France // Current

The Rosenberg Trio featuring Biréli Lagrène and Christian Escoudé - full concert

If you have nothing else to do, an hour before you, and enjoy good music, this is for you. I am posting it mostly for bluestranger... more

Vierotchka
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Biréli Lagrène and Friends - Daphne (Reinhardt)

Famous Gypsy guitarist Biréli Lagrène and jazz accordionist Richard Galliano perform Django Reinhardt's... more

Vierotchka
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ETA 'military chief' is arrested in France and convicted bomber surrenders in Ireland

(AGI) - Paris, 17 Nov. - French police and Spanish Civilian Guard agents arrested Mikel Garikoitz Aspiaziu Rubina, alias... more

arcticspirit
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France holds 'ETA military head'

Michele Alliot-Marie said Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, alias "Txeroki", was arrested overnight in the Pyrenees. She said... more

Cuervo
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Is French cinema dead?

Dissonant urban comedies and uncompromising thrillers which touch on themes of race, language, and postcolonialism are reinventing... more

mischabarrett
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Russia backs off on Europe missile threat

President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia retreated Friday from his threat to deploy missiles on Europe’s borders, but only if... more

MrDoyle2588
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Sarkozy chides Putin on Russian tough talk: "You want to end up like Bush?"

Nicolas Sarkozy saved the President of Georgia from being hanged "by the balls" -- a threat made last summer by Vladimir... more

pokesmot
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Athma-Pure Logics from Ramen for Teen Well-being

I say your Athma or Soul or Alma or Atma, whatever you call, that is your heart. The genetic predisposition of the human body is... more

AthmaPure
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Inspired by Obama, European minorities take action

An Obama effect is rippling across Europe... ...In France, a pro-Barack Obama grassroots group created months ago is morphing... more

thedismembermentplan
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Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant + White Winter Hymnal - La Blogotheque Take Away Show

This is the first video of a partnership where Current TV will air exclusive Take Away Shows from La Blogotheque. La... more

CurrentMusic
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Chryde (La Blogotheque) on Fleet Foxes Take Away Show

Chryde, La Blogotheque founder, talks about shooting the Fleet Foxes Take Away Show in San Francisco and how it reminded him of... more

CurrentMusic
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A French flavor for McInerney's Good Life

ay McInerney's "The Good Life" is getting a French makeover. Producer Yves Marmion has snagged the adaptation... more

dirtyemowords
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Afghan-born writer wins France's top literary prize

An Afghan-born writer and filmmaker who sought political refuge after fleeing his country in 1984 won France's top literary... more

dirtyemowords
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It's Guy Fawkes Day! Remember, remember the 5th of November.

The English, among other talents, are adept at nurturing their grudges. How else does one explain the enduring enmity toward Guy Fawkes, a conspirator in a plot to blow up Parliament in 1605? Some four centuries after Fawkes was caught, tortured and executed for his role in a scheme that never came to fruition, Britons still celebrate his demise each Nov. 5 by burning his likeness in effigy and setting fireworks ablaze.
One of the ironies of Fawkes' legacy is that he was a late addition to the infamous "Gunpowder Plot." Born a Protestant in 1570, Fawkes enlisted in the Spanish army in the Netherlands around 1593, shortly after converting to Catholicism. Co-conspirators Robert Catesby, Thomas Winter, Thomas Percy and John Wright enlisted Fawkes as a ringer, reasoning that his military skills — he had participated in the 1595 capture of Calais, France — and his anonymity as a foreign soldier made him an ideal candidate to help execute their plan.

Fawkes' henchmen were zealous Catholics who believed that by beheading the government, they might usher in a new era of Catholicism in Protestant England. Led by Catesby, they hatched a plan to explode gunpowder under Parliament during a state opening, when King James I, his queen, and other family members and government leaders were inside. The plot was set for Nov. 5, 1605, and in the preceding days, the conspirators rented a cellar underneath the building, where Fawkes stashed at least 20 barrels of gunpowder.

Things didn't go according to plan. The plotters sought wider support, and, as the story goes, one of the individuals to whom they reached out alerted his brother-in-law, a lord, not to attend Parliament on Nov. 5. The building was searched, and Fawkes was apprehended along with his stockpile of gunpowder. Tortured on the rack, he revealed the names of his co-conspirators. Some of them were killed while resisting arrest; others, including Fawkes, pled not guilty and went to trial, where they were convicted of high treason. In January, 1606, the remaining conspirators were hanged, drawn and quartered. Parliament immediately established Nov. 5 as a day of celebration.

Today, Guy Fawkes Day — also known as Bonfire Night — is marked across the United Kingdom by celebrations. To foot the bill for the traditional fireworks, children roam the streets in the days leading up to the event, brandishing their effigies — known as "Guys" — and ask passers-by for a "penny for the guy." Families gather for food and festivities that might seem incongruous with the event's bloody origins — although perhaps not as incongruous as lighting fireworks and bonfires to celebrate an abortive attempt at arson.

In recent years, Fawkes' legacy has broadened. He provided the inspiration for the tile character in the Wachowski brothers' V for Vendetta, in which a masked crusader embarks on a terrorist campaign against a totalitarian British dystopia. Fawkes also proved an effective fundraising rally cry for onetime U.S. presidential candidate Ron Paul, who garnered more than $4 million on the holiday in 2007 from a website commemorating Fawkes. This year, revelers will gather across Britain — most notably in Lewes, a town once known as a hotbed of anti-Catholicism sentiment that throws one of the British Isles' biggest conflagrations — and in nations ranging from South Africa and Canada to New Zealand and Australia. Guards will also perform the annual search —more pageantry than precaution—of the Houses of Parliament to ensure no would-be Fawkes is lurking. Though the animosity and rituals may merely be symbolic at this point, the celebrations still burn brightly.
The English, among other talents, are adept at nurturing their grudges. How else does one explain the enduring enmity toward Guy... more