The basics: Musée Grévin is a waxwork museum in Paris located on the Grands Boulevards in the IXe arrondissement on the right bank of the Seine, at 10, Boulevard Montmartre, Paris, France. The museum was founded in 1882 by Arthur Meyer, a journalist for Le Gaulois, and named for its first artistic director, caricaturist Alfred Grévin. It is one of the oldest wax museums in Europe. Its baroque architecture includes a mirrored mirage room based on the principle of a catoptric cistula and a theater for magic shows. The Musée Grévin now contains some 300 characters arranged in scenes from the history of France and modern life, including a panorama of French history from Charlemagne to Napoleon III, bloody scenes of the French Revolution, movie stars, and international figures. The tableau of Charlotte Corday murdering Jean-Paul Marat includes the actual knife and bathtub used.
The challenge: If tagging along photographically with d.l.s Kiddiepunk, Oscar B, and myself on our recent visit to the Grevin doesn't seem like enough to keep you busy this weekend, then I offer you the following challenge. Below, I've numbered sixty-six wax figures that we encountered on our tour. If you're game, try identifying as many of the notable waxworks as you can. Naming most of them shouldn't be too difficult, but a number of the figures depict famous French people whose renown either lessens or dissipates entirely outside the country's borders, and that's where it gets interesting. The commenter who has correctly identified the most wax people by the time I post the next blog entry on Monday will win a special prize. I'm not going to tell you what it is. It's a surprise, and it will be sent to the winner by postal mail.
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p.s. RIP: Barbara Bray. Hey. I hereby announce the latest in this blog's ongoing series of Self-Portrait Days. I'm going to call this installment, which owes its existence to an idea and suggestion from our pal Oscar, SPD: My Brush with Fame. For this SPD, I'm asking you to pair yourself with someone famous. There are a number of ways you can do this. (1) Maybe you've met someone famous at some point in your life. Maybe you have a photo depicting this momentous occasion. If so, you could send that in along with some kind of caption describing the meeting. Or maybe there's no photographic record of the meeting. In that case, you could just send in an image or imbeddable video of the famous person you've met. If you're feeling ambitious, you could use photoshop to make yourself and the celebrity into a couple. In any case, write out some kind of accompanying anecdote that describes the occasion and include that. (2) You can choose someone who's only or mostly famous to you or to your group of friends or in your neighborhood or in your town, etc. That would work just so long as you've actually met this locally famous person. In that case, send in a photo of yourself with this minor celebrity, and include an explanation of who they are and a description of your meeting with them. (3) Maybe you've never met a famous person, but there's a famous person you'd love to meet. In that case, just go ahead and lie to us. Pretend you've met them, describe the meeting you'd want to have with them in a convincingly real-sounding fashion, and send in an image or imbeddable video of the celebrity in question. Does that make sense? If not, just ask for any clarification via the comments arenas. The deadline for having your SPD entries in my email box is your bedtime in your time zone on next Saturday, March 13th. Please send any images you're using as email attachments. The text portions can be sent in as Word or Text Edit docs, or pasted into the body of the email itself. Your entries should be sent to the usual address: dcooperweb@ gmail.com. On this coming Monday, I'll post all of the above information in a box in the blog's upper right hand corner and leave it there until the deadline has passed. Anyway, please do participate, okay? I promise you'll be glad you did. Oh, and I'm kind of quite stressed out about my dentist appointment later today, so if I seem a little weird ... ** Sweettomb, Trinie, hey! That is both crazily coincidental and awesome that you and Matt will be in LA when I am, not to mention at the perfect time for those two events. Wow, Stanya has an opening on Saturday? Mm, yeah, that sounds great, but I guess let me make sure my jetlag isn't a killer before I say yes to such a