November 12, 2004
Off the Bus
Included in SF Gate's New Flicks newsletter today is this little squib:
Go Further
In this documentary, actor Woody Harrelson pilots a hemp- fueled bus down the Pacific Coast Highway to raise eco-consciousness. Directed by Ron Mann. Not rated. 80 minutes.
Oh, puh-LEASE.... It sure sounds like someone wants to be Ken Kesey when he grows up (if doing so can be called "growing up," which is open to discussion).
Unable to resist, I checked out Walter Addiego's review:
Actor Woody Harrelson is in his full activist mode in this low-key and loose documentary about the bike-and-bus tour he led in 2001 to extol the virtues of simple, organic living. Accompanied by a brightly painted support bus running on hemp-derived fuel, Harrelson and friends cycled from Seattle to Southern California, stopping at college campuses and other friendly venues to spread the word that individuals can change the world by being kind to the environment....The carnival atmosphere of the whole affair isn't surprising, since Harrelson and company were inspired by the adventures of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, and early in the movie visit the grand old man of the counterculture at his Oregon farm. (Kesey died several months after the filming.) The visitors even get to see the original bus used by the Pranksters for their psychedelic-laced wanderings.
I am reminded of nothing so much as Marie Antoinette and her ladies-in-waiting going off to their country cottage to pretend to be milkmaids.
Posted by abostick at November 12, 2004 09:54 AMAh, the simple life, as envisioned by millionaire movie stars. I'm reminded of an old Doonesbury strip, in which Jane Fonda was urging a Black maid to exercise: no matter how busy she was, she could find the time. The cleaning woman said, "You're as busy as you want to be. I'm as busy as I got to be."
A couple of things you can say for Ken Kesey: he wrote superb novels, and he was disciplined and grounded enough to be a good dairy farmer. Novelists are permitted to be self-indulgent, but working farmers are not. Unless you consider it self-indulgent to get up at 5AM, rain or shine, no matter how they feel, in order to milk, feed, and tend to their cows. Not to mention the enormous amounts of manure involved. Writers tend to pitch other kinds of shit.
Posted by: Lynn Kendall at November 12, 2004 11:24 AMThe real Kesey on the Oregon dairy farm is surely grown up. Kesey-the-cultural-icon, doling out cups of electric Kool-Aid in parties at La Honda, equally surely, is not.
Posted by: Alan Bostick at November 12, 2004 11:41 AMNice distinction, and you're absolutely right.
Posted by: Lynn Kendall at November 12, 2004 12:20 PM