Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Planet talks


Tonight I attended a Paris blogger gathering (Paris Blogue-t-il ?) at L'entrepôt in the 14th arrondissement and there was... Nicolas Hulot, the "French Al Gore". Nicolas Hulot is very famous in France, 1st for producing world discovery TV shows (kinda like Commandant Cousteau in the 70s) and 2nd for taking an active part in the preservation of the environment, especially through his foundation. Claiming not to be on one side or the other of the political scene, he recently managed to have the two major candidates sign his "pacte écologique".

PS: thanks a million for your votes. I will select the photos wednesday morning French time and will keep you posted.

46 comments:

  1. Interesting description, a "French Al Gore". I'm afraid we don't exactly know what to do with Al ourselves here in the States (Is he going to run for office again? Does he have a real political agenda?), so I'm not sure what to do with a French version of him (just kidding). If Hulot can bring two opposing sides together on even one issue, he must have politics in his future.

    Eric, at most of your social gatherings everyone usually appears to be having fun (the ironing contest is a prime example), but here everyone looks glum and mélancolique. Maybe that's why Gore never won! (No, wait a minute - he won but never got "elected".)

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  2. Top 5, Eric! Is it too late to get this one in?

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  3. Eric, there is so much to discuss about this photo I have it blown up behind this window to be sure to capture my thoughts. Yes Luggi, I believe you're right...it could be a Top 5!

    After living here a while I don't know much about Hulot, so now will try to discover more.

    I love the word "Amour" on the window!

    The way you've framed it makes it look like a painting of sorts.

    The old movie posters on the wall in the background are magnificent!

    The child looking our of the corner of his eye tells me "suspicious"! And I ALWAYS listent to children!!

    And of course, there's the guy in the corner on his P.C.! When will they ever stop?

    LOVE THIS ONE! CAN YOU TELL??

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  4. I must confess Eric...this is a really interesting photo! Maybe you should consider this for one of your two? You might want to cut off a little on the far right (so that only the wood shows) and it will look like a framed still life! Bravo!

    I just came back from seeing "Pan's Labyrinth"....a Mexican movie nominated for 6 Academy Awards....very good. Cinematically beautiful! In the U.S., foreign movies are always in the native language...so if your country dubs movies...you might as well skip it in my opinion. If you don't see a movie in the native language (with subtitles) you are seeing a completely different movie. And really, isn't that just a bit lazy and nationalistic? I feel strongly about this...I think countries that still "dub" should demand only "original language" films. I've had a few glasses of Cabernet so....

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  5. Oops..The child looking our of the corner... = out

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  6. I totally agree, Michael! It is framed sort of like a painting. Also, agree that one should always listen to children. The younger they are the more they are to be listened to, because the young ones are still honest and trustworthy. Of course the older they get, the more likely they are getting near as corrupted and cynical as us.

    That shirt whats-his-name speaking is wearing would look good on hubby. Wonder if I can find one similar around here.

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  7. Soosha, are you talking about Hulot's shirt? Looks a bit sloppy to me. But...people DO seem to be listening to him.

    I just noticed that Eric called Jacques Cousteau "commandant". In English that sounds really harsh, but guess it's the title of the captain of a boat? Hmmm...will have to investigate.

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  8. The Planet talks and... PDP is shortlisted.
    Congrats Mate!
    Keep my fingers crossed for you 'til the next round...

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  9. I like Café Conversations like this. We also organize it once a month with the foundation, about mental health problems.

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  10. Great photo! Framed, as it is, like a modern-day Loutrec. Great that you managed to avoid someone actually gawping at you too.
    It has many elements to it which pull me in:
    The overall hue is amber/warm brown. Comforting, inviting colours yet the atmosphere in there is anything but.

    Amour on the window is a strange but alluring paradox of the emotionless crowd inside. Their faces portray scepticism, mistrust, even acute boredom. The setting is suspiciously casual, like the orator has pulled in some passers-by to listen to him against their will, with the sole promise of free water.

    The posters as backdrop are interesting, if only that the pret-a-porter sign serves well to illustrate this chap's failure to dress for the occasion.

    The cameraman has decided, quite rightly, that the presenter is no more television-worthy than his taupe jumper and therefore trains his lens onto someone's laptop where he can pass his time voyeuristically enjoying its owners private photos or his blog-in-progress.

    The woman sitting on the floor is some sort of sidekick of his, hauled into overtime yet again and thinking there must be more to life.

