Where did you spend the night that made election history?

On election night, the Democrats Abroad threw a "worthy of the event" bash at Ciné Aqua located in the park at Trocadero.

Filmmaker and longtime member of Democrats Abroad as well as the minority caucaus of said organization, Zachary Miller, called on jazz, gospel, blues and funk artists, mostly American, living in and around Paris to each add their special talents in aid of the celebration, all expressing hope for a new day in America when the dreams of a minority child, in America, could include being a president.

Singer, Brigitte; blues singer and quitarist, Juju Childs; Jazz stylist, Manda Djinn; Linda Lee Hopkins; singer/composer, Joe Langley; Jonice; Nathalie, aged 11, her first time singing on mic and Les Skylarks among others. Bassist, Alex Sanders and extraordinary pianist, Valerie Benzaquine, showed their love and professionalism as they accompanied the many artists. Valerie will soon be a mom and her child will surely be musical; saxophonist, David Johnson and trumpetist Ronald Baker sat in, and the entertainment kept the room live while people roamed through Ciné Aqua or sat watching the election process on one of the many TV screens along the alleys or wide screens in several screening rooms.

Shouts of joy rang through the halls when each state was tallied until at last the great cry, "We won! Oh Happy Day!" That last bit was Linda Lee. Meanwhile, lazily swimming fish, we were in their home after all, ignored the ruminations of man and never even gave the fisheye to passersby.

A blast from the past : Rocco and his Brothers

I admit to being an inveterate TV fan. No wonder when one can view such a film as Arte showed over the weekend: Luchino Visconti's "Rocco and his Brothers". The title is a familiar one from back in my Greenwich Village days. My sister was and still is, a francophile and in love with foreign films, especially French but not me. As a dancer, I usually watched musicals as part of my schooling in the how tos of performing, so I missed this and many other classic films over the years.
Getting back to Rocco, the script with well drawn characters and the actors held me spellbound especially memorable performances by Katina Paxinou, wonderful as the typical mom who rules the brothers, Annie Giradot as the 'devil in spite of herself' making the viewer, me, simultaneously love and hate her and her wanton ways. I yearned to tell Rocco, Alan Delon, not to give her up after his foolish brother shames her and him but helas, he does and honey turns to vinegar. I haven't been a Delon fan but surely if I had seen him long ago in this film I would've been. His performance as Rocco blew me away and his beauty was an added extra.
Sometimes I felt the sexism a bit much but one has to take into consideration the timing and the place : Italy, 1960. If you haven't yet seen this classic masterpiece, I strongly recommend it.