Destination: California
T.C. Boyle’s California
by Jim Benning | 10.30.03 | 8:49 PM ET
Novelist T.C. Boyle’s essay about the California wildfires in Wednesday’s New York Times isn’t exactly travel writing. Boyle lives in California; he’s not describing a physical journey. But he sure does a fine job of evoking a sense of the place at this moment in history. Take this powerful opening paragraph: “It is dark here today, the generous golden sun of the Golden State reduced to a pink gumball hanging powerlessly over the treetops. Indoors, the house is a wash of strange, muted colors, the floors glowing red, the kitchen countertops thinly painted in the hue of vin rouge. Outside, the birds are holding their breath as fine threads of white ash roll down out of the sky and the distant thunder of aircraft rumbles through the leaves.” Wow. (Registration required to access the article.)
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Yahoo! Buzz“Nothing Makes Me Laugh as Much as the Zagat Dining Guide for Los Angeles”
by Jim Benning | 10.15.03 | 9:09 PM ET
Writer and food lover David Shaw buys three Zagat dining guides for Los Angeles each year—one for his car, one for his home, and one for his office. After all, Zagat guides are enormously influential. But in today’s Los Angeles Times, Shaw unleashes a spirited attack on the guide’s L.A. rankings. Spirited attacks, of course, are always fun to read, so you don’t have to live anywhere near Los Angeles to enjoy this. “I love Woody Allen’s movies, Billy Crystal’s Oscar monologues and Darrell Hammond’s impressions on ‘Saturday Night Live,’” Shaw writes. “But nothing makes me laugh as much as the Zagat dining guide for Los Angeles.” And that’s just the first paragraph. (Registration required to access the article.)
Cuban Cigars? $18. Fine for Visiting Cuba? $10,000. Fighting Fine With Trip to DC? Priceless.
by Jim Benning | 07.17.03 | 10:09 PM ET
When Californian Joan Slote signed up for the bicycle tour of Cuba, the Canadian company operating the tour assured her that she would not be violating the U.S. ban. But after returning home three years ago, the 75-year-old traveler was fined $7,600 for violating the ban. With penalties that have since accrued, the fine has reached nearly $10,000. But Slote is fighting back. She just made a trip to Washington to speak in opposition to the ban. Her response has borne fruit. A spokesman for Sen. Byron Dorgan called prosecution of Slote “an absurd use of resources by the Department of Treasury,” according to an Associated Press report on The San Diego Channel. “At a time when they should be tracking terrorist funding and the movement of terrorists around the world, they are spending resources tracking little old ladies riding bicycles in Cuba.”
The Literature of Los Angeles
by Jim Benning | 07.02.03 | 12:14 AM ET
Writers bring their own psychological baggage to a place—baggage that affects the way they depict that place on the page. Perhaps nowhere is that more true than in Los Angeles. Why is that? Adam Kirsch offers an insightful analysis of L.A. lit on Slate. He takes novelists to task, but what he criticizes is, in my mind, also a form of travel writing. He writes: “Our classic descriptions of Los Angeles were written by visitors who spent only a few weeks or months in the city; or by imported slaves of Hollywood, who act out their rebellion against the city at large; or even by natives writing mainly for an audience somewhere else.”
Michael Lewis Follows Mark Twain’s Trail, Pays $240 for Snow Chains
by Michael Yessis | 04.24.03 | 3:30 PM ET
I read Michael Lewis’ book “Liar’s Poker” in one sitting. I was jetlagged in a Munich hotel room and it was the only book I had with me, but I was thrilled to have it. It’s terrific, and it turned me into a big fan of Lewis. Thus, I was excited to see that he and his wife, former MTV News personality Tabitha Soren, are tag teaming Slate’s latest installment of Well Traveled, the online magazine’s multimedia travel feature. Lewis is writing the text, and Soren is filing photos, as they follow the “Mark Twain Trail” from the San Francisco Bay Area to Carson City, Nevada and points beyond. They posted their first dispatch yesterday, a 2,000-word throat clearing focusing on mishaps with snow chains along the Donner Pass. I’ve got higher hopes for the next seven installments.
Travel Warning: Visiting the U.S. May Be Hazardous to Your Health
by Jim Benning | 01.13.03 | 11:32 AM ET
It’s important to be aware of threats to one’s safety when traveling abroad, but take one look at the U.S. State Department’s travel warnings for a given country—or the blanket warning for the whole world—and you may never want to step foot on foreign soil again. It’s frightening! So we were happy to see Jane Engle turn the tables in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, pointing out just a few of the warnings that foreign countries offer to their citizens about travel to the U.S.
