Friday, November 30, 2007

The end of an era

I grew up before the days of 9 million cable channels and I seem to remember seeing a lot of Eveil Kneivel on tv, wearing that patriotic jumpsuit - jumping over buses, sharks, bodies of water and anything else that would stand still long enough. He was a big part of the pop culture landscape of my childhood, inspiring millions of kids to end up in the hospital after attempting to duplicate his feats. He was a rock star, an American icon.

Today, with YouTube, webcams and a generation of idiots who idolize the jackasses from "Jackass", death-defying stunts no longer capture the imagination of the nation for longer than 3 minutes - and no one can rock the leather jumpsuit (WITH A CAPE!!!!) like Evel. He was the last true daredevil. (And, I'm not gonna lie, I was a little bummed to find out that his name wasn't really Evel)

Labels: Evel Kneivel