Tag Archives: Chicago

8 hours in hell: the truth about economy class

28 Jul

I made it back safe to the land of croissants. After the Chicago holidays, my bank account is down -700 euros: I can’t prize myself that it is safe all the way. I’m a French frugal who cannot be frugal on vacations in America. I’m a French-American in debt right now.

Flying Scandinavian Airlines (SA) from Chicago to Copenhagen was a pleasant experience. While semi-listening to safety instructions (same old story, if something happens ‘up in the air’ I can die with Georges Clooney and that’s ok with me) my attention was captivated by a quirky announcement. The safety instructions’ TV demo concluded with the following statement: ‘people are requested not to sleep on the floor‘. Very amusing, is not it? Passengers attempting to sleep on the floor during take off, flying and landing? I can only imagine the awkwardness of the situation for crew members. When recruiting crew members, I hope airlines companies’ HR department go straight to the matter and ask the million dollar question: have you experienced passengers trying to sleeping on the floor? If yes, tell us more about how you handled the situation? A  marketer question would be: why do your consumers try to sleep on the floor?

We shall not be surprised for such borderline (desperate?) behaviors: the truth is, low-cost airfares have enabled us to travel more often, but the comfort of economy class remains poor and will remain poor for as long as more people like me will want to travel more at the lowest cost.

Low-cost flights make our wallets happier and our bodies sore for a couple of hours (if not days). This is not really a trade-off. It’s a no-choice option for now. In the future, let’s hope we’ll all become frequent travelers.

Personally, the more I travel long distance for my own leisure, the more I dream about flying first class. I can totally envision myself being able to fall asleep and sleep for 7 hours in comfortable first class. And I insist on the dimension ‘being able to fall asleep’ as a first step prior to full sleep. What happens in between falling asleep and full sleep is a story we can pretty much all relate to: in economy class, it takes up to 2 hours to figure out the best position in which to sleep. Many of us will surrender and take a sleeping aid. Or will go stand next to the space in front of the toilet. But now it’s crowded because this is the only place where economy class people can decently stretch out their legs. The best situation is when the passenger next to you becomes your BFF: time goes by rapidly and you forget where you are (for a little while). But I must admit that passing by first class before going into economy class is a painful moment which reminds me of the next 8 hours in hell. This feeling only fuels my desire for first class upgrade. Oh well. HOPE. That is what he said.

What really matters is not the size of the seat, the passenger next to you, the great movies’ selection or HOPE for first class status. What really matters was the amount of fun loving time I had in Chicago: it was 10 days in heaven minus 16 hours in hell (flying economy).

The Bean in Chicago; Leviathan in Paris

10 Jul

In Chicago,  there is ‘the Bean’, public art sculpture from Anish Kapoor that became one of the most popular attraction of the city.

In Paris, there was Leviathan, Kapoor’s temporary exhibit at Grand Palais. Kapoor said he wanted us to contemplate while inside and outside the violet rubber sculpture. So, I did listen to him.

The rubber sculpture was assembled in Italy, then transported to Paris and it took 2 hours to inflate the balloons from inside the Grand Palais. Leviathan occupies 45% of the total space of the Grand Palais and fills the nave of its three arms (see map below)

 

The inside and outside of Leviathan are two completly different realities.  First off when you get inside, it is hot as hell. it feels sticky and warm, a womb-like experience. It was dark because a big cloud was blocking sunlight. But all of a sudden, the natural  daylight came back and the reflection of Grand Palais ceiling light-filled the inside. I ticked. I stayed inside the nave, it felt magical, relaxing and hot, but this time the warmth was completely bearable…I had found my object of contemplation, a reason to stay inside a little longer. Thank you, Mister Kapoor. 

Second City Chicago = Théâtre des 10 Paris

15 May

When I arrived in Chicago, my knowledge of the city was limited to Al Capone and prohibition stories. 

You can easily figure that I did not know anything about ’Second City’? Je suis désolée.  I was not désolée too long, though. I was about to learn about the leading brand in improv-based sketch comedy in the US.

Many of my work colleagues were taking stand-up and improv classes at ‘Second City’ and it was that time where Tina Fey returned to Saturday Night Live to spoof Sarah Palin. The French might know about NBC’s Saturday Night Live, especially if they watch Canal+. Well, Saturday Night live was populated by Second City Alums.

Second City started in 1959 as a theatre cabaret in Chicago and is known as ’the most influential and prolific comedy theatre in the world’. Today, Second City is the premiere comic talent in the industry: from Mike Myers (Wayne’s world) to Steve Carell (The office US), Stephen Colbert (Colbert Report) to Tina Fey (30Rock and Sarah Palin), they all graduated from Second City in Chicago.   

    

  

I actually got interested into Stand-up comedy while in Chicago  thanks to my friends Beth and Adonis. In France, there is not much of a stand-up comedy culture, although it has grown under the impulse of TV channel Canal + and humorist Jamel who later created the Jamel’s show on Comedy Central.

So, where would I go in Paris to see good stand-up shows? THEATRE DES 10 HEURES!!!

Théâtre des 10 heures is located in animated Pigalle district, 2 blocks from Moulin Rouge in lower Montmartre. It was started in 1990 under the patronage of Muriel Robin (French female humorist) and launched famous French humorist like Elie et Dieudonné, Patrick Bosso, Franck Dubosc, Omar et Fred, and Jamel Comedy Club. It’s a small venue so everyone is close enough to see the comedians.

    

I went there with a couple of work colleagues last week, one of them being my fantastic boss Dan who is half-Bristish, and half-Irish. He talked us into Eddie Izzard : ’in England, he is able to fill huge Wembley stadium 11,000 people attending. He is brilliant. He does the show all in French in Paris’. We bought tickets for ‘Stripped’, all en Français- at Théâtre des 10 heures-, ‘which is right across from the Sexodrome and the pharmacies’ as Eddie Izzard would later say during the show. Eddie Izzard wants to do the show in other languages: German, Russian, Arabic and so forth. I support his crazy dream and endeavour!!! He would be the only stand-up comedian to have done this and his multi-lingual performance would end-up in the GUINESS OF RECORDS. Eddie Izzard is a man of word-of-mouth but above all, he is brilliant, genial and charming, so go see him! (please, do not throw sexy lingerie at him while he is performing on stage- yes, that happened that night- awkward and disruptive… it tells you all about Eddie’s charisma and sex appeal…oulala)

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