[lit-ideas] Re: Sunday Poem/Tony Hawks


On May 31, 2009, at 3:57 PM, Mike Geary wrote:


US:

I was hoping you weren't finished sending us your Sunday offerings.
In the online intro phil course I'm presently teaching, we're pondering God. 
This is an excellent ponder.


DR:
It would be extraordinary if I weren't wearing people's patience a little thin; of this I am aware.
I'm not sure what occasions the exchanges between Ursula and David, but I sure hope it's not a threat by the Laureate to withdraw his talents. 

No, not my style.  What you saw was the whole exchange.
I am glad you're back. I've been waiting for this moment to recommend a series of books which, I think, were written especially with the likes of you (and me) in mind. I believe I may have mentioned the first one, "Round Ireland With a Fridge." It's amusing, the tale of a guy who bets his friend that he can hitchhike round Ireland, with a fridge. Now and then Tony Hawks, subject and author, gets a bit philosophical re. life, the universe and the meaning of hitchhiking with a fridge, but for the most part he just strives to amuse. With me, he succeeded.
Book number two begins with a bet contracted while Tony was watching England play Moldova at soccer. Yes, I had to look the country up. Tony, who had played tennis as a kid and who still reckoned he had the stuff, boasted that he could beat the entire Moldovan soccer team at his game. His friend stipulated that the loser of the bet would have to strip naked in the local high street and sing the Moldovan national anthem. From this simple premise, Hawks weaves an engaging tale.
Book three, "One Hit Wonderland" is my favorite, for reasons I recognize as sentimental. Beginning again with something he did well in his youth--this time it's pop music--Hawks bets someone else that he can repeat early prowess. But here the challenge is quite different. In his youth Hawks had a bit of an accidental hit on the pop charts. Go to his website and listen to his music--http:// www.tony-hawks.com--and you may reach the conclusion I did; this is a challenge of a completely different magnitude. Hawks believes, as no doubt many people in England do, that because country and western music sounds simple and even daft to them, it's easy to produce a country and western hit. So off he goes to Nashville, to learn differently... while riding a bike. Phase two is about an equally flawed thought--that europop can be mimicked simply by dressing as a pixie and singing something repetitive and stupid. Phase three is about a trip to Africa. I suspect this bit was commissioned as an essay and that Hawks wove it into the book because that's how you thicken the tale. Phase four was the bit I really liked. It caused me to remember Norman Wisdom, who was one of my early cinema idols. And then the tale of how Tony Hawks gets a hit and who is involved in the enterprise...well I won't spoil it.
Book four, "A Piano in the Pyrenees" you'll read if you've read all the rest. It's a pretty standard Englishman-buys-a-house-abroad tale, but it has its moments. 

May your summer be enjoyable now that your reading's sorted.

David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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