Viva Knievel!

Evel Knievel Days in Butte was a blast. Along with assorted motorcycle daredevilry, we were treated to an appearance by Evel himself. Well, he was on the other side of a big dirt landing ramp and we didn't actually see him... but we heard him over the PA system. I'm fairly convinced he's still alive.





Pictures can only do the event so much justice. Above is the freestyle flying-through-the-air event, and on the right is the amazing "Wall of Death." There was also the Globe of Death, and the crashing through the walls of fire of death, and plenty of other tomfoolery.













My friend Sam Louden contributed a poem for Evel Knievel days, which is below. And below that is a video that sums up the day better than I ever could. Check out how the teenage chick abandons her boyfriend for Sam!

The Last Weekend

Go to Butte on the Last Weekend
Of July to see the leather, see the hides
Revealed, tanned and inked and wrinkled
Before their times from radical hard
Living and liquor,
Tobacco and sun.
Crass and creed-less, the faithful gather to celebrate
dare-
Devilry—defying death by dying slow:
Melanoma, emphysema, hepatic cirrhosis,
Pulmonary fibrosis—the final wreck,
The tragically anti-climactic terminal crash
Of Evel Knievel. Betwixt choppers and scooters,
Kids do shooters in t-shirts from Hooters.

Evel Knievel Days! Hooray! Drink and smoke,
Dance through the crowd from spectacle to spectacle—
Jumps and bikes,
Fire and cleavage—
With the throng who is by far more spectacular
In and among America’s strength: the redneck liberal
Quaffing booze from a mason jar;
The conservative Democrat, loving guns
And sucking heavy metal water from a mason jar;
Hyped-up teens quick to mate and speed
To guzzle meth from a mason jar;
Hard-edge biker-woman—shameless
Rough and ready to drink blood from a mason jar,
Blood from a baby to preserve her youth;
A baby happy to drink her milk from a mason jar;
Everybody dehydrated and hyper from the complimentary
Energy-drink imbibed in or out of a mason jar.
Evel Knievel, chemical daze under wildfire haze;
Mullets and rattails amaze on those high holy days.