The Poverty Jet Set

One of my new almost heros (almost, since I have not yet, in fact, read his famous book The 4-Hour Work Week), Tim Ferris just posted an interview to his blog with Slovenian marathon swimmer Martin Strel who became the first man to swim the entire length of the Amazon river. Yeah, that’s 3,274 miles, folks.

Choice scary quote:

Q: What were the biggest challenges you faced on the Amazon swim?

A: …Piranhas, snakes, spiders, candirú, bull shark or other animals which make unpredictable attack; you have to be ready all the time if any piranha attack you. We had some buckets of blood ready in case of emergency, to distract the piranha and get them away from me if necessary…

…Peeing; I didn’t pee into the water straight as this attracts a very dangerous fish called the candirú, which lodges up human orifices with a razor-like spike and then sucks your blood. I was peeing all the time through the wetsuit…

Choice awesome quoted quote (from a book about the adventure):

An expedition is 95 percent misery and 5 percent ecstasy. After three weeks of constant motion in a land far way from home, something strange occurs in the sould of a man. He gets broken. The first symptom is a tired or sick feeling, maybe even some fear and a little helplessness. Loneliness. Then something slowly changes within. The old attachments start to fade and he becomes completely present. He forgets about all the crap that keeps him up at night back home. None of it matters anymore.

Among all the other crazy stuff going on today, my good friend Steve’s first book just came out today, and I highly recommend everyone picking up a copy. It’s getting fantastic reviews all over the place and it’s great to support a new author. The hardcover is only $16 on Amazon right now, but you can also pick it up at your local bookseller (support the indies!).

From Entertainment Weekly:

In this aptly titled tome, journalist Kurutz relates a year in the lives of two rival New York-based Rolling Stones tribute bands: Sticky Fingers and the Blushing Brides. The subject of copycat acts has been covered in various media almost as extensively as the Jagger/Richards songbook, and Kurutz doesn’t offer any fresh insight. But this is still a funny, poignant look at people who may believe that, to quote the Blushing Brides singer, “we kick the Rolling Stones’ asses live” - though they have to do so at an Elks Lodge. It’s only a book about fake rock & roll, but we like it. B+ -Clark Collis

Good luck, Steve.

[UPDATE: Listen to his interview today on Talk of the Nation on NPR]

One of my best friends from college, Steve Kurutz, has been an arts and entertainment writer since we both joined up the Daily Collegian Arts Staff at Penn State (wanna see my funny bio from back then? {click here} I guess Steve never wrote his.). Since those glory days, he’s gone on to bigger things in New York City, writing for Details, W, Playboy and Spin and doing a stint as a staff writer for the New York Times.

Steve’s just finished his first book, an exploration of the strange phenomenon of ‘tribute bands‘. In it, he follows around a couple of Rolling Stones tribute bands from bar to bar, club to club and reveals the strange culture surrounding them. I haven’t read it yet, though ‘cuz it’s coming out in a couple months (on Broadway Books, part of Random House).

He just set up a blog to help publicize the book, so head over there and give him some friendly comments. I’ll let you know when you can buy a copy for yourself.

Our friends Lord Whimsy and his wife Lady Pinkwater joined us recently for a soiree chez nous (at which those photos above were taken, making our big, drafty loft look all warm and cozy!). Whimsy and I got into a discussion about ‘microcelebrity‘ and what it means to us as media makers. After further reflection, he’s written a great post about it on his blog, and I encourage you to check it out if you’re interested in such matters.

A snippet:

The timing of this more recent article on microcelebrity seems a bit odd; this technology-fueled social phenomenon has been around for quite some time now, although it has certainly grown and intensified in recent years. We are all becoming more adept as self-mediators: It has become one of those necessary twenty-first century life skills, right up there with knowing a few key phrases of HTML or knowing how to put one’s cell phone on vibrate mode. To quote Clive Thompson: “The truth is that people are developing interesting social skills to adapt to microfame. We’re learning how to live in front of a crowd.” In the words of Quentin Crisp, we’ve learned to “urinate with style”.

On a side note, Whimsy’s amazing book “The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Vol. I” is going out of print soon, and I highly recommend you pick yourself up a copy before they disappear (or before they have the Johnny-Depp-Based-on-the-Book print run).

