In Gallery 1 of the Pompidou Center for Contemporary Art the exhibition “Dreamlands will run until August 9. The exhibit sheds light on the architectural processes that turn megacities like New York and Tokyo into theme park projects.

In the late nineteenth century, spaces near the World Fairs and amusement parks, became models for the architecture of spectacle and entertainment which has been gradually implemented during the twentieth century in urban development schemes. The name of the exhibition refers to an amusement park located on the island of Coney Island, which in 1978 was hailed as the incubator of modern Manhattan.

Generalizing the use of the copy and artifice, playing with an aesthetic of accumulation and collage, expressing the will to abolish the temporal and spatial landmarks, the “Dreamlands” have shaped the artistic and architectural imagination of the twentieth century urban reality. Since the utopian projects of the 1960s and 1970s, a contemporary urban reality has developed which has contributed to a profound change in our relationship with the world and geography, time and history, the notions of original and copy, shading the borders between art, kitsch and fun.

For the first theme parks Walt Disney Company was developed in the 50s, the concept of “Imagineering” the engineering of the imagination created a new genre of amusement that makes the architectural program for a story, a story, a fiction. These same recipes are now applied to the development of entire cities like Las Vegas, Shanghai or Dubai.

This evolution demonstrates the increasing porosity of reality and fiction, a contemporary invasion which leads to the “storytelling”, based on Anglo-Saxon model which we experience daily. If you enjoy renting apartments in Paris and are interested in the themes of contemporary urbanism, you can visit from Monday to Sunday (except Tuesdays) from 11:00 to 21:00 hours

Many places around the world have decided to mark the centenenial of the birth of one of the major directors of Japanese cinema, Akira Kurosawa. Paris, as one of the global centres of the art world, has endeavoured to hold a large retrospective at the French Cinémathèque.

The retrospective will run from June 23 to August 1 and aims to be a comprehensive and integral look at his film work, which also marked the introduction of Japanese cinema to the West.

“Rashomon”, Kurosawa´s 11th film, was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1951 as well as an Oscar for best foreign film in Hollywood. With this award, Asian artists and filmmakers began to win more recognition in the west. From this moment on, both critics and the public began to wait with enthusiasm and curiosity productions which came out of Japan.

Akira Kurosawa was born in 1910 in Tokyo and began his career in the film world in 1938 at Toho studios, where he produced his much loved film “Sanshiro Sugata” under the strict war-time censorship. It was a huge success in Japan. In 1945 he filmed “No Regrets for Our Youth,” one of his lesser known works, with a script by Eijaro Hisaita, a famous playwright of the thirties.

His film work ranges over sixty years, and his oeuvre encompasses many genres: epic films, police procedurals, social dramas .With “Rashomon” he found a wider audience in the 50´s. Both this work and “Seven Samurai” were filmed in 1954, and they went on to have a profound effect on contemporary cinema, primarily in terms of narrative technique.

Kurosawa´s humanism shines through in works such as “Living”, “Dersu Uzala” or “Dodes’ka-den” as well as in magnificent historical films such as “Kaghemusha, the Shadow Warrior, “” Ran” or “Throne of blood. Begin summer with all the light that informed Kurosawa´s vision, and find the perfect way to enrich your time and fill your spirit visiting apartments in Paris.

According to the dictionary, domination is act of taking power or authority, or a concrete manifestation of power, understood as a possible scenario in which one individual submits to another. The domination consists of a passive participant, who adopts the submissive role, and an active participant, who takes the dominant role. In a sexual context, all this takes shape around a model of erotic exchange of power, based on consensus.

Female domination is sexual domination by a woman; however it is much more complex than that.

Needless to say that female domination is not a cut and dried thing; there are those who practice domination with a range of paraphernalia and extras such as latex, leather, chains and whips, while for others, the dominance is psychological (mental domination).

Here are some points to consider in order to experience it:

Female domination is something that can develop naturally, but which requires training that eventually leads to increased power over the other and pleasure as they are subjected to our whims and desires.

Female domination can be considered as a fantasy or form of sexual play in which different roles are explored. While the woman may take the dominant role, everything must be understood as a game and limits must be defined and accepted by both parties (usually female domination is relatively light domination… and remember, a safe word is key).

