VL-IV p 37, 38

[Michael Bailey]

Page 37

parallel drawn between surfer's culture and motorhead roulette
- the tenor of the comparison is the passivity, the "taken" nature

"there were few satellite photos back them"
and even in 1984 who had GPS in their car or cellular weather updates?
 Even today, can you get Doppler pictures in your car? So the
comparison spreads out beyond the immediate terms into a more 2-d
perspective of yesteryear's culture in general, foreshadowing a
concern also shown in AtD..

"motorhead valley roulette" - scary game!  When I lived in Kansas
City, there'd be these reports of kids doing a similar thing: highway
roller coaster where you accelerate up a hill and the car goes
airborne at the top.  They'd get in the paper but might not be alive
to read about it.

It might be a stretch to compare the two experiences - there are so
many points of difference! - but not the feeling of participants.
Zoyd having done both would know -- anyway for the book, the point is
he's the type of person who would draw the comparison.

Unpacking the comparison a little - it's the main thing on the page -
a) passive ridership of ocean / of "the auto industry's will"
force of Nature, Wind and Wave
force of Man, Marketing and Machine - there are a few more casualties
riding this one, which is weird, you would think that something made
for people by people would be safer for people
--- but maybe the point is that passive ridership doesn't work out
that well in the modern mechanized world?
b) the other point is that there was a lot of drunken shenanigans and
Zoyd was part of them
c) and yet another point, a very important distinction for me, is sort
of "natural world" vs "society" - and Zoyd's passive ridership in
both.  But he evolves toward a more activist role, despite his
inclnations, doesn't he?
d) just for a moment to abstract the point right out of context, it's
a consolation that (to date) some aspects of the natural world are too
big for society to mess up completely - the ocean, the sun, the air...

San Joaquin - a pretty big valley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Joaquin_Valley has a nice map but the
text gives a pretty good snapshot.

If that's where he grew up and worked and got married, how come he was
living on the beach way down in So Cal?
Because he could?  Because the "auto industry's will" had given him
great mobility? (great big plot element in most 20th century fiction)

Bud Warriors and Ambassadors - in greater Detroit, where I grew up
(and many other places, I'm sure) there'd be these little cement
buildings, the size of a tavern or machine shop, with a painted sign
over the door such as Warlocks M/C, meaning motorcycle club...I think
the Bud Warriors and Ambassador would be M/C's.  But I couldn't find
them on the Web.

Page 38 -
if "the visible world was a sunlit sheep farm" then what about the
"freeway in the distance" (line 4)?  The inference (ymmv) is that the
benevolence even wrapped the freeway.

"the Corvairs, these days calling themselves surfadelic"
a) to name a band after the car Ralph Nader called a deathtrap is just
another facet of the insouciant laughing at danger of Zoyd and his
buddies...

b) surfadelic - great series of 3 articles here
http://musicformaniacs.blogspot.com/search/label/rock%3A%20surf%2Fgarage

"If you subscribe to the Rolling Stone/Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame/Baby
Boomer critics world view, there was Elvis, Chuck Berry, etc, then
rock died in 1960. Then, in the mid-'60s, Dylan and the Beatles
"saved" it. Uh, yeah. Right.

"Actually, if anything, surf music saved rock. When The Bel-Aires and
Dick Dale made their 1961 debuts, reinvigorating rock 'n 'roll with a
fresh, exciting new sound and instantly inspiring countless musicians,
the charts and airwaves had gotten fairly rock-free. Even some early
rockers like Bobby Darin thought that rock was a fad that had run it's
course, so he put on a tux and switched to adult pop.

"....Even by the white-boy defintion of rock, the surf wave that broke
by 1961 disproved that theory of history. Suburban youth with electric
guitars were popping up all over Southern California, due to a
confluence of influences: early rock instrumentalists like Link Wray
and Duane Eddy, mariachi (due to the all-pervasive Mexican influence
on California culture), Hawaiian, and Western musics, and the surf
lifestyle. Take Wray's slow, dark grind, or the lazy clip-clop rhythm
of Western guitar instrumentals, give it a jolt of adolescent energy,
drench your guitar in reverb to make it sound "wet," and voila! You're
now playing to thrilled teenagers who are rushing out to buy guitars
and start their own bands.

"- Surf is the one kind of rock 'n' roll that draws inspiration from
nature. Even if there are lyrics, they often refer to man's place
within a natural setting, and not just the beach. Dick Dale has said
that, apart from surfing, wild animals like big cats also inspire his
guitar playing. There's a lot of outer space-inspired surf music. The
most famous album produced by a surf group is "Pet Sounds," recorded
after the Beach Boys stopped singing beach party songs. Once the
themes went back to familiar teen/romance subjects, it became
acceptable for critical consideration."



"it was one of the peak parties of his life"
so there were others as good or better?  Even the sheriff showed up to
do the Stroll (not inconceivable - there was a cop, somebody's
brother, who used to show up at some of our high school bashes) - in
fact the presence and participation of law enforcement is a high-water
mark of sorts for parties...




-- 
--
"Feliz Navidad"