[Note: I attempt to refrain from delving into overtly political discourse on my blog because, well, I find it rather banal. But...]

Nothing gets my blood boiling faster than an undeserved police beating. I hate gawking at them. I spend a good deal of energy trying to NOT be pissed off at the state of the world, at brutality, injustice, oppression and the like. It ain’t easy, as many of you know. But now that witness to unwarrented police violence in America is more readily accessed than in Rodney King dayz, I have a hard time staying calm. This latest video making the rounds got me thinking. And because tasering incidents are a dime a figgin’ dozen on YouTube, because America tends down a path of self-destruction, because we lose control of our freedom more and more every day (and Lord knows I love my sense of freedom), I feel like this is a good time to bring up some of my all-time heroes, the White Rose movement:

White Rose was a non-violent group of German philosophy students in the early 1940’s, who, against all odds, printed out and distributed dissenting literature against the Nazi regime. With their friends and neighbors being carted off by the truckload to concentration camps, these kids had the cohones to try to do something. Anything. No, they weren’t going to stop the Nazis. But at least they didn’t just accept things and turn a blind eye. Here’s a film about them.

This gets me thinking about the importance of speaking up. About the power of self-publishing - blogging and video blogging - in an age of a censored corporate mass media. About how we should protect this neutral Internet with our lives. About how everyone should be learning how to use these mediums for when the time comes. Because if you ask me, it’s coming.

You might be interested in giving Naomi Wolf’s new book a read. Here’s her thesis - the ten steps all dictatorships have taken in a quest for power:

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens’ groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

I’m a huge fan of Edward Abbey, of course, but particularly his book Desert Solitaire. In it, Abbey vehemently laments new construction of roads into Arches National Park in Utah while he was a Park Ranger. An outspoken advocate of keeping wilderness wild, Abbey hated watching the wilds over run by exhaust- and filth-spewing machines (see quote below).

This is a really shocking map graphic (click image to enlarge) from the U.S. Geological Survey showing how little of America remains truly wild - and roadless. It makes me very, very sad, and I’m sure Abbey is rolling in his grave. I’d tell you to go to the wilds now before they disappear, but I suppose that’d be advocating the very act that destroys wilderness. If you do go, remember to Leave No Trace! And maybe walk or bike there.

Just don’t be one of the “fat pink slobs who go roaring over the landscape in these over-sized over-priced over-advertised mechanical mastodons are people too lazy to walk, too ignorant to saddle a horse, too cheap and clumsy to paddle a canoe.” (Ed Abbey)

Thanks, Adventure Blog for pointing this out.

When I was younger, I spent a couple summers in Alaska as an adventure tour guide. The first summer there, on the first day I arrived, a guy at the youth hostel in Anchorage handed me a beat-up copy of ‘Into the Wild‘. He just said, “Welcome to Alaska. Read this. It’ll change your life.” I love when books do that! I devoured Jon Krakauer’s book in a couple days, probably shirking some of my duties as guide to get an extra few pages in before packing gear or setting up tents or making dinner.

I won’t get into the details of the book now. Believe me, you should read it. Period. But a bit of exciting news just belatedly crossed the editorial desk here at The Poverty Jet Set! ‘Into the Wild‘ has been made into a big-budget feature film directed by Sean Penn! Sa-weet! The trailer looks friggin’ amazing!

Here’s something I didn’t expect. As I was trolling YouTube for a copy of the trailer, I found these excellent videos made by a couple of cool, yet nutty Alaskans (aren’t they all?) having their version of fun with a 4-wheel drive truck in the dead of winter, retracing the steps Christopher McCandless took on his fateful journey to the heart of darkness/the wilderness. Make sure to watch both parts of this really well done homemade exploration video! Here’s part one:

Last weekend, at a very chill backyard hangout party, I made some hilarious and excellent new friends. Beth and Maureen are two super cool women, lifelong friends, who create an art comic called The 3:00 Book. It’s all based on notes that the two wrote back and forth to each other in high school. Raw, funny and flamboyant. They saved the notes and channeled their energies into this killer, tongue-in-cheek retrospective of the life of girls on the fringe. Them against the world. Believe me, these girls make you laugh.

Word has it, too, that they’re starting a video blog of their antics and adventures with one Pumpkinhead Head (a scary character from the comic). Can’t wait to see more!

