I’ve been following the slow progress of the Notes
From the Road site for a while. There’s something about it that I find unique. I think it’s the big full-page photo
that Eric Gauger uses for each entry. Always so rich and textured, these photos just stand out wonderfully. His most
recent edition is called Catfish Heaven: Notes from
the Bayou, and like his past entries, it’s worth a look on this lazy Friday.
Paddling in Lewis and Clarks Footsteps
Lewis and Clark are all the rage these days. It seems I’m always coming upon a new story of
someone retracing their footsteps. I like these stories, but hey, enough is enough. Or is it? Are there things we
haven’t seen or heard yet about these two and their epic journey? Is there a writer out there who captures something a
little bit different about the Missouri? Well, sorta.
Here’s a story about a guy and some buds who kayak the Missouri. Not the whole length mind you, but some 150 miles
of it. And at least he knew how to do it in style. Here’s my favorite line from the piece: “I finished the evening with
a cigar and cognac, listening to the first of Tony’s readings under the stars. Lewis and Clark wish they.” I think old
L&C would have been proud.
Strange Days on Planet Earth
While I have complained in the past about celebrities and their causes, I thought that this
new program was worth mentioning in a positive way. Strange
Days on Planet Earth is a new series showing soon on the Nat Geo Channel that tries to raise our green awareness.
And Ed Norton, whose attorney father is director of the Nature
Conservancy China Project and played a role in the development of the film, is the host of the series. Norton has
some “credibility heft”, as I like to put it, since he has been an environmenal advocate for a long time and, thanks to
his father, is fairly well-versed in the issues he’s talking about. He’s also a fairly avid outdoorsman.
A few months ago I went to the Explorers Club film
festival and actually got to see several of these films. I also spoke
with Mark Shelley, the Executive Producer
who told me that the films, lavishly produced, were almost like feature films in their complexity and production value.
And to be honest, they are excellent films. Amazingly shot and wonderfully told. You may not agree with the various
theses: that we have serious environmental problems when it comes to global warming, deforestation, etc., but you can’t
deny that the films do a good job making their point. Tivo these shows.
Trekking Lake Baikal
I have to admit that when I read the title of this
article I became very curious. Trekking Lake Baikal? I didn’t even know Lake Baikal was trekkable. What I do know
about the lake is that it’s the oldest and deepest lake in the world, but that over the last decades it has
become something of an environmental disaster with serious pollution problems among others. While this article
doesn’t really take on the environmental aspects of Lake Baikal, it’s still an interesting read and definitely
furthered my curiosity about the Baikal region.
The Rise of Spoken Word
Ipods and MP3 players are now so pervasive that it came as no surprise to me yesterday to
see some 80-year old grandpa on the subway with earbuds sticking out of his ears (aside: what did surprise me,
however, was how grey and robust his ear hair was. It looked a bit like he had trapped a furry caterpillar inside his
head). These players have changed our lives for the better. My question is: would you like to make “better” even,
well, better?
So I am going to start a little feature about great spoken word content. Music is great. We can all agree on that,
and on how wonderful it is to have every CD you’ve ever owned immediately accessible to you on a small player the size
of a deck of cards. But there is a rapidly growing world of informational content out there that deserves to be better
explored. This content is a wonderful addition to the traveler’s digital library. I mean, how great would it be to ride
a train in some foreign country and listen to a history of that region as the landscape whizzes past? The alternative
is pressing your nose into a book and missing the scenery.
I am an avid subscriber to Audible.com, an audiobook service that has for
about a year now changed my world. Audible.com has available for download a virtual
Library of Alexandria of spoken digital content. Not
just books, but radio shows like Fresh Air and Charlie Rose (both of which I have subscribed to). You can buy these
items a la carte, or, like me, you can subscribe and get one book and one subscription a month. The cost is $14.95 a
month, which may seem a lot, but when you consider what the books cost a la carte, this is actually a fabulous deal. I
can’t say I listen to a book a month, but I do listen to almost every show I subscribe to, and I now have a catalog of
about 15 books that I can go to anytime I want. The beauty of audible’s technology is that it “bookmarks” your books,
so you go back to the spot where you left off. This is a HUGE deal when it comes to listening to long books like
Charlie Wilson’s War or Shadow Divers (two of my recent favorites). But the best
thing is that you can move from book to book depending on your mood. When I am in a sciency mood, I listen to
James Watson’s History of DNA. When I’m looking for something light and hilarious, I go to
America, the Audiobook, by the guys at the Daily Show (fricken HILARIOUS, I shit you not). Audible’s
stuff is available on itunes (for ipods only) or from their site, and they support most major MP3 players.
So if you are an ipod traveler, I urge you to check out audible. It has
improved my quality of life by exactly 12.431 percent…not a small amount when you think about it. In future posts, I’ll
write more about other books I’ve heard and other places you can go to find great spoken content for your player. Until
then, check out audible and find a good book for your travels.