The Society Page: ‘I Make Dirt Look Good’
Jamie Howell and Jeff Ostensen over at Howell at the Moon, a local video production company, tried to get us drunk last night on free beer and wine so we’d give them $130,000. See, they’re making a documentary film on mountain biking called “Pedal-Driven,” and these things — films and bikes — don’t come cheap.
The party, at the Barn Beach Reserve in Leavenworth, attracted about 125 of the best-tanned, whitest-toothed, healthiest-looking people in the Wenatchee Valley — all of them excellent advertisements for living the active life. Even their kids were muscled little devils; one of them wore a t-shirt that said: “I Make Dirt Look Good.”
A highlight of the evening was a nine-minute preview of the movie (which hasn’t been made yet, of course, because they don’t have any money) filled with eye-popping videography by Oly Mingo. Pretty sophisticated stuff, with the camera moving through scenes filled with action elements — bikes, trucks, snapping clavicles. Interestingly, the movie isn’t just about backcountry yahoos screaming head-first down rock faces on titanium frames. It also intends to address serious issues revolving around multi-use policies of our public lands, while lacing comments from eco- and guvmint bigwigs between scenes of riders emerging from crashes with mouthfuls of twigs. Or something like that.
Jamie and Jeff are hoping that “Pedal-Driven” has success similar to that of their earlier documentary, “Broken Limbs,” which nabbed a couple of regional Emmy nominations. They just might do it, too, since mountain bikers should make for a gung-ho audience. (”Broken Limbs” is not about mountain biking, heh heh, but the apple industry.)
I’d be remiss in ending this post without mentioning the platters — also free — of delicious sliced Italian salami and provolone, hors d’oeuvres that kept us nearly sober.
2 Comments
We bought our mtn bikes in 1989, not to hit the mtn trails, but because we liked the look of and felt safer on those fat tires.
We put a Yakima carrier atop the Honda SE sedan and took our bikes everywhere with us. I have fond memories of speeding along the highways and by-ways across the nation and receiving the ‘thumbs up’ wave from other bikers we passed en route.
Those cheering fans never knew, our bikes were well traveled, but seldom ridden. I mean, who wants to ride a bike in the Georgia and Florida humidity, or even worse in the heat and humidity of the Tennessee mtns? Not me.
Great blog; wish I’d known you were going to be there. You could have joined us for our “Local Thursday” picnic on the lawn at Lyon’s Club park first and then gone on down to eat and drink even more.
That was a fun way to start the day, Mike; I like beginning with a few laughs.
I have always maintained that I am Jamie’s greatest fan. He wrote an excellent column which appeared in the Leavenworth Echo for some time. and which I read first thing each week. I do miss it now. but he has bigger fish to fry and we are stuck with a decided lack of humor and entertainment in our local paper.
Jamie and Jeff are talented and entertaining young men. I wish we had been there, as our lack of all that youth and vigor and hard muscle would have been a balance to the 125 you described. Another thing we lack: memory. We forgot about the event! At least we got to enjoy your description of it.