Thursday, June 17, 2010

Dennis Hopper RIP

He was never quite like anybody else-- hipster visionary and "admittedly unorthodox Kansas Republican"; drug- addled loon and serious art collector; someone with more "second acts" than Scott Fitzgerald could have conceived; finally, gracefully stoic at his hard end. He was an archtypical American artist. (Rod Dreher goes a bit off- subject, but has some interesting things to say here, especially about Easy Rider; I liked it when it came out, but it took longer for me to see its (conscious) ambiguities). Incidentally, the always- original Bill Kauffman is right about Peter Fonda's philosophical bent; we used to have the same Montana lawyer to keep us out of trouble, and Fonda was the only actor in Paradise Valley the local rednecks and cowboys liked!

Paul Domski discovered this gem, the perfect Hopper paradox piece:




a YouTube video of a young Hopper on the Johny Cash variety show, dressed like a cowboy, reading Kipling's "If"!

1 comment:

shadygrove said...

I have loved this poem since I was very young. It has been a pattern for my life. Thank you for the video clip. Sorry to see Dennis go.