Easy Rider

I recently watched Easy Rider which I had not seen since it was released in 1969. It was available online free at Hulu. Watching it on a small computer screen is a very different experience from my original viewing which was at a New Jersey drive-in movie that summer.

But the screen size may actually be one of the least significant changes in my re-viewing the film after 41 years.

Easy Rider is a very 1969 and very American road movie that was written by Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda and Terry Southern. It was produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper who also play the two lead characters.

The two main characters Wyatt, nicknamed “Captain America” (Fonda), and Billy (Hopper) would have been described as hippies in 1969. Billy was supposedly based on David Crosby of The Byrds and he looks the part, but Wyatt (perhaps based on Roger McGuinn of The Byrds – McGuinn performs the title song on the soundtrack) looks pretty straight by today’s eyes.

The two ride the American West like cowboys of the past – Wyatt Earp and Billy the Kid. Wyatt dresses in leather with an American flag on his back and flag helmet. Billy wears Native American-style buckskin pants and shirts and a bush/cowboy hat.

Before they mount their chopper steeds, they bring some cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles and make a big sale.  (That’s record producer Phil Spector in the Rolls-Royce who is the connection.) They use some of the money to buy their bikes and head out to find what their new freedom offers them.

In a good interview with Hopper on Fresh Air, he said that he never saw the film as exploitation or counter-culture. He saw it as an art film and they took it to the Cannes Film Festival where he received the First Film Award (Prix de la première œuvre). Though the film was hardly mainstream, it was a hit and Jack Nicholson was nominated for a Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar. The film was nominated for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced.

On their journey, they meet a simple rancher who seems free in an off-the-grid way. They pick up a hippie hitchhiker and take him to a commune. There, the ill-prepared city-hippies are barely surviving, making the same mistakes as those early Pilgrims who came to the new world.  They are good people trying to do something good but hardly free despite their free love and free spirit.

In a small town, they get busted on the bogus charge of “parading without a permit.”  In jail, they meet a local lawyer/ town drunk named George played by a relatively unknown Jack Nicholson. George helps them get out of jail, and he decides to join them as they head for Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

They introduce George to marijuana around the campsite that night. (No motels will accept the hippies.)

At a little Louisiana restaurant, they are harassed by the local males and flirted with by the local girls. They know it’s trouble and leave.

I don’t know if you can have spoilers in a post about a 40 year old movie, but here comes one. That night the local men find them and attack them while they are asleep and George is killed.

At Mardi Gras – Peter Fonda, Toni Basil, Dennis Hopper & Karen Black

They make it to New Orleans and head for a brothel that George wanted to visit. They pick up two prostitutes, but things feel wrong. Their wandering through the Mardi Gras celebration is creepy, and they follow up by taking LSD at a cemetery.

The New Orleans section might have been meant by Hopper as artsy in the style of someone like Bruce Connor, but it reminds me more of the Roger Corman‘s biker and acid-trip films.

The fast editing, sound effects, over-exposed film in that section and the many song and scenery shots were early versions of scenes in films to follow, in commercials and even music videos. I believe the film was the first to build a soundtrack from existing songs (like Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild“) rather than to commission an original soundtrack.

Before the shocking and tragic ending of the film, it has really hit me this time how the film’s message was really negative. I remembered the ending, of course, but I also remembered the film as more upbeat and even funny. George in his football helmet on the chopper and some hippie bliss.

But the film is full of lines like George’s comment after the restaurant scene: “This used to be a hell of a good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it.”

Dennis Hopper has said that in 1969 there wasn’t really a counter-culture; the counter WAS the culture.

In their quest for freedom – a true American value – it’s hard to find anyone hippie or straight who has it.
Wyatt says at the end, “We blew it.” Billy doesn’t get it. H feels free and they have financial freedom, but Wyatt wanted something more.

It’s funny that they head for Florida to “retire” – a journey we associated then and still now with some corny senior citizen Fountain of Youth dream.

They don’t make it. I knew in 1969 that they wouldn’t get there. Just like I knew that another pair of 1969 cowboys wouldn’t find freedom in Florida in a film that did win Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay – the brilliant Midnight Cowboy.

Midnight Cowboy may have been the bigger mainstream hit, but the financial and critical success of Easy Rider helped push the New Hollywood filmmaking of the late sixties. Along with slightly earlier films like 1967’s The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde, this was probably my favorite period of American film.

Why didn’t I remember the film’s pessimism? I think it’s because in 1069 I believed in their journey and dream and even the ending didn’t dissuade me. And today? I don’t believe in it. The ride wasn’t really easy.

Easy Rider was added to the Library of Congress National Registry in 1998, and it appears at number 88 on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Years, 100 Movies. It has become a part of our culture, counter or not, with many popular allusions to it.

I’d still recommend watching it whether you’ve seen it before or not. I’d be curious to know if any older viewers have the same reaction that I did.

