Olha só, o David Lynch é a ca-ra do Pequeno Príncipe!

Confidência de Yasmin Brunet à blogueira que vos fala, na Livraria da Travessa do Shopping Leblon, segunda-feira, com to-da ca-ra de entender tanto de David Lynch quanto eu da página 197 de A crítica da razão.

Os Jonas Brothers são basicamente como os Beatles, só que mais talentosos e tãããão mais bonitinhos.

Josh Eells, crítico da revista Blender, após afiançar com quatro estrelas (máximo de cinco) o novo CD dos meninos, A little bit longer.

Estes não são cartões-postais safados da praia. São indubitavelmente pornô. Alguns deles, inclusive, bastante obscuros, com lesbianismo e animais cometendo felação. É bastante desagradável. (...) Ainda hoje, estas descobertas estariam na prateleira de cima.

Dr. James Hawes, especialista da Oxford em Franz Kafka (1883-1924), depois de trazer à tona um lado mais dirty do tcheco que toda vez que chegava em casa sonhava com a barata da vizinha na cama dele.

Le Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

ps - acho que nunca seria capaz de tatuar o corpo, mas se o fizesse teria de ser inevitavelmente uma tartaruga ou uma tatuagem literária (que frase? que verso?, ainda não sei)

The story details how the author meets the little prince in the desert of Sahara, and how the little prince reveals easy to understand, but still profound, bits of knowledge. The prince is a child in most ways, and speaks and thinks in ways like a child. However, from his experience he tells stories and facts that illuminate and seem somehow forgotten to the adult mind.

It is not merely a good book for positive people around the world, or for those who are somewhere between childhood and adulthood (something that has described me for the last 20 years). It is merely a good book. It is a book that will make you want to laugh and to cry, and for me the ultimate test for the quality of any art is the way it draws out emotion in you.

You can get The Little Prince at amazon.com, or somewhere else. Just make sure you get it and share it with everyone you love, or like even.

Ah, le métro, ses affiches... que ferait-on sans lui ?
Nous dépenserions peut-être moins d'argent... qui sait ?
Bref. Dans mon dernier billet, je vantais les mérites de China Gold, l'exposition d'art contemporain chinois au musée Maillol, qui déjà m'avait été contée par ces fameuses affiches.
Depuis, j'ai été bien occupée, comme prévu, mais d'autres affiches avaient attiré ma curiosité : Joann Sfar aurait adapté Le Petit Prince de Saint-Exupéry. 

Le mot était donc donné.

Je ne cache pas mon déjà grand intérêt pour l'oeuvre du dessinateur, qui m'a ravit plus d'une fois, notamment avec son déjanté Chat du rabbin... 
La curiosité étant l'un de mes plus vilains défauts (à moins que ce ne soit ma plus grande qualité ? - Voir ça lors d'un prochain entretien d'embauche...).
L'affaire était lancée en avant première dans Télérama, à partir du 25 juin (jusqu'au 20 août 2008).
N'ayant pas vraiment compris le principe de la chose, je m'attendais donc à trouver avec le Télérama de la semaine un exemplaire du premier tome (ceci dit peut-être n'y en aura qu'un seul ? je n'ai encore pas bien lu...) du Petit Prince revu par Joann Sfar... Au final, seulement quelques pages dévoilées... Une petite déception, pour une grande attente initiée.

Et vous savez quoi (allez, vous n'en doutez pas puisque j'en parle !) ? Et bien une fois de plus, j'adore !!
Les quelques planches proposées par l'hebdomadaire m'ont non seulement ravit les pupilles (et non les papilles, pour une fois), mais on y retrouve un humour bien calé, un brin décalé, très subtil et d'une fraîcheur fidèle à l'original.
J'aime tout, des couleurs aux visages, avec ces grands yeux et cet air de ne pas y toucher...

Et comme une surprise ne vient jamais seule, très prochainement devrait sortir le second (et dernier) tome de la Théorie du grain de sable, par Schuiten & Peeters.

J'attends donc la suite avec une impatience sans borne (je suis peut-être un peu trop exaltée...) :
- Le Petit Prince, revu par Joann Sfar, à paraître le 18 septembre dans la collection Fétiche Gallimard.
- La Théorie du grain de sable T2, à paraître bientôt... quand "on" voudra bien lever le voile.
(S'il vous plaît, tu me dis la date ?)

Joyeuse soirée féérique à vous.

