Big City, Bright Lights, Shady Bars

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  12.14.07 | 11:17 AM ET

imageSomething unexpected happened this week: my grown-up, travel writing present and my teenage, trashy-movie-going past collided. It turns out that the film adaptation of “Eat, Pray, Love” won’t be Elizabeth Gilbert’s first brush with Hollywood. Long before she wrote her seemingly unstoppable bestseller, she wrote a shorter piece for GQ about her early days bartending in New York City. That piece became the movie Coyote Ugly. Now, this may sound shallow to people who take their travel inspiration from Thoreau or Mark Twain or Christopher McCandless. But Coyote Ugly, silly and smutty though it may be, was still the first movie I can remember seeing that made me realize there was a wide, wild world out there, and that I needed to experience it.

It’s a strange coincidence that the story was actually based on a young would-be travel writer, and it’s also a reminder that we can find the inspiration to hit the road in the most unexpected places—even in those places where Tyra Banks line-dances on a bar.

Related on World Hum:
* Next Up on Hollywood’s Travel Book Adaptation List: ‘Eat, Pray, Love’
* Revisiting ‘Eat, Pray, Love’: A ‘Transcendently Great Beach Book’

Tags: Pop Culture Travel, North America, United States, New York, Life of a Travel Writer

Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


1 Comment for Big City, Bright Lights, Shady Bars

Musicboss 04.21.08 | 12:30 PM ET

It’s interesting what inspires someone to choose a path in life. Whether it’s Thoreau or Elizabeth Gilbert, we all must begin somewhere.

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