LesAutresMondes: Akouphen Press Column

LesAutresMondes.info is a French webzine supporting women in music (a very noble cause), and is mainly specialized in Rock, Punk-Rock, Metal and Electro styles.

It lists lots of bands with at least one woman taking part, offers interviews and album press columns. It also has a calendar with upcoming events and reports on past events. And of course it is equipped with a forum.

All the articles are written with great care, and their reflexions and comments are not void or empty. No political cant here. Only passionnate people sharing worthy information.

The webzine had already contacted us for my band's first album entitled FACE.A and had written a nice column about it.

We naturally contacted them again for our second album ΣLΣVΣN and they treated us with a very detailed and careful column covering most of the songs of the album. Actually, I feel very flattered!

www.lesautresmondes.info

"Après une longue pause, Akouphën reprend du service et sort aujourd'hui son deuxième album, "ELEVEN". Pour ceux qui auraient besoin de se refraichir la mémoire, Akouphën est un duo formé par Kloë et TBJ, proposant un Rock Electro très disparate. TBJ (Jean) est chargé de la composition instrumentale, de l'enregistrement et du mixage. Kloë (Chloé Seyrès) s'occupe de l'écriture et du chant. Pas d'instrument chez (...)"

continued here...

USEFUL LINKS:

• Order ΣLΣVΣN
• Akouphen's Website
• LesAutresMondes Webzine
• Official music video "(Not) Sorry"

I sk8ed Frisco

In 2010, I had skated San Francisco with Inline Skates (and rockered wheels). In 2012, I did it with quad skates. I want to publicly thank Google for their new special SF application on GoogleMap, indicating the flattest streets for bikes.

That stuff did not exist back in 2010 and that first time was quite a discovery. I would had known in advance what I had been about to do, I would have cancelled my little solo tour. With hindsight I do not regret it, and I actually like to brag about it... but it was intense:

Chinatown, the Coit Tower, Pier 39 and the Fisherman's Warf, Marina Street down to the Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street, Cruz Skateshop on the Mission, back to the Hostel, shower and shuttle to the airport where I slept on the carpet waiting for my morning plane.

As far as I remember.

Must have forgotten one or two stops and a couple of hills.

This time, rather than doing a 8-hour tour, I just went for a little skate from the Mission to Haight Street, following google map's advices -- which I knew could be trusted, as Karla and I had had a try the previous day to go to the MOMA (loved Cindy Sherman's exhibition, btw).

Flat, smooth and sunny on top of that.

[bootlicker mode on] I <3 Google. [/off]

I obviously got lost (it is some kind of ritual), and asked for my way in a dry-cleaning laudry... run by a Chinese... who did not speak English. Fail. Hopefully, the next person, an old lady taking her dog out, helped me a lot, mentioning a Frickin' Fried Chicken I had already spotted (classy).

And you know what? I skated into the Chinese guy on my way back and he said hello. How probable is that?

Visiting the Sac City Rollers

After our one-week stay in Vegas for the RollerCon (here and there for latecomers), we headed to California to visit longstanding friends of Karla Karschër's. One of our stops was Sacramento and we took the opportunity to go and train with the Sac City Rollers.

It was one hell of a resumption! The class was their very first of the season after the summer break, and coach Purdy Grrrl did not take it easy on us. The program was simple, though: ENDURANCE for the three quarters of the class... pacelines, single, double, clockwise, anti-clockwise... and a bit of skating and derby skills to end up with.

We made the mistake to show up with our Team France jerseys (we wanted to match a bit... yeah and show off too).

"Hey Team France, show us that blocking drill again. Girls, watch how close they work together. Team France, once more. Alright. Now one more last time, let's try with a bigger built jammer." Uuuh!

To be honest, I almost fainted and had to ask for sugar but that was fun (and purifying, given the water we lost).

Water. Air. Have you ever derbied in a sauna? Worse: have you ever had an endurance class in a sauna? Well... We did.

FMyLife #4: Teres Major

Rollerdancing session on the Docks of Paris...

Guy who'd been observing us for 30 min, leaves and says: "By the way, you've got a wonderful teres major. It's the muscle just here [points finger on my TM]. Yours is just perfect. Have a good evening!" 
 

Why do I never get hit on in conventional ways? FML.

 

RELATED POSTS:
• FMyLife #1, #2, #3

• Dark Side of the CERS

RollerCon '12, Las Vegas: Night Life

Last year's RollerCon was an Epic Fail for me. Remember...

This year was faaar better and I could enjoy all the facets of the event. At least the two main ones: Day life (i.e. skating) and Night life (i.e. partying).

At first, I had decided that I was going to the RollerCon for a special purpose: SKATING.

...But then I started to take an interest into the EVENING schedule.

1. The whole thing about standing in lines to attend classes and wearing full gear on was part of why I only bothered attending on-skate classes the first 2-3 days, when it was not yet totally crowded. (see part.1)
2. The other reason was that I was sore all over (I confess) because it was the first time in 8 months that I was doing REAL derby moves. No matter how hard you train off-skates in rehab, there is nothing like the real thing. At least, I was glad I had the time to loosen up a bit on skates with my resuming of rollerdancing a couple of months before! 
3. The last main reason why I got more flexible with attending on-skate classes, was that I also had a go at partying (I confess too) and that it obviously became harder to be effective at day-time...

RollerCon '12, Las Vegas: Day Life

Last year's RollerCon was an Epic Fail for me. Remember...

This year was faaar better and I could enjoy all the facets of the event. At least the two main ones: Day life (i.e. derbying) and Night life (i.e. partying).

 This year was particularly huge. 5 to 6 thousand derbypeople in the same hotel, the Riviera down the Strip in Las Vegas. 5 days of non-stop events, on skates, off skates, on track, in pool, on dancefloor...

Off-skate workouts, conferences, on-skate classes, scrimmages and bouts constituted the day-time events and were organized in parallel in several rooms.

The off-skate part was made of workout classes and conferences on various subjects. Except for the pool workout for which the pool of the hotel was reserved (obviously), the workout classes took place at the very last floor of the Monaco Tower with a large bay window onto the city and the desert in the background. Stretching classes at 7PM with the sunset over the city were great.