A thing I love about America.
Published October 08, 2021 · 11:27 · 162,642 views
About This Video
Van had a rough week in which getting a puncture in a brand-new tire was the fun part. Not enough time left to write something complicated. So he jumps on his motorcycle with a couple of cameras and visits places he loves in Los Angeles, trying to tell you about them.
First stop: Bobby's, an American diner, maybe his favorite restaurant in all of LA. Diners were the first restaurants where teenagers could afford to eat with their own money. Two eggs, toast, and coffee for $2.75 in 1992. Then Mulholland, where Van thinks about Steve McQueen outrunning the cops in a Jaguar race car, and Eric Burdon's observation that McQueen smelled like gasoline, black powder, and weed smoke. McQueen invented the translucent gas tank for dirt bikes. Then the PCH, where Van ritually visualizes Hunter Thompson's essay Midnight on the Coast Highway, which begins with a remembered line from a long-forgotten poem: all my life my heart has sought a thing I cannot name. Thompson said it was his favorite thing he ever wrote. Eleven minutes on a motorcycle, and the video is a love letter to the American diner, the canyon road, and the coast highway.
Transcript
this spirited man had a rough week in which getting a puncture in a brand new tire was a bit of a
relief this was the fun part of the week everybody has a bad
week the dolly Lama has a bad week sometimes there isn't enough time left
this week to write and shoot something complicated an Epic movie with a deep resonant theme
next isn't enough time to build something clever and shoot it so this spirited man in an attempt to
cheer himself up from his crummy crappy week will jump on his
bike and take comfort in Los Angeles visiting places he loves and try
to tell you about them about why they have this comforting effect on them
the tire is back and fall time to eat so I'm going to go to Bobby's because I love bobbi's Bobby's is an American restaurant maybe Bobby's is my favorite restaurant in all of Los
Angeles Bobby's is what we call back East uh Diner uh diners were the first
restaurants when we were teenagers where we could afford to eat with our own money the first sitdown waiter service
places or waitress service places we used to call them waiters and waitresses back then
diners are one of the things I love about America I can't remember the name of that Diner on 184 in Gren that was
sort of my Growing Up Diner you get two eggs toast and coffee for
$2.75 and that's an unlimited cup of coffee free refal and that was around 1992 it was
$2.75 and I think the same breakfast cost cost 9.95 at
Bobby's the one uh the the one I went to Growing Up in gron was open 24 hours a day and when we'd return home from
college during breakes it's where you'd run into people um this is before cell phones and you'd run into people that
you hadn't seen since high school anyway I love diners in Tokyo this guy named
uh who actually did the voice for mayor kobashi in the movie is of
dogs he brought Tom Sax and me to his uh Sister's restaurant in in Tokyo and it
was called The Breakfast Club and it was an exact a near exact replica of an
American Diner and it was uh such a strange sensation for an
american guy to be in Tokyo experiencing this deep and sort of sacred
familiarity there were two flaws in the in The Breakfast Club in this Japanese American Diner that sort of gave it away
as not exact and the first was their espresso machine because it was way too nice for an American Diner and the
second was the immaculate and beautiful bathroom that's Japan though God bless
[Music] him at Bobby's I order the All American it's called The All American because it's actually two
breakfasts there's M Holland Highway and M Halland Drive and I don't really know the
difference I had a bad week that consumed most of my video making days so what I did was I went on a motorcycle
ride with a couple cameras and spoke notes into the camera to sort of give you an idea of what goes
through one's head on a motorcycle ride so this video is basically a combination of
my thoughts when I'm riding and the thoughts I'm having while I'm I'm editing
[Music] this it's very difficult to convey the Majesty of malland but I'll try to do that later on certain isolated spots on malland I think about the beautiful Steve
McQueen about a story Eric burden wrote about McQueen and malland
drive Eric Burton was the lead singer of the animals and the Animals sang that song we got to get out of this place if
it's the last thing we ever do and uh Eric Burton and McQueen were
friends so McQueen has this Jaguar race car that he runs through the Canyons on
mahand Drive back towards Hollywood not this part um this part's near Malibu but
it's it's the olden days uh the 60s so Mal Halland looks more like this like what you're looking at now there's no
houses like there are now and McQueen has this game of of
outrunning the cops in his Jaguar race car so one day the cops set up a
roadblock and they catch him and they throw McQueen in jail uh McQueen's terrified they're
going to throw the book at him and Burton says the only thing that meant everything to McQueen was his driver's
license so it turns out that the cops were just messing with him and you know
they let him go and then uh McQueen stopped doing it he stopped racing the Jag up and down M Halland
they have these uh translucent gas tanks for dirt bikes so you can see how much gas you got without a fuel
gauge and um turns out McQueen invented that Steve McQueen invented that how
about that Burton said McQueen smelled like a com combination of gasoline black powder
and weed smoke [Music] pop out onto the pch in Ventura County not actually La anymore and when I cross
the county line in my head every time I sing The Beach Boys lyric from surf in USA
here I'll do a UI so we can see the sign from the LA side V County
L and my ritual is to sort of visualize this story by Hunter S Thompson about this motorcycle ride he had or maybe
it's about an amalgam of rides on a particular route that he condensed into one
story it's called Midnight on the Coast Highway and he's talking about a stretch of the PCH up in San Francisco but I
always imagine especially when it's dark that I'm the rider in the story the
story talks about how at 100 milph your tears evaporate before they reach your ears even in the cold of
night midnight on the Coast Highway he said he just came home from the ride one night sat down at his
typewriter and boom boom boom boom wrote it all the way through never edited it
never touched it and that almost never happens it begins with a remembered line
from a long forgotten poem and the line is this all my life my
heart has sought a thing I cannot name Thompson said that it was his favorite thing that he ever wrote [Music]
Products & Tools Mentioned
- Jaguar (race car) mentions — race car referenced in driving culture discussion
- Bobby's restaurant mentions — local restaurant referenced
People Referenced
Steve McQueen, Eric Burdon (The Animals), Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Sachs
Books Mentioned
- Midnight on the Coast Highway
Films & Media Referenced
- song referenced
- song referenced