Travel Blog: News and Briefs
Rick Steves: Girly Man (But in a Good Way)
by Michael Yessis | 10.19.04 | 6:40 PM ET
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Yahoo! BuzzPete McCarthy Dies at 81
by Michael Yessis | 10.13.04 | 6:57 PM ET
Pete McCarthy, author of “McCarthy’s Bar” and “The Road to McCarthy,” died last week in Brighton, England, the Associated Press has reported. McCarthy’s Bar recounts his journey through the west of Ireland, which he called “an attempt to discover whether my feelings were genuine: is it possible to have a genetic memory of a place where you haven’t lived but your ancestors did? Or am I just another sad plastic Paddy who has been conned by the Chieftains’ albums and the Guinness ads?”
“All Writing is Travel Writing”
by Michael Yessis | 10.08.04 | 7:07 PM ET
In the September issue of Harper’s—sorry, we got a little behind in our magazine reading—Nicholas Delbanco, in his essay “Anywhere Out of This World,” makes a compelling case for the oft-denigrated genre of travel writing. He writes: “In the Western tradition of literature, the common denominator of the ‘Odyssey’ and ‘Pilgrim’s Progress,’ ‘The Canterbury Tales’ and ‘The Divine Comedy’—not to mention ‘Don Quixote’ or ‘Moby Dick’ or ‘Faust’—is near-constant motion.” I recommend the essay for anyone who can dig up a copy (it’s unavailable online), but one thing about it makes me curious: The excuse for Delbanco’s five-and-a-half page piece is a “review” of Pico Iyer’s “Sun After Dark,” which, by my count, he touches on in just one paragraph.
Traveling ‘The Che Trail’
by Jim Benning | 10.08.04 | 7:02 PM ET
Today’s Los Angeles Times features a fascinating front page story about efforts in Bolivia and beyond to transform Che Guevara historical sites into major tourist attractions. The article also touches on Che-related commercial absurdity beyond Latin America, noting: “The Republica Trading Co. collection—available at retail outlets such as Bloomingdale’s and Fred Segal—includes a $98 Che cashmere sweater. When Johnny Depp posed for the cover of GQ magazine last year, he wore a Che medallion.” Ugh.
Will ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ Spawn a New Magazine: Condé Nast Revolution?
by Jim Benning | 10.08.04 | 6:59 PM ET
I imagine I’m not the only travel addict who was eager to see “The Motorcycle Diaries,” the new film about Che Guevara’s youthful journey through South America. After all, it’s a road film, and done right, road films stoke wanderlust. So does “The Motorcycle Diaries” deliver? I’d say so, having seen the movie last night.
The film’s visuals are enough to make you want to hop on the next flight to Buenos Aires, Cuzco or Valparaiso. What’s more, the film captures that sense of discovery so many young travelers experience when they light out for the first time. But it’s not perfect.
A reviewer for The Nation, Stuart Klawans, hit the nail on the head with this observation: “With this much sense of visual discovery, ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ could spawn a glossy magazine: Condé Nast Revolution.” In other words, sometimes it’s a bit much.
What’s more, because the film focuses on the pre-revolutionary Che, audiences aren’t asked to consider what became of Guevara’s transformation years later. As Klawans writes: “He devoted much of his adult life to activities of the kill-or-be-killed variety. That, of course, is something that a culture of liberal self-congratulation would prefer not to contemplate. We’d rather get the T-shirt Che, only prettier.”
True enough. I’ll skip the T-shirt. But I’m a sucker for a good road movie.
Blogging the Perils of Travel Writing
by Jim Benning | 10.07.04 | 7:09 PM ET
Travel writer Carl Parkes has launched a weblog devoted to, as he puts it on the site, “the travails of travel writing.” So far eschewing personal commentary, Parkes has posted previously published articles by prominent writers, including Thomas Swick and Jason Wilson. Swick’s essay exploring the tired conventions of the genre, which first appeared in the Columbia Journalism Review, is a must-read for any travel writer. Parkes is the author of six guidebooks and a winner of two Lowell Thomas awards, so he knows a thing or two about the business. We look forward to watching this new blog develop.
