It is my dream to create an art which is filled with balance, purity and calmness, freed from a subject matter that is disconcerting or too attention-seeking. In my paintings, I wish to create a spiritual remedy, similar to a comfortable armchair which provides rest from physical expectation [exertion?]for the spiritually working, the businessman as well as the artist.

http://www.artquotes.net/masters/matisse_quotes.htm

 I'm not sure providing comfortable armchairs for businessmen has much appeal these days, but anyway, comfortable chairs can kill - it said so in Salon:

Fran:

Re: This, That, and the Other (4.00 / 2) BBC NEWS | Health

 Clean living way to beat cancer

Over 40% of breast and bowel cancer cases in rich countries are preventable through diet, physical activity and weight control alone, experts say.

Simple measures like cycling to work ... can make all the difference for these and many other cancers, they say.

It's so easy to settle in for the evening, tune in to ET and drop out of the world and pour scorn on politicians, journalists, and others probably still out there in that uncomfortable place - the real world. Well, many of them need scorn poured on them, and it's important that we go on doing all the other things we do in ET - but, for some of us, perhaps there's a healthier balance to be struck.

I'm as lazy as anyone, and, after a break while recovering from an operation, I got back into the old routine - the FP, the OT and the diaries. But then I decided to make more of an effort to spend less time on my arse in the warm and to get out more - even in January ! Anyway, it could prolong my life, which illness had painfully reminded me was limited, as well as occasionally enhancing it.

So often in Sudbury (Wembley) I didn't bother to go out as central London was a two-hour return journey and often the weather was bad. Also it costs money just for the fare and I take Helen's point the other night about not being able to afford even a modest night out while job-seeking. This will also not apply to those who have a rich social and professional life involving some physical activity and who like a few hours relaxation on Eurotrib. It is more a public reminder to myself - but if anyone else is spending too much time in front of a computer this might help - and anyway, there are photos.

In Nice the weather's usually much better and things are closer. But on 8th Jan. it was cold and I thought twice about going to a jazz session at a café near the port. Then I decided that I'd moved here partly to get out more and to things like this. I almost regretted it once outside the front door as it was raining - but it was very light and the walk to the tram is a few minutes. A tram came very soon and in a few more minutes I was at Place Garibaldi, the rain had already stopped and I had the bonus of these xmas lights with Garibaldi looking on (hand-held, the G10's image stabilization performed well):

Then it was another short walk down through the Port area, which I was very familiar with as we'd lived here for our first months in Nice. But, though I thought I'd explored the area fairly thoroughly, I had somehow missed the Café Borghese, in Rue Fodere, just round the corner from our flat. That was a pity, as the food being served looked good and there was a nice relaxed atmosphere; it is a real French local with no tourists (that night). I also liked the decor, a bit bohemian, with an ornate fireplace, but walls in varied shades of ochre. It was the birthday of the woman on the left:

Later the band played "Happy birthday":

Fortunately they don't promote their events very much so I was able to find a space at the bar near the band. This was by the till and, just as I was about to take a photo of the cupid lamp for M, the waitress leaned into the frame - the kind of luck photographers often depend on.

But generally the light was too low for available light shots, in fact as I came in the manager was trying to get the modern chandelier to move round so that a light would shine on the band, but with no luck.

But the band made up for the semi-gloom and the cold outside with a very lively performance.  The atmosphere certainly wasn't reverential, but was relaxed rather than than rudely noisy (as happened at their subseqent session in Cave Bianchi - see below).

 I really liked the shadow of the young guy with trumpet, but flash would kill it, so for the first time I used the ASA dial to shift it up to 400, despite the complaints from some reviewers of the Canon G10's noise at this setting, but I'm quite happy with the result. It's another example of luck, in this case overcoming an error (by this time I'd sampled a range of the drinks they had on offer, including a single malt and some house spirit). While I liked the shadow he cast, I really wanted the guy to be in focus, but forgot about the centre-weighting of the auto-focus while framing. But luckily the keyboard player looked over at the trumpeter, his eyes are fairly sharp, and it made the shot.

Unfortunately the route to the toilets was through the band, but luckily the place wasn't too busy and people were generally careful to squeeze through in a quiet moment.

It was a very good night and I was glad I'd made the small effort.

I was relieved that it wasn't crowded, which is a regular problem at one of the few other jazz places in Nice, Caves Romagnon, where you just can't get in the door after about 8.30 and are condemned to stand outside, if you choose to stay, being gassed by all the smokers.

But if you do squeeze in (or go early), it's 5 euros for a drink, which can last for the night, or you get it free if you give the patron a few prints.

At the end I asked the barman at Borghese when their next jazz night was. He didn't know and suggested I asked someone in the band. When I did so, a saxaphonist who seems to be the leader, suggested I ask the staff ! But he added that they would be performing at a place which would have a wine-tasting too on the 24th. What luck, it is a place we'd been to before and liked, and we are on the email list. In fact we were there  recently for a vernissage - some boringly similar abstracts:

"Abstract Art: A product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered."

Albert Camus

We were greeted by the owner, who pointed out that he'd blocked up a hole giving onto a storeroom which had caused a draught last time we were there and even I had had to put my overcoat back on.

This time we were early:

seizing the night again in a nice warm cave with civilised introductions to a variety of wines (though 30 secs rather than 3 minutes per wine would suit me :-) ).

Unfortunately a large group came in rather late and sat at a table close to us. They had already been drinking, one woman was a bit unsteady, and were rather noisy. But the band played on and the singer was good (one of the abstracts is in the background):

I gave some prints from the Café Borghese session to the band leader and later he came back to say he was impressed, which was nice.

Recently I went for a drink in the old town and ended up in a little bar in a square.  There the owner, looking like the owner of a French bar should, said: "We like the English here". I think few of our football fans get to Nice very often. He introduced me to another English guy. At first I thought he was quite  successful, a yacht captain, who'd had a very lucrative contract in the Middle East, overseeing the refurbishment of a luxury yacht, while sampling the pleasures which the authorities turned a blind eye to as long as it was confined to expat hotels. But as the conversation continued he revealed that after the contract had ended he'd stayed on, expecting to find more work fairly easily. But it didn't happen, his money ran out and wasn't having any better luck in Nice and was now having to think twice about buying a drink, so I bought him a couple. The crisis was very immediate.

Another night I dragged a rather reluctant M to the bar - it's not at all her style. But within minutes she was having a deep conversation with the owner about Albert Camus (see the photos behind the patron) - these French - they are SO intellectual :-)

M: "L'existentialisme est un humanisme"

Patron: "Mais, madame, c'est absurde!"

Another evening, after a meal in the old town, I was walking back when I came across the Carnaval parade, just as the King and Queen entered Place Massena - couldn't have timed it better:

"Fortune favours the prepared mind" (Pasteur) - and favours the person prepared to make the effort just to get out there and let things happen. Then you can return and write a diary about the "meat world", as with the resulting diary, other photos of the darker side of Carnaval, if you missed them, at:

http://www.eurotrib.com/?op=displaystory;sid=2009/2/24/181653/192

One can feel quite virtuous, reading and commenting in such a worthwhile forum as Eurotrib, but, as Nietzsche said: "When virtue has slept, she will get up more refreshed." Human, All Too Human, section 83.