If you’re nearby on Friday (Sept 7th) at 5pm, head over to their book signing to meet them and grab your own awesome signed copy! From the invitation:

Come see and purchase your very own 3:00 book! This is the first edition photocopied and bound with love for you! All the piss, blood and hair dye is hand colored by the artists, Maureen Cummings and Beth Heinly. A very special deification will take place at 7 p.m. with the 3:00 book’s own Pumpkinhead! I’m sorry I meant defication. Come and play and see!

Vagabond Boutique / 37 N. 3rd St. / Philadelphia, PA 19106

The vernable travel guidebook company, Lonely Planet, is going to start letting you slice, dice and mashup it’s guidebooks so you can create customized books for exactly the info you want for your particular trip. No more carrying around your 2000-pound copy of SE Asia on a Shoestring! Well, not quite yet. So far, they’ve made South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean available.

It’s a brilliant idea and a long time coming. When I go traveling, often, I would just head to the library and photocopy the sections I wanted so I didn’t have to lug the whole book around. And while I love libraries, it probably costs just as much with the copier charges as to just buy these.

How does it work? Well, all you have to do it head to their Pick and Mix page, find the chapters you want, download the PDF of each, staple them together and voila! Each chapter costs between $2-4 and they’ll throw in the “Planning Your Trip” chapter for free. Cool.

[via Intelligent Travel, photo The Wandering Angel]

50 years published, that is. It hasn’t been duly noted in the mainstream press that Kerouac wrote the book during the later 1940’s and carried the manuscript around with him for years before anyone would publish it. Kinda makes me think people are capitalizing on the Kerouac ‘brand’ to sell more books they once hated and found too edgy. Hmmm… Nah. They’d never do that. I wonder, though. Would Kerouac have been a blogger? A digital self-publisher?

The consummate starving artist. An American icon. And of course, one of my greatest heroes! If you’re way into Kerouac like I am, yet haven’t read Ann Charter’s Kerouac biography, treat yourself! It’s a great read in its own right and really brings to light the life and times of the beats and all their awesome real-life adventures.

If you fancy the ‘humanity as virus’ theory propagated in pop-culture by the likes of The Matrix and 12 Monkeys, I’m sure you’ll be sweet on this new book: The World Without Us.

What will our world look like if we disappear in an instant? How long will it take to wipe our mark from the planet? Not long, it turns out. It’s a fascinating look into the fragilities of human-made creations and systems. But also a great reminder that, heck, environmentalism is a human-focused pursuit. The Earth is gonna do fine without us. I like that thought. Frees me from the shackles of recycling anxiety, if nothing else.

(thanks for pointing this out, Audrey!)

Technorati Tags: experiment, books, worldwithoutus, environment, sustainability

My friend Lord Whimsy (pictured above) has pointed to a fantastic new ‘triptych’ magazine (that I am going to pre-order as soon as I finish writing this post) called The Escapologist. In their words, “it’s a magazine about the desire to escape the various boring commitments that define modern life.” Clearly, right up the Poverty Jet Set’s alley. Whimsy’s got an article in the first installment (true, sir?) from hence this photo came. Looking forward to good things to come!

I’ve been subscribing to Garrison Keillor’s “Writer’s Almanac” emails since I moved out of my tent in Western Massachusetts. I used to listen to it every day on NPR up there on my way to work. Poetry is, of course, always a really awesome way to start the day. Especially when it’s read to you by Mr. Keillor.

Yet now, four years later, I get a little annoyed by the daily email. Reading it is different than getting it read to you. Sure, you can click the audio stream. Most days I don’t read it. I mean, it’s still funny and good. Garrison gives us a little insider info on some cool historical figures. Reads a poem. And that’s that. Wipes the hands, calls it a day. But you know how it is when an email comes in every single day. Starts to look a lot like spam.

Long story short, for some reason I read today’s, and it struck me. A real Poverty Jet Set poem. Maybe even our theme poem. If this has happened to you (and hopefully you learned your lesson!), you’re automatically IN.

Poem: “Jet Lag” by Eve Robillard, from When Gertrude Married Alice. © Parallel Press. Reprinted with permission.