And I’d be equally curious about the reaction of younger first-time viewers. I suspect that our 1969 probably seems dated and even a bit corny. Cut us some slack. We meant well. And we were doing a lot of drugs.

Easy Rider

Midnight Cowboy

The Graduate

Clip with The Byrds’  “I Wasn’t Born To Follow”

The opening credits with the “heavy meta thunder” of “Born to Be Wild”

As the Sun Crosses the Equator

The heavenly bodies do their seasonal dance and shift their steps tomorrow. We call it it the start of autumn, though is another hemisphere they will be entering spring.

The Autumnal Equinox 2010 will occur September 22 at 11:09 PM EDT.

Some science teacher probably tried to get you to understand that an equinox is either of two points on the celestial sphere where the ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect. Eventually, you could grasp that it was one of two times each year when the Sun crosses the equator, and the day and night are of approximately equal length.

Four seasons but two equinoxes.

When the Sun passes this point on about 23 September each year, the nights begin to grow longer than the days. They will continue to do so until the Winter Solstice in December.

For some people, it a moment of sadness or melancholy. Summer is over. School is back in session. Plants are dying off. Winter is coming.

As an October baby, I have always preferred autumn to summer. Cooler weather, sweaters, colored forests. Even the beach is better in September to me. No crowds, no badges, few tourists, no blazing sun to hide from.

Though we mark this time as the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, folks on the other side of the globe are marking the start of spring with their vernal equinox.

That’s a tough concept to wrap your mind around. The sun will continue to shift southward, bringing cooler weather to we Northerners, and warmer weather to the Southern Hemisphere.

People often confuse the solstice and equinox.  The Summer and Winter Solstices mark when the Sun is farthest north or south and the length of time between Sunrise and Sunset is the shortest of the year while the equinoxes mark the equal points in between.

Enjoy the cool breeze. Rub your hands and enjoy that first evening that you catch a wood fire from a distance. Brew a cup of tea.

For more information more about why we have changing seasons, go to http://crh.noaa.gov/fsd/astro/season.php.

The Full Moon of the Autumn Equinox

September Harvest Moon bead art via why-not-art.com

This month’s full moon is on Thursday the 23rd.  The September full Moon has many names from the uncommon “Moon When The Calves Grow Hair” to the most common “Harvest Moon.”

That most familiar naming refers to the time of year after the autumn equinox when crops are gathered. The Autumnal Equinox for 2010 will also occur that day.  Harvest Moon also refers to the moon’s particularly bright appearance and early rise, which allows farmers to continue harvesting into the night.

Other agrarian names for this month’s full Moon include Corn Moon and Barley Moon.

September was the seventh month in the oldest Roman calendar. Although all the other months had name changes when added to the seasonal calendar, for some reason September never changed.

This month is the last of the reliable harvesting months in the Northern Hemisphere. In many ways, this moon marks the winding down of in preparation for the dormant months that follow.

In ancient cultures, the Dark Moon deities represented the Underworld, death, reincarnation, and deep spiritual mysteries. The Egyptians held a  Ceremony of Lighting the Fire which was a festival of lights for all the gods and goddesses and before the statues of ancestors.

In the old Incan Empire, the Citua was held on the New Moon nearest the Autumn Equinox. Everyone performed a ritual cleansing, then smeared their faces with a paste of ground maize (corn). There followed several days of feasting and dancing. This was a Moon festival in honor of Mama Quilla, the Moon goddess.

Some Moon lore for this month:

When the Moon is at the full, then mushrooms you can safely pull.
But when the Moon is on the wane, wit ere you think to pluck again.

Sailors believed that if the Moon, in the first or last quarter, lay in nearly a horizontal position with the horns upward, the weather would be fine.  Rural people and farmers often said that the same type of Moon means good weather for twenty-eight days.

Alternate names for this month’s full moon are the Hunting Moon, Barley Moon, Cool Moon, Moon of Leaves Turning Color, Moon of Spiderwebs on the Ground, Big Feast Moon, Harvest Moon (depending on the year), Wine Moon, Singing Moon, Sturgeon Moon, Haligmonath (Holy Month), Witumanoth (Wood Month), Moon When Deer Paw the Earth.

The Pagan Calendar

Pagan circle for the Autumn Equinox (UK)

With the Full Moon and Equinox occurring on the same day this month, I think about how important these events were to ancient cultures.

I found a Pagan calendar online that shows Pagan, Witch, Druid and Heathen festivals, dates and events. Important Neo-Pagan festivals and religious holidays are included even if research into the origins are sketchy, as they are important in modern paganism.

Even if Paganism is far from your own beliefs, the stories of the fire festivals, the Celtic tree calendar, Pagan carvings, pictures, artifacts and writings are interesting to read in a historical context.

I will post this weekend, as I do each month, on the Full Moon and also on the Autumn Equinox, but here is some perspective on the equinox as viewed by Pagans.

