L'Accordeoniste

Here is a video of Edith Piaf from a 1954 Television show. This huge voice from this tiny woman. I know the Bio Pic which I reviewed last March, La Mome is up for an Academy Award.

Maybe this is a good time to try to give some background on the French Political Theater. It's confusing to everyone!
When we last left our Hyper President, the miniscule Nicolas Sarkozy, he was on top of the world. He was freshly elected and ready to roll back France to the days before the May 68 Socialist Revolution. He was enjoying high approval ratings and trying to present himself as the new Camelot with his wife Celia as our surrogate Jackie Kennedy.

His phrase, "Work More, Earn More" was on everyones lips. People believed he was going to turn the economy around and ease the burden on the middle class.
In only a few short months, the reality is really: Work More, Pay More, or Else!
In the last few months 5 major French corporations have closed down shop here to go elsewhere. Suddenly, you have to pay more for prescriptions, the big chain stores have raised prices on a lot of basic food items by at least one third!

The government tells us with figures to prove that the average costs are really going down. They are basing their figures on the ever cheaper prices for electronic goods and luxury items. Because the government will not compromise on fuel taxes, we are paying 1,20 Euros a liter for diesel at the cheap gas stations!

The lawyers and judges have all gone on strike because of a government cost cutting program that would close court houses all over France. There were videos of judges being beat up by the CRS on television during the protests. Almost every segment of society has been on strike in the last few months, including the taxis and air traffic controllers.

Sarko has been making statements to appease the Far Right Religious wing about doing away with the 1905 Laws to separate church and state. This has made every one very nervous and angry.
He tried at the same time to pander to the Jewish population by starting a program that would require every 10 year ols school kid to symbolically "adopt"a child who was deported from france during the Holocaust. This also made every one mad including the Jews who felt it was degrading and condescending.

Meanwhile, in reality, families are being separated and children are being pulled out of schools by police and being deported if they are irregulars. The hardships this has has caused has been labled a human rights violation by Amnesty International.

He pandered to Kadhaffy...when he travels to another country, as his recent trips to China and India, it is not for diplomatic reasons but as a glorified salesman to seal deals for the top Corporations.

Then there is his personal life. Soon after his trip to the USA and meeting Bush, Celia filed for divorce. Three weeks later, it was annouced that he was involved with the ex modle and lousy singer, Carla Bruni, who is Italian Nobility. Carla was last involved with Laurent Fabius of the Socialist Party. She was an ex girlfriend of bot Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. Before you know it, they are traveling together and then in a low key ceremony, married.

A top magazine, Le Nouvelle Observateur released a piece of gossip on the internet stating that Nicolas begged Celia to come back to him and offered to pay her. He flipped out wqith this and is now suing the magazine.

Meanwhile, he has 2 sons from his first marriage, before Celia who are in their 20's.
One, an aspiring actor named Jean who was about to embark on the best carreer his daddy could buy for him, was yanked from his first major play a week before it was to open because his father wanted him to go into politics to sabotage the campaign of his ex wife's Celia's favorite, his official spokes person who had been "parachuted" into the mayors race in a district of Paris where Sarkozy had been mayor. The 22 year old Jean is not an experienced figure and the entire episode backfired and he found himself a laughing stock.

The other son. Pierre Sarkozy, has kept a low profile working as a hip hop/rap gansta artist and producer named Mosey. In fact most people had no idea who Mosey really was until last week, when Papa got Mosey to produce the new album of failed Sarkozy supporting Rap artist, Doc Gyneco. This was annonced in the magazines last week and Mosey was "outed" and is being treated as the rich priveleged kid he is who is trying to be street cool by associating with the minority artists his father is responsible for creating the repressive conditions that inspires their material.

Sarko is tanking. His ratings hit 38% today and are in a downward spiral heading for George Bush numbers, but instead of taking a few years to get there, it's taken Sarko only a few months.

A number of very prominent politicians have formed a coalition that crosses party lines including Segolene Royal and Francois Bayrou to oppose his autocratic anti constitutional style.

The government is already shaking from scandals and he is scheduled to take over the European Union Presidency next month(it is a rotating position)His pronouncements on immigration have angered much of Europe and the opposition has started already. England just announced it is going to issue over a million new passports to regularize illegal immigrants in direct defiance of Sarkozy's rhetoric.

Sarko has gone from top of the world to being one of the most universally despised government figures since Jean-Marie LePen.
The top news paper in Spain ran an editorial last week saying that Sarkozy was over.
Stay tuned!