28 June 2016 | Montpellier, France> woke up + went running .. pas mal ville for course .. followd th tram trax .. not ideal running surface but keeps 1 on toes + least u dont got to deal w/ no car traffic .. down to th river Lez .. if u kin call her that .. plus comme un canal .. based on wah ppl told us b4 bout Montpellier we figger'd her for an outdoorsy hippy ol' town like Boulder .. but outside th city centre th architexure sembles fascist .. th river cuntain'd by cement .. tout blocky + plain + clean + boring .. eventually b'comes a dirt path + th Lez plus comme un stream (albeit a stagnant 1) .. de là semble que pouvez continuer going perty far but we turn'd back around 5k in .. follow'd a ∆iffrent bikepath/tramline back past Le Corum (where our better-½ probly @ that xact momint gave a plenary speech @ ∫um ag confrence) up th opera house steps (superbe vue!) .. did push-ups + sit-ups on th esplanade then thru comedy place back to hotel Royal now dans le chambre editing a hardcopy of A Raft Manifest .. 1° time we print'd her out + see th actual size (intentionally barely legible in distress'd ± pixelated 8 pt fonts) .... streetcars ding by b'low + skateboards scraping rails .. hobopunks hassling folks their beasts ∀ll a barking + a street singer en fait assez bonne .... no place else have we seen so menny punk-à-chien as they call them here (thx Inurnet) .. hanging out doing nada cept gitting wasted + harassing regular folk .. taking up space .. quel est votre but sur cette planète? .. then again if Rimbaud lived today il serait un punk-à-chien so call us a hippocrit cuz last post we sed we admire him choosing such a life sted of riding bad poetry or doing whatever "productive" .. maybe sans le chien .. th part that gits us .. u cant even take care of yo'self but u got dogs? .. then a'gin, such a life b'fits a dog ..

gare (Montpellier til otherwise specifyd)

comedy place

text in membrance of ∫um turkish genocide

29 June> set out to rent a bike from 1 of them Vélomagg racks but th first 3 dint have no vélos .. kept a'walking furthr + furthr out finely found 1 but no battry for th display console .. furthr out found bikes but th machene dint like our credit carte til like th 10° try (nor le jour b4 when also we tryd) .. finely got a cycle but she suck'd merde .. gears ∀ll outta whack so she skip'd every 2 strokes unless we held th shifter in a certine position .. still we pass'd cyclistes in their ridiculous spandex gitups + fancy sea-foam green bicyclettes .. smoking + socializing wile they rode 2 or 3 wide taking up both lanes + not bothering to pull over nun when u bout to hit them hed on .. down a'long th Lez past where we ran le jour précédent .. past estuarys + pink flamingos + cheval farms w/ rabbits eating th hay .. hit th côte @ Palavas-les-Flots + kept a'going t' Carnon plage .. th beach nada t' ride home about .. big + flat th haze blending into th horrorizon ∀ll 1 nuance de gris .. dint inspire us nun t' take no dip specially sints we dint have no lock 4 our vélomag .. back now t' editing A Raft Manifest .. cunveniently tward th b'ginning where still we parlez ½ in Chinook Jargon elle-même d'rived in part from th French th fur-traders way back brot to th Pacific Northwest so they had a langue to commerce avec les Indiens ..

Hôtel de Ville (city hall)

Carnon beach

canaling thru th estuary

30 June> last post we sed weed comment on french coozine ici + we havenot pas dit beaucoup .. well le fact est que we aint pas impress'd .. starting t' dred whenever we git a hunger cuz we got t' walk around cherching for ∫umumping muckable + tous les restraunts apparemment le même .. typickly they offer only 3 options .. 1 w/ boeuf un autre w/ foie gras + if u lucky, duck .. ok 4 actually sposing u consider crêperies but we draw th line w/ crappy crêpes (real men dont eat no sweet pancakes, even for petit déjeuner) .. + they make a big todo about présentation but th food = bland + tasteless (unless u dig having yo tung coat'd w/ buttre or goose juice or ∫um cremey sauce looking like how she'll come out th udder end .... they got these très beaux outdoor spaces pour manger but tout le monde smokes here cant avoid it .. nous ∫ommes totalement dégoûstéd .. harking back t' how we felt after living here for 2 months .. sembles que ∀ll inny 1 does here est hang out + fume cigs + drink vvine + snack on petite tapa shit .. plates looking mo like Mirós than ∫umpin edible .. w/ foam + tendril sprigs + smears of crap all over th plat .... voilà ce qui est le «French paradox» .. ∀ll th smoking makes u lose yo appétit yeah of course they skinny dont mean healthy pas .. feel disgusting ici from ∀ll th 2° hand smoke + pastis + creamy fromagey coozine on that note we going for a run now ..

