Travel Blog
Casting ‘On the Road’: Billy Crudup as Dean Moriarty?
by Michael Yessis | 09.05.05 | 10:58 AM ET
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Yahoo! BuzzRegarding Katrina
by Michael Yessis | 09.02.05 | 1:02 AM ET
Like everyone, we’ve been shocked and horrified by the Hurricane Katrina disaster unfolding in New Orleans and along the Gulf coast. If you’re looking for a place to donate or just want more information about anything related to the hurricane and the support efforts, check out the Katrina Help Wiki.
The Vital Stats of Travel Books
by Michael Yessis | 09.02.05 | 12:59 AM ET
Did you know that each sentence in Bruce Chatwin’s travel classic “In Patagonia” contains an average of 15.1 words? Did you know that you need almost 10 years of formal education to truly understand a passage from Francis Mayes’ “Under the Tuscan Sun”? Did you know that 12 percent of the words in Bill Bryson’s “In a Sunburned Country” are complex? I didn’t know—didn’t even care to know—until I read Linton Weeks’s story in Tuesday’s Washington Post about Amazon.com’s text stats feature. Weeks uses the stats to compare some literary classics—“‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce (9 on the Fog Index) is more complicated than William Faulkner’s ‘The Sound and the Fury’ (5.7 on the Fog Index),” and so on.
Bad News in Graz
by Jim Benning | 09.01.05 | 1:58 PM ET
It’s a sad time in Graz, Austria. According to USA Today, officials have announced that a museum there devoted to Arnold Schwarzenegger is closing because of financial troubles. We’re shocked—not that the museum is having money problems, but that anyone would think of opening a museum dedicated to the star of “Kindergarten Cop.”
Backpack Nation Closes
by Jim Benning | 08.30.05 | 5:09 PM ET
Travel writer Brad Newsham has announced that he is shuttering Backpack Nation, the organization he founded on Sept. 11, 2002 to spread money and goodwill around the globe. “Today Backpack Nation consists mostly of me sitting here tapping at a keyboard—and not even so much of that any more,” he wrote in an e-mail to supporters. “I’ve proven to my own complete satisfaction that creating an organization is neither my strong-suit or my passion. And I’m letting go of that self-chosen responsibility.”
September: National Passport Month?
by Jim Benning | 08.30.05 | 9:32 AM ET
The statistic tells the sad story: Fewer than 23 percent of U.S. citizens hold passports. For a nation whose policies affect every other country on the planet, it’s appalling. We know we’re preaching to the choir here, but you might consider adding your signature to a petition Lonely Planet is circulating to have Congress declare September National Passport Month.
The Fuss About Bus Routes
by Michael Yessis | 08.30.05 | 12:49 AM ET
Erika Hayasaki has a terrific story in today’s Los Angeles Times about how the city’s school bus drivers jockey for favorite routes.
Investigating International Sex Trafficking, Part 2
by Michael Yessis | 08.29.05 | 2:45 PM ET
The second part of Sean Flynn’s three-part investigation of the international sex trade is out in the September 2005 issue of GQ. This piece focuses on Moldova, a top-10 “exporter” of exploited women. Part two, like the first part, is unavailable online. If you missed part one, which focused on sex tourism in Southeast Asia, Gridskipper has a critique.
Through Amsterdam with Seth Stevenson
by Michael Yessis | 08.29.05 | 7:26 AM ET
Slate ran another five-part Well-Traveled series last week, Should I Move to Amsterdam? by Seth Stevenson. It’s insightful and quite funny, a mix that also helped one of his previous efforts for Slate, Trying Really Hard to Like India, make the pages of the upcoming 2005 Best American Travel Writing anthology. It gets a big shout out from editor Jamaica Kincaid in her foreward: “It is essays like Stevenson’s that keep me reading through pile after pile of mediocre travel writing.” Stevenson’s Amsterdam stories are also available via podcast.
Travel Writer Taken to Task Over a Cheeto
by Michael Yessis | 08.29.05 | 12:38 AM ET
At .6 ounces, though, it’s a really big Cheeto. But is it the world’s biggest? That’s the $.89 question. Chicago Tribune writer Mike Conklin ventured to Sister Sarah’s Restaurant in Algona, Iowa, and wrote a short piece about the famed roadside attraction. In his piece, he did some math to put the size of the Cheeto into perspective, and that’s where he ran into problems with Edward B. Colby of CJR Daily, the online publication of the Columbia Journalism Review.
Ewan McGregor Tops Travel Book Chart (Yes, that Ewan McGregor)
by Michael Yessis | 08.26.05 | 1:32 AM ET
Long Way Round, the companion book to Charley Boorman and actor Ewan McGregor’s television series chronicling a 20,000-mile motorcycle adventure, is currently at the top of Nielsen BookScan travel chart. “McGregor’s high profile and the popularity of motorcycling books in general has helped sales stay steady and high,” writes The Book Standard’s Giles Elliott. The rest of the top five and Elliott’s brief analysis of the state of travel book publishing can be found here.
A Bizarro View of American Travelers
by Michael Yessis | 08.25.05 | 9:01 PM ET
Dan Piraro takes a swing at American travelers and America’s image in the world in his Bizarro comic today. King Features Syndicate, which distributes the comic, doesn’t allow Bizarro to be viewed online for free during the first days of release, so you can check it out in a local U.S newspaper that carries the strip. Or, just picture this:
In Defense of Rachael Ray
by Michael Yessis | 08.25.05 | 10:09 AM ET
Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels debuts on the Food Network Friday at 9:30 p.m. Unlike many in the blogosphere, I’m looking forward to checking it out. I’ve seen and heard the complaints about Ray. She’s perky. Extra perky. Excruciatingly perky. The Rachael Ray Sucks page—“created for people that hate the untalented twit known as Rachael Ray”—features a litany of insults. Where does the hate come from?
The Critics: “Sky Burial”
by Jim Benning | 08.22.05 | 11:41 PM ET
The Los Angeles Times reviewed what sounds like an unusual novel about Tibet: “Sky Burial” by Chinese journalist Xinran. The novel, writes Seth Faison, “offers a perspective Western readers rarely get: a Chinese person who sympathizes with Tibetans. It’s a compelling story about a woman from Suzhou who goes to Tibet to search for her lost husband. She encounters danger and hides with a nomadic family in the vast openness of the Tibetan plateau, only to drift for 30 years and become thoroughly immersed in Tibetan culture before she can complete her goal.”
“Kiss and Tango” on “The World”
by Jim Benning | 08.22.05 | 11:06 PM ET
We recently mentioned the new travel memoir “Kiss and Tango: Looking for Love in Buenos Aires.” Today, the public radio show “The World” featured a segment on the book and its author, Marina Palmer. The report features some fine tango playing in the background. (Scroll down the page to find the segment.)