Wow. Die Zeit rast und das Schuljahr ist bereits beinahe wieder beendet, unglaublich, wie schnell(er) die Zeit doch vergeht...

Heute habe ich schon mal die letzte Französisch-Schulaufgabe hinter mir gebracht.

Es war recht einfach, selbst ich muss das sagen (Ich stehe in Franz momentan auf einer 5 und meine Lehrerin und Ich hoffen beide die Arbeit läuft gut und ich bekomme noch eine 4 ins Zeugnis).

Wir bekamen 6 Fragen gestellt und musste noch einen Commentaire schreiben... insgesamt gab es 140 BE.. also Punkte. Naja... es lief recht gut, ich konnte ausnahmsweise mal alle Fragen beantworten, trotzdem sah mein Blatt aus wie ein Schlachtfeld vom Streichen usw...

Die Fragen drehten sich rund um unsere Lektüre "Le petit prince" im Deutschen bekannt unter dem logischerweise eingedeutschten Titel "Der Kleine Prinz".. ein Kinderbuch... denkt man zumindest. Aber Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (der Autor) lässt sehr unterschwellig diverse dinge einfließen, die Kinder gar nicht verstehen können, so zum Beispiel der Vergleich einer kleinen Rose, die auf dem Planeten des Prinzen wohnt, mit Frauen, oder das unscheinbare Wesen der Affenbrotbäume, verglichen mit dem Aufstieg der Nazis...  alles findet anklang im Buch.. man rechnet nur nicht damit...

Wie dem auch sei, es war die letzte ihrer Art, ob ich das Jahr jetzt schaffe oder nicht und das is ja immerhin ein Grund zum feiern.. nech ='D

Desweiteren habe ich die letzte Woche täglich damit verbracht, mir auf Youtube Metal Gear Solid 4 in voller Länge anzusehen.

Was? Ja, ihr habt richtig gehört! Ich hab es mir ANGESEHEN! =D

Weil ich keine PS3 habe und mir momentan auch nicht leisten kann, habe ich es vollständig auf youtube.com gesehen. Wirklich sehr toll dieses Spiel.

Ein Actiontitel wie ein Film! Sowas habe ich noch nie gesehen, unglaublich!

Ein trauriger Actiontitel... sehr traurig. Die tragische Geschichte um Solid Snake nimmt im 4. Kapitel der Spielereihe ihr Ende und auch Snake wird seines sicherlich finden.

Es gibt aber ein Wiedersehen mit alten Freunden und die gesamte Story wird haargenau ins kleinste Detail gelöst werden. Ein wirklich gelungenes Game, wie ich finde, dass ich, wenn ich es irgendwann auf die Reihe kriege, auch einmal durchspielen werde. Persönlich versteht sich.

Ab Mittwoch abend werde ich nochmal kurz Abschied nehmen, denn es gibt wieder eine kleine Reise zu bestreiten, die mich nach Sorrent, nähe Neapel, in Italien, führen wird. Dort werde ich mit meiner Klasse bis Montag meine Studienfahrt genießen und am Abend wieder da sein.

Schön im Müll schwimmen unso...

Dann geht der Schulstress noch einmal bis zum 4.8. weiter und es sind endlich Sommerferien. JUUHUU! =D

Ich melde mich sicherlich noch einmal die Tage und lasse etwas Frust ab. Zum Beispiel über die wunderbare Anwesenheitspflicht in meiner Schule heute vo 13.30 - 15.?? Uhr und dessen Gründe -.-

Nur soviel.. ich war richtig richtig sauer -.-

wir lesen uns!

vsan

PS: Überschrift zu lang :/

Anyways....

What I really want to talk about is none of the above and yet reminds me of all of the above. The first school I have studied was called The Little Prince, like the book written by Saint Exupery, and of course we had to read the book about a zillion times. Today I can see how similar my values are to the ones in the book, little prince is so simple and beautiful and people of all ages should read it!

Here is a little piece of it .......

...It was then that the fox appeared.

"Good morning," said the fox.

"Good morning," the little prince responded politely, although when he turned around he saw nothing.

"I am right here," the voice said, "under the apple tree."

"Who are you?" asked the little prince, and added, "You are very pretty to look at."

"I am a fox," the fox said.

"Come and play with me," proposed the little prince. "I am so unhappy."

"I cannot play with you," the fox said. "I am not tamed."

"Ah! Please excuse me," said the little prince.

But, after some thought, he added:

"What does that mean--'tame'?"

