The Poverty Jet Set

So I’m hanging out in Telluride, Colorado this past weekend at MountainFilm Festival. It’s the last day of my time there, and my buddy Luigi and I are just minding our own business, hanging out enjoying a little mountain sunshine and springtime creek sounds when this fella comes up to us and says,

“Hey brothers, I hate to ask, but could you perhaps, if the Gods divine it, spare a small nugget for a travelin’ man?” We don’t have any, but he continues to entertain us with his interesting pressense. Apparently, he’s just in town doin’ a little fly fishing.

Oh, and speaking of fly fishing, if you’re a fan or even vaguely curious about the sport, you should really have a look at the trailer of my friend Ben Knight’s film “Running Down the Man” that debuted this year at MountainFilm. He and his buddies head down to Baja California to fish for the “uncatchable” roosterfish and tool around on a pretty wicked dune buggy. You can pick up a copy of his film on DVD from his website. You won’t regret it.

Drunken Fly Fishing Master from (( magdalenus )) on Vimeo

Technorati Tags: telluride, fishing, flyfishing, mountainfilm, colorado, film, filmfestival, adventure, documentary, hoboes, povertyjetset

In the spirit of summertime blockbusters, let’s not forget that PIRATES ARE REAL! Thank God. What would a world be without friggin’ pirates? A lot less interesting, that’s for sure. I, myself, aspire to true pirate-dom. Something that looks like an outpost on a tropical island somewhere, big stashes of rum, huge bacchanalian parties, and fire. Lots and lots of fire.

Oh, wait, that’s the movie version again. Damn it.

Well, in case you wanted to know where the real deal happens, check out this piece from the great travel writer Justin Glow over on Gadling.com.

Technorati Tags: pirates, povertyjetset, travel, escape, justinglow, idea, humor, daydreaming

A kindred heart, to be sure, but with a much more enviable job title than mine, the New York Times’ Frugal Traveler is on the road again, this time making his way zig-zag style around the lower 48 United States.

I like this series because, well, that’s what I do! And now the fella is uploading short video podcasts each Wednesday so you can follow along on his journey. Crazy how similar his videos are to Audrey and my ‘Cheap Dates‘! Maybe she and I will be working for the NYTimes one day, bringing you hot video action from all over the globe! Stay tuned.

The two bad things about the NYTime’s videos: 1.) pre-roll advertisments (boring!) and 2.) no embedding! (you’ll have to click through to watch them).

Technorati Tags: travel, frugaltraveler, heros, americana, ontheroad, adventure, blogging, driving, roadtrip, NYTimes, video, videoblog, povertyjetset

Man, I’m picking my jaw up off the floor. Just when I thought I knew a lil’ something something about video blogging, about documentaries, all of a sudden, by some crazy weird stroke of luck, this guy named Mike1630 favorites The Poverty Jet Set on Technorati. I don’t even check in on my Technorati profile save for every couple months (it’s painful to see how low my ‘blog ranking’ is… blah!).

Okay, so this Mike fella. He’s working on a documentary film about… you might have guessed it… long distance biking. Namely biking across America. It’s called Project Pedal. But you know, the thing is, this project has more class, more energy, more artistry than any vlog or indie documentary about adventure I’ve seen in a long time. I’m in awe. Literally. Wow. And of course, Mike’s got one of the prettiest, coolest websites I’ve ever seen, and he’s making some of the coolest, prettiest video podcasts that I have ever seen.

Enough praise, already. Just watch the freaking first episode of the podcast, people! If you’re not hooked into watching the next three (so far) immediately like I was… well, I don’t know what. But you’re silly. Or boring. Okay, okay, that might be going a little far… (too much coffee today).

Now about that title to this post. See, thing is, I’ve been writing a lot lately about long-distance biking. Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve been talking about doing a bike trip across county for a long, long time. I’ve met so many long distance bikers in my travels both here and abroad and I’ve always been inspired by them. I WILL do it myself one day. And hopefully before too long.

