Road Scholar [1992]

any listener to NPR is familiar with the travelogues & cultural commentary of andrei codrescu.  codrescu came to the u.s. from transylvania, romania in 1966 to become a bohemian & poet.  he succeeded.  & i think codrescu is a very fine poet.  a long-time favorite of mine.

this documentary of a road trip codrescu made in 1991 was broadcast on PBS in '92.  anna & i watched it.  i loved it.  then it disappeared.  when i got my shit together & went to grad school to get my MA i referenced this docu in class.  i received blank stares from my fellow students & a big shrug from the professor.  maybe i hallucinated this flick?

no.  for some lovely person/organization has uploaded the whole docu to youtube.  hard to fathom that this documentary is now 30 years old.  the u.s. has changed quite a bit but in many fundamental ways, like its love of guns, has not changed.  codrescu learns to drive, buys a convertible cadillac, starts his journey in NYC & goes west to CA.  in between our poet encounters many characters & gets into lots of adventures.  how accurate is it a portrait of the united states of america?  i suppose it is pretty accurate.  these are real people doing real things.  but i think if this documentary were made today we would find less lovable eccentricities replaced by scarier things such as the rise of militias drilling in the forests of america.  

wherever you live is ordinary.  other places are exotic.  e.g. paris is home to parisians so when they go on holiday they travel elsewhere.  living in our own postage stamp of the u.s. we might not have the perspective of this country's strangeness & appeal to other human beings who live elsewhere & see the united states of america with a differing perspective.  codrescu does well by giving us his perspective.   

i'm glad to be able to watch this documentary again.  our america has changed so much since 1992.  the world has changed so much.  we are living in a global civilization now.  & yet these pieces of america persist in our imaginations.  i'm surprised codrecscu didn't make a stop at gracelend.  because that has become a holy place.  at least for some americans.  for the rest of us we can take a bemused delight in watching the crystal lady attempt to heal codrecscu with her new age crystals & homilies.  

welcome to america 

follow this link to watch road scholar