    Dad in the middle looks positively scared to death. He only wanted to run his son, who is nudging his knee in complaint, to football practise. Only, now, he is certain he has been sucked into some kind of devil-worshipping cult and is planning his escape.

    Great photo, Eric, i love it as you can see! lol.

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  11. ben ma grande comme je te le disais deja tu vois qu'il y a d'autres clichés a proposer dans ton top 5, celle ci pourquoi parce qu'il montre qu' il est tant que cela change voila pourquoi montrer un clichés parisiens dans une ville de telle envergure et ou l'on retrouve un combat a meme un bistrot ou cafe peu importe mais qui montre la determination que l'on devrais tous avoir ca c'est vivant...
    pour ce qui est du pact ecolo je l'ai signé depuis fort longtemps de plus on peut le trouver sur mon Bastia DP et Nicolas Hulot (residant Corse faut le savoir) a fait le bon choix mais c'est pas avec des gignoles comme la grosse voynet et le reste que l'on va avancé sur le plan ecolo... du moins le naim sarko a dit qu'il metterait en place le plan de Nicolat Hulot je demande a voir...
    il a eu raison de ce retirer aussi parce que l'on s'americanise de plus en plus et qu'avec l'inffluence des médias il n'y a plus qu' a élire celui qui nous fais bander... imaginons que zidane aurait marqué le soir de la finale et qu'ensuite nous l'aurions gagné (on l'a gagné de toute façons) avec toutes les reformes a faire en France il se serait presenté, alors le peuple francais aurait scandé Zidane président il aurait eu 83% tous comme on n' a pus scandé Hulot pour aller au presidentielle...
    enfin il est tant que cela change...
    respectons et devenons un peu plus éduqué ,notre terre et nos generations qui vont suivre vous le renderons...

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  12. This photo is a winner. Composition and light.....truly a work of a mise en scene expert, toi. "Amour" plus Hulot makes a grand combination. I'm off to French class and the subjontif.....my personal impossible reve.

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  13. Une tres belle photo pour un tres important sujet. Tu l'as signe j'espère ? Le pacte, je veux dire.

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  14. eRIC, I feel so glad that every time I consider one of your photos great, when I come from your blog to write a comment, discover that I have the same opinion with the rest of your fans!
    TOP 5 already for 2007.
    It really has so many things to comment on it!

    Grece: 12 pois!

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  15. GREAT picture, Eric!

    It looks like a painting - colours and figures.

    very good!

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  16. Great pic Eric!!!
    Great tomeet you at Paris blogue-t-il? Yesterday.
    Did you sign the Pacte Ecologique?N
    I did it this morning and wrote a post about this major issue!

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  17. hi eric - what an incredible painterly composition this photo is - as lynn mentioned, like a modern-day lautrec.

    and thanks for the info on hulot. i had just come home last night with al gore's book, 'an inconvenient truth', so it was a nice coincidence to read your post.

    cheers.

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  18. I love the Lautrec comparison. How about this: karoake a la Moulin Rouge. The patrons are bored because they wanted to see women dancing the chahut and exposing themselves! Instead, there's this guy singing Barry Manilow. Off key, at that. Toulouse himself couldn't take it, so he went outside with his sketch pad to capture the moment. Next, he hit the Folies Bergeres and drank absinthe.

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  19. Eric, I love the colors in the picture. It looks like a painting. I will have to visit L'entrepot when I visit Paris the next time.

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  20. I really love all of the alternative scenarios people have written for this photo. What imagines we all have!

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  21. Oh, la, lynn, we both forgot about the main character, who used all his television fame and fortune to finance his environmental passions. Of course, this led to bankruptcy due to his lack of business skills (and that funny story about him and the accountant, which never really was explained.) Now, he is working on on novel about the backroom stories modern cafe life. He is a waiter, trying to push sales of a yellow liquor on the unsuspecting crowd. He carries bottles of it, selling by the glass. A few drinks makes one confused, skeptical...

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  22. I thought it was a painting. Great capture.

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  23. I was hoping that you included a picture that you took last year, either late spring or during summer, in Paris of a couple kissing. Although, it is a stereotypical picture, it speaks volumes from the standpoint that it is a Black and White, that the couple seem oblivious to the world, and their embrace quite intense...I do hope you still have time to include it.

