SPRING EVENTS 2010

Last week I read an article in a free magazine by Fred Rau, an internationally known motorcycle journalist, where he described a recent trip from Bike Week at Daytona to California, his home is in Hemet. More than once Fred has empathized his preference for taking back roads over the highway. In this article Fred tells how he stopped along the back roads of Texas and how he met local folks who had lost most of their business to the new Interstate and how they are getting along now. The details are not important but Fred again explained his preference for riding a motorcycle at an opportunity to meet people and to enjoy their company.

While I read his article in Friction Zone I became immersed in his world because it is how I am as well. I wanted to email him and invite myself along on his next ride. Although I ride to work daily on my motorcycle and I am seemingly in a hurry, I still enjoy not having to be someplace and taking my time on occasion. And I enjoy meeting people and just talking or listening to them.

Case in point was our trip to Europe in ’06. I was able to spend some time with locals and discuss world matters with them and to get to know their individual past, always an interest to me.

Last week Norma asked me if we had the time to go to the Getty Villa this Saturday. Since I have never been there, and since I love the Getty Museum in Brentwood, I wanted to go. And since it was an exhibit of the Aztecs, this year is the 200th anniversary of the Mexican Independence, all the more reason to go.

Arriving shortly after our reservation of 2:30 PM in Malibu, we climbed the stairs to view the exhibit and others as well. Of course it was a great opportunity for me to learn about my wife’s heritage, and to see such a striking venue; the gardens are worth the trip alone. Anyway we ended up staying until asked to leave because they were closing.

Off to Malibu for dinner at a wonderful Italian Restaurant run by a fellow from Sicily, the Lamb was fantastic and we stayed for coffee and dessert.

With the day still not over yet we drove through the pacific palisades to the Getty Museum to see the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit. Did you know he was born in Vinci, Tuscany? Is that why his name is like that?

While there, and while at the Getty Villa, I noticed and spoke with many of the staff. Mostly I discussed the artwork or the exhibits. But just before we were asked to leave the Getty, I struck up a conversation with one of the staff who was watching a painting by Leonardo. In the three or four minutes we talked I learned he was going to move to Provence France in 15 months with his girlfriend, he had received a settlement for about $30K, he and I shared beliefs in the plight of the youth today, he told Wally that he needs to learn a second language, he works six days a week and believes in working for a living, oh the list goes on and on.

My point is that there are opportunities everywhere to meet and get to know people all around us every day. You don’t need a motorcycle to get out to do it, strike up a conversation with the clerk at the store or with the waiter at the restaurant; I did today at Giovanni’s in Malibu.

In the Pink Floyd song “Keep Talking” from the CD A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Steven Hawking’s voice over regards the fact that talking is what separates us from the animals and to “Keep Talking”. Thank you Steven, and thank you David Gilmour.