Thursday, March 4, 2010

LES SUPERHEROES



Sacre bleu! If RLSHs ever need back up, they can turn to the citizens of France, who apparently love the RLSH story.

I got an early indication of this at the Superheroes Anonymous 3 conference in New Bedford, where I discovered my four media colleagues were all reporting en français. There was a lady journalist named Aurelia Perreau who drove me wild a la Gomez Addams with her French accent, along with a photographer who were there covering the story for a French magazine. There were two cameramen who were also there, unaware of the other party filming footage for a French TV news magazine which translated to 66 Minutes (the French apparently prefer an extra 6 minutes of footage).

[By the way- has anyone seen the final products of these endeavors? Because I haven't and would like to see them. I tried a google search, but didn't come up with anything.]

At SA3, the 3 French cameramen were going absolutely nuts trying to grab footage- running, jumping, climbing, crawling, circling, doing trick shots off car window reflections, extreme close ups, longshots,and bird's eye and worm's eye shots, all with cigarettes dangling out of their mouths. I mean some of their moves were like parkour stunts!

I can vouch for Zetaman doing a heroic deed, here. And that is possibly saving three French journalist's lives by shouting at them to get out of the street as they tried to get shots in the often unfriendly New England traffic zooming by.

At the official SA3 dinner at the Waterfront Grille, I had a couple of drinks with the four journalists who seemed equal parts excited and bewildered. The next day I arrived at the SA3 food drive event (with rapper Tem Blessed) and saw a woman setting up a camera, talking American English. Ah-ha I thought, another Yank journalist. The irony, though, was that she was a Washington, DC correspondent for Agence France-Presse which is the French version of the Associated Press!

Besides this, I know Zetaman has met with a French television show before, who also met with Captain Jackson.

The country has produced two RLSH that I know of- Wolfram, who I haven't spoken with and Le Vigilant who I've done an e-mail interview with. He is just starting out in the city of Avignon, studying, assembling a costume, etc.

I mention all this because I've been in contact with a French photo journalist who came across this blog. He is very excited to take a cross country trip, hoping to photograph as many RLSH as he can, for photo essays in some French magazines, with a possible subsequent showing of his work in a French art gallery.
He's shown me some links to his work, it looks pretty awesome and he's had a lot of work published in some major French magazines.

He plans on traveling approximately June 15- August 12. He plans on hitting the East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast. He thinks he will start in New York, a logical beginning for any cross country trip with easy access to other East coast cities.

Next, he'll be heading toward Milwaukee, where I plan to meet with him and introduce him to the Milwaukee crew (if they're up for it) and he could possibly hit up some other Midwestern cities while he's in the area. Lastly, he'll be going to the West coast. He likes Portland for a starting point there.

Sounds like a grand RLSH adventure. If you would like to be documented by him, send him an e-mail. He'll be glad to hear from you.

His name is Pierre-Elie de Pibrac.
E-mail: pierre.elie.de.pibrac@gmail.com

8 comments:

  1. I predict fistfights in Portland over how coffee should be roasted.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Man I totally forgot about that. God, they must of thought I was a jerk. I also didn't have them film me at the homeless shelter. And when that one guy needed food and I bought him lunch at that cafe on the corner, the reporters wanted to interview me and I blew them off. Oh, and they wanted to film me suiting up in my room which seemed kind of creepy.
    I am the Mr. Roper of the RLSH sub culture.

    ReplyDelete
  3. No, they really were about to be hit by a car. I remember kind of steeling myself up because I was sure I was about to hear squealing tires and cries of agony in French.

    I appreciated their enthusiasm but at times I thought they weren't respectful of personal space.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Also, Agent B, I'm totally with the French on that one. I don't love a lot of material possessions, but 3 things that will get me through a day, even when I'm broke are: my laptop, my earphones/ipod, and my French press.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well man, they just didn't get out of the way. They almost got hit. We couldn't bring our utility belts and the last thing I wanted to do was to give cpr to a guy without my CPR mask.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great news, Zetaman, you don't need to worry about cooties anymore.

    http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/no-more-breathe-with-cpr


    And don't forget, Queen's "Another one bites the dust" has the right bpm for chest compressions.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Cooties=Hepatitis... or herpes... I don't want to think about it. I keep my mask with me at all times.

    But yeah, I heard about that. Apparently if the airway is clear it should be sufficient enough for air to get into the lungs (via head tipping). When a person exhales they exhale at least 11% oxygen. When the heart beats, oxygen from the lungs get into the blood stream which gets oxygen into the head. So if the lungs already have a degree of oxygen, it should be safe to just pump within the 2 minute mark before something start happening to the brain.
    My card is about it expire. Every year it has changed between 15 breaths and 30 breaths. It'll be interesting to see what is the new recommendation.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I recently took a course to get my certification as an emergency medical dispatcher Zetaman and it was a very enlightening experience. For example, in terms of treatment by an EMT any child 8 years age or older is considered an adult. Also, the method of CPR given to an child under 8 years of age or infant is performed differently than that of a child 8 years of age or older. Another common misconception amongst cardiac arrest is the defibullators are used to jump start a heart that has stopped beating when in actuality they are used to shock the heart into stopping from beating irregularly, reboot itself much like a computer does and then regain normal heart beat. In addition, depending on the symptoms shown by the person needing aid one would administer either compressions or ventilations. Each one of these processes are somewhat similar but not entirely so. A patient 35 years of age or older reporting chest pains is assumed to be suffering a heart attack until proven otherwise. The amount of time from when the heart stops to when there is considered to be irreversible brain damage is an average of 4-6 minutes. Patients who get no CPR/ no defibrillation have a 2% chance of survival, early CPR/delayed defibrillation gives a 2-8 % chance of survival, early CPR/early defibrillation gives a 20% chance of survival, and medical protocol beyond this grants at least a 30% chance of survival. I am in the process of getting my CPR card as well. At least with this plus what I learned in my course I will be better able to save a persons life if I am called upon to do so.

    I recommend the book "Principles of Emergency Medical Dispatch" Fourth Edition. Both the American College of Emergency Physicians and the National Association of EMS Physicians accept the information within this book as the standards for emergency medical care and dispatch.

    ReplyDelete