In the meantime, I’m learning more and more about online video (being a vlogger and filmmaker and all), and I’m excited to see all the ways people are implementing this kind of documentation into adventure. In a couple weeks, I’m going to be working at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado. I’m sure I’ll be seeing a lot of films on the subject of adventure, but how cool is it to watch adventures as they happen? I dig it. Let’s make it happen.

Technorati Tags: longdistancebiking, biking, film, adventure, projectpedal, travel, video, videoblog, documentary, blogging, povertyjetset

Seems like I run across one of these projects every month or more recently. And yet, I’m still enamored by them.

In this iteration of the long-distance-bike-adventure-cum-video-blog-slash-documentary-film, I present you Dominic Gill picking up would-be hitchhikers to ride on the back seat of his tandem bike while he rides it from the top of North America to the bottom of South America. That’s a long way, baby. His project is called Take a Seat: Cycling the Length of the Americas in Search of Company and while he’s not yet vlogging the trip, he does have lots of cool photos and a blog.

And of course, he has a trailer for the coming documentary of the trip:

If you’d like to delve in even deeper into this one, check out Kristen Pope’s interview with Dom over on Vagablogging.

Technorati Tags: nomad, adventure, documentary, bikes, technology, povertyjetset, vagabonding, biking, video, backpacking, blogging, travel

…when I feel like being in India or Laos or somewhere real slow, real far away, sipping a coconutty drink, smelling some funky mix of incense and cow dung and wiping sweat off my brow with a colorful piece of printed cotton bought from a street kid for a few cents. Or doing this, for example:

Technorati Tags: povertyjetset, daydreaming, travel

Admit it, there’s something goofy about a coupl’a blokes wearing tuxedos when they ain’t at a wedding. You know, like Charlie Chaplain funny. All goofy and fumbling and why-the-hell-are-they-wearing-those-outfits. Enter Tuxedo Travels. Two dudes on a mission. To wear a tuxedo all the way around the world. Something Lord Whimsy might get into, though I think he’d do it in a much classier suit. At any rate, these guys, the ‘delegates‘ Heath and Douglas, are blogging and vlogging and obviously having a really fun time. And you know, I wouldn’t post about something like this unless they really made me laugh. And laugh out loud I did. Watching this:

Technorati Tags: tuxedotravles, backpacking, povertyjetset, inspiration, blogging, video, videoblog, adventure, lordwhimsy, travel, funny

I’m so psyched to see that these guys got their video blogging down pat! Yes! And what an adventure!

Click To Play

Technorati Tags: music, goldenball, adventure, povertyjetset, tour

See, thing is, I spend a lot of time on my computer. But for ten years all I did was travel, travel, travel. Barely checked email. Never had a cell phone. Went to the other side of the world on a whim. It’s kinda nutty, but now this comic is how my life is, exactly. My youngest brother Paul sent it to me. Thank you, Paul. You hit the nail on the head, there good buddy.

Technorati Tags: blogging, povertyjetset, advice, adventure, documentary, backpacking, comic, humor

I’m a sucker for long-distance biking stories. Its been a dream of mine since I was a kid and my Boy Scout troop (yes, I was a Boy Scout, people!) went on a bike trip up to the Pulgas Water Temple in Woodside, California. I think I was ten, but it was such a great trip and I remember day dreaming about doing longer trips when I was big enough.

So today on Vagabonding I read part one of a great interview with a group of people who have recently biked the 5000+km length of the old Silk Road to raise money for a charity and then made a movie out of the adventure. So cool. So Poverty Jet Set. I can’t wait to see it! Here’s the trailer:

Technorati Tags: biking, vagabonding, documentary, video, mountains, travel, povertyjetset, adventure, film, howto

Recently, I got an email from this fella, Ian Marshall who’s read my lovely lil’ corner of the blogspace and was into my scene enough to send out a copy of his new magazine, Wend. Naturally, I read it cover-to-cover in a sitting and think, “Ah ha!” I get it. A mag that covers travel, adventure and environment with a elegant sense of depth of spirit. I wonder what kind of crazy adventure could I get myself into, write about, and have these fellas publish for me? Hmmm… Stay tuned on that.