shebang. Dinner, absolutely, and with Amy too would be perfect. So, yeah. When do you get there? I get there on the 11th. You want to do dinner on Friday the 12th or something if you're there by then? Well, we'll figure out a plan. Anyway, fantastic news, pal, and I can't wait to see you guys! ** The Man Who Couldn't Blog, Hey, Matthew. Thanks a whole lot for stopping by and for the HTMLG alert. Much appreciated. Hope you're well, writing a lot, and getting your just rewards. ** Paul Joseph, Oh, hey! I'm really glad you saw the post, the initial responses, and joined in. Your work is really great, and it's an honor to have Patrick's intro to it appear here. I hope you'll consider sticking around the blog whenever you feel like it. That would be a honor and a great pleasure/ inspiration too. Much respect to you. ** Empty Frame, Hey. Oh, wait, hold on: Scunnard, you there? Empty Frame had a bunch of great sounding Paris lodging recommendations at the top of yesterday's comments section if you didn't see them. I'm in what seems to be the great minority who thinks 'Safe' is great until it relocates to the New Age retreat whereupon it turns to shit. Yeah, saw the Papal scandal stuff. Nice. Thanks a lot for the luck re: the dentist today. I definitely, definitely need it. Oh, shit, yeah, Barbara Bray, so sad. I owe the discovery of a whole bunch of my favorite all-time books and writers to her. Very great translator. ** Put The Lotion In The Basket, Hey, Nick. Did you get my email about the technical issues with AM Day? The performance sounds fantastic. The white tape thing is very interesting. Oh, uh, yeah, you could say I get that confusion about me vs. the person that my work's imagination suggests to a lot of people. More so years ago, but it still happens. More in fact in the UK than anywhere else, weirdly. Occasionally, there are even people who've read this blog and yet are so determined that I'm monstrous, they think the niceness I display here is some kind of evil, manipulative trick or something. Fucking strange. So, yeah. Try to enjoy your work's power to create phantom impressions, I guess. Hope the youth group meeting went well last night, and no doubt it did. ** David Ehrenstein, Ha ha, that's a nice way to see 'Safe'. That's good. Fine 'House of Ushers' post. Very informative and wonderfully twisty in its form in your inimitable fashion. Louis Ronan-Choisy ... no. Let me google him for a second. Hold on. Oh, I've seen his face on metro posters, I think promoting concert appearances. He's in that new Ozon? Hm, interesting. He's not a problem on the eyes. I'll say that. ** Ben Brooks, Oh, hey, Ben. Yeah, I really loved the book a lot. A stunner. Now I'm anxiously awaiting your new book, and, like I said, I'll be showing my appreciation with a post here in a couple of weeks. The short film project is curious, yeah. I've had both great and awful experiences with films based on my stuff. I like the surrendering part when it seems like the filmmaker has the right and interesting ideas. We'll see. Thanks for stopping in, man. ** Bollo, Oh, yeah, I was joking about Dublin, and about Paris' goody two-shoes drinking habits too. I really want to get to Dublin at some point. I might try to come along when 'Jerk' plays there, but we'll see. Oh, yeah, isn't that Hannum zine a total beauty? I just got the newest one, which is stunning too. ** _Black_Acrylic, A Twitter review. Curious to know how the 140 word limit feels to you. I hope you-know-who was there both for the obvious reasons and because that Italo-disco set sounds tasty. ** Stan_cz, Congrats on the cleared ear, man. No small accomplishment. And I hope the IRS blinks. ** Wolf, New Waits/Wilson collab, wow. And, shit, premiering in Paris, you say? I'm am so there if I am still here. You'll pop over for that, I reckon. Uh, I don't think Gisele will be bringing Waits into our work anytime soon, both because he's not quite in her very specific musical taste realms, and because I'm sure she considers him to be Wilson's. ** Kier, Hey, pal. What do those tests you had consist of? Is it, like, question/ answer oriented or coordination skills oriented or both and more? Your not quite normal brain surely confirms why we all get along so well here. If there's a normal brained d.l. out there, I haven't met him or her, not that my abnormal brain would tell me if I had. Or something. Pix of the black building? Damn, about the falls and bruises. ** Ken Baumann, I'm old enough to be most people's dads, and I've tracked the lit scene all the way, it's brand me to me too, man. Yow! ** JW Veldhoen, More art rock than power pop, I'd say. That set possibility excites. 