Female domination is largely psychological, so the woman must be convinced of her power and take up the role with gusto, lest the game become routine. It should explore all the variations of domination to bring together the passions of the couple. It should rely on the power of an important psychological weapon: Femininity.

It is very important to know that games of dominance and submission can be an endless fuel for sexual fires and even become an important component of a serious and stable relationship. Its many variants could redefine a new concept of sexual fulfilment for those who practice it. Why not rent apartments in Paris and bring out your inner dominatrix?

Many women were able to change attitudes and to demonstrate their talents and abilities to men. However, we sometimes forget how much women have advanced our evolution.

1. Considered the national heroine of France, Joan of Arc was driven by her desire to change the world. She persuaded Charles VII to put her in the frontlines with the French army because she claimed to hear voices that told her she had to liberate France from English occupation. When the army stopped winning battles, Joan of Arc was burned in front of the people.

2. Marie Curie Sklodowska was born in Poland and was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in 1903 for her study of radioactivity. In 1911 she again won the Nobel Prize and became the first woman who won two Nobel prizes after discovering the chemical elements radium and polonium.

3. In 1963 Maria Goeppert won the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering the nuclear layer of cells.

4. Barbara McClintock was the first person to show genetic changes during cell division in 1983.

5. Rosa Louise Parks tirelessly fought for civil rights. This African American declined to give her bus seat to a white person. He protest resulted in jail time, but her actions sparked protests which have helped to end institutionalized racism in the U.S…

6. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The Catholic religion has been popularized by her devotion to the poor, sick and abandoned. This Christian has devoted her life to humanity.

7. Coco Chanel revolutionized the fashion world. Designer and creator of perfumes, she changed not only the image of women but also taught them to be independent minded and self confident.

And the list is just the beginning … Rent apartments in Paris and don’t miss out on an opportunity to visit the famous Coco Chanel boutique where she worked for much of her life.

Think of an undead sexy creature that rises from its grave at night and drinks blood to stay alive. With their stone white faces and always romantic behaviors, what girl can resist them. Well, actually I can’t. Vampires have been very popular and an investigation topic over the years. Do they really exist or are they just imagined creatures that we want to believe in? If they really exist, are they evil or are they just a group of super sexy and cool creatures who “have to” drink blood to survive. Actually, I don’t care.

In the last few years media sources like best seller books, movies and of course TV series have introduced new vampire profiles, many inspired by the series Buffy or Twilight. Oh, beautiful Edward. Everyone should admit that they all read the Vampire series, not just teens. Generally women, of course. Actually I haven’t heard anyone saying that Bella (the main girl character in the series) is sexy because it´s Edward hypnotizing everyone. He is just the perfect “man”. He is incredibly handsome, can hear what you think in mind and is an old fashioned romantic. (I think I forgot to say how rich he is) Anyways, he is the dream boy and Bella is dying to make love to him but he won´t let her. That’s the point.

The other incredible vampire media is of course True Blood which is a TV series starting its third season. The main vampire characters are Bill and Eric, two very different characters who are both sexy as hell. Bill is the gentle, mysterious, serious one and totally a southern gentleman. His voice is dark, cold and smooth and he can take anyone under his control by talking with them. On the other hand Eric is the dark side. His middle name is loyalty and he expects to be obeyed when he gives orders. Actually while watching the episode you can’t stop saying “order me Eric, order me!” He is obviously different from Bill Campton but they are both in the magnetic field of Sookie. (The main girl character) The sexiest thing in the series is of course the sex scenes. These vampires are biting while making love and none of the women express any hesitation. Admit it, who can say no to a vampire! This is their profession.

After Twilight and True Blood, several more vampire books and movies were released enough so that we won’t get bored soon . So, I think we all want to believe in vampire existence. Rent apartments in Paris and maybe you will meet some mysterious vampires at the deepest historical streets of Paris. If you find one, let me also know please.

Maybe it is just the desire to be in the limelight and here any publicity is good publicity some celebrities keep looking for new ways to shock or expose themselves to the public. One glorious example is the celebrity sex tape. Geeez, it’s so popular it gained an entry on Wikipedia!

Whether those sex tapes were meant for private purposes when they surface is always questionable. Either way, in many cases celebrities have profited from sex tapes.

