Monthly Archives: January 2020

On… French pop song covers

A few years ago, I learned all the words to “Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marcher”, a French yé-yé cover of the Nancy Sinatra song ‘These Boots Were Made For Walking’ by a minxy little chanteuse called Eileen, for no reason at all other than I wanted to. It was delightful and pointless. I LOVE delightful and pointless.

In case you agree, here are some French pop cover songs you might enjoy to learn by heart and impress yourself:

Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marcher (to the tune of “These Boots Were Made For Walking”) by Eileen.

 

L’Amour C’est Comme Une Cigarette (to the tune of ‘Morning Train’) by Sylvia Vartan (oh, her miming in this clip is *bunches fingers, kisses them*)

 

Cette Année La (to the tune of ‘Oh, What A Night’) by Claude Francois

 

Itsy Bitsy, Petit Bikini (to the tune of oh you can guess this one) by Richard Anthony

 

Viens Danser Le Twist (to the tune of ‘Let’s Do The Twist’) by Johnny Hallyday

 

And, obviously, if you like a little Francais there are multitudes of AMAZING original French pop songs from the 60s. My favorite:

 

 

7 Heure Du Mat by Jacqueline Taieb

 

On… a better January

January is too long, too cold, too boring, too everything. Here are some fun ways to get through it:

The Kominsky Method

Like a warm snuggly duvet in a 5* hotel room: high-quality, not too heavy, not too hot, just right.

Image result for carry on rainbow

Carry On

I suspect that what you really want to read right now is a gay teen supernatural romance. Right? Yes. I absolutely adored this book. It is wise and witty and wonderful.

(Sidebar: The title confused me. It’s set in the UK and there was a long and very well-known series of dreadful campy British movies called ‘Carry On’ in the 60s and 70s, which have nothing at all to do with this book, but never mind, my own books had titles foist upon them by publishers, it happens, and the novel is wonderful and maybe it has a different title in the UK, they do that sometimes. Do not judge a book by its title. Or cover. And speaking of covers, I think this cover is SO cool. Some of my very early covers make me want to vomit onto my keyboard just thinking about them. Let’s move on.)

Image result for leuchtturm weekly planner english

Leuchtturm1917 

My day is always writing, punctuated with calls and Skypes and meetings that tend to move around a lot, and the occasional lunch or coffee. I try to have days that are nothing but writing, and days that are nothing but calls and meetings, because, you know, flow and whatnot. Anyway, I always use a pen-and-paper planner, because I’m extremely boring. This one is THE BEST I have ever found. Rather slow delivery to the US, but it’s worth the wait. And I use the blank space at the end of each day for kid-related school reminders and playdates and shit like that.

Uniball Black Pens

And this is the pen. Buy 12. Never be annoyed by lack of pens again.

Wonderful Fashion Men's Classic Herringbone Tweed Wool Blend Newsboy IVY Hat (Brown, LXL)

Tweed Newsboy Cap

Lastly, I LOVE this brown tweedy newsboy hat. Do you need it? Probably not. Do you want it? Probably yes. Will you do a little Christian-Bale-In-Newsies impression when you first put it on? Again, probably yes.