What $1 Will Buy

I love to shop--but not in the mall. I'm not into the bland and boring shopping experience. When I see row upon row of goods, like the dreaded "coordinates" already mixed and matched for you by the manufacturer, a dozen in each size and color, I lose interest. Not to mention the fact that I had a mother who was terminally clever and could make anything you could buy in a store, much better and for much less. I want to find things that are one of a kind and cost about a dollar.

Fortunately, there's a store for people like me. It's called the Salvation Army (or, affectionately to those in the know, "Sally's"). Sometimes when I feel like treating myself, I'll stop in and see what they've got. An item that I would pass by in any other store, new and surrounded by clones, looks fascinating when sandwiched between two wildly dissimilar objects, a little musty and dusty perhaps, but costing only a dollar or two.

Here's an item I found recently that's just my style. A silk scarf printed with touristy Parisian scenes: Notre Dame, Montmartre, L'Opera, Les Invalides, the Moulin Rouge, le Sacré-Coeur, La Madeleine, and of course La Tour Eiffel. Even Montparnasse, with my old hangouts Le Dôme and La Coupole. It's signed "Nicole de Beauvoir Paris," and I know it's an older one because it doesn't have a trademark. Cost: $1.

The rather startling shade of yellow, the exact color of the yolks of chickens that have scratched outside, happened to match the daffodils on the kitchen table. Daffodils that were lacking a certain je ne sais quoi mais que Sally savait. Who says a scarf has to go around your neck?

Happy Birthday Françoise Hardy

Today is the 64th birthday of Françoise Hardy, the French pop singer of the '60s and '70s. She was the Madonna of her time, eclipsing all other female singers of the era. Unlike Madonna, however, she was--and is--universally beloved.

It didn't hurt that she was possibly the most beautiful woman in France, a talented singer and composer, and, for all that, seemingly unaware of her specialness. She projected an air of sweetness and vulnerability: a musical Audrey Hepburn. Her first hit, "Tous les garçons et les filles" is about watching everybody else her age paired up, while she herself had no one to love her. She wrote it from personal experience.

When Françoise Hardy sang, she looked straight at the camera or the audience. You couldn't shake the feeling she was singing just to you. How many men must have wanted to jump up and proclaim, "I love you, Françoise! I love you!"

Françoise Hardy is married to talented musician Jacques Dutronc. They have one son, Thomas Dutronc, himself a very cool jazz musician. Françoise Hardy famously collaborated at one point with Michel Berger. Here's a song she wrote with him, called Message Personnel:

Au bout du téléphone
Il y a votre voix
Et il y a des mots
Que je ne dirai pas
Tous ces mots qui font peur
Quand ils ne font pas rire
Qui sont dans trop de films
De chansons et de livres
Je voudrais vous les dire et je voudrais les vivre
Je ne le ferai pas,
Je veux, je ne peux pas
Je suis seule à crever, et je sais où vous êtes
J'arrive, attendez-moi, nous allons nous connaître
Préparez votre temps, pour vous j'ai tout le mien
Je voudrais arriver, je reste, je me déteste.
Je n'arriverai pas,
Je veux, je ne peux pas.
Je devrais vous parler
Je devrais arriver
Ou je devrais dormir.
J'ai peur que tu sois sourd
J'ai peur que tu sois lâche
J'ai peur d'être indiscrète
Je ne peux pas vous dire
Que je t'aime peut-être.

Mais si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes
Ne crois pas que tes souvenirs me gênent
Et cours, cours jusqu'à perdre haleine
Viens me retrouver
Si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes
Et si ce jour-là tu as de la peine
A trouver où tous ces chemins te mènent
Viens me retrouver
Si le dégoût de la vie vient en toi
Si la paresse de la vie
S'installe en toi
Pense à moi, pense à moi.

Mais si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes,
Ne le considère pas comme un problème
Et cours, et cours jusqu'à perdre haleine
Viens me retrouver.
Si tu crois un jour que tu m'aimes
N'attends pas un jour, pas une semaine
Car tu ne sais pas où la vie t'emmène
Viens me retrouver.
Si le dégoût de la vie vient en toi
Si la paresse de la vie
S'installe en toi
Pense à moi, pense à moi.

Mais si tu...

Toile Car

The car I totaled on November 15 is still in my driveway, inoperable. The claim has been settled by the insurance company, which paid out the cash value, minus $100. They provided the name of a salvage company which would come and get the car and pay me the remaining $100 for it if I wanted. Or I could keep it and do whatever with it--sell it myself, fix it up, or just leave it to rust in the yard.

The whole salvage project got stalled because the title to the car is lost. Or rather, inaccessible at the moment. A duplicate title can be gotten from the registry for $25. But meanwhile a handy friend, who just happens to own a service station with a nice lift, etc., offered to take it off my hands and fix it if possible; otherwise, sell it. We looked up the necessary body parts online and determined that they would cost about $600. That's just body parts. He'd have to check it out more thoroughly in his shop to see if the brakes or transmission or anything else was damaged, making it not worth the bother of repairing.

Long story short, this poor little car has already been given up for dead. So if he proves to have one more life (and I don't call him "Trusty" for nothing), I'm thinking maybe I could get a little bit creative with him.

Here's a car I saw on the Champs-Elysées the last time I was in Paris. Note the Louis XVI side chair inside! Don't think I could do that and pass inspection in Massachusetts, but it gives food for thought. Like those runway creations that wouldn't actually be wearable on the street, concept cars inspire us to rethink our mundane wheels. It was Trusty's missing hubcap that started my "art" collection in the house. Maybe I could use the house to inspire a new look for the car?