuel Deluxe behind the decks, Xavier and Samuel taking iPod requests, the party gang, Antonin Gaultier and Toma Club.

Posted by Sheila at 03:55 PM