Jet Lag

He flies over the ocean to see his girl, his Sorbonne
girl, his ginger-skinned girl waiting for him in the City

of Light. Everywhere river and almost-spring gardens,
everywhere bridges and rainy statues. Streets going

nowhere, streets going on all night. I love you my mona
my lisa, my cabbage, my gargoyle, Degas’ little dancer

in dawn’s ragged gown. But on the third day she
picks up her books, tells him she needs to study:

she adores this town, she’s not coming home in May, she’s
going to stay all summer. Lowers her morning-calm eyes.

He’s all right in the cab, all right on the plane droning
him home in only three hours American — key in his lock now

his tick-tock apartment, shiver his shadow, his need
to sleep. Then with a tiredness washing over and

over him and through his raveling bones
he begins to know.

Technorati Tags: poetry, writersalmanac, garrisonkeillor, travel, povertyjetset, jetlag, everobillard, advice

A while back, I read one of the best non-fiction books of my life. It’s called American Nomads: Travels With Lost Conquistadors, Mountain Men, Cowboys, Indians, Hoboes, Truckers, and Bullriders by Richard Grant.

Mr. Grant is not an American. He’s an expat Brit living in Tucson. The guy has, like many of us, fallen deeply for the magic spell of the freedom and mystery of the unique corners of this country. It’s not fully explicable what that spell is, or where it’s magic comes from, and truth be told, he doesn’t find the answer after a whole book exploring the topic. What he does do is explore interesting and sometimes obscure nomadic characters in history and their contemporary counterparts.

Really, this is an amazing book. I’m probably saying this because it feeds my already out-of-control desire to be a traveling gypsy for the rest of my life, seeking out the beautiful, magical places of the world instead of pursuing the stable, boring life of a well-heeled member of society.

If you are in a similar boat, and need a little travelin’ inspiration, by all means, pick up the book. Or get it for your favorite nomad for Christmas. You won’t regret it.

Technorati Tags: povertyjetset, adventure, books, hoboes, inspiration, identity, vagabonding, ontheroad, travel

Nearing the end of Day Two of the long drive to Los Angeles. Getting a little hairy out here in Amarillo, Texas. I’m sitting at an IHOP. Haven’t been to one of these in a long time. Probably near a decade. Say, they’re not all bad. Clean. Well lit. Decent watery coffee.

*argh* My brain’s a little fuzzy. You’ll have to bear with me.

I just finished listening to a recorded reading of Douglas Coupland’s new novel, “J-Pod”. Wow. It’s amazing. I highly recommend it; a lovely, Coupland-esque portrait of our modern world in all it’s dystopian glory on the brink of the apocalypse. He even throws himself into his own novel to act like some kind of shamanistic capitalist destruction shaman. Brilliant. Twisted.

The one strangely ironic thing… this was a book on tape… was the guy who read the novel. Clearly a master. No doubt about that. However, I think the guys other job is being the voice of the dreaded Voice Mail Robot. You know the one. The machine who asks you questions so that the phone seems more “human”. Says he’s going to listen to your answers and find you the right solutions. Well, that robot guy always says, “okay” in this particularly annoying, reassuring kind of way that only a robot can. And in the reading of “J-Pods” he does says it a million times. Very distracting. Yet appropriate.

(I was just interrupted by my 17-year-old IHOP waitress who asked me kinda sheepishly, “What ya doin’? Homework or somethin’?”

“I’m blogging.”

“Wha?”

“Blogging.”

“Oh. What’s that? You’re not from Amarillo, are you?”

I showed her the above post. She smiled and walked away, somewhat befuddled. I’m struck once again at the VAST differences in culture from middle America to the crazy urban life most of my friends and I live… but that’s a post for when I have more time… gotta hit the road again… a lot more driving to be done tonight.)

Technorati Tags: magdalenus, douglascoupland, jpod, povertyjetset, books, amarillo, IHOP

Just read this interesting article in WIRED News about this guy Daniel Levitin and his new book: “This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of Human Obsession” There’s heaps of really interesting stuff in this article. Here’s just one quote:

“There’s no evidence that (talented people) have a different brain structure or different wiring than the rest of us initially, although we do know that becoming an expert in anything – like chess or race-car driving or journalism – does change the brain and creates circuitry that’s more efficient at doing what you’re an expert at.”

Technorati Tags: magdalenus, daniellevitin, neuroscience, music, povertyjetset, books