Falling Off A Mountain
I just recently watched Big Sur. Based on Jack Kerouac's book by the same name. I went through a pretty intense study of the "beats" a couple decades ago after stumbling on No One Here Get's Out Alive. the Jim Morrison biography in which it was noted how much an influence the beat writers were to him. To be honest, i wasn't even a Doors fan until reading that book. i didn't really get the big deal and I guess I'd only heard the "hits."
Like I said, I went pretty "deep" with the whole beat thing. Especially Kerouac. Not really sure why. A lot of his writing was way too intense for my 20-27 year old mind but it affected me none the less. I loaned On The Road to a friend and a couple days later he disappeared. No one heard from him for several weeks. No one from work (we worked together), not his band and not his girlfriend of five years that he lived with. Then one day I came home from work and he was sitting on my couch in my living room talking to my room mate. He had cut his long hair, had a crazy deep tan and had my copy of On The Road to give back.
He then told us how the book inspired him so much that he quit his job, band, broke up with his girlfriend and first thing, called some friends he knew living in Maine. He didn't know what was going in Maine, just seemed like a place to go at the time, so he hopped on a bus and went. Turns out his friends worked in a rope factory and for the last couple years they had been stealing rope from work and weaving a huge basket type treehouse in the middle of the Maine woods. They cut down a bunch of trees to clear out an open spot and began the process. They could fit around 20 people on it and lie around all day and night having fun and watching the sky or whatever. He left after a few weeks but by that time they had already began a second level.
Next up was a gig as a white water rafting guide in North Carolina. Hooked up with some guys there and got a job guiding in the Grand Canyon. That's where he was headed when he stopped in on us in Tennessee. From there he would be working on the Ocoee River during the '96 Olympics.
He said the book had changed his life (as it did mine but not NEARLY as dramatic) and wanted me to know. He said he would never play in a band again as all it did was keep him down. Man, that planted such a seed in my head and as I continued to chase the rockstar dream, all the while that was in the back of my mind. He said a lot of things and I could tell in only a couple months he was a completely different person. It was a lot for us to absorb, my room mate and i but when he left, we were definitely a little embarrassed, ashamed or something. We both knew at that time the lives we were leading were bullshit. we had energy, balls, guts, desire, brains, ideas, all kind of shit going for us but we were just wasting it on our jobs, bands and girlfriends. NONE of which stuck around when the shit went down. And take my word for it, THE SHIT WENT DOWN. For both of us, over and over again. Still is.
As it was, that same friend also sold me my first "adult" bicycle. Just a cheap department store P.O.S. for $60 but just the same, that bike opened up a new world to me. At first I only used it to sell drugs and ride to work but eventually went on to longer and longer rides through town but that's a whole other story.
So as I'm watching the movie, Big Sur, remember? i found myself reciting passages from the book along with the movie, even though I haven't read that book in over 20 years. And I'm not the kind of person who remembers passages from books. I read them, highlight stuff in them, copy passages, disappear in them, whatever, but I don't memorize them. I do remember some of the influences his writing had on me and the images that evolved from them but hearing those excerpts and remembering those images brought a new perspective AND perception on it all.
It's funny the things your mind will store away only to be used later when they may make more sense. There's lot's of critiques and analyzing of guys like Henry David Thoreau, Jack Kerouac, Everett Ruess or even Chris Mccandless. Those criticisms are pointless. They were searchers and explorers who already saw how far away from the real source we have drifted and sacrificed it all trying to get to the top of the mountain to shout a warning to the rest of us. The world, THIS world needs some martyrs and fools to remind us. As Kerouac said in The Dharma Bums, "Ah, Japhy, you taught me the final lesson of them all, you can't fall off a mountain."
Like I said, I went pretty "deep" with the whole beat thing. Especially Kerouac. Not really sure why. A lot of his writing was way too intense for my 20-27 year old mind but it affected me none the less. I loaned On The Road to a friend and a couple days later he disappeared. No one heard from him for several weeks. No one from work (we worked together), not his band and not his girlfriend of five years that he lived with. Then one day I came home from work and he was sitting on my couch in my living room talking to my room mate. He had cut his long hair, had a crazy deep tan and had my copy of On The Road to give back.
He then told us how the book inspired him so much that he quit his job, band, broke up with his girlfriend and first thing, called some friends he knew living in Maine. He didn't know what was going in Maine, just seemed like a place to go at the time, so he hopped on a bus and went. Turns out his friends worked in a rope factory and for the last couple years they had been stealing rope from work and weaving a huge basket type treehouse in the middle of the Maine woods. They cut down a bunch of trees to clear out an open spot and began the process. They could fit around 20 people on it and lie around all day and night having fun and watching the sky or whatever. He left after a few weeks but by that time they had already began a second level.
Next up was a gig as a white water rafting guide in North Carolina. Hooked up with some guys there and got a job guiding in the Grand Canyon. That's where he was headed when he stopped in on us in Tennessee. From there he would be working on the Ocoee River during the '96 Olympics.
He said the book had changed his life (as it did mine but not NEARLY as dramatic) and wanted me to know. He said he would never play in a band again as all it did was keep him down. Man, that planted such a seed in my head and as I continued to chase the rockstar dream, all the while that was in the back of my mind. He said a lot of things and I could tell in only a couple months he was a completely different person. It was a lot for us to absorb, my room mate and i but when he left, we were definitely a little embarrassed, ashamed or something. We both knew at that time the lives we were leading were bullshit. we had energy, balls, guts, desire, brains, ideas, all kind of shit going for us but we were just wasting it on our jobs, bands and girlfriends. NONE of which stuck around when the shit went down. And take my word for it, THE SHIT WENT DOWN. For both of us, over and over again. Still is.
As it was, that same friend also sold me my first "adult" bicycle. Just a cheap department store P.O.S. for $60 but just the same, that bike opened up a new world to me. At first I only used it to sell drugs and ride to work but eventually went on to longer and longer rides through town but that's a whole other story.
So as I'm watching the movie, Big Sur, remember? i found myself reciting passages from the book along with the movie, even though I haven't read that book in over 20 years. And I'm not the kind of person who remembers passages from books. I read them, highlight stuff in them, copy passages, disappear in them, whatever, but I don't memorize them. I do remember some of the influences his writing had on me and the images that evolved from them but hearing those excerpts and remembering those images brought a new perspective AND perception on it all.
It's funny the things your mind will store away only to be used later when they may make more sense. There's lot's of critiques and analyzing of guys like Henry David Thoreau, Jack Kerouac, Everett Ruess or even Chris Mccandless. Those criticisms are pointless. They were searchers and explorers who already saw how far away from the real source we have drifted and sacrificed it all trying to get to the top of the mountain to shout a warning to the rest of us. The world, THIS world needs some martyrs and fools to remind us. As Kerouac said in The Dharma Bums, "Ah, Japhy, you taught me the final lesson of them all, you can't fall off a mountain."
