Today - back to Amazon Prime, where the next most interesting film was one I hadn't looked at before, because I thought I didn't have it. "Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey" gives no results, but "Dirtbag" on its own gives exactly that film! Anyway, it's about a climber - and I always like climbing films.
So yes, lots of beautiful mountain shots - and Fred Beckey (of whom I'd never heard) turns out to have been a helluva guy. A "dirtbag" (at least in this context) turns out to be someone who dedicates their whole life to climbing, having no regular job, living on the road. Our Fred, mind you, was a breed apart - he had an absolutely single-minded passion for climbing. Particularly first ascents (mountains that hadn't been climbed before). Frankly, after he'd been through, there weren't very many of those left! He made more first ascents than any other North American climber.. (although he was German by birth). His parents moved to Seattle when he was a baby - and he grew up in one of the best places in the world for mountaineering, with the Rockies on his doorstep. Many of his climbs were in Alaska.
He's described during the film as "the climbers' climber", and we get many amusing anecdotes of people being plagued to go on impromptu climbing trips with him. At a couple of points in the film, we have proof of his exploits as a ladies' man - one friend describes him as having a one-track mind; either he's thinking about climbing, or about women. And there's one montage of a whole stream of girlfriends! None ever got him to settle down, though. Interestingly, his only brother - who used to climb with him as a kid, but stopped when a climbing accident left him with a limp - became a successful opera singer, and moved back to Germany: but contrary to what the film implies, they didn't lose touch, and Fred visited him many times.
Still, he wasn't around - and much of the film shows Fred as a wizened old man, trying to complete climbs for his last book - his magnum opus, a compilation of his favourite climbs. Now, by this stage, he was in his 80s - and it's quite sad to watch him try desperately to do what he used to do easily, decades before, and now fails at. Having said that, he achieved more at that age than most of us could do in our prime - but he had been so good, you see, and couldn't accept that he was now weaker. As for the books! he wrote several - guidebooks for the climbs that he pioneered.
He really was a legend in his own lifetime, and several people testify to how good he was. Hell, the man even had a mountain in Alaska named for him! Someone remarks how he followed his passion, instead of towing the line - and who among us doesn't wish they'd done the same? Even if it did mean living out of his car, and snaffling free water refills and packets of ketchup and sugar at fast food restaurants. If he had it to do over, he probably wouldn't change a thing.
Well, with most Meetups happening in person now (and me unable to join), I'm looking at film again for Saturday. And what's coming up now isn't on Amazon Prime, for once - nope, it's on the Sands Films website! The best option there seems to be The Company of Strangers (aka Strangers in Good Company), about a group of elderly women whose minibus breaks down in Canada, in the middle of nowhere, forcing them to spend the night in each other's company. Mostly ad-libbed.
And next Sunday, wouldya believe it, I'm back with the Crick Crack Club! This is a live-streamed event from King's Place, which I booked last Christmas (!), and which is taking place at the venue: but with the live streaming, I asked for my ticket to be changed to a virtual one. After all, the Irish government is very unlikely to let me go back in time for it! (Well, they would, but I'd have to quarantine upon coming back to Ireland. And even if I did do that, I don't want to risk it, as I'm living with my elderly mother.) Means I'll have to miss next weekend's London Social Detours Meetup, which this time is on Sunday, but what the hey. Anyway, the storytelling is On Common Ground - The Life and Times of John Clare, as told by Hugh Lupton. Sadly, there's yet more storytelling there that evening - Ben Haggarty is performing Storytelling for Grownups - the Grateful and the Dead. But that's not being live-streamed. :-( Live only, with social distancing, and already sold out. Of course.
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