'Venus', nice. You'd sing? Yeah, '2000 Man' is the Stones, I think, unless Bowie covered it. Which Stranglers? I vote for 'Get a Grip On Yourself'. Oh, I wouldn't have hated you. I was joking and generalizing. I would tried to stay out of your peripheral vision, however. ** Armando, 'Hunger' is really fucking good, right? I loved your soliloquy about it. A beautiful thing, response, illustration. ** Chris Goode, I've basically stopped reading brand new work in public. I can't chance the damage from my neuroses. The last time I did, it was a draft of the first chapter of 'God Jr.', and the resulting confusion made me put the unfinished novel away untouched and unseen for the next year. I'm liking the sound of that autobiographical blurt. What forms its 'brackets' in the piece? You probably can't say. Right, about the bravery aspect of 'Outside'. Very true, and I think it has dated upwards and outwards, if anything. Hm, has Bowie quit making records or something? It's been a while, no? Petula Clark sang better songs than 'Downtown'? That's a pretty sublime little number right there unless I've fallen victim to nostalgia, and, oh God, please no. Totally, about the 'Lost Highway' opening credits, the rightness of Bowie's song, and, don't forget, that incredible, fragrant, weird pause/ break when the credits end. ** Steevee, Is the fact that the anti-cold cocktail you're drinking caused my lips to smack mean I'm a little too vegetarian, I wonder? ** Borisss, Hey, B, thanks. Yeah, I'm on my self-assigned task re: NYC theater. Obviously, it'll be a matter of luck as to whether a really interesting theater artist will be working onstage while you're there. Do you know your precise dates? I haven't seen that Herzog yet, but most everyone I know and trust who's seen it gives it a thumbs up while cautioning that it's not genius or anything. ** Blendin, New art piece possibly in-progress ... that's very good to hear, or possibly very good to hear if you prefer. Non-blog reading friends are welcome, of course. Philistines can be amusing to have around sometimes. Uh, joke. I say the best Haynes is 'Velvet Goldmine'. Mm, it would be difficult to post the Newsstand Day before the event for reasons that are too complicated to explain, but I really don't think we need to pull out all the stops to get people there, man. Give us some credit, pal. Anyway, I like the idea of making people who don't or can't show up hurt even more after the fact. Uh, joke. ** Sypha, Her novella might really suck, but I hope not, but, if so, problem solved? Of course I love McCarthy's relentless grim thing, but you know me. The comedy album/ car experiment sounds potentially quite effective, Sure seems like it could be. I'd guess you can probably pick up a lot of comedy albums for a pittance used on Amazon or something. Thanks a lot for well wishes on my dentist thing. I guess I'll give you the word come Monday, gulp. ** Justin, Hey. Yeah, the 'word' around Paris has been that Pugh is going to get the McQueen gig. So is that quote kind of official? I hope so. I like the idea a lot. I think I'd only want a real human skull if it was the skull of someone I revered or knew or wished I'd known or killed, ha ha, or something. ** Little foal, Hey, man. Yeah, it's kind of a weird, magical place, this place. I don't know why. Well, I know why: because you and everybody else here are the real magicians, but why this blog became the clubhouse, I'll never know. Hm, there's this great bookstore here in Paris that I mentioned to Empty Frame and have referenced frequently -- 'Un Regard Moderne' -- that would have a copy of Volume II amidst the insane jumble of its stock if anyplace in the world would. I'll check. This is facile to say, and I'm speaking mostly, I guess, from my own experiences, but feeling distant from one's parents seems like a really healthy thing to me, and I don't mean that in the heartless way it might sound. I'm very into the idea that one's friends are one's truer family. I think the less complicated and not predetermined love between friends is much closer to the real love that poets have forever written around and about. ** Patrick deWitt, Hey, Patrick! Thank you again so much and for so many reasons. ** Chris, The 'Thin White Duke' was the end of the beginning for me. Hope you