Episode 004: I was delighted to learn recently, viaSkift.com, of the existence of a “Bourdain bump.” Apparently whenever Travel Celebrity Anthony Bourdain picks a place to do a show, that destination sees a huge rise in public interest. In the recent case of Sicily, Priceline.com reported an 88.8% jump in searches for Sicily airports over the following 48 hours — that compares with … Read on
RIGHT PANTS 003: Did you know the first recorded pie was found in King Rama II’s tomb from ancient Egypt? Or that Romans made a pie called “The Placenta”? The English, meanly, added songbirds to the recipe. And the first pie-in-the-face gag dates from the 1909 film “Mr Flip,” a four-minute short made in Chicago. (It’s easy to miss the pie shot; it’s … Read on
Episode 002: Have you seen travel journals lately? Most are bulky, frilly, over-the-top books with wide-ruled paper (ie unusable), arty paper with background motifs ON THE PAGES, not to mention covers that beat “travel” over the head with retro maps or illustrations of jet-set couples toting vintage bags. Or maybe it’s just me? I wanted to know, so on behalf of THE RIGHT … Read on
Welcome, after many delays and doubts, to the debut of THE RIGHT PANTS. For Episode 001, I’m discussing how to remember travel (a subject I recently kicked around for a National Geographic Traveler article). Often I feel overwhelmed by the sheer outlets for “documentation” on travels — posting photos/quips by social media, taking photos on a digital camera too, often video on a … Read on
The best way to remember a trip isn’t just slowing down to really be present in a place. Instead, as I wrote for the National Geographic Traveler today, it’s STOPPING altogether. For me, that is often to draw a little something that catches my eye. That the results won’t win any awards hardly bothers me. Here’s a handful of sketches that fill my … Read on
Do all those overlapping Twitter #chats serve any real purpose for the travel community in general? You know what I’m talking about: those weekly round of questions that spill out every five or ten minutes and prompt a stream of community replies. Not a bad idea, but too often — I find — it can seem like a headless-chicken dance, a “see me, … Read on
