Easy Rider

How funny — and yet, how appropriate! — that, just one night after my unexpected Feb. 1 motorcycle ride, I turn over to AMC and see that Easy Rider is on ... and I cannot help feeling oddly attracted to Peter Fonda (ah, what the hell, I have always liked those Fondas) ... and now Jack Nicholson/George Hanson is on here, babbling (nearly) incoherently, and it turns out he was not even smoking the joint!

Earlier, when Wyatt and Billy are sitting in the cavern or ruins or whatever with Guy in Striped Pants, the guy asks them if they have ever wanted to be someone else. Wyatt replies that he has never wanted to be anyone else.

I contemplated the question ...

Have you ever wanted to be anyone else?

What a loaded question! I might have to answer in parts.

1. There are certain “experiences” that I would like to ... uhm, experience, which, for various reasons, I most likely will not ever experience (of course, I will NEVER say “never”!), so, yeah, on occasion, I have secretly yearned to be in someone else’s shoes ...

* Quoting Lucinda, from “Side of the Road” *

If only for minute, or two ...

For example: Winning Wimbledon. I used to dream about doing that, back when Debra and I were playing badminton in the yard. We eventually moved on to playing tennis in the road and later took our game to actual tennis courts: The SHS courts, made of slick concrete, painted with light-blue lines, regulation-height chain-link fence for nets, or The Ville’s park courts, which seemed slightly better, somehow (they had nylon nets, and benches next to the courts).

Yeah, for a few years there, I used to think about what it would be like to play on the grass courts of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, to make it to the championship match, to take on opponents like Chrissie Evert or Evonne Goolagong, or later, my favorite, Martina Navratilova ... or, what the heck, I would not even have minded playing Bjorn Borg or Jimmy Connors or John McEnroe.

And then, to hold the trophy over my head!

And now, all the awards shows are coming up, and once in a while, ever-so-briefly, I imagine what it would be like to win some mutha-fuckin’ HUGE-ass award that everyone else in your field or line of work wants to win ... especially one that none one but no one thinks you have any shot at winning — NOT because you are not the most deserving, but maybe because you are not the most popular nominee or whatever, sorta the underdog in the category.

That would be pretty cool to experience. If only for a minute, or two.

: )

2. There was one time when I didn’t actually want to be somebody else ... I just didn’t really want to be myself. Didn’t want to be known for how I had been in the past, if that makes any sense; wanted a “clean slate,” so that I could explore the limitless possibilities with someone who seemed positively perfect.

Someone who knew me better than I knew myself. A little bit, anyway.

: )

Damn, the ending of this film takes such a turn toward Deliverance. I really hate it.

And perhaps I should be watching W give his State of the Union address — GOD KNOWS what kind of mispronunciations I might hear! — but now I see something by the Malpaso Company is starting ... a Clint Eastwood flick, apparently: Joe Kidd. Might hafta see what this one is all about.

: )