A Sea of Newton Women and Mélo Men
Photographer Helmut Newton’s retrospective at the Grand Palais Southeast Gallery opened Saturday (on until June 17th), with an advance viewing on Friday for the press. Newton, who died of a heart attack while driving his Cadillac crashing into a wall of the Hotel Château-Marmont (Hollywood) in January of 2004 at the age of 83, is well-known for his provocative and often shocking images. And now they’re bigger than life on the walls of the Grand Palais for everyone to ponder.
While there are more breasts on view than at a Crazy Horse review, Newton’s use of eroticism liberates and empowers women making them both seductive and dominant. You will recognize the images he shot for Vogue, Elle, Corrèges and Yves Saint Laurent, but don’t get so sidetracked by the nudes of the world’s most beautiful women that you don’t enjoy his poignant and iconic portraits.
This is a not-to-be-missed exhibit. For more information, visit Helmut Newton Exhibit.
Saturday night among a sea of men, we three female friends heard the sweet choral voices of Mélo’Men during their two-night performance at Le Théâtre de Ménilmontant in the 20th arrondissement of “Hisse et Ho!” Founded in 1994, the gay (and gay-friendly) men’s amateur choir is made up of more than 50 men, both French and foreign. All wearing marine-style garb, mostly blue and white stripe shirts and a variety of sailor’s caps, they sang 15 songs inspired by the sea, led by conductor John Dawkins and accompanied by pianist David Loyer. Fun, funny and well-performed, don’t miss their next performance. For more information, visit Mélo’Men.
You may recall that from time to time, instead of “Speak Paris” (Parler Paris), you may be receiving “Speak Nice” (Parler Nice). It only makes sense that when I’m on the Blue Coast (Côte d’Azur), that instead of pretending to be in Paris talking about Nice and the Riviera, that we should just talk about Nice and call it what it is — “Parler Nice.”
Going down to Nice has become a monthly habit and now that “Le Matisse” is done, family and friends want to join me there to take advantage of the newly renovated apartment just steps from the beach. Of course, that’s only possible when it’s not rented to guests and the beginning of high season on the Côte d’Azur starts NOW…so the best problem I could have is lack of availability!
My daughter is with me this trip. She had seen the apartment before purchasing it and now is anxious to see the finished product. We took the TGV Sunday afternoon on a beautifully sunny spring day, being careful not to miss the train thanks to Daylight Savings kicking in. I have been writing you from the TGV, the tangerine colored suede sofa, the desk and the café table on the balcony at Le Matisse. Last night, Erica and I wandered all over Vieux Nice, had an enormous and delicious dinner at Voglia, then watched Jean Dujardin’s “Brice de Nice” on the big TV.
Already, we don’t want to leave.
A la prochaine…
Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris
(Adrian in her Paris ‘boudoir’ – Photo by Erica Simone)
P.S. Wednesday’s newsletter will be a recount of our few days in the south. For those of you who are only interested in the Riviera, and not Paris, you may opt in to just Parler Nice (Parler Nice). And for those of you who have been reading Parler Paris for a long time, you may just have to put up with a Parler Nice on occasion. If you’re not interested in what goes on on the Mediterranean coast, then just delete it and forget you ever saw it.
To read more, click the links below.