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  24. But, truly, Eric, this is a painterly photo. Framed, as noted by many, almost staged in its composition--horizontals, verticals, posters as sky background, colors, the child's red jacket as a visual focus. And the eerie, surreal blue on the edge, almost like Toulouse-Lautrec's spooky green, as if the photographic image is about to scroll aside as the dancers of 1890 are scroll onto the scene, at which time the cacophony of the band and the dancing and...uh, oh, I'm off again....sorry

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  25. Just read about Abbe Pierre. Where is he buried? He was an amazing man and hero of the sans-abri. Even President JC was very upset over his death. The article I read said that he was the third greatest Frenchman. Who dubbed him that and who qualifies for Positions 1&2? I vote for Eric. I still don't know how to make subjunctive verbs in French. I need some kind of memory pill, I guess.

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  26. Wow, I did not think of the pinting aspect when I posted it actually (it was very late, mind you!!) But on a second thought you're right it's a pretty cool picture (OK OK, I am not being too modest here!!)

    Anyway, your compliments fill me with joy.

    Johnny: "he article I read said that he was the third greatest Frenchman. Who dubbed him that and who qualifies for Positions 1&2? I vote for Eric."

    LOL! Il ne faut pas que tu exagères (and that's subjonctif!!)

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  27. Nice photo. Would have loved to have been there.

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  28. Yes Michael, I like the guys shirt. The green color is nice, and it would compliment hubbys body nicely, IMHO. Sorry, I haven't got the excellant fashion sense of normal women and gay men. Me, I'm a tomboy. I leave the fashion up to hubby's best friend, who is very proud (and rightly so) to be a flamer! He's got more fashion sense in his little finger then I'll have my whole life! (Piercings, tatts, and and casual gothy clothes from 7 years ago...need I say more?)

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  29. Not really, Soosh, we have the picture now. Bit confused about the shirt you keep mentioning. If you mean the scruffy presenter, isn't it a jumper rather than a shirt, and isn't it brown instead of green? Is it you or is it me?

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  30. Jumper? Must be a British term I'm not familiar with. Shirts, sweaters, turtlenecks, they're all shirts to me. As for the color, it's probably just a difference in the color outputs of our monitors. On my screen it looks like a dark olive green.

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  31. Yeah Lynn, I have to agree, it's a basic jumper (green or brown)...kind of sloppy don't you think? But given that it's Hulot, I imagine it's made of farm raised environmentally friendly silk worms.

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  32. I do think, Michael, indeed. Kind of thing he might be sorting his garage out in i'd say, not presenting a tv broadcast. Environmentally friendly silk worms i love it!

    Soosha i'm sure it is the screen thing as you say. Jumper is British i think. Just means the same as sweater or pullover, sorry about that wasn't thinking. Anyway the thoughts are the same I'm just probably being boringly British.

    I still chuckle everytime i see the dad in the middle, as i described earlier, he really does look scared to death.

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  33. ...Quelle magnifique photo ! Je t'avais repéré de l'autre côté du miroir. J'avous très immodestement que c'est sans doute de là que j'aurais fait la photo !

    Je publierai en illustration de ma petite compil de liens si tu n'y vois pas d'inconvénient (en citant la source of course)...

    Amicalement,

    Pierre

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  34. your photos are very good!compliments!

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  35. lol! No worries lynn, I'm just a sheltered American who doesn't know much British English AND has no fashion sense! I think that's me in a nutshell. (and yes, I just did that mime "stuck in a box" thing. That's right, I'm a dork too!!!)

    *raspberry at michael* It's not sloppy, it's...hippy...ish. Yeah, that's all I've got. Sorry!

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  36. Soosha...what's a "rasberry"?

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  37. Eric, did I mention how much I love this photo?????

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  38. No idea how to describe it Michael, sorry!

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  39. No idea how to describe it Michael, sorry!

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  40. Put your tongue between your lips and blow. No you filthy lot, i'm describing a raspberry for Michael. Tut. Can't take you anywhere.

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  41. lol! You crack me up sometimes lynn.

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  42. salut eric , j'ai utilisé une de tes photos , très réussie, pour illustrer un commentaire dans mon blog. je cite ton photoblog. juste pour info et te remercier de ce super cliché. @+ didiervall

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  43. one againe
    j'ai oublié le link de mon article:
    http://sophiedidiervall.vox.com/library/post/trouv%C3%A9-sur-le-net-3.html
    @+
    didiervall

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