Take a Beat w/ French Week in NYC, as Programmed by ME (& Netflix)

On 8/14/24 we are preparing for the triumphant return of the simultaneously highest and lowest art that has ever been created by being FRENCH in NYC - on our TVs, in our cuisine, and even musically.

Aug 14, 2024

The stars have aligned for Josh in NYC the week of Emily in Paris’ return to our homes and to my heart. In a very Emily Cooper turn of events, it is the same week that I was fortunate enough to…

Be reminded that I should watch the movie The Taste of Things, entirely forgetting it is a French film (that stole my goddamn heart).
See my favorite French/Belgian pop act, Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul, live in Prospect Park.
And, to top it off, my friend Dick, decades-long resident of NYC, told me about his favorite French restaurant, Cafe Luxembourg, so I heeded its call to the Upper West Side.
Bits & Bobs from the Paris Olympics (that I exclusively experienced through Twitter)

The Reason for the French Season

Emily in Paris/Our Hearts

For pride this year, a friend of mine gifted me with very own vape! <3 It was the first vape (tobacco or otherwise) that I’ve ever owned. And with it came a dangerously powerful feeling… I possessed my own delicious stick of flavored propylene glycol, able to rip it to my heart’s content rather than resorting to poutily looking at my peers in hopes they make an offering my way. (Thanks Sam!)

What power! What fun&flirty vibes! What something-to-do-with-my-hands!

Anyways, some two weeks later I tossed it out because it was taking too long to run out of juice and was taking up space on my counter (counters should be CLEAR).

All this to say, practicality outweighs vice 9.9 times out of 10 for me. If a boy wants to come over, but I’m preparing to go grocery shopping, I’ll pursue the nourishment that goes in the fridge. If a friend invites me to a party called any of “WRECKED”, “HORSEMEAT DISCO”, or “MEAT” out in Queens with less than 3 weeks notice, this queen will stay on the couch.

But tomorrow I am welcoming my greatest vice back into my life. It is the rare thing for which I will clear my schedule of all growth- or maintenance-related activities, for which I will put practicality on hold in favor of barefaced hedonism.

This vice: Netflix’s Emily in Paris

Emily in Paris’ dopey reputation precedes it. They say it is “mind-numbing fun”. They label it “background noise”. They accuse it of being “product placement disguised as entertainment”.

And while Emily may not be the most complicated of female characters, she is… enigmatic. She is 98 pounds and utterly sexless, yet every sexy and powerful man in Paris is drooling at her feet. She is a fish-out-of-water who incidentally flops her way into seas of soirees and celebrity. She’s a mid-level marketing manager with a wardrobe that necessitates 5 separate CMO roles.

And while Emily may not be the most grounded in reality, she remains… earnest. She doesn’t know a lick of French, but in Emily’s Paris competence and good intentions transcend all barriers. She leaves a trail of interpersonal and professional destruction in her wake, but it is all in the name of protecting those she loves!

And while Emily’s low stakes dilemmas may not be the most relatable, she is… conflicted. She is being pursued by the two hottest men in Paris, and she cares about them both! She handles luxury brands that take her to exotic locales, but sometimes she misunderstands their needs! Once she’s even ordered to delete her Instagram account, but that Instagram account is how she navigates this crazy new city!

So is Emily Cooper a simple, delusional, unrelatable character, or is she an enigmatic, earnest, conflicted woman? The answer is, of course: YES.

I’ve been doing my honorable, self-appointed EiP-duty and rewatching the first three seasons ahead of the season four premiere, and the effect is the same as every other time I’ve watched and rewatched the show: I’m completely enraptured. Every juicy, happenstance, fortuitous encounter has me giddy. Every incidental triumph has me cheering. Every food metaphor has me howling. HOWLING, I TELL YOU.

To me, the most quintessential Emily in Paris episode is season 1 episode 4, “A Kiss is Just a Kiss”. One morning Emily meets an impossibly chic new friend named Camille who works at an art gallery. In just one encounter, brand-new-friend-Camille invites her to a gallery event where Emily’s fellow Chicago-native, hotel mogul Randy Zimmer, will be present. At the event, Emily manages to intrigue Zimmer on a synergistic idea for his hotel, which the team pitches properly the next day at the Savoir office. When she mixes up the celebratory dinner reservation, she relies on her impossibly hot and talented chef neighbor to come to the rescue. Come to the rescue he does, and new business has been successfully generated in the span of 36 very happenstance-filled hours. Oh, and she kisses hot-chef/neighbor Gabriel only to learn moments later that he is dating her chic new friend Camille!

Season 1 episode 4 of Emily in Paris is the world in which I want to live. One where chance encounters lead to trendy soirees, delectable romance, and wads of cash. Where the recipe for success is simple: Just be open to the mysterious ways of your city, put your heart on your sleeve, and give it the good ol’ college try!

I don’t know how Darren Starr and team do it, but they’ve created a show where I’m not having to suspend disbelief, but rather the disbelief dissipates as soon as Emily appears in her outrageous couture, hair in an impeccably constructed updo, beaming cornily while walking along the Seine. I’m in Emily’s Paris with her, and after each 20-30 minute installment of foibles and triumphs, I am deliriously giddy, wholly refreshed, and, dare I say, even a little inspired**.

