Video: An 'Ode To Salt' At Bonneville

Speed Week 'art movie' makes us wish we hadn't missed it. Again...

By Chris-R / Tuesday, 31 August 2010 / Loading comments

The heat, the noise, the artfully-engineered incarnations of classic American performance cars, and of course that amazing alien vista of the sun-baked salt flats. Yes, from this side of the planet Bonneville Speed Week has always looked like a great adventure that evokes the most romantic side of 'backyard' motorsport.

Sadly we've never been, so wouldn't be surprised to hear the reality is more about beer-swilling red-necks, exposed beer bellies, hot dog wrappers and empty Bud cans swirling around the dusty RV park. But still, we can dream.

Meanwhile this terrific short film by Josh Clason helps support our romantic vision of the event. It's called Ode To Salt and features words by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

Ode to salt

This salt
in the salt cellar
I once saw in the salt mines.
I know
you won't
believe me
but
it sings
salt sings, the skin
of the salt mines
sings
with a mouth smothered
by the earth.
I shivered in those
solitudes
when I heard
the voice
of
the salt
in the desert.
Near Antofagasta
the nitrous
pampa
resounds:
a
broken
voice,
a mournful
song.

In its caves
the salt moans, mountain
of buried light,
translucent cathedral,
crystal of the sea, oblivion
of the waves.
And then on every table
in the world,
salt,
we see your piquant
powder
sprinkling
vital light
upon
our food.
Preserver
of the ancient
holds of ships,
discoverer
on
the high seas,
earliest
sailor
of the unknown, shifting
byways of the foam.
Dust of the sea, in you
the tongue receives a kiss
from ocean night:
taste imparts to every seasoned
dish your ocean essence;
the smallest,
miniature
wave from the saltcellar
reveals to us
more than domestic whiteness;
in it, we taste finitude.