have a restful weekend after that bout of the opposite. Yeah, slipping through NYC would have been nice. I'll sort something soon. ** Chilly Jay Chill, You've played that Hillbilly Mini-Golf course? I think that was the course I most wished I could roam. Damn. I'm kind of green over here. I saw Malle's 'Black Moon', but only in the theater upon its initial release way back when, and I can hardly remember it now other than having felt both totally on its side and not completely convinced. You ever seen Rohmer's 'Percival le Gallois'? Same general period. Nothing like 'BM', but similarly ambitious and dreamy with its all-indoor sets and things. That's a film I really love and would recommend. ** Creative Massacre, Hey. Nice to hear you sounding better and saying you're better too. Crisps, yeah, you'll have watch out around them for a while, I think. I hope the turnaround has begun, my friend, and that the weekend keeps your great momentum going. ** KYTE, Hey there, Kyte, old buddy! It's great to see you stroll in here. Oh, yeah, I saw a little announcement thing on FB about your text message story project. I can't remember why, but there was some reason why I couldn't technically subscribe to it, which made me sad. Really glad to hear you're doing a lot of writing, needless to say. Will it end up somewhere public so I can read the new work? I checked your blog, but it's sort of behind the times. Would have been great if you guys could have been in LA for the events. Next chance we get, we should try to figure out a way far enough in advance that we could actually do it. Take good care, man. ** Alan, Oh, now you're besmirching my innovative magazine centerfold effect! You watch: before too long, every blog's images are going to be coopting my 'centerfold' effect invention. I'd better copyright that baby pronto. ** Inthemostpeculiarway, I like giant pretzels, but ... here's the problem ... with mustard. How do you like donuts? Your dialogue won't be boring, come on. Anyway 'boring' is not for you to decide. I say you write it, share it, and let me or us have a chance at judging it. I can see how that Killers song could get stuck in your head. My stuck song yesterday was another old one, for some reason. 'Arnold Layne', by Pink Floyd. Go figure. Truth be told, I swiped the name 'Oliver Twink' from the title a porn video, but that's okay, right? I'll bet Bendy's snub wasn't a snub at all. I bet he was just lost in his strange dreams. I like A-Ha. 'The Sun Always Shines On TV': 41/2 stars. That hooker clip was funny. I don't have one for you today. I'll try to find one by Monday. Oh, your real name is Tim? That's news, I think. Hey, Tim! My Friday was another bout of nothing much. A lot of writing. I'm on a roll, I guess. I had coffee with Oscar where I talked lengthily about the things I'm working on in the novel, and she talked less lengthily and more interestingly about the work she's making for an upcoming gallery show in Sicily. I worried about the dentist thing today. I was supposed to pay my rent, but I forgot, and I hope the Recollets boss won't be irked when I pay it on Monday instead. Today is my psychotic brother's birthday, and I tried to decide if I would wish him happy birthday by email or not, and I couldn't decide, and I still haven't. I haven't finish my theater texts yet, and today I'm too nervous about the dentist appointment to concentrate on them, and that's not good. And with that, I will spare you any further meanderings until Monday. How the heck was your weekend? ** Misanthrope, I didn't know you were into ice skating in a general way. Hm, for some reason that seems very revealing, but of what precisely, I don't know yet. ** Jeff, Ha ha, dude, listen, I'm definitely going to be making sure I know how to pronounce novocaine in French before I head over there today. I just hope France isn't so old fashioned that they still gas you. ** Scunnard, Hey. Oh, I alerted you to this up above: Empty Frame has a bunch of even better hotel suggestions for you in his comment yesterday. Take care, man. ** Right. You see what the post consists of this weekend, and you know what your options are regarding it, so have at either or both of them. Maybe start thinking about your SPD entry too. And if you haven't yet read Paul Buccholz's work yesterday, I urge you to. I'll go face my fate in the dentist chair now, and you'll see me, better off or worse off, back here on Monday.
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