Ride With Daryl Dixon

Like about a billion other people, I love Daryl Dixon. And I loved Norman Mark Reedus long before DD . . . from back in 1999 when he appeared in The Boondocks Saints. So I was kind of interested when I heard that he was going to have a show of his own on AMC--Ride with Norman Reedus. But apparently not interested enough, as I missed all six episodes of the first season. But when the Season 2 premiere was advertised as co-starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan . . . well, I somehow found the time.

And you know, it was alright, it was nidth*. And it was well-timed, in that I'd just finished reading Dan Brown's Origin and NR & JDM visited Sagrada Família, so it was cool to be able to see the place I'd read about without all the stress and hard work of Googling. And the promo for the next show indicated that Dave Chapelle would be up next, so I watched that one. And it was good, too, but apparently not good enough to get me on schedule, as I missed the next show. But I did catch half of a show from the first season, in which NR and Some Other Guy went to Texas.

And one of the places they visited was a motorcycle shop where a guy named Colt Wrangler (sounds like the real life identity name of a Marvel superhero, doesn't it?) had a few things to say about this and that, one of which went like this:

"If you really want something, your actions will follow. You know? And you just do and you do and you do and the next thing you know you end up with something that you really like."

Colt Wrangler

Ride With Norman Reedus

Season 1, Episode 4: "Texas: Twisted Sisters"

And I thought that that was pretty good shit. Good enough to do the pause, rewind, play, pause, play, pause, play, pause, rewind, pause, play, rewind, pause, play, anyway.

And I was thinking about that and the show in general, and coming to some conclusions about this life thing. 

See, Norman likes to do stuff. He likes to ride on his motorcycle. He likes to eat good food. He likes to set off firecrackers. He likes to drink alcoholic beverages. He likes to talk to people. He likes to be recognized by fans. He likes to look at pretty scenery. He likes to smoke cigarettes. And other stuff, too, I'm sure, but that's mostly what we see on the show.

And all of that is good, it's fine. It's nidth, for sure. But . . . it's just the same old shit, you know? I mean, firecrackers. You light 'em up and they explode. Big bang, flash of light. So fucking what? If it makes you happy and you're not hurting anybody else, then that's fine, for sure. But to me it's just a stupid thing that people do. And the same for riding on a motorcycle. You can tell that Norman and the other people on the show think that it's really cool that he (& they) are riding on motorcycles. But seriously . . . why is that any cooler than riding a bicycle? You know? And I have to say that despite societal programming, it's not to me. When I see a person on a motorcycle, I don't think about how cool they look or how tough they are. I think, "Geeze, I hope you get home safe." Because they're just so vulnerable, and all it would take is a little bitty error for them to be smeared across a couple of thousand feet of asphalt and / or concrete. So to me it's just foolishness. And not like brave foolishness. Foolishness like, "Hey, I'm going to see if I can throw this knife up in the air and catch it in my teeth while I'm blindfolded." What the fuck, man?

We do what we do because we have to or because it pleases us. But on top of that, we (well, not so much we, but I don't want to get too snobby here) put other people down for doing what they do . . . or for not doing what we do . . . or for not being sufficiently awed by what we do. But the difference between sitting on the couch reading a book and burning down the highway on a Harley doing 80 miles per hour while naked women shoot off fireworks and offer you pulled pork sandwiches? Not much difference at all to me. 

Except that I'd prefer the book.

Which is not to say that I didn't enjoy the 2 1/2 episodes of the show that I watched. I did enjoy them, and will probably watch more. But there's also a part of me that stands outside of the show and says, "Glad you're having fun, but I don't understand why anybody would think that Chicken Shit Bingo is more fun than reading Moby Dick, man."

* A very slight and unnecessary but somehow amusing to me allusion to a spoken bit in Iggy Pop's "Turn Blue," in which he sounds like he has a very bad head cold as he says the word "nice."