> .. feel us better now after a'running (same route as day b4 but a bit furthr to th fancy bridge + we came back on l'autre side of th riverr-canal) .. tho still gotta warsh th residuel smoke outta our clothes .. fortunetly we gots a bathtub good for le lavage + we bot ∫um $tring to hang our clothes sur le balcon .... b-sides th coozine (wile we on a rant) lets parlez bout that high o mighty french attitude .. a stereotype that gits reinforzed w/ tout le monde we encounter ici .. know us plenty French t' savons que them douchebags talking a'bout (as they smoke those cigarettes) = petty + prétentieux bullshit .. got us t' wondring bout ∀ll our french héros th philosophers + riders (Derrida, Deleuze et al) thinking may'b a reaction t' ∀ll th merde they hear on th rues? .. + th anti-Amerikinism funny cunsidering ∀ll ye wdn't have no cigarettes if not for nativ Amerikins + u'd parlez German if not for Amérique .... + u ∀ll = hiyh + mitey when it comes to GMOs in food but what about those cigarettes? u dont think they use pesticides + chemickles growing tabac? .... le fait est que ∀ll ye french fucks êtes juste jaloux .. yeah we figger this applys to 98% of th population + 2% cool French ppl ∃xist taht aint douchebags .. just like in Amerika 98% of ppl fit th stereotype th French have about Américains (fat obnoxious dipshits) .... + what = th pt of learning french when they such dicks about it even spose u muster to parlez them langue? .. we member ∫umpin Dennis Cooper told us how he dint bother to learn a lick of French after yrs living here cuz he liked feeling like a fish outta water + we kin see his punt .. not so sure we want to connaître what they parlez about .. our can'd risponse to tout = «mangez merde, mère de la mer!» .. ∫ums her up that they kin hardly tell th ∆iffrence tween shit, mother + sea .... + wile we ranting lets parlez about th notion of sexualité here .. how they act ∀ll liberated + les femmes pensent qu'elles sont féministes when in fact they got trick'd by men to let loose + show skin in th name of liberation when she all plays into male fantasy .. they got a few porn channels here on regular TV + seems th scenarios always involve 2 women + 1 dude in ménage à trois (or 2 men + 1 women if homoerotic) .. ether way th fantaisie revolves around l'homme (who never = aussi attractiv) .. objectifying th female bod as ∫umpin put here for their pleasure comme cigarettes + foie gras .... we got nada genst nudity or even porn (wd rather see that than th level of violence on Amerikin TV) but show ∫um respect pour vos dames .. + what about th ménage à trois? why such th fascination? ∫umping to do w/ th holey trinity? 3s a crowd if u aks us .. an awkward 1 @ that .. frogs + dogs do that shit humping ∀ll @ once ..

> speaking of french heroes, we reading Bergsonism by Gilles Deleuze .. Bergson + Deleuze both in our fave 5 as far as philosophers go .. Bergson in particular not only risponsible for developing our notions of space + time but th 1 who inspired us to renounce le verbe être in loo of becoming .. how «being passes into nonbeing and produces becoming» .... we interestid to hear Deleuze's thawts .... in th 1° chapter he talks about Bergson's notions of intuition + how she presupooses duration + how ∀ll this ties in w/ free-will ..

It is here that humanity makes its own history, and the becoming conscious of that activity is like the conquest of freedom. (It is true that, in Bergson, the very notion of the problem has its roots beyond history, in life itself or in th élan vital [wich we discuss more in this post]: Life is essentially determined in the act of avoiding obstacles, stating and solving a problem. The construction of the organism is both the stating of a problem and a solution.

> + how w/ Bergson nonbeing carrys same wait as being, disorder as order, etc. .. wich makes us wonder again waht Derrida thawt of Bergson + whether he influenzed his deconstructionism? ..

.. there is not less, but more in the idea of nonbeing that that of being, in disorder than in order, in the possible than in the real. In the idea of nonbeing there is in fact the idea of being, plus a logical operation of generalized negation, plus the particular psychological motive for that operation ..

> waht must nonbeing look like? .. ∫umping worth meditating on? .... then Deleuze brakes Bergson down farther .. int' notions of ∆iffrence + tendencies + cumposit thawt + how (circling back to intuition) we reach a decisive turn similar to th (not yet so) quantum leap Leibniz/Newton made in developing calculus ..

When we have benefitted in experience from a little light which shows us a line of articulation, all that remains is to extend it beyond experience—just as mathematicians reconstitute, with the infinitely small elements that they perceive of the real curve, "the curve itself stretching out into the darkness behind them."

> + that's about as far as we got (up to pg 50) ..

1 July> got a bike a'gin this time went inland thinking maybe weed reach th foothills but not so intresting .. follow'd th aquaduck .. to outskirts of Montpellier .. piecing together bits of bikepaths + riding along tram lines ..

comedy place

Cathedral St Pierre

aquaduck

on th outskirts

tram hub

roundabout

climbing wall

back along th canal

2 July> pick'd up rental car (Peugeot) @ Montpellier airport .. drove tward th sea .. saw salt flats + estuaries w/ birds @ Salins de Giraud .... into Provence region .. stop'd @ Arles .. where Van Gogh made his mark .. lived + did most of his art here .. walk'd around + had lunch .... then went t' Saint-Rémy from where hail'd Nostradamus .. more upscale .. not so impress'd (tho spose we ate there we mite feel ∆iffrent) .. to L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue where we now stay .. back out to Les Baux-de-Provence .. hilltop vlllaj .. nice but très touristique ... dint even bother payng th 10€ to see th castle .. dinner back in town .. watching Italy vs. Germany .. 1-1 .. going into OT ..

Van Gogh country

salins de Giraud [high rez]

abandund warehouse

Arles

Les Baux-de-Provence

Baux from a distance

L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue where now we ride ..

[a day later in Sète overlooking a canal .. inurnet sucks here so coont post no sooner]