The Autumn Equinox is called either Mabon, Harvest Home or Alban Elfed. On the autumnal equinox, there is a ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and God during the winter months.

The use of the name Mabon is more prevalent in America (the calendar site is from the UK). In Britain, many Neo-Pagans of today dismiss Mabon as an unauthentic name. There is a good general introduction at wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabon

Early Autumn Color

Korean dogwood fruit turns scarlet this month

There are lots of colors emerging around Paradelle to signal the coming autumn. Sure, there will be the maples and all the other trees changing color in a big way. But there are also little signs.

What is a sign of autumn for you?

Autumn Reflection

Bloggers and Late Night Radio DJs

I took a few days off to go to the beach. No Wi-Fi where I was staying, which is a good reason to stay offline.  I could have found a hotspot at some coffee shop if I tried – but I didn’t.

I came home to lots of unread emails. In the pile was also a series of spam and viruses from friends’ accounts that had been hijacked and then the followup mails from them saying “Don’t open the link in those mails that seem to be from me.” So, staying offline f or a bit can be beneficial in many ways.

I didn’t post on my blogs either. And I had no posts in the queue. I think bloggers like to think that they have a real audience reading them. I don’t mean the numbers on the hit counter, but a much smaller number of people who actually read them on some regular basis. And I think any blogger would hope that someone missed them and their posts while they were gone.

But you don’t really know for sure.

Which reminded me of when I was in college and the one year that I worked at the college radio station.

WRSU at Rutgers was a typical college station, I suppose. It had been on air since 1948. It started as an AM Carrier Current Station (which meant it used the AC power lines as an “antenna”) broadcasting from the basements of several Rutgers dormitory buildings. When I arrived in 1971 it was on the 680 AM band broadcasting from new offices in the Rutgers Student Center. It was an important time in the station’s history because they were trying to move to the FM band. That required lots of paperwork and testing and people surveying if the signal was overlapping other stations nearby.

Though I had to get some FCC training and license, I never really learned a lot about the technical side of the broadcasting other than learning how to use the tape machine and spin vinyl records.

Because I was a new kid and a freshman, the only air time I ever was offered was one of the late night graveyard shifts. I played a typical blend of the current rock in what was known then as AOR or album-oriented rock. They wanted to move with FM to a more progressive/free form radio, so that was encouraged in the final AM days.

Of course, my broadcast wasn’t that broad. It went out to the dorms and the student center and dining hall but not much further. I actually used to sit there at the mic and wonder if anyone was listening. It was entirely possible that there was no one tuned in at any given moment.

It’s like blogging when you don’t get comments or emails. How do you know that those page hits mean that someone actually read the post? You don’t.

Still, for me, radio – especially late-night radio – had a definite Romantic feel to it. (more about that in a future post…)

Sometimes the only calls you got at the station were because the signal failed or there was some other screw-up. I recall hearing that during the FM testing period they had complaints that kids with hearing aids at some nearby school were picking up the FM 88.7 signal.

One night I was doing some homework reading of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” for a class while the music was on. The song was Procol Harum‘s “Repent Walpurgis” – an Hammond-organ-heavy, instrumental that fit my state of mind. When it ended, without much thought, I started reading the poem on the air.

The poem is considered to be an important and great poem. But not everyone likes poetry. And I must have been somewhere in the a spot like the “What the Thunder Said” section which is quite repetitious.

So, I’m reading –

“…And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water…”

and the station phone lights up.

I stopped reading and picked up the phone. It was an irate student listener who wanted to know why I was reading my crappy poetry on the radio. The caller wasn’t on-air but my side of the conversation went into the mic along with the “dead air” of his part of the conversation. We went back and forth for a bit before I revealed that it was T.S. Eliot and that he was obviously the fool who couldn’t appreciate poetry. Eventually, he hung up. I kept reading. Another call lit up. Someone who liked Eliot and liked that there was a show on with poetry.

I think I got a half-dozen calls that night. That was more than all the shows I had done or would do during my short life in radio.

WRSU-AM ceased operation the year after I graduated when they were fully FM. I left the station because the small circle that ran it seemed impenetrable. I continued to read Eliot and other poets and listen to Procol Harum.

If I want to play at being a DJ and program some music, I might do it online.

Now, as a blogger, I’m the program manager. I decide what to send out into the airwaves.

Sometimes, I get a comment. Most times, I don’t. But I know you’re out there.

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WRSU can be heard for a radius of about 20 miles around Rutgers in New Brunswick, New Jersey 24 hours a day. Like bloggers, they are also online with a streaming feed off of their website, and, like bloggers, the audience is worldwide.

And it’s always late night somewhere.

Listen at http://wrsu.rutgers.edu

“The Wasteland” is online or read read “The Wasteland” in the old-fashioned way that I read it. To really get the experience, you should play “Repent Walpurgis” in the background. Read some trivia about that song too.