"You do not live here," said the fox. "What is it that you are looking for?"

"I am looking for men," said the little prince. "What does that mean--'tame'?"

"Men," said the fox. "They have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing. They also raise chickens. These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?"

"No," said the little prince. "I am looking for friends. What does that mean--'tame'?"

"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. It means to establish ties."

"'To establish ties'?"

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . ."

"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There is a flower . . . I think that she has tamed me . . ."

"It is possible," said the fox. "On the Earth one sees all sorts of things."

"Oh, but this is not on the Earth!" said the little prince.

The fox seemed perplexed, and very curious.

"On another planet?"

"Yes."

"Are there hunters on that planet?"

"No."

"Ah, that is interesting! Are there chickens?"

"No."

"Nothing is perfect," sighed the fox.

But he came back to his idea.

"My life is very monotonous," the fox said. "I hunt chickens; men hunt me. All the chickens are just alike, and all the men are just alike. And, in consequence, I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . ."

The fox gazed at the little prince, for a long time.

"Please--tame me!" he said.

"I want to, very much," the little prince replied. "But I have not much time. I have friends to discover, and a great many things to understand."

"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . ."

"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.

"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me--like that--in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day . . ."

The next day the little prince came back.

"It would have been better to come back at the same hour," said the fox. "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about. I shall show you how happy I am! But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is to be ready to greet you . . . One must observe the proper rites . . ."

"What is a rite?" asked the little prince.

"Those also are actions too often neglected," said the fox. "They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours. There is a rite, for example, among my hunters. Every Thursday they dance with the village girls. So Thursday is a wonderful day for me! I can take a walk as far as the vineyards. But if the hunters danced at just any time, every day would be like every other day, and I should never have any vacation at all."
So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--

"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."

"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . ."

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"Then it has done you no good at all!"

"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields." And then he added:

"Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret."

The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.

"You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."

And the roses were very much embarassed.

"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or ever sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.

And he went back to meet the fox.

"Goodbye," he said.

"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important."

"It is the time I have wasted for my rose--" said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.

"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose . . ."

"I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember...

It hasn't lost any of its freshness and childish innocence. However, behind the light tale are serious concerns. 'Le Petit Prince' points to the absurdity of human life. It shows how by growing up as adults, we have lost sight of what's really important in life. We have become too serious, individualistic, and are unable to reach true happiness. 'Le Petit Prince' warns us about the dangers of forgetting how to love with the heart rather than with the eyes, and reminds us how to give a sense to our lives. As the fox says:

"On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux" ("It is only with one's heart that one can see clearly. What is essential is invisible to the eyes")

I think this book should be on every bookshelf, it is definitely a beautiful tale of love.

Puede escuchar y descargar el libro en tres lenguas: Español, Francés e Inglés. Descarge el audilibro en Español. Free (Listen and download the book and audiobook in Spanish. Book available in three languages)

http://albalearning.com/audiolibros/exupery_elprincipito.html

TODOS los audiolibros y libros en:

http://albalearning.com/audiolibros

Antoine-Jean-Baptiste-Marie-Roger de Saint-Exupéry, escritor que também foi piloto durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, nos deixou esta bela obra, cheia de sensibilidade ligeiramente enevoada aos olhares incautos e embrutecidos. Isso porque, à primeira e descuidada vista, o Pequeno Príncipe pode aparentar ser apenas um relato pueril.

Todavia, um olhar sensível e um coração vivido podem tornar esta leitura um dos eventos mais ricos a se ter na vida.

Para finalizar, e sem mais delongas, basta dizer que todos os seres humanos que nascessem deveriam receber uma cópia deste livro, de modo a saberem como lidar com as outras pessoas e começar a compreender o amor. Livro absolutamente imperdível.

Ressalte-se aqui apenas o primor da edição publicada pela editora Agir (foto acima), que contém aquarelas feitas pelo próprio autor e que enriquecem consideravelmente a leitura.

