Everything you ever wanted to know about Montpellier France

 

On the plus side, as you read this I have been in Montpellier France for four days! That is a lot! And there is much I have learned and many vivid impressions I have taken of this burgeoning medieval city just inland from the southern coast of France.

On the minus side, I am writing this many days ahead of time and haven't actually been to Montpellier and can tell you nothing about it.

It's a conundrum.

But, and here's the good news: It is not entirely accurate of me to say I have never been to Montpellier! We went through it on a train twice, and we even changed trains at the train station!

But first, what is all this with Montpellier? Are we thinking of moving there? Are we disenchanted with where we are now on the Cote D'Azur? Are we looking for a new home? Are we on vacation?

Yes.

Yes yes yes and yes. In fact, at some point I was just making questions that had 'yes' as an answer! 

Our Belle Epoque city is famous, lovely, sparkling, and a wonderful fun place to visit. In some ways it is a million times better a place to live than anywhere we have lived before. There is really nice food, we walk everywhere because a thousand useful and unuseful places are less than ten minutes away, the ocean is heaven, and the old town is magical. 

But we live here, and it isn't a very kind place, nor a creative one. It doesn't have a lot of soul. It's not so much this city's pretty face, it's more that it's just so busy with its pretty face. It's not really that nice of a city to simply sit and talk to.

So while we were meeting our dear cousin and his dog somewhere between here and Paris, we thought maybe we'd take a look at Montpellier, a city we've thought interestedly about before. Full of students from its large and ancient university, and with a trememdous pedestrianized medeival core to the city, maybe its vibe will suit us better?

What did we see when we briefly stepped outside of the train station in Montpellier?

It was a little like a dream. There was stone, stone everywhere. And there were trams and tramtracks everywhere, and many people walking about here and there. And I don't remember seeing any cars anywhere.

I hope we like it.

Why Montpellier?

 

I am in Montpellier!

Well, as you read this I am. As I write this it's a few days before we go.

Why go to Montpellier? You ask.

No, I answer, not the one in Vermont.

Oh. You reply. Still, what's up with Montpellier? Aren't you in a paradise half the world spins their idle fantasies about: The brilliant Cote D' Azur?

Oh, sorry, you wouldn't say any of this. It's another reader of clerkmanifesto that was asking all of this. Sorry for the confusion. I guess this is the fundamental weakness of the Second Person Narrative. It's a high wire act.

What's a high wire act? You ask.

Wait. I reply. Who is asking that?

Me/Not me you reply.

Now I'm lost.

Who's lost?

Who's talking now?

Enough of this nonsense! This is the authorial voice of clerkmanifesto reasserting myself. Let's get it together! Now who out there wants to actually hear about why we are going to check out the medieval city of Montpellier, France?

Ohhhhhh. More than I thought.

When should I do it?

Yes, tomorrow is a good idea. I think we all need a little break now.

More capitalism

 

We are heading off to Montpellier, or, as you read this, we're there. We are visiting with the only human we know in all of Europe and meeting his dog. It is very exciting! In preparation I am gathering up some ahead of time posts because I am not bringing my computer, and won't be posting from there.

Before we get into a discussion of the lovely (hopefully) city of Montpellier, France, I do have one last bit of unfinished cartooning from my "Capitalism Nibbles on your Brain" shirt. I did make this cartoon into a single block of four panels, but I think it will be easier to see if I show you the four frames sequentially here. Then I'll put the block at the end for completionist sake.

Tomorrow we can talk about Montpellier.

Nibbling on your brain

 

Just a couple posts back here I tossed off a phrase that caught my fancy: Capitalism nibbles on the brain.

What a nice logo that would make, able to be used in so many ironic ways! So I used a couple of AI's to try and get the logo together, but it would not oblige on the little bugs I had in mind. I needed to work on those independently, then ask the ai to use them in the logo image.

Here is the bug I managed to get to:

Lately I have been doing a lot of redrawing and working into these kinds of images, but for now I though I'd let this little guy stand, as I was aware my project might have an awful lot of steps. I moved onto the logo, changing the wording slightly, and after just a few million attempts, I was happy enough with this one:

Great. I like it.

Now my ultimate idea for this logo was as a t-shirt. I had an plan for a two panel Doris Cartoon. I made dozens of iterations, but without spending more hours on it, I think this is the best expression of my idea, which is where we will conclude today's post:

The next thing

 

Surely the next thing must be around here someplace. I can feel it in the air. I'm pretty sure the next thing will be showing up on clerkmanifesto any day now. So it might be a good idea to make some space for it.

You know, just in case it 

wait,

what was that noise?

Was that something coming in the window at Clerkmanifesto? Is the next thing here right now????!

Wait here.

I'll go check.

Oh, it was a cat. So, almost as good. 

Well, while we're waiting, why don't I show you whatever pictures I have left in the folder on my desktop titled "To Post". If I'm not willing to post them now then they need to go in the file "Finished unposted". And if the next thing isn't here soon, we may end up rifling around in that file too.

