Over the last couple of weeks, this idea has been running around my head: I want to learn how to ride a motorcycle. I mean, I’ve always wanted to, just that I never learned how.

Anyway, Since I was on call this weekend, I figured I’d rent a couple of movies. Easy Rider came to mind since I never saw the whole thing, and it’s basically known as THE bike movie. Then what happens the next day? Dennis Hopper dies! I swear it happened just like that. My mind exploded from the sheer coincidence.

So I watched it, and it was completely enjoyable, if not bittersweet. Sometimes when you watch a movie like this, especially something from that period (1969), you have to remind yourself of the era and the context, and how it may have been perceived at the time. So yeah, it was nothing if not groundbreaking what with the portrayal of coke and the “marijuana” and them all dropping acid in New Orleans. I’m not going to go into the whole death of the ’60’s analogy and all that because it’s been done a zillion times. Let’s just say that it was worth watching.

Oh yeah, the documentary on the DVD made an interesting observation about the romanticism of riding a chopper across the country. As Peter Fonda and one of the producers said, you’d have to be nuts to try it. Riding in that gorilla position for too long is incredibly painful. Peter Fonda lamented on not being able to move his arms for days.

P.S. RIP Dennis.