Maybe it's genes.
my mother rented the english translated book back for me when i was little, i believe. she said she really enjoyed it. i dont quite remember the story, but it's something about outerspace. isn't it? i remember going back to hong kong two summers ago, and they had this one section of the department store dedicated to le petit prince! oh, i wish i had bought some accessories.  let's just add that onto my already huge birthday/christmas wishlist :)

oh, tarepanda! he was pprobably one of my earlier obsessions as a child :) i have a huge tarepanda stuffed animal i bought while in hong kong and forced my mother to stick it into the luggage while flying back. but it was ok because i didnt buy craploads of clothes when i was like, seven, as i do now. i also bought a tarepanda cup that i still use a lot. because it's adorable. i wish people still gave me tarepanda things. i love tarepanda :)

obviously i like ultraman. he IS my pencilbag figure. :) and i get questions about him all the time.."Is this like a japanese power rangers?"...if you want to put it like that, darling. ultraman is amazing.

seems like i'll never stop loving "siu yin-zhi", or chibi maruko-chan!! i adore her sooo much, and i remember watching her videos everyday after school. and then making references back to her. i still remember her friends; the one with the spiral glasses, "fa-lun tong haut", her older snotty sister, and the oblivious grandpa. aahh...how i wish i lived in japan. in fact, last summer i went to mitsuwa in chicago and i bought a chibi maruko-chan book! i'm saving it for when i get better at japanese so i can actually read it! -A-

Time is Tickin'...T-Time is tickin' tickin'...

Time is Tickin' away...

woohoo. epik high's one video is like. confusing but the girl is super pretty and i loved her room. and she kind of reminded me of this one girl at my school-which isn't unusual.

also, wondergirls and youngha played in the hallways today at school and i freaked out!. ALSO, i watched "The Ghost Theater" this afternoon. it wasn't very good, and parts of it were relaly boring. but the main character was very adorable and i loved her quirky way of dressing. sadly, i dont have the appropriate clothes or the appropriate figure to dress like that. but i'll settle for what I do have :)

well, today. i got a big burst of encouragement and it made me super happy. i was telling shreya, an ad girl, how i made it as a photographer into yearbook! and she told me that she knew i was goign to make it because gaines told her, but she wasnt allowed to tell me :P anyway, she told me that gaines was talking to the yearboook kids and said that i had the most talent out of the photoj kids! do you know how that makes me feel? amazing! because there really are some talented kids in my block : O and also, she told me the yearbook kids like to look at the photoj photoessays and poke fun at them. and she said the head photographer josh is really horrible and mocking them, but she said he said he liked mine! : O should i continue in a career in photography? i really do love photography. honestly, i do. and dad bought the sony alpha a100 for me two days ago, i cant wait til the shipping comes in!

but i've also been thinking about linguistics. carnegie mellon has a linguistics program, but i dont know if its any good or not. i think it'd be amazing to double major in linguistics AND art. but we'lls ee about that. i'll ahve to stop drawing my pretty asian men next year in order to start building my portfolio T_T that'll make me sad. oh-should i show the progress on hiroki? maybe next time :)

After some small talk, he picked me up from the couch and carried me to his bed where he put me down gently. "It's been too long," he said lying down on top of me. "I'm gonna ruined your make-up now though." "And I'm gonna have to take a cab," I laughed. "Or maybe, I can make you go nowhere tonight," he said and kissed me passionately. After the kiss, he got up and stood watching me. "Can I rape you?" he asked. "Please," I replied as he started taking my skirt off. My tights and knickers went off too before he quickly undressed and laid on top of me. "You have the honour," he said. He was rock hard as I rubbed him against me. I was starting to feel wet now, but since it had been long, it took a little pushing before he was in. What amazes me so much about making love to A is the way our bodies just seem to be made for each other. We fit together perfectly.

He started off gently as we held on to each other whispering in each others ears how much we’d missed each other. "I have to make sure you don't get al sweaty before you go out," he said and broke away from me to open a window. It felt almost painful in the few seconds he was away and coming back, I wrapped my legs around his shoulders as he got rough on me. "I could fuck you and make love to you for hours," he whispered. Just before I was about to come, he stopped and told me to get on me knees. He fucked me from behind, his cock rubbing my g-spot to the point where I couldn't help screaming. I came as he grabbed my breasts and squeezed them hard and bit my shoulder. "On your back girly," he said and slid out of me. Lying back down, he held my write leg up wile the left one was resting on the bed. I think it was because I had to go for the meal soon that he sped up, and started riding me big time. It didn't take him long to come in gasps clinging to me. He stayed inside me for a while, the way I like it after an orgasm.” I’m almost knocked out now having not had this for nearly three weeks," he said laughing.