Brace yourself, it turns out this is quite a haul.

Bloom off rose and other stories

 

Here, we might as well start with this one:

It probably hasn't escaped your attention that clerkmanifesto has recently increasingly filled up with strange cartoon and poster work, a lot of rather dark musings featuring Doris, and my most chatty, offbeat, and conversational self.

Good job noticing!

This is a bit astray from the slightly more sober accounts of travelling and adapting to a beautiful new city and making a new life in a new country that have just barely managed to prevail here over the last half year.

And if you very tentatively dipped your toe into clerkmanifesto to follow on that strange, harrowing, and magical ride of moving to a glamorous retirement, and now you find yourself subjected to...

weird things,

all I can say is...

oops.

I've never really been in control of clerkmanifesto. That stuff is all handled from the home office.

I'm just saying: I'm as much a victim as you! Another six months of this "Aren't the French mean and funny and my god, the gelato!" stuff and I could be the next Peter Mayle!

But we've had a rough couple of months. There have been a lot of health issues going on unpleasantly for us, and simultaneously a reckoning that this probably isn't the right city for us has unmistakably reared its head. I don't suppose that negates this being, along with all my other stuff, the story of a glamorous retirement, but it makes the road a lot more twisty.

Way more twisty.

And when the road gets twisty, clerkmanifesto sometimes likes to just get out of the fucking car, walk into the woods, draw a tree or maybe an alien, and then tell everyone that unfortunately we're all going to die one day.

I don't mean anything by it.

I hope it's your cup of tea. And if not, things could change again. I don't know. That's up to the home office.

Volume 14 is finally available at your local bookstore

 

Yes, Volume 14 in the annals of clerkmanifesto is finally here. And you can pick it up at your local bookstore. It should also be noted that it is, like everything related to clerkmanifesto, completely free!

That doesn't mean valueless though! That's just how we're programmed.  Remember: 

Capitalism nibbles at the brain.

Anyway, if they tell you they don't have Volume 14 at your local bookstore, I urge you to make a scene.

 The whole "Karen" thing has given quite the stigma to making a scene, but sometimes is simply has to be done.

Just, it's better if it's done right. And over something super important.

You know, like Volume 14.  I mean, wouldn't you like to be able to sit down in a comfy armchair with a nice cognac and be able to read stuff just like... this?

Or, maybe not this exactly, but many posts in clerkmanifesto are slightly better than this one!

So go ahead and create a fuss.

Don't worry, though, the store will probably have it.

Sunday funnies, though maybe that's not the word

 

Things are a bit of a mess over here at clerkmanifesto's headquarters in France.

In France! 

What the hell? How did we get to France? Wasn't I working at a library in Minnesota for like, forever?

Sorry, I get a bit disoriented occasionally.

Anyway, there are all these art posters and drawings scattered in my computer and I have cartoons of Doris the super intelligent alien everywhere. I've got to get some of this organized so I can tell you more about France eventually. It's very interesting here what with the baguettes and, er, um, with the, uh...

Well maybe the bloom is off the rose a tiny bit, but it's coming back! We're even going on a trip to Montpellier to see the oldest botanical garden in Europe. So hang in there.

In the meantime there are a host of physical ailments I'm dealing with that I don't want to talk about, and there are all these delightful Doris cartoons to share, which is an especially appropriate thing to do on a Sunday, for those of you who remember newspapers.

Don't be silly, there aren't any newspapers anymore.

Anyway, it suddenly occurred to me that outside of the most fanatically devoted clerkmanifesto readers (I'm one, it's a very unusual hobby!), many of you, despite seeing a fair share of Doris over the last several days, might not be fully up to speed on just who this diminuative alien is.

So I have prepared an introductory cartoon poster, personally approved by Doris, and suitable for framing. Though it covers the basics mostly, I think even Doris experts might find a tidbit or two of new information in it. For instance, even I, a longtime friend and associate, had no idea about the dogs!

Oh, right, and I said there would be regular sunday funny cartoons today too. Though mostly now they'll be reinforcing what you learned above.

Here are two:

A special clerkmanifesto post just for you!

 

This one is for you. You know who you are.

And even if you don't think it's you, it is!

My art career takes off in europe!

Maybe seeing all my interesting artwork you were wondering, like that one guy with the long grey hair always did at the library, why am I not a successful professional artist?

Or as he put it "You should do something with your art!"

I know.

I really should.

Mostly what I do is make art, and then occasionally I dip into thinking that a lot more people should like it. But I haven't gotten a ton further than that.

Until now!

Check out my exciting upcoming shows!!!!

When words fail

 

Sometimes words fail me. 

So I do something else, and then I have a lot to say about it.

I have been working on a self portrait today. And after creating, drawing, and designing many layers, I found myself having a hard time just being finished.  Perhaps this reflects my currently unsettled feelings? So I have ended up with many different versions of this same image. Do I show you one? Or do I show you many?

I managed to get it down to four. I've arranged them into something that looks a little like a progression: