Reste de l'or.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay. 
Robert Frost
Funny, I come to France and see The Outsiders, this film that was made in my hometown.  The theatre was packed.  Fabien, the director of the festival, introduced it, the complete novel version.  And we all became engrossed in the beauty of the greasers and their clan.
France kinda reminds me of the US in the 50s or 60s.
And the French love the underdog.  
They are the underdog. 
 Or have been throughout history, it seems.

When I played at the French Hen, S.E. Hinton and her husband used to come in there to eat.  If I wasn't so shy and busy playing, I would have loved to have talked with her.  I think he played guitar.  And they seemed to listen to the French songs i played and always left me a tip before leaving.

I try to leave tips here in France, but they reject them.
Tip is included in the bill.  
And frankly, they don't care much about money, it seems.
It's so refreshing.
Americans have been trained to strive for that proverbial almighty dollar.
It twists your brain.
And even though the Euro is more valuable than a dollar, things seem to cost less here.

I have to say, I'm impressed with the country.
Many years ago, when i was living here, in Auvergne, the French Minister of Culture passed a law to encourage the transmission of the French language and required something like 80 percent of radio to be songs in French.  At the time, we all laughed-- it just seemed like it would be impossible to enforce and make that change.   American Pop Culture was rampant and everyone loved it and knew all the songs.  Seemed to me then that radio was probably something more like 40 percent French 60 percent American or English songs.

So on the way from Paris to Amiens the other day, i found it interesting to hear only two songs in English, in about an hour and a half.  
And then, Jean, a Frenchman who lives in Vermont, gave me a copy of The International New York Times and there happened to be an article on how "English proficiency falters among French."

(And let's not forget that they don't accept travelers checks or change dollars anymore....)

Couldn't sleep last night.  
Still on Tulsa Time.  
Turned on the tv.  
It was a program on Kristallnacht......  

The other night on tv, it was French porn.

(By the way, if you've made it this far,  I've seen where you might have mocked these blah blah blogs.  You know I hate blogs and  I probably would make fun of them too if i wasn't out here by my lonesome self with nuthin better to do and if i had a bunch of cushy gigs and the support from a musical community and the love of a beautiful woman like you do and that great luxury of letting your sailor tongue loose.  I probably would too if I was as good a songwriter as you are.  I suppose it's nice to know you're reading them.  And anyway, I ain't hurtin nobody.  And I'm gonna love you anyway.)

Stay Gold, Pony Boy.

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