It was only half an hour till I was supposed to be at London's west end for the meal and A called me a cab as I combed my hair with my fingers and freshened up my make-up. I only got to the Chinese restaurant 15 minutes late and the family were still waiting for our table. Prince's brother gave me a cup of Sake, Japanese rice wine which I sipped before we went in. The food was delicious. We ordered many dishes. First there were fried crab, then shrimps, then dumplings, then Peking duck and finally lobster with noodles. I got really full which always seem to happen in Chinese restaurant. I had hoped for some more action with A that night, but the poor guy was asleep when I got home. I'm off to work now and I hope and pray that A won't be that hard to get hold of when I come back. I need some more of that loving and I'm getting my period on Sunday I think which means another few days of no sex! Besides, I'm going nowhere in the morning, so I've got all night.

I realise I'm not writing very well at the moment. I'm just impatient and depressed because I'm so bored!!!! Also, I haven't seen A much lately which is not making things better. God I hate fucking TG and her hunny muffin living together. Not that I wish to do the same after two months of going out as that would probably end up in disaster, but TG, that twofaced bitch! why her? I'm certainly not happy for them. I just realised how childish that sounded, but I'm not deleting it so that I can remind myself what I am like when I'm in a bad mood.

شهریار کوچولو پرسید: آدم ها کجاند؟ آدم تو کویر یک خرده احساس تنهایی می کند.

"It is also lonely among men," the snake said.

مار گفت: پیش آدم ها هم احساس تنهایی میکنی...

—Chapter 21

Un livre à lire à tous les âges de la vie, surtout lorsqu'on se sent perdu, ou quand on croit qu'on a des problèmes insurmontables...

Et la vie n'a rien de terrible, d'alienant ou de decevant. Il suffit de tout voir avec l'âme d'un enfant comme Le Petit Prince. Et de la vivre, cette vie, en suivant son cœur.

Translation:
A book to read at all ages in life, especially when one feels lost, or feels as if one has problems one can't overcome...

Nothing is impossible...

And life has nothing so terrible, alienating or disappointing. It is enough to look at everything with the soul of a child like The Little Prince. And to live it, this life, while following one's heart.

[This message was written in my copy of the book which I got second hand. Je suis désolée, Sandro et Reg, j'espère que vous pouvez me pardonner pour voler votre message, mais je l'ai trouvé trop beau]

Few books I've come across are as beautifully written and touching as this. What seems like a simple children's story is in fact a parable of life, and of the things that are most important. Most people have forgotten this truth, but the most important things are those which are easy to overlook, for it is only with the heart that we may see such things. 'Les yeux sont aveugles, il faut chercher avec le cœur...'. We concern ourselves too much with things which seem important, but are really of little use. Grown-ups are obsessed with numbers...

If you are able to understand French, even patchily, then please try to read the book in its original French. The English version is okay, but so much has been lost in translation, and the real heartbreaking beauty of the book is toned down considerably. The book in the original French brings tears to my eyes every time, the English translation does not. I find the English is really only useful for the bits where I get stuck with the French. However, whichever language you read it in, it is not a book you will forget in a hurry. It will stay with you a long time, and hopefully, its message will too.

So that's it: finished. I walked out of the famous office for the last time yesterday evening at 5:30 pm. When I started out for work in the morning, I was surprised that I felt neither cheered by the fact this was my last day nor annoyed that I was facing another 7 hours of boredom. I didn't feel anything in particular.

Throughout the day, however, the boredom and distaste built up and I often found myself day-dreaming or even dozing off. I got myself a double espresso topped up with hot water to keep me awake. Despite this, I think I acquitted myself well. I didn't skimp or give short measure.

At 5:25, I gathered my things together. I put all the papers away in the fire-proof cupboards and made sure there was nothing personal left in the work folders they had given us. I took leave of my colleagues - only three of them were still there at that point. Most of the permanent staff had already gone home so I wasn't in the possibly embarrassing position of having to say goodbye to people who rarely bothered to speak or even look at me.

I awoke this morning at the sound of Tigger putting my cup of tea down beside the bed. She does this every weekday morning and it's better than any alarm call. "No work today!" I told myself cheerfully. I could have turned over and gone back to sleep but instead, I got up. I usually get up after the tea arrives, even if I am not working or going somewhere. For one thing, I like to see Tigger and talk to her before she goes to work. For another, it seems a waste of a perfectly good day not to get stuck into living it straightaway.