Canada, for example, notes the potential for carjackings in Santa Monica, California. France offers tips on avoiding shark attacks. And, on a lighter note, what about fashion? “Leave it to the French to fret over fashion,” Engle writes. “Their government says Americans are tolerant about clothing but forbid even little girls to wear a monokini—the topless bikini invented in the ‘60s by designer Rudi Gernreich. Further, children must wear swimsuits and must use toilets corresponding to their gender. Mon Dieu! You can almost hear the French exclaim. Those crazy Americans!”
Traveling in Watercolor
by Michael Yessis | 03.13.02 | 12:41 AM ET
Photo illustration by Michael Yessis. Mr. Spencer built a boat in his backyard and then disappeared. Decades later, Michael Yessis tracks down his former neighbor and discovers an unexpected path to adventure.
Reader to L.A. Times: “Give Us the Material to Inspire”
by Jim Benning | 03.11.02 | 8:19 PM ET
Los Angeles Times reader Robin Harrington used to reach for the Travel section first on Sundays, but not in the months since September 11. Why? Harrington wants more coverage of travel to the Middle East and has been “bored stiff” by all the articles focusing on domestic travel. “Though many people may not feel safe traveling to the Middle East now, there is no reason we shouldn’t be able to read about it,” Harrington writes in a letter published Sunday. “I hope you will give us the material to inspire and prepare ourselves for a time in the future when we can experience the wonderful things this region has to offer: beautiful landscapes, mind-blowing antiquities and the warmth of a people so often portrayed negatively by our media.”
What Will Lure Wary Japanese Tourists Back to America? Ishii! Ishii!
by Jim Benning | 02.27.02 | 11:41 PM ET
Japanese tourists wary of traveling to the U.S. since September 11 just might make the haul again—not to see the state’s famed beaches or Yosemite National Park—but to see the newest member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kazuhisa Ishii. Japan views its athletes playing in the U.S. as rock stars, according an article in the Los Angeles Times. Said Ko Ueno, director of Japanese travel for the California Division of Tourism: “If it plays out the way we’re hoping, baseball will be our savior in this tourism slump.”
Former Los Angeles Times Travel Editor Dies
by Michael Yessis | 01.29.02 | 1:20 AM ET
Jerry Hulse, who ran the Los Angeles Times travel section from 1960 through 1991, has passed away. In its obit, the Times reports that, in 1970, the Columbia Journalism Review said that Hulse was “widely considered to be the best travel writer in the country.”
Update: Cross-Country Cab Rider Detained
by Michael Yessis | 01.25.02 | 1:29 AM ET
Patricia Agness, the Florida woman who hired a series of cabbies to drive her to Juneau, Alaska, has been taken into custody in Northern California (see Jan. 23 weblog item below). According to an Associated Press report, a hotel manager called the police after she insisted on spending the night in the lobby. The police plan to evaluate her mental condition.
Welcome to North Korea. No Spitting! No Flower Picking!
by Jim Benning | 12.30.01 | 11:43 PM ET
South Korean tourists allowed into tightly controlled North Korea are treated to a long list of rules and regulations, little interaction with locals and, oh yes, a welcome ceremony that features a Filipino band performing “California Dreaming.” A Los Angeles Times article highlights just how political travel can be.
Get Your Kicks on Corporate Sponsored Route 66
by Michael Yessis | 09.06.01 | 9:02 PM ET
California Governor Gray Davis recently announced that the Golden State would cease building new freeways, prompting a fine exploration of the nature of America’s romance with the road by Patricia Leigh Brown. “Highways appeal to the restlessness of the American spirit, the Merry Prankster of Tom Wolfe’s ‘The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test’ in us all,” she writes in The New York Times. “Trains have schedules, car pools involve small-talk and bumping knees and bikes require exercise and sweating under a helmet. The road requires just us.” Note: After September 9 the story will be available only in the Times’ archives.
Exits and Entrances: An Independence Day Pastoral
by Joel Deutsch | 06.30.01 | 1:03 AM ET
iStockPhoto Amerikanetz Joel Deutsch joins immigrants from the former Soviet Union for a Fourth of July picnic in Los Angeles
The Road to Nirvana is Lined with Wonderful and Entertaining Sights, Such as the “Waterworld” Show
by Jim Benning | 06.22.01 | 11:48 PM ET
Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez heads to Universal Studios theme park to report on the California energy crisis and stumbles upon an unexpected sight: several saffron-robed Buddhist monks from Thailand who couldn’t wait to see the “WaterWorld” show. “Good God,” Lopez writes, “I love California.” We couldn’t agree more.