R.I.P Evel Knievel:

Smokler on December 9, 2007

I have no idea how I missed it but I just read that Evel Knievel, perhaps the only motorcycle stuntman you’ve ever heard of, died at the end of last month. He was 69 and had been ill from diabetes and an incurable lung disease.

In the 60s and 70s, Knievel became an American folk hero by staging elaborate daredevil stunts on his motorcycle. Rising to fame from a jump over the fountains at Ceaser’s Palace in Las Vegas in 1969 (video above), he launched his motorcycle over canyons, trucks and flaming school buses. He quit jumping in 1980 on doctor’s orders that nothing was left in his body except "scar tissue and surgical steel."

What I like best about the Evel Knievel legend is its "only in America" quality–a post-war poor kid, gone daredevil in the Space Age gone conservative businessman in the Reagan Era, all done in a stars and stripes jumpsuit. Knievel reinvented himself from petty Montana hoodlum (including a name change. He was born Robert Knievel) into celebrity via an activity most onlookers considered a novelty not entertainment. He became famous by owning a category and being the only recognizable face in it. Without him, there’d be no Richard Simmons, no Jimmy Buffet, no Weird Al, no a hundred other famous people who are famous by being the the only one’s of their kind. If that kind of willed individual acclaim ain’t American, then I’m moving to Mozambique on Thursday (via Smith Magazine).

 

Access in the Air:

Smokler on December 7, 2007

Plane

You may have heard that, beginning next year, several airlines, including United, Jet Blue and Virgin America, will begin rolling out internet access in the air. Which is a neat development for the most part, even though it will inevitably lead to more "why didn’t answer my email over Dubuque?" always-at-work expectations and a run on laptop batteries since, I can almost promise you, airlines will not be including more power ports with this service (more power = more electricity = more fuel which is butt expensive right now.)

Will it cost money? Probably. But before too long, a second armrest will cost you money so may as well man up about it now. You’ve probably also heard that we now fly in about as much luxury as our luggage.

I am not unreasonable in this respect. I do not demand a foot massage as a standard perk on a $200 ticket. But we are way way overdue in establishing certain basic standards of comfort for coach class travelers. Up until very recently, airline passenger advocacy has focused almost exclusively on prices and scheduling. The 11 points on the proposed Passenger’s Bill of Rights includes almost no mention of inflight comfort except regarding delays and travelers with disabilities.

It is time for Point #12, which I’m calling the Provide what you Promise Provision. Simple, basic and I believe, irrefutable.

12. Every airline flight guarantees that the passengers seat, service unit and onboard facilities including lavatories and inflight entertainment are in proper working order.

Which only means that the price of a airline ticket includes a seat that reclines, a seat cushion that doesn’t stab you in the butt, headset jack that functions, a toilet that flushes and inflight entertainment with picture and sound.

It is a travesty that this needs to be spelled out, as I needed to clarify that I am entitled to a fork and napkin when dining out. But that seems to be what it has come to. Hooray to JetBlue and Virgin America for making humane treatment of passengers part of their brand and corporate initiative. For the rest of you, if can’t live up to a few basic expectations of your business, then I suggest you find a new one.   

One Sentence Movie Reviews: “Preserve Me a Seat”

Smokler on December 7, 2007

Preserve Me a Seat (2005): "The Old Fashioned movie house, as a talisman of another, must somehow justify its existence beyond nostalgia and memory."

Notes: This lovely little documentary is about the old fashioned movie house and its gradual extinction across the American landscape. I read about it on Cinema Treasures devoted to such things.

Perhaps you were lucky enough to grow up in a community with an old fashioned movie palace as I was. To me these places are holy ground, where the movies grow up and planted themselves in our shared consciousness.

So few are left but the places I’ve lived have been fortunate enough to maintain theirs. I consider myself very lucky in this regard.

Friends on TV:

Smokler on December 5, 2007

Seems to be a video kinda day. My friend Victoria Zackheim and Elizabeth Rosner just wrote in to tell me of their appearance on ABC 7 here in San Francisco. They’re plugging Victoria’s new book "For Keeps: Women Tell the Truth about Their Bodies, Growing Older, and Acceptance".

Victoria’s an old friend so I’ve been razzing her about editing an anthology that I can actually contribute to. So, G-d willing and the creek don’t rise, her next anthology will be "Bratty Gen X Writers and their wiser Boomer Friends: A study in shared wisdom and Atari 2600 Mastery."