Now, do those feelings sound like the side effects of what one would label a “vice”? It turns out Emily in Paris isn’t a vice, but a medicinal treatment, the prescription for which I plan to renew for many ailments to come.

** If there’s one person who can match Emily’s earnest, it might be me?

Juliette Binoche IS Paris

My Taste for the The Taste of Things

Food has long been used to express one’s love for those consuming it, thanks to its ability to speak all love languages: Spending time crafting in the kitchen is your service, the delicious nourishment that work produces is your gift, and the resulting meal is your and your loved ones’ mouthwatering quality time. And compliments to the chef are some of the strongest words of affirmation one can receive.

In The Taste of Things food and love dance together with such grace, nuance, and craft that they become indistinguishable from one another. In the film we have two culinary forces as our protagonists, an aristocrat with a penchant for the finer things in life named Dodin (played by Benoit Magimel), and his renowned cook Eugenie (played by French legend Juliette Binoche). Eugenie has been cooking for and with Dodin for decades, and the relationship they have long ago transcended employee/boss dynamics; through their work in the kitchen Eugenie and Dodin have become lovers, friends, and confidantes, both inside and outside the kitchen.

Their relationship was borne in the kitchen, and it is in the kitchen their relationship hums with dynamism to this day. With a luscious, slow-roasted rack of veal and charred lettuce Eugenie dazzles Dodin and his visiting friends. Through the most stunning baked Alaska ever committed to screen Eugenie shares her passions with a budding culinary artist named Pauline. With a clarified broth Dodin lovingly cares for his ailing better half. And through every step of the breathtakingly filmed process, from harvesting the vegetables to plating the final dish, Eugenie, Dodin, and by extension the film, show deep reverence for food as an art form.

There are two elements of the The Taste of Things around which everything and everyone else in the film orbit: Dodin’s immaculate late 19th century kitchen, and Juliette Binoche as Eugenie. And Juliette Binoche brings astounding grace to both. She fills the kitchen and the film with warmth, mastery, ease, love, charisma — with Eugenie. Just like every character who knows her, I not only savored every delectable dish Eugenie crafted, I also savored every minute spent in her presence, as though just few minutes in the kitchen with Eugenie could imbue decades of wisdom upon me.

This profound reverence, for the food, for each other, and for the sacred world that provides all of those things, pervades the film so thoroughly and earnestly that it slow cooks your heart right alongside the lemony flounder. I lived in a place of
wonderment and gratitude (that place is FRANCE) for 120+ stunning minutes, and I already can’t wait to revisit Dodin’s and Eugenie’s chateau kitchen in the south of France for future spiritual nourishment.

Man About Town (Ghent by Way of Prospect Park)

Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul @ Prospect Park

Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul are a French/Belgian electro-pop duo whose deliriously fun songs not-so-subtly double as heady essays on race, sexuality, and identity. The pairing of this touchy, progressive subject matter with their uniquely inventive song-crafting make for a totally singular concert-going experience, best explored by diving into some of the wacky songs themselves:

“HAHA”

An aptly named song vocally comprised almost entirely of LAUGHTER. So when Charlotte performs, she is on stage laughing both hysterically and with great control, traversing notes and tones and a variety of giggles, cackles, and other outbursts. As an audience member, you can’t help but join her in both laughing and in dancing.

“It Hit Me”

An electro-pop song where the drop comes at the climax of each of Bolis’ and Charlotte’s tales of discovering their sexuality in their pre-teen years. Unwelcome young adult epiphanies re-jiggered as humorous, upbeat, and playful tunes could have you wondering.. “should we be dancing to this?” Charlotte and Bolis would appreciate it you did.

“Mantra”

Have you ever tried hyping yourself up via existential reasoning? No? Before your next anxiety-inducing event, would it help to remember that —

“Now let go of this mental interpretation / You exist with or without it / Thank the fears and say good bye / Let it go / Your body knows what to do”

AN EXISTENTIAL BANGER

“Thank You”

The sarcasm-filled album and show closer that doubles as an inditement of you, the listener, as well as all the folks who “helped” Charlotte and Bolis achieve everything they’ve achieved to this day.

PSA: Ladies, have you ever gotten a backhanded-AF compliment from a man? You HAVE?! Ew! Check out this whimsical teardown of those (oftentimes) men.

Charlotte’s and Bolis’ ethnic and backgrounds include Martinican, Guadeloupean, Chinese, Belgian, and more. Therefore, as a white man, I am yet again profiting (experientially) from someone’s diverse, challenging, intersectional history, but the good news is that they want me to! (I think!)

Paris in the Upper West Side

Bits & Bobs from Cafe Luxembourg

French food is the best food. No essay here just 3 pictures and an unsupported superlative subjective statement.

croque madame (GOATed) with a white burgundy

creme brulee (GOATed) with a sauternes dessert wine

really important picture editorially thank god I snapped it

Bits & Bobs from the PARIS Olympics

My favorite meme applications of that one clip of (icon, legend) Raygun breakdancing:

What the husband in anatomy of a fall was doing before he fell off the roof (tweet)
What my nephew does after telling us to “watch this” (tweet)
Me as a worm trying to get my girlfriend’s attention to see if she still loves me (tweet)