There were several tasks that needed doing. One was giving the sink a good clean because I have neglected it a little the last few weeks. Then there there were a couple of errands to run. I had to go to the Post Office and deposit a cheque at the building society. At first I found myself hurrying and being busy. Having deposited the cheque, however, I suddenly realized I had no need to hurry. I was free and could get on with enjoying myself. So I did. I had a stroll and looked in some shops. I went into Borders in the N1 Centre to see what was in their reduced-price boxes. Then I wandered over to Philosophy.

What should meet my gaze on the philosophy shelves but a book by A.C. Grayling. Irresistible. I am a fan of A.C. Grayling and to discover a book of his that I haven't read is always an exciting occasion. This one is entitled Descartes and subtitled The Life of René Descartes and Its Place in his Times. Two magical names - Grayling and Descartes - in a single package! Irresistible, as I said.

All being well, I shall have more time for reading now. At the weekend we visited Grant & Cutler, the famous foreign language bookshop. There I at last found a copy of Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with the author's original drawings. I also got Albert Camus' L'Etranger that I had been meaning to re-read.

Ironically, I have a clutch of library books, unread or partly read. I have already renewed them once (or is it twice?) and we are going away next weekend for a few days so I think the kindest thing is to take them back. You will probably understand what I mean when I say that some books read more slowly than others. You want to read them but you have to take your time over them. If you borrow these from the library you have to keep renewing them and there's always the danger that someone else will request them. On the other hand, if you buy them, you may keep putting off reading them so I suppose it's a no-win situation.

Le Petit Prince is a charming but strange little book. In most editions is is well short of 100 pages long and in the UK usually turns up, in translation, among children's books. Saint-Exupéry writes it as if fo children but I'm not sure how much children would understand or enjoy it. It is one of those books that seem to have been written for grownups to read to children, where the children would understand it on one level and the grownups on another.

The conversation between the author, a pilot trying desperately to repair his aeroplane that has crash-landed in the desert before his drinking water runs out, and the Prince, a strangely wise child from another planet, tells an enchanting tale of tiny planets inhabited by eccentric beings and gradually reveals the author's philosophy of love and relationships. The bitter-sweet air of nostalgia that pervades the book comes, I think, from the fact that it is also an allegory of the author's banishment from the Eden of childhood.

The first came at a performance by the Paul Taylor dance company at City Center. Great venue, great dancing, all around a wonderful cultural event. It was apparently one of the dancers final performance before retirement, and at the curtain call, she was showered with flowers and thunderous applause. The moment was incredibly touching, no doubt. (In fact, my eyes did kind of well up a bit. And I had NEVER heard of this woman before. Imagine what her FAMILY was feeling at that moment.) As the applause died down and the lights came up, my mom, my roommate and I started to file out, commenting on how cool it was to be here for that. A man standing in the row behind us then turned to me and said something like, "yea, you really lucked out, seeing the final performance of someone as IMPORTANT as her."

I didn't really know what to say to that comment, as I admittedly had no idea who she was. It wasn't until I walked away that I found myself laughing at that guy's comment. Important? IMPORTANT?! I suppose he's a dance connosseur, and for someone who's a big fan of Paul Taylor, ok, I'm sure she seems very important. But to say that to a complete stranger? Ugh, how...condescending or something. I would have completely understood if he had used a word like....oh, say beloved. Yes, that I will buy. But IMPORTANT? She's a DANCER. And you sir, (I might have said), are not nearly important enough to throw around the word "important" like that. Or maybe he is. This IS New York after all. Either way, it tickled me a bit.

The second IMPORTANT run-in came today on my way to work. There's a building going up on the block where my office is. A building full of condominiums. Expensive condominiums. So expensive in fact ($2-10 mill) that someone thought it would be a good idea to call them on the placard on the facade of the building "IMPORTANT Condominium Residences". Oh. Dear. God. Important as in, "Hey, look at me in my multi-million dollar condo! Everybody look how IMPORTANT I am!"? You have GOT to be kidding me. No, actually, they are stonecold serious. I don't even think I need to say anymore. I get that they are trying to attract a certain kind of person (i.e. balleerrrrrrr), but really...Get a grip.

One point here is, I suppose, it's all relative, right? What is important to one person may not be important to another. Still, I can't help but think that there are so many more important things in the world than dancers (whom I LOVE) and expensive apartments (which are spectacular). Or maybe that's all so many of us are striving for: art and luxury. That is a pretty great life, I guess. But Important? I'd like to quote one of my favorite books, Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de St. Exupery:

L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.

I think that pretty much covers it.