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Wednesday, June 10, 2009
A legacy of leaps
Many young men spend much of their lives trying to extricate themselves from their fathers’ shadows, hoping to form identities and legacies separate from those of the old men.
But when your father is a generational icon, a flesh-and-blood superhero, the pursuit might seem futile.
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
As 11-year-old Robbie Knievel sat on his motorcycle alongside father Evel Knievel, 50,000 screaming fans made clear to young Robbie that his destiny would run parallel to that of his father. Living the life of a high-flying entertainer was his birthright and one he could not and did not want to ignore. He knew then he wanted to be a daredevil. Had to be a daredevil.
‘I don’t get off on adrenaline, I was born with adrenaline, and that’s why I keep doing what I do,’ Knievel said by phone on Monday, already in town for this weekend’s Republic of Texas Biker Rally. ‘And people can say he (Evel) was crazy and he shouldn’t have done what he done, but my dad always said, “Remember, we kept out word.” ‘
That sense of pride and honor is likely what led Evel Knievel, when asked why he attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon, a 50-50 life-or-death proposition, to answer, ‘Do you know who the hell I am?’
‘We have charisma and we speak from our heart. We do what we do and we keep our word and that’s what makes us who we are, and that’s why people come to see us,’ Robbie Knievel said. ‘There’s only a handful of us out there who can do what we do, but there’s only two guys that made it famous - me and my dad.’
Kaptain Robbie Knievel brings that grandiose air with him to Austin this weekend, when he will jump almost 200 feet of Budweiser trucks in front of the Capitol.
The jump will be one in a line of more than 250 performed by the 47 year-old Knievel over the past 38 years. And, although he might use a different motorcycle than that heavy Harley-Davidson his father rode, he rides with the same swagger and a perverse levity.
Despite the dangers that inherently come with each jump, Knievel confesses that outside the occasional butterflies, making the death-defying jumps is standard operating procedure.
If a man can look into the face of death, or at least severe injury week in and week out for almost four decades, one must wonder whether there is anything that intimidates the guy. For an answer, one must look beyond the simple, worldly fears of broken bones or slithering reptiles.
The devil, Knievel says, is the only thing that scares him.
‘But I believe in Christ, so I’m not worried about the devil. I’ve got a belief and faith and trust,’ Knievel said. ‘And my dad did before he died, and we had a lot of good talks before he died. I’m looking forward to eternity, but we all got a path lined out for us. People that are living for the world are livin’ for nothing. We’re all gonna die. You gotta look at what’s ahead, be spiritual and loving to your neighbor.’
In this world of extreme sports and user-generated videos inhabiting every corner of the Web, displaying the dangerous exploits of thousands of amateur stuntmen, Knievel has a little more difficulty standing out than his father did in the ’70s.
At that time, before the explosion of cable television and before the Internet had anesthetized our sense of wonder and ability to be inspired, Evel Knievel was a dynamic hero of the highest order. Swathed in a garish red, white and blue jumpsuit astride a motorcycle, he was Elvis, Captain America and James Dean wrapped into one.
The idea of a comic book daredevil hero, inspiring kids with jaw-dropping feats of motorized airborne acrobatics might seem anachronistic today. But the son of Evel Knievel unabashedly carries on his father’s legacy and insists that what he does is about more than just jumping motorcycles over inanimate objects. It’s about a code, a way of the daredevil warrior, put on the planet to entertain and inspire people.
‘I do stuff by the seat of my pants like my dad did, and I have good things to say to the kids and the public, and that’s what I’m about. I do a lot of charities and stuff, and it’s all about what comes from your heart,’ Knievel said. ‘God only knows your heart. I don’t do it for the money. I do it because I’m the son of Evel Knievel, and there’s nobody left.’
And while he professes to be dutifully carrying on the legacy of his iconic father, with two jumps in the works for Wembley Stadium and the Snake River Canyon, attempts at which his father came up short, one has to wonder if maybe Robbie Knievel has his eye set on creating his own legend after all.
The Jump at the Capitol
Kaptain Robbie Knievel will jump almost 200 feet of Budweiser trucks lined on 11th Street in front of the State Capitol. The gates will open at 8 p.m. Friday (this should coincide with the arrival of the ROT motorcycle parade down Congress Avenue). The jump is scheduled to happen at 11 p.m.
