Sidesplitting travel podcast hits the air

by Andrew Evans on

It’s absolutely amazing what you find on the net: just the other day I was trawling around some safe-for-work soft core sites when I happened upon the Mike & Alex Show. Thinking I’d already seen that one, I just clicked onward. Later, however (while carefully deleting my browser’s history), I realized that no, no, this was the MIke & Alex TRAVEL Show. “OH!” I laughed out loud, then sat down for the most thrilling half-hour of my life.

The podcast genre was long overdue for a kick in the pants and these two boys promise to do just that. For starters, both of their last names start with the letter “B”, as in brilliant. Mike Barish and Alex(ander) Basek use their show to discuss everyday travel issues but without any of the soft-serve mollycoddling for which “podcast” has become synonymous. Also, these are funny guys who say funny things about travel stuff. In their very first audio issue, Mike & Alex take on Amsterdam’s coffee shops and airplane movies and you’ll agree with them 100%.

Honestly, I was hoping the show would sound less professional and more like emotionally-disturbed children taking razor blades to the Washington Post’s travel section (there’s still hope). I really have no idea who these two clowns are but ouch, my funny bone is hurting. Imagine your most hilarious guy friends sitting at the bar talking travel. In fact–Come to think of it, Mike Barish is the name of this guy I know who writes for Gadling.

Yeah, so a few things that might make the podcast funnier: some heavy-handed laugh tracks, more rubber chickens and perhaps a little tasteful post-racial repartee. Also, maybe they could play 30Rock really loud in the background?

To join the fastest-growing cult in the world, check out the site, the Twitter, and the Facebook. Otherwise, subscribe on iTunes and get ready for next week’s trip to awesome.

Most unsual way to go to Las Vegas: The Flying Elvi

by Jamie Rhein on

This scene in Honeymoon in Vegas is the most unusual way to head to Las Vegas if I’ve ever seen one. Here at Gadling, unusual travel is not unknown. Catherine is trying out various travel options in China at this moment, Jeremy is traveling around Southeast Asia as creatively as he can, and if you check out Mike’s personal blog, you’ll see A LOT of the unusual. I mean A LOT.

Although Honeymoon in Vegas is not the best movie Nicholas Cage has been in–Moonstruck and Raising Arizona are my two favorites, this scene is a hoot. This is something Mike would do when he slips out from behind his SkyMall Monday desk. Totally. The Flying Elvi, sky divers who are Elvis impersonators, do exist. I can see Mike now.

By the way, Honeymoon in Vegas is still wandering around cable channels. I saw part of it two weeks ago which reminded me of this scene. It also has one of the funniest altercations with another passenger at an airline check-in desk. You can see that here.

Photos of the Lakota: a lesson in culture and inclusion

by Jamie Rhein on

In Mike’s post on he brought up the conflict one can experience in cultural tourism. He was prompted to write down his thoughts after visiting the Tiwi Islands in Australia. In the photo essay and interview in the New York Times, “Behind the Scenes and Still Wounded” Aaron Huey, who found himself drawn into the terrible beauty of the Lakota tribe of the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, Huey alludes to similar ideas.

It is impossible for people to develop an accurate impression of a culture in one visit.

Huey has spent the past five years photographing the Lakota who live in Manderson, one of Pine Ridge’s most impoverished towns. This process that has developed friendships that are as close as family and an understanding of the Lakota that few have been able to attain. But, even then, Huey’s experience has not brought him any closer to knowing the answer, “‘Who are the Lakota?'”

As he writes: In many ways, I feel like it is not my question to answer. The Lakota are a people who have been wronged many times over. Coming from the dominant society and attempting to define them is a guaranteed failure for a white journalist. I have no right to define them.

Huey’s photos and essay, along with Mike’s musings, are a reminder that as we travel, we’re merely picking up tidbits of what a place is about.

What I think happens is that as we travel, we’re mostly finding out about who we are by looking through a lens of the “other.” If we arrive back home with a better understanding of who we are through our interactions and experiences, we’ve done well. To really know a place and what a particular culture is about takes years–and even then, it may not make us an expert.

Reading the interview with Huey and looking at the images he captured in Manderson is one place to start on a journey of trying to understand the complexities of the Lakota. It certainly gives an insight into Huey.

(The Hamner Photos image was taken on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Click here for more of them. From what I can tell, they were taken as part of a work camp to build houses on the reservation, just a Band-aid to the poverty problem, according to Huey.)