Excited and amused, I decide to show it to Justin, for grins and giggles… you know, to keep him up to date on French silliness. The video is totally tacky, it’s a total bling-bling parody. Check it out, it’s pretty funny!

After muscling through it until the end, we were like “who the heck is Helmut Fritz?”. And so we Google around and found this illustrated biography. It’s pretty much a video collage explaining the dude’s life. Really well done, actually. Check it out:

Did you really check it out? No, really, check it out…. especially at 0:39. Anything look familiar? Any flashbacks from October 07?? Who’s riding that Vespa???

It’s me!!! I mean, what are the chances?

They took the picture below, flipped it the other way, outlined the silhouette and pasted Helmut’s face on mine. Unbelievable!!

It doesn’t stop here… I’m also apparently riding across his official website as a clickable icon for more information on a contest that already happened.

Apparently Helmut’s designer views him as riding a Vespa, ok. Sticking a leg out, ok. With striped stockings? Hm, ok. And heels? Uh hmm, ok. With a big pointy orange helmet/hat?? Uh hmm, uhhh, really? I mean if they photoshopped the dude’s face on me, they were probably talented enough to cut off the hat and erase the heel off the boot. But no. Apparently, Helmut is a greedy, cross dressing, annoyed-at-everything, Vespa riding millionaire.
Should I get “credit” for this?

Found on Tralalère !

It was so much fun! It was actually a pretty big deal because her fame ranking in France is reaching pretty impressive heights and she’s broadcast on my favorite French radio, Fun Radio, that I listen to all day.

Yey French Pop!

And so finally we went to see him live last night at the Bill Graham Civic Center Auditorium. Yey!
But it didn’t start too good…

We decided to be up front and center in the pit to see Manu as close as possible…hmm bad judgment! Yes, we were squished. The amount of personal space and air got smaller and smaller as we approached the beginning of the concert. Hmm…I started to feel tingling in my hands, feet, then legs and felt my heartbeat rise dramatically causing a cold sweat. My friend Julie looks at me saying: “you look really pale!”. Yeah, I wasn’t feeling so good. I finally got to snake my way through all the way up front where I could breathe fresh air. I feel better. But as the band gets up on stage, people gather around even tighter. The tingling and sweat starts again.
They play the 1st notes and my heart booms. That’s it. I gotta get out of here. I look back at my friends quickly miming signs that I’m getting out before I fall. I get the attention of a security guard who pulls me right over the barrier in no time (looking back at the events, it was the funnest part!). I am escorted to the side and feel like I can breathe and move again. I just had the time to catch my breath and shed a few tears of pressure release that I see muscling his way out of the crowd, Justin coming to wrap me in his comforting arms. Deep breath. Justin’s here, all is well now. I’m so lucky!!

Still shook up, we make our way to the very back where there’s a wall we could lean against. 5 minutes later, I get a call from Julie, not really hearing her well, but understanding that they got out too. We find them and they said they ended up getting pulled out from the crowd over the barrier, just like me, because it was completely overwhelming!

We ended up going upstairs where there were actually seats and space. OK, the view was from the very side of the stage, but we had room to dance. We could finally start appreciating the music!

It ended up being really awesome! The energy was great and the band was surprisingly very professional. Why surprisingly? Well, you’d think that a bunch of topless guys (most of the band) playing reggae like tunes and praising the benefits of marijuana could be off (behavior wise) time to time. But nope, even stoned, they were very together.

Manu especially owned the stage and the crowd. He dealt with a couple (if not 3) of guys making there way on stage to hug him and make a fool of themselves. One of which got completely naked jumping around and giving Manu naked hugs…Yuk!! But Manu was very nice and calm about it. He hugged back, shook hands and asked the security guards not to act right away. By “embracing” their annoying presence, he actually minimalized the potentially very theatrical consequences. Bravo Manu!

All in all, this concert was awesome! I got to see an artist I’ve been a long term fan of and I got to learn more about my limits. Priceless.

Just for fun, here’s the “Me Gustas Tu” music video (with very poor lip syncing)

It’s basically a video parody of Black Eyed Peas’ “My Humps” by Alanis Morissette. Fu-nny! Plus, she almost made that song sound like an awesome ballade, if you don’t listen to the lyrics… Check it ouuut!