Quiet City

A big clue that August has arrived is when you notice Paris is less of people. Traditionally people go away on holiday during the month of August and with France's generous holiday time off given to it's citizens, everyone is rushing to spend weeks on the coasts, in the mountains, other countries, as long as they get out of Paris. It is like NYC. I once went there in August and felt I had the city all to myself. People complain about the heat, but being from Texas where August temps reach 100 and above, even at midnight...I can stand the heat. Paris in August means less traffic, less noise, and lots of ice-cream. There are still plenty of movies to see. On a hot day I love to go to a little theater showing an old movie. Afterward, I go a buy a book to take to a park. It is amazing how something so simple can be so enjoyable. Today I went to see a film about Chet Baker called Let's Get Lost by Bruce Weber. The film originally came out in '88, when I was a teenager and it had a profound effect on me. At the time I wanted to see it in the movie theaters, but missed it. I think it played for about a week at a small arthouse theater. After missing the movie I got the soundtrack, which ended up being on the last recordings ever Chet did. He was a great jazz trumpeter playing in the 50's and 60's and also a romantic vocalist. He had a unique sound all around. He was not pure, he had an edge. He confounded people, but when you figured out what he was doing, it all fell into place and you could not imagine things any other way. When you hear a Chet Baker rendition of a classic, soon no other interpretation sounds quite right. The light side of Chet Baker was the art, but the dark side was the abuse. The abuse of drugs on himself and the emotional abuse he inflicted on those around him. The photographer Bruce Weber captures Chet at his essence and makes you love him and the music despite of what you know will happen in the end. All in moody black and white, the films goes across the US and falls down in Italy and Paris and finally in Cannes. I saw the movie the first time a couple of years after it came out. It was on a video tape. I watched it with a girl I knew from high school but have since lost touch with. Back then the film and Chet's music was the ultimate in cool. It was music you listened to late at night when you were all alone. The soundtrack stayed with me for many years and got me a lot of dreamy eyed friends. Once in college I was talking to a girl living next door to me. It was a warm night and we ended up on the subject of music. I ran in and put Chet on and for about 5 mins. she did not talk to me. She got lost in the mood. It became an easy way to impress someone. Seeing the film again not only took me back 20 years, but it reminded me of what I thought was beautiful them and how I still find beauty in much of the same. I just spent my own time away. I took a little vacation to the South of France. It was wonderful to have the sun and feel the heat. I often went to the beach and loved the feel of the sand and the rocks. One evening there was the surprise of a fireworks show, which was the most beautiful I have ever seen. In the midst of the sparkle and the boom, I was taken back to the child-like feeling of awe. This brings me back to Paris in August because there is that feeling of awe when the streets are almost empty and the monuments seem larger. It is the time to take a ride in a car, roll down the windows, or the top and take a spin around the Arc de Triomphe, speed down the quais along the Seine, stand in line for ice cream or visit the Paris Plage. In August Paris feels like when your parents felt confident enough to leave you alone and eventhough you could have gone wild, you did not. You did not do what was expected, you just did the simple things you love.