Crazy Kerouac

by Erik Olsen on

I was flying back from Bangkok when I first read Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and I was so engrossed and pumped up by the book that the 18-plus hour flight home passed like lightening. I have since read the book twice more, and each time have found it a wonderful and exhilarating experience. Part travelogue, part feverish examination of the American Zeitgeist, the book is one of the all-time classics, an inspiration to writers and adventurers who dream of exploring America’s vast lonesome highways.

So I was fascinated to read this recent posting at the Smoking Gun about Kerouac’s alleged dementia and his discharge from the military. Kerouac, who died in 1969 at age 47, enlisted in the army in 1942 and almost immediately after reporting for active duty landed in the hospital. Medical personnel said he suffered from “Dementia Praecox,” had “strong schzoid trends” (sic) and eventually recommended his discharge. The documents here also discuss an early “sex contact” with a 32-year-old woman (when he was 14), as well as his, um, masturbatory habits.

On a lighter note, Francis Ford Coppola, who has owned the rights to On the Road since 1979, will (finally) make the book into a film with Walter Salles of The Motorcycle Diaries directing. Billy Crudup is said to star as Dean Moriarty and possibly Colin Farrell will play Sal Paradise.

Peace Through People

by Adrienne Wilson on

This Sister Cities International site is one I’ve been meaning to get around to for a while as I saw this cool book Peace Through People and thought it might make for a nice gift. The book is a limited edition from what I can tell. Created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sister Cities International the inside holds stories and photos from sister city members on the movement and how it has helped create 50 years of global citizenship. Anything that says global citizenship always seems honkey-dory to me, but check it out for yourself. The book is priced at $39.95.

Potts on Patagonia

by Erik Olsen on

It’s nice to see two great travel writers talk about one of my favorite places. Rolf Potts takes a look at Patagonia…actually he talks with South America expert Wayne Bernhardson about Patagonia. Potts, you may know, now does a regular column on Yahoo, but is also the author of the book Vagabonding, about traveling the world on a shoestring. (He is also the writer of one of my favorite articles of all time about infiltrating the movie set in Thailand where Leo DiCaprio was filming “The Beach”). Bernhardson is a former Lonely Planet writer (10 years there) who now does guidebooks for the good folks at Moon Handboooks. I remember Bernhardson’s work well from when I was living in South America.

Anyway, the important thing here is the topic: Patagonia. Just last night (no kidding) a friend at dinner asked me where he should go if he had 10 days to kill and could go anywhere (he’s kind of an outdoors buff, too, btw). Patagonia, I declared. Head down south and see Torres del Paine, Punta Arenas, Argentina’s Península Valdés…the list goes on. Potts gets Bernhardson to open up about the region’s vast history (also nicely covered in Bruce Chatwin’s On Patagonia) and the many things to do and see in the region. I scribbled some things a ways back about Patagonia, which you can check out here, but take a read of this email interview between Potts and Bernhardson and give some serious thought to heading down South…it is almost spring/summer there, after all.

Kung Pao Chicken with Olives?

by Iva Skoch on

One of the great joys of traveling is undoubtedly the food one gets to sample. That applies not only to the local specialties. When traveling, I always like to taste how different cultures handle cuisines that are exotic to them. For example, how often do you see mayonaise on those fries that came with your burger? That’s how you’ll normally get them in Europe.

Chinese or Thai cuisines are my favorite ‘culture barometers,’ since they taste completely different everywhere: each culture injects a bit of their own taste into it. In Prague, for example, you will be hard-pressed to find a Chinese restaurant that does not automatically serve their dishes with parsley, cucumber and tomato (the two Czech staple vegetables) on the side. In the US, on the other hand, you almost always get the convenient ¨soup, eggroll or salad¨ choice with your Chinese meals. I certainly did not see that anywhere in China.

Today on the Costa Brava in Spain, I actually saw Kung-Pao chicken garnished with lettuce and olives. Part of the Spanish-Chinese diet, I imagine?

Sagrada Familia: Construction Update

by Iva Skoch on

Who says people can´t build grand cathedrals nowadays? OK, so maybe they take a little longer to build it now, since forced labor is generally frowned upon. But, you can´t accuse them of not trying.

Barcelona has been attempting to build a cathedral-like building since 1882 and I am here in Barcelona to report today that it is still not finished. Actually, I was here last in 1993 and I really can´t see any major progress has been made since then. The new estimated date of completion of Sagrada Familia–which roughly translates as `Our Lady of Perpetual Construction,` or something like that–is 2022. That does not prevent it from being the most visited site in Spain today.

It is an impressive building and when the 170-meter central dome is finished, it should be a masterpiece.