Here some of the most talked about celebrity sex tapes:

One Night in Paris

Paris Hilton and her then boyfriend Rick Salomon taped themselves having sex. The video surfaced after the couple had already broken up. The hotel heiress tried to stop the distribution at first but then agreed to the release and now she actually profits from it. After that she came out with books, TV shows, perfumes, etc. Makes me question if this somehow surfaced out of publicity reasons…

Pamela Anderson’s Honeymoon

Along with Paris Hilton’s video this is one of the most famous sex tapes and first surfacing in 1998 it is one of the earliest. Pamela Anderson and then-husband Tommy Lee wanted to share their marital bliss and the joys of their honeymoon with everyone else.

Politics and Sex Scandals don’t mix well

The humiliation of “only a sex tape” wasn’t enough for former Senator and Presidential candidate John Edwards, it also busted him for having an affair. The tape was found by a former assistant of Edwards and now it is to determine whether or not there was hush money paid to keep this situation quiet during the Presidential Campaign in 2008.

You don’t have to be a celebrity to take a camera and get a sex tape of your own. It’s all about the location. Rent Apartments in Paris and shoot your version of “One Night in Paris”. ACTION!

Le Plateau Centre in Paris hosts an exhibition of the work of Charles Avery, his first solo exhibition in France. The Scottish artist has attracted attention in recent years for his incredible project “The Islanders, an Introduction” which portrays a fictional world with minute detail through drawings, sculptures, texts, paintings and installations.

This exhibition, open until August 8th, is called Onomatopoeia, part 1, and its focus is the island’s capital, Onomatopoeia. He imagines this world not as a parallel world of science fiction but as a revision of the real world, an alternative to our existence that develops a playful reflection of the everyday world.

His influences are myriad, and he draws on philosophical and literary figures like Borges, Blake and Jonathan Swift. Although not on the “official” list of references, his work shares some affinity with the philosophical jester Alfred Jarry, and pataphysics: Avery’s Island is not a metaphysical or surreal representation, but rather almost pataphysical, reflecting a world next to us with impeccable detail, full of “imaginary solutions” and that studies “the laws governing exceptions.” His astonishing large scale drawings exhibit such deft skill and lightness that they make the viewer question his own reality, and reflect a world in turmoil. His use of taxidermy is also very interesting, and his creatures challenge basic notions of order, evolution and taxonomy.

This exhibition is an ideal way to introduce the whole family to contemporary art, and children will most likely be fascinated (well, all …) by such creatures as Ridables, with their llama bodies, Chicken faces and dog’s legs and installations such as “Eternity Chamber.” Exploring the world, real or imagined, with your family or friends is very easy; to make it affordable rent apartments in Paris.

In the last five years Barcelona has undergone a great change with regards to its social and urban landscape. Over the years, tourism in this city has become fundamentally important, and increasingly attracts large groups of teenagers and young students, sold on the idea of this beautiful city as amusement park, like a Disneyland with “adult” attractions. The famous Rambla increasingly fills with hordes of adolescents drunk on cheap sangria and their own volatile hormones, seeking nothing more than sex, fun and debauchery.

However, this is not a phenomenon unique to Barcelona, but a process that has taken place already for many years in a vast number of cities. Not just urban tourism has been degraded in this way, but also architecture, which is increasingly, affected by a process that many theorists and philosophers call “the disneylandification” of the contemporary city. What this means specifically is that urban architecture more and more takes a page from the aesthetic playbook of amusement parks, and becomes filled with facades that mimic not only the past, but also the folklore of other places.

This aesthetic has significantly altered our perception of the original and the reproduction, and obliterated the fine line between art and kitsch. The best examples of this phenomenon can be found in cities like Las Vegas, where you can see several architectural imitations, including the Eiffel Tower, and also models of Dubai and Shanghai. With its artificial landscapes, we venture into a tacky parallel world, where time and space have been suspended.

The exhibition “Dreamlands,” which opened at the Pompidou Centre on May 5 and will run until August 9, explores an interesting phenomenon that impacts not only urban architecture, but also art. This exhibition presents the concept of artificial city and how they have nurtured and changed our concept of utopia, illustrating its vision with works of modern and contemporary art, films and photographs,. Among them, you can find work from Dali (“Dream of Venus”) and Rem Koolhaas (“Delirious New York”).This unprecedented exhibit takes on an incredibly socially relevant topic, so if you haven’t yet decided the fate of your summer vacation, we encourage you to rent apartments in Paris and make a visit to the Centre Pompidou.