No political agenda here, just a heads up on a
series of new films that are coming out of Iraq that tell a story about the people and places that Americans
probably don’t get to see in the mainstream media. Voices of Iraq (site
seems to be down right now) was produced by two former MTV producers who circulated 150 digital video cameras to more
than 2,000 Iraqis and then cut together personal stories. Another, called Dreams of
Sparrows was produced by Baghdad-based producers and shows the daily happenings on Iraqi streets, as well as
footage of an institution for the criminally insane and a home for orphaned boys. I think it is great that indie are
getting work done in Iraq, in a place and time where/when we really need to hear some of the lesser-known tales of life
there.
Gadling Podcast: Quit Your job
It is my
guess that very few folks know that June 24th is the International Day of
Leisure. I didn’t. But that doesn’t mean it’s not something to add to your calendar. But more than that, I wonder
how many have ever considered taking not just a day, but a whole year off. Ditching the cube and the bleat of the fax
machine for 365 days of travel or self-improvement?
Well, that’s what our newest podcast is all
about. Our interview is with is with Dean LaTourrette and Kristine Enea, the authors of the new book: Time Off: The Upside to Downtime. These two "leisure
experts" explain how they came to write the book, and tell some stories and details about how you, too, can bail
for a year…or a month…or however long it takes you to make your life a little richer.
Host: Erik Olsen.
Format: 22 minutes
Descent, by Brad Matsen
So I am just finishing up with a fantastic new book that I’d like to tell you about.
Descent, by Brad Matsen is about the early days of deep diving. Deep diving for that day and age, anyway. It
is the story of two odd, but compelling characters: William Beebe
and Otis Barton. The two became international celebrities of the
Depression era by building and piloting a new kind of underwater capsule called a bathysphere (Beebe came up with
the name, but it was Barton’s design) to what was for the time record depths. The bathysphere was a
four-and-a-half-foot steel ball dangling from a steel rope. As the world listened in (on a somehwat new fangled
device known as a “radio”) the bathysphere was lowered to a depth of 2,200 feet…the deepest anyone had gone in history.
The two reached a depth where there was no light, where through a tiny porthole they observed bizarre creatures
that had never been seen in their natural habitat. They were heroes. Well, Beebe was the one heralded as a hero. He’s
the one who got most of the credit because he was a famous writer/explorer. Barton went along for the ride and kinda
got gypped out of a lot of the credit.
Matsen tells the story so well that you become hooked early on and want to find out what happens next. It’s wonderful
to read about these characters that few of us have ever read about before. Such fascinating guys they are, too! Beebe
is the dashing (and balding) Indiana Jones, gallivanting all over the world to satisfy his adventuresome spirit. His
thirst for knowledge. Barton is the rich kid who wants to be taken seriously, who believes that a path to greatness
lies in exploring the ocean’s depths (and, unsuccessfully, it turrns out, trying to film them).
These are some great unheralded characters, Beebe and Barton, and Matsen does a great job showing their humanity and
determination to do things no one had done before. It’s a terrific read, that really made me want to do
a lot more research about deep sea exploration.
Budget Travel Online
The folks over at Budget Travel who have over the years published some of my
stuff, and who for so long have been a part of MSNBC.com (and basically made up the MSNBC.com
travel section), have moved over to a swell new site of their own.
Called Budget Travel Online, the site is packed with all the useful,
budget-minded content you’ve come to expect of anything done with Arthur Frommer’s name attached. it’s avery sleek,
simple design, several orders of magnitude better than the MSNBC site, IMHO, which is in serious need of a redesign.
And maybe that WILL happen once Microsoft officially dumps them.
Anyway, I’ll be posting some new stories from the new Budget
Travel site as we go along, but in the meantime five the new look a, well, new look.
Ranger Shortage
My first job out of college (if you don’t count being a ski photographer at Squaw Valley for a winter), was working
for the Department of the Interior in DC. The crappy part of this job was that the DOI is an awful, lumbering
bureaucracy where it is very hard to get things done. The great part was that I often got to travel to the country’s
national parks which are the jewels in our crown, so to speak (the Park Service is part of
Interior). I saw Yellowstone, the Smokies,
Mount Rushmore (I even go to dance a jig on Lincoln’s head, something
very few people get to do), and more. One of the problems even back then was that the NPS staff always felt kind of
neglected. They were poorly paid and in some cases poorly treated.
Well, it seems things haven’t changed that much. According to
this piece in the LA Times, ranger
ranks are shrinking. We’ve added some new parks, but we’ve cut back on our rangers. So when the writer, for example,
head to Yosemite, she finds no one there to explain why Half Dome looks the way it does (it’s magic, lady! The mountain
elves did it with a really big saw!). Anyway, we need to think hard as a nation about how to protect our parks, and how
to make sure that the dedicated people who work for them (and for us) can get properly compensated and treated for
their fine work.