Last 
Wednesday, Alberto and I were on the other side of town (near Place de la République) passing out flyers and posters to cafes and bookstores for his play in the Paris Gay and Lesbian Theater Festival this month. While walking down rue Oberkampf, I did a double-take when I thought I saw dozens of posters of shirtless men in a fish market.
Well, that's just what I saw, and Alberto and I went in and checked it out. It turns out that this fishmonger (that's the official term - I looked it up!) really, really likes Têtu, France's most popular gay mag that's like The Advocate and Out put together.
He likes the magazine so much, in fact, he decorated his fish market with blown-up magazine covers and red feather boas.
According to the article about him in Têtu, he regularly puts up displays of local art in his fish market, but wanted to present an homage to the journal for Valentine's Day.
The article also describes him as proud of his collection of magazine covers, and from talking with him for a few minutes last Wednesday, I gathered that he is really, really proud of this, as well as his medal from the city of Paris for Best Artisan in February.
It's little things like this that restore my faith in humanity.
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10 Comments
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That's such a cute story. My partner informs me that we'll be purchasing two tickets to Paris... and visiting a certain fish market very soon ;-)
David in Houston | April 5, 2009 4:00 PM
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Oh my that is a good story! Next time I'm over in France I think I'll pop by...
Jae | April 5, 2009 4:29 PM
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Il a un certain recherche vestimentaire, le vendeur de poisson. Tres butch.
Father Tony | April 5, 2009 10:30 PM
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Hahaha. Père Tony, je sais pas si on dirai qu'il était tellement masculin, mais peut-être cela n'était evident que grace a ses magazines, son homosexualité.
En fait, il était pas habillé comme ça quand j'était chez lui, donc je pense qu'il voulais vraiment donner l'impression d'être un vrai poissonier. C'est bon pour la publicité, parce que les crevettes payent le loyer mieux que Têtu.
Alex Blaze | April 6, 2009 8:31 AM
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Wait a second.... if the Place de la Republique is opposite the city center where you and Alberto live then you must live over in the 14th or 15th Arrrondisement. I know a school teacher who lives near the Montparnasse Cemetery. But the chances you might know her are.... well, probably better than usual, she has two gay friends with whom she often goes out on the town. So what is the name of the play/time/place (she loves the theatre, opera, etc.), I'll suggest she take her friends to see it.
Lynn David | April 6, 2009 3:40 AM
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Oh, that'd be great if you passed along info, Lynn! Here's the festival's site:
http://festigay.com/2009/sommaire2009.php
Alberto's in "Quand mon coeur bat je veux que tu l'entendes." In fact, I'm in it too for about 5 seconds, since it's a play spliced with interview footage (and I got to make those interviews "international").
I also got Alberto to make a site for the play on Wordpress:
http://quandmoncoeurbatfestigayparis.wordpress.com/
Thanks!
I actually live in the 17th, but since we biked over it felt a lot further... "Opposite" is, I suppose, more accurately Chinatown.
Alex Blaze | April 6, 2009 8:35 AM
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I see an implied marketing message. Eat my fish and you can look like that. Makes Omega 3 fatty acids look pretty sexy.
Robert Ganshorn | April 6, 2009 5:10 AM
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Is anyone else having trouble with the accent marks in the post? I see they're working in the comments, so it can't be my browser....
Alex Blaze | April 6, 2009 8:37 AM
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I was having trouble with them yesterday. Today they come through just fine on both my iMac and my Dell desktop. (Safari on the iMac and FireFox on the PC)
BTW, I was a little surprised that you had to look up fishmonger ( I guess not all gay kids grew up on PBS cooking shows). ;)
null | April 6, 2009 10:39 AM
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I also found out that "fishwife" is the feminine form of the word. I hesitated in using that one instead, because it sounds nicer.
Alex Blaze | April 8, 2009 5:15 AM
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