Week of March 12, We Look Fast

1) Mo' Mountains

 While I don't necessarily understand why people run marathons, I do most certainly understand those people who want climb to Everest. Mountains. They rock. The higher I go, the higher I want to go. I totally inherently get Man's desire to be on top of the world. I was in Switzerland skiing during my vacation and I went to the resort's highest ski point, a glacier at 3,000 meters. The views were amazing, I could see all the great Alpine peaks in the distance, including Mont Blanc, but I wanted to go higher still. I once went trekking for 8 days in the Himalayas where my highest-ever point was 5,400 meters. The air was thin and it was tough to walk up to the pass, but once I made it, I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. Also, how great are these photos taken with my iPhone 4S?


2) Senna

I took to renting movies on iTunes on my iPhone while I was away. I watched a documentary about the Brazilian Formula 1 racing champion,  Ayrton Senna. He, very tragically, died in a crash during a race in 1994. What makes it more tragic is that he was actually quite an advocate for safety. He took risks because he wanted to win, obviously, but experts agree that this crash would not have happened unless there was something wrong with his car -- which he had been complaining about earlier. So Senna is the hero, the anti-hero of the film is Alain Prost, his nemesis and teammate. Also, Prost is French. Every sport has a whole world surrounding it that we know little about as mere observers, but like every man-made world, politics and money are involved, making it all just a little dirty. Such is life.


3) Racing Dreams

 Speaking of racing documentaries, another great one is Racing Dreams, a movie that was made by my great friend's brother in law's brother. How's that for a degree of separation? It follows the trajectory of three young karting racers with aspirations to become NASCAR drivers. It's a very touching movie about kids growing up with a dream, their families' sacrifices to support them and the tribulations of just being young. I've noticed that kids who have passions, whether they pursue them as adults or not, have a little something extra in the confidence department. It's not a boastful confidence, because they don't seem to realize that they're special, so it just comes across to the average observer as maturity. 


4) Ski To Die: The Bill Johnson Story

This is a book about Bill Johnson, the first American to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill skiing. Apparently there is also a documentary based on the book. Bill was an atypical ski champion, he came from a messed up family, moved around Oregon and Wisconsin without any kind of stable home life, but somehow adopted a skiing style that was his own and came out of nowhere to win the 1984 Gold medal in Sarajevo. He was talented, destructive and brash, and unfortunately, during a comeback race in the early 2000s, he crashed big time and nearly died. He ended up surviving, but has permanent damage from the accident. But let's remember the good times shall we? He did us proud.


5) Steep

Another documentary I rented whilst on vacation. It's about the birth and evolution of Extreme skiing. Much of it takes place in Alaska and France. Now, these guys (and some gals) are insane. There is a lot of death in this one, the irony being that the thing that makes them feel most alive is what kills them. But I have the utmost respect for this breed who seeks out this kind of adventure and spiritual experience with nature. They're just on an entirely different level of being from us humans.


This week's blog post sponsored by Apple.