ROT Rally wristband holders can pay $20 for a spot between 10th and 11th streets on Congress Avenue. Anyone can pay $20 for a spot between Ninth and 10th streets on Congress Avenue. And blocks south of Ninth Street on Congress Avenue will be free and open to the public.
To buy tickets and more information: www.rotrally.com.
Images from Knievel Cycles.
Click the link below for videos of Robbie Knievel’s jumps.
Robbie Knievel at King’s Island in 2008.
Knievel’s building-to-building jump in Vegas in 1998.
Knievel jumps the Grand Canyon in 1999.
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Your A-List: Best Local Film Series
Austinites love their movies almost as much as they love their live music, and there is not shortage of local film series to keep us satisfied year round. The winner of this week’s poll, with 37 percent of the vote, is not only a great way to see classic films, but a great way to beat the summer heat.
All summer long, almost every day of the week through Labor Day week, you can enjoy a screening at the Paramount Summer Film Classics series.
According to Statesman film critic Chris Garcia, “the schedule offers a robust if mostly predictable combo of old classics, recent classics and foreign perennials featuring more than 70 movies. Plus, Warner Bros. cartoons unspool before many films. (Remember, bring a sweater. That grand old dame of a theater, our favorite film spot, gets chilled out for summer.)”
Check out Garcia’s list of 20 must-see films this summer.
Thursday night’s screenings: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” at 7 pm or the ultimate tear-jerker, “The Way We Were,” at 9:25 pm.
Go to the jump for complete results.
Others receiving votes
- Movies in the Park, 20 percent
- Austin Jewish Film Festival, 10 percent
- Weird Wednesdays at Alamo, 9 percent
- Music Mondays at Alamo, 5 percent
- Austin Film Society’s Essential Cinema, 5 percent
- Terror Thursdays at Alamo, 4 percent
- Belmont’s Movies and Margaritas, 3 percent
- AFS at the Dobie, 3 percent
- Rounders Pizza Movie Night, 2 percent
- Texas Doc Tour, 1 percent
- Austin Cinematheque, < 1 percent
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Your A-List: Best TV Reporter
As the polls closed, Castano outdistanced Wolfson, gaining as many votes as everyone else in the field combined. Castano reports for the NBC affiliate’s evening newscasts, often fronting the night’s big story.
The Oregon native started at KXAN in 2007, after spending her early years in the TV biz reporting and producing news in her home state, as well as a stint as a disc jockey.
Although her job generally concerns serious matters, Castano finds humorous respite in the writings of David Sedaris along with musical diversions in the form of the music of Shakira, according to her bio on the KXAN site.
Go to the jump for complete poll results.
Others receiving votes
- Shannon Wolfson, KXAN: 30 percent
- Quita Culpepper, KVUE: 4 percent
- Jim Swift, KXAN: 2 percent
- Ryan Loyd, KEYE: 2 percent
- Kate Weidaw, KXAN: 2 percent
- Keri Bellacosa, KTBC: 2 percent
- Jenni Lee, KTBC: 1 percent
- Clara Tuma, KVUE: 1 percent
- Elise Hu, KVUE: 1 percent
- Foti Kallergis, KTBC: 1 percent
- Reagan Hackleman, News 8 Austin: 1 percent
- Shelton Green, KVUE: < 1 percent
- Regina Rodriguez, KAKW: < 1 percent
- Bettie Cross, KEYE: < 1 percent
- Matt Flener, KXAN: < 1 percent
- Jim Bergamo, KVUE: < 1 percent
- James Irby, KTBC: < 1 percent
- Jennifer Borget, News 8 Austin: < 1 percent
- Jason Wheeler, KEYE: < 1 percent
- Alexis Patterson, KEYE: < 1 percent
- Catie Beck, News 8 Austin: < 1 percent
- Stephanie Bradford, KAKW: < 1 percent
- Leslie Montoya, KAKW: < 1 percent
- Rudy Koski, KTBC: < 1 percent
- Bob Robuck, News 8 Austin: < 1 percent
- Russell Wilde, News 8 Austin: < 1 percent
- Gregg Watson, KEYE: < 1 percent
- David Herrera, KAKW: < 1 percent
- Juan Jose Rodas, KAKW: < 1 percent
Write-ins: Amy Johnston, KVUE; Ron Oliveira, KEYE; Michelle Valles, KEYE; Jessica Vess, KVUE
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Your A-List: Best Country/Western Bar
Ask a lot of people what kind of music they like, and they may say “everything except country.” Then they quickly add the caveat, “well, except for classic country.” The Broken Spoke may have had a few updates over the years, but there is no denying that the winner of Best Country/Western Bar, with 35 percent of the vote, is genuine country. Or at least genuine Texas.