Molvania in the News
by Jim Benning | 10.05.04 | 7:14 PM ET
The Life of a Traveling Writer
by Jim Benning | 10.05.04 | 7:13 PM ET
Celebrating Graham Greene
by Jim Benning | 10.04.04 | 7:16 PM ET
National Geographic’s Mea Culpa
by Jim Benning | 09.24.04 | 11:15 PM ET
Dan Rather and CBS News aren’t the only media heavyweights apologizing for shoddy journalism these days. In the October issue of National Geographic, Editor-in-Chief Bill Allen apologizes to readers for unwittingly passing off a staged photograph of a tribal elephant hunt in Tanzania as the real thing. According to Allen, the photographer, Gilles Nicolet, posed the photo, which appeared in the July issue, and then lied to editors about it. Readers noticed that elephant tusks in the photo had numbers printed on them. When confronted, Nicolet confessed that the tusks had been borrowed from the Tanzania Department of Wildlife. “I’m still losing sleep over the fact that we failed to uncover the truth before publishing the pictures,” Allen writes in the print edition; (a different explanation is available here). “You have our apology.”
Branding Liechtenstein
by Jim Benning | 09.20.04 | 11:21 PM ET
Poor Liechtenstein, the tiny country sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria. She is so often ignored, so little understood. But now Liechtenstein is fighting back, a la McDonald’s, with a branding campaign to change her image. International branding firm Wolff Olins has come up with a new logo featuring a “democratic crown,” according to the Los Angeles Times. And there’s more to come. “[Wolff Olins official Henning] Rabe is not specific about what might follow,” the article states. “But he speaks admiringly of how Switzerland, also a small country albeit much bigger than Liechtenstein, has developed an instantly recognizable identity thanks to its distinctive flag, reproduced on a wide range of items, even penknives and pocketbooks.”
Che: The Brand
by Jim Benning | 09.20.04 | 11:19 PM ET
The new Che Guevara-related film “The Motorcycle Diaries” opens this week in U.S. theaters. Marking the occasion in today’s Los Angeles Times, New Yorker writer and Che biographer John Lee Anderson offers a thoughtful reflection on the ubiquitous Che image. Che, he writes, “lives on as a youthful recrimination of the Icarus myth, which is at once a moral tale and a lamentation about the eternal tragedy of the fleeting nature of youth and its doomed idealism.”
The First Rule of Visiting Thailand: Do Not Sit on the Buddha’s Head
by Michael Yessis | 09.14.04 | 11:27 PM ET
Thai government officials have had enough of culturally insensitive travelers to their country. To combat the problem, they plan to publish a book on Thai etiquette. A poster for a film called “Hollywood Buddha,” which featured a man sitting on a Buddha statue’s head, triggered the course of action, according to the BBC. “Some officials called for ‘malicious’ foreigners to be banned from Thailand,” the BBC reports. “But a government minister denied reports that it was preparing a blacklist to ban foreigners who had offended Thai culture.”
British Backpackers Slain in Thailand
by Jim Benning | 09.10.04 | 11:30 PM ET
A couple of young British backpackers in Thailand were apparently shot to death Thursday by an off-duty Thai police officer. The shootings followed an argument in the restaurant the officer owns northwest of Bangkok. The Independent has a report. The Bangkok Post has a story that requires registration to access. For those of us who’ve had the pleasure of traveling in Thailand, such violence directed at tourists is hard to imagine.
Lowell Thomas Awards Announced
by Jim Benning | 09.08.04 | 11:38 PM ET
Winners of the 20th annual Lowell Thomas Awards were announced Tuesday by the Society of American Travel Writers. Travel + Leisure won for best magazine. The Boston Globe’s travel section received top honors in the 500,000-plus circulation category. LonelyPlanet.com won for best Web site, and Rolf Potts’ Virgin Trail: Travels in the Other Central America, which appeared on Slate, won for best Internet travel article. Congrats to the winners.
