I remember watching Easy Rider (two hippie bikers set out to discover "the real America") when it debuted in 1969. Pretty racy stuff back in the day and, not surprisingly, full of action and drama. I had gone to the movies with some friends, and we talked about it on our way out. Bill’s comment was that he liked the scene where Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda pushed their motorcycles (they had broken down) past an old guy who was shoeing a horse. He liked the irony. I think that may have been the first time I had heard the word “irony” used in a way that caused me to light up. I felt like Bill had understood something unspoken about the movie, about art.
Kiah, our daughter, is traveling in Argentina. She wants to learn Spanish and gain experience in permaculture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture) by volunteering on farms. It occurs to me that she is no dummy: she figured out how to spend 2014 without a winter.
She’s in a remote part of Argentina, a 24-hour bus ride from Buenos Aries. We finally received a text from her: “Wifi is not possible on the farm. It supposedly exists near the outhouse but I don’t believe it. Also, I just discovered phones work at the road. I found the most ideal farm, it’s unbelievable. Great teachers and practice. Way Opened.” This was followed minutes later by an email. “I get wifi if I do a 4 part shuffle outside the porta potty” followed by another email “TOTALLY FIGURED OUT EMAIL. I will skype mom on her bday!!! Talk soon.”
Envisioning a 24-year old accessing the internet by doing the 4 part shuffle near the outhouse struck me as ironic. Or maybe it is art.