There may be businesses that have been around Austin longer than this week’s winner, but you’d be hard pressed to find one more iconic.
Opened by James White on 1964, the Spoke is the epitome of a classic Texas dancehall and conveniently located just miles from downtonwn. Of course, when White first opened the doors, the South Lamar Boulevard location was considered to be the edge of town.
“Like the club, owner James White is a throwback to the days of honky tonk. The club gets a fresh-faced crowd of dancers every Thursday for Jesse Dayton,” says Statesman scribe Michael Corcoran.
The Broken Spoke [site] 3201 S. Lamar Blvd. [map]
Go to the jump for complete poll results.
Others receiving votes
- Gruene Hall, 18 percent
- Nutty Brown Cafe, 13 percent
- Ginny’s, 6 percent
- Rusty Spurs, 5 percent
- Poodie’s, 5 percent
- Patsy’s Cowgirl Cafe, 4 percent
- Midnight Rodeo, 3 percent
- Dallas Nightclub, 3 percent
- Rainbow Cattle Co., 3 percent
- Luckenbach Dance Hall, 2 percent
- Boomerz, < 1 percent
- Ropers, < 1 percent
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Your A-List: Best Coffeeshop
We had a great Austin360 cover story on coffee shops with corollary vices a couple weeks back. In it, food critic Mike Sutter profiled this week’s winner Ruta Maya (20 percent of the vote), one of the first coffee shops I visited upon returning to Austin in 2002.
Here is what he wrote:
If there were a Museum of Austin Clich´s and Stereotypes, Ruta Maya would be its gift shop and snack bar. On the patio, there are petitions to sign and a table promising ‘Cabalistic Tarot Readings.’ And the deep, roasty aroma of coffee fills the senses, tingles the scalp - a caffeine contact high, with liquid satisfaction starting as low as $1.50 for an espresso. There’s beer on tap and six wines by the bottle or glass, plus sandwiches, wraps, empanadas and whatever else lands in the takeout cases.
On stage, an open-mike poet in black leather pants drops flinching F-bombs in adjectival and astonishingly active verb forms. But even before Ruta Maya left its dodgy Warehouse District birthplace on Fourth Street for its rambling warren on South Congress Avenue some years ago, cigars have given the place an earthen Latin American character. The Habana House tobacco shop’s door opens right into Ruta Maya, an F-bomb shelter with a walk-in humidor the size of a two-car garage and half a dozen chairs, all occupied on an April night by cigar-smoking men staring blankly at ‘American Idol.’ For cigar people, the shop carries dozens of boutique and classic brands, including 26 Arturo Fuente frontmarks, at reasonable markups. For tourists, the Acid cigars smell like tobacco and patchouli oil, an authentic sensory memento of Ruta Maya.
Ruta Maya [site]
3601 S. Congress Ave., Suite D-200 [map]
707-9637
Go to the jump for complete results.
Others receiving votes
- Mozart’s, 13 percent
- Jo’s, 11 percent
- Austin Java, 8 percent
- Spider House, 5 percent
- Caffe Medici, 5 percent
- Thunderbird Coffee, 4 percent
- Flipnotics, 4 percent
- Cafe Mundi, 2 percent
- Kick Butt Coffee, 2 percent
- Progress, 2 percent
- Epoch, 2 percent
- Halcyon, 2 percent
- Flightpath, 2 percent
- Dominican Joe, 2 percent
- Bouldin Creek, 2 percent
- JP’s Java, 2 percent
- Little City, 2 percent
- Trianon, 2 percent
- Irie Bean Coffee Bar, 1 percent
- La Dolce Vita, 1 percent
- Quack’s, 1 percent
- Green Muse, < 1 percent
- Clementine, < 1 percent
- Wake the Dead, < 1 percent
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