I had a fun weekend this past weekend with some dodgeball (more than 15 months after I played the last time, I forgot to take it easy and felt sore all over my body the next day, but it was worth it!) and went to a party where the topic of 1980's movies came up because the common theme of "they just don't make movies like they used to anymore" came up. I realized that both MJ and I have a collective movies-watched collection that goes back only to the 1990's or so, and any movies beyond that had to have been real classics like "The Godfather" or "Gone with the Wind" (actually never saw that, although I know the story of Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler, etc. I realized that although born in the 80's, my first true dive into the movie world was in the 90's and never really got into classic movies, so that's where my "movie watching career" began. The gentlemen I talked to was of a slightly older ilk/generation and mentioned some great 80's movies like Teen Wolf, "Atlantic City" (Susan Sarandon aspires to be a blackjack dealer in Monte Carlo, something I admit I've romanticized about) and Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Basically all movies that could possibly come up on Jeopardy randomly in the a "classic movies" category that I wouldn't be able to name. I then went home and frantically watched clips of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the first Indiana Jones movie that I had actually saw as a live show in Disneyland as a kid. The 80's: what a time to be alive.
Speaking of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, I have embarked on many journeys in my life using various forms of transportion, some have given me great experiences (my first time in a plane was traveling from Shanghai to Chicago when I was four and a half years old, leaving the East to start a new life in the West) but also some of my worst experiences like going whale watching on a small, crowded, rocking ship without taking Dramamine or anything to prevent seasickness, and feeling like I was going to puke the whole time, didn't see any whales but did see the regurgitations of what I had eaten that morning........anyway, bicycle would belong in the former category of good experiences, riding around Waterfall Glen with my dad in suburban Chicago, riding down Lake Shore Drive in downtown Chicago, even just riding around the neighborhood with friends during long summers where there were less distractions and screens and more free time to go out and be one with nature.
During the pandemic, the new hot craze was Peloton, a stationary bike that cost over $2000 but offered the chance to join a community of people also doing it and to join the leaderboard. Sounded a bit like a cult, to be honest, and I just never understood the appeal of biking in doors, indoor exercise bikes, etc., especially if it's not snowing or raining outside. To me, half the working out process is getting out of the house, going to new places, letting the wind rip through my hair and cool my body, completing a journey somewhere and back, whether it be down a 10-mile loop around a lake or just the most routine ride around the neighborhood. It's the same appeal as running for me, but with the ability to go much farther distances. Perhaps that's what got me into the Tour de France, for most it's just a bike race with lots of colorful jerseys and riders mostly packed together into indiscernable groups called "the peloton" but for me it was also the scenery of rural France, climbing mountains, cutting through lush meadows, and riding into Paris in the home stretch. There was a group in college that organized a bike across America during the summer, and it's become one of my main regrets as an adult not to have participated; perhaps I will later on in life.
I'm not a fast rider, I'm not a good rider; I never learned how to ride with no hands, a skill that seems so natural to competitors in the Tour de France but even just the local kids around the neighborhood. I just never took that step of getting my last hand off of the handlebar and just letting the bike go. Well I finally did it today, successfully riding for 10 seconds without the use of hands, and understood something about the exercise: you have to have good balance, and you have to have the right bike that maintains the right balance. I never had a combination of the two, and most times didn't have either. I always felt that right after letting go the bike would just tilt and fall, causing me to crash and burn, which I was justified in doing so. This time with the right bike, the bike just sort of kept going along like I still had my hands on it, no need to shift my weight or make any crazy adjustments. I felt similar to how all kids feel when riding a bike for the first time: free and accomplished, ready to conquer the world. Even at my age, sometimes doing something for the first time can be a great experience.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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