Thursday, August 06, 2009
Where No Man Has Gone Before
With no time to post on the blog this week I'll turn to what's nearly always the best plan B in a time of crisis: Shatner.
I would call Bill my favorite singer but it seems wrong to pigeon hole him like that. He's he's so much more. And even if he did steal my rockclimbing.com nickname for his last album, Has Been, he's appeared--if unwittingly--in a song so obviously written just for me.
Why do I climb the mountain? Because I'm in love.
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3 comments:
Where in Robbins' name did you dredge this thing up from? It's a beaut.
There's an essential truth in there somewhere. Assuming lust is somewhat equivalent to love, climbers engage in activities rife with metaphor – jamming cracks, using protection, slotting nuts, driving bolts, and engaging in king swings.
Roper, from his book, Camp 4, admits many of the Golden Age climbers were sexually repressed. He wrote a limerick about one of the climbers, Chris Fredericks, whom they nicknamed “Christ”:
Since Christ became ardently sexual,
His climbing has been most ineffectual.
Sublimation, he found, could be gotten around
With things more directly erectile
As with most things Shatner, it was sent to me by various friends. Perhaps Bill had read Roper's book also. Bob Gaines, who worked with him on Star Trek V, said the Shat looked totally terrified when told he'd have to climb Pine Line with only a tiny hidden cable for protection. He was shaking and nervous but as soon as the cameras rolled he calmed down and looked like he'd been climbing all his life.
This thing's become an ear worm - can't get it out of my head. Think I'll just have to take it to my hard drive.
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