These guys also have a blog that’s worth a read. They’re posting up all sorts of cool adventure and culture shit that slides in just beneath the annoying ‘extreme’ label, but high above… WrestleMania, say.

Speaking of WestleMania, my pals and I have taken it upon outselves to hit up Dollar Bowling night deep in the heart of South Jersey on Monday nights at Westbrook Lanes. See, for all the extreme sport out there in the world, nothing says “love!” like dollar shoes, dollar games and a cold frosty one-thin-dollar Budweiser in a plastic cup while yr throwin’ strikes. Well, okay, spares, mostly. Oh, hell. We’re topping out at 140’s. Okay, some of us don’t break 100. Yeah, you get the idea.

So anyways, WrestleMania or some fashion of greasy oiled-up wrestle dudes are always zonking us out with their flashy, flashy up on the boobtube in between frames. They got the tele on full blast in there, and for people who don’t own, much less watch TV these days, it’s hard to look away. What force! What brute! Is this what I’ve been missing! And since when is Donald Trump in on the deal? Weird. It’s almost too surreal to be true. Oh, wait. It’s not true. Uh, oh. Man, what a mind-f**k.

Technorati Tags: bowling, travel, povertyjetset, wend, adventure, wrestling, magazine, westlemania, adventure

Just came across this amazing wiki called WikiMapia where they have satellite images of the whole earth and you can add meta data to it describing places, wiki-style. It’s pretty awesome! Anyone can add info, and just like all the other map programs, you can zoom down and see different detail of places. The photo above is my neighborhood.

Technorati Tags: socialgeography, wiki, mapping, tools, povertyjetset, map

Man, it seems like every web site I touch these days goes BOOM! Even the Poverty Jet Set was down for a day. But, finally, we’ve shaken out the bugs, turned up the heat and everything’s niiiiiiiice and toasty again.

Audrey and I are enjoying the wunderbar festival der film, True/False Film Festival in beautiful and shockingly cool Columbia, Missouri (yes, you heard that right folks, shockingly cool.)

You’re in luck, too, cuz we’ve been video blogging from the festival and will have a vid up soon! Yay! Stay tuned…

I share with you this guy Joe Taheny’s blog post about the music of Pakistan. He’s a traveler who’s just interested in this stuff and does a pretty cool job of documenting it. Pretty awesome stuff, with great videos to boot.

I love folk music, man! Especially the classical and folk music from Asia. It’s amazing. Have a look.

Technorati Tags: vagabonding, music, povertyjetset, folk, travel

Well, after a relatively painless flight, I spent the evening yesterday with Audrey’s parents in Salt Lake. We had a devilishly indulgent time, eating take-out Vietnamese and watching the full 2-hour episode of that horendously commercial-laden and rather unimpressive show, 24.

I haven’t yet put together the first episode of the Sundance video podcast, probably because I haven’t filmed anything overly compelling. All I did today was stand around waiting for my staff pass, my condo keys and my schedule. Now I’m at the public library emailing before I explore the town.

I’ll probably throw something together to upload tomorrow.

I know, I know… the antipation is killing you. Heh.

Howdy friends and faithful readers.

I just wanted to let you know that big things are on the horizon for The Poverty Jet Set gang. First of all, and you heard it here first, a few good people and I are working hard on a new-fangled video channel that you’ll be able to watch, jeer and laugh at all at the same time! It’s going to be very MTV-circa 1983 with the added bonus of being, well, online and on demand. More on that soon.

Secondly, and more immediately, I got a job at the Sundance Film Festival and will be up in Park City, Utah for the last two weeks of January. Now, what fun would a trip like that be without a zany video blog to accompany the trip? Ah, the Poverty Jet Set lifestyle… fly off to a far away place to do a short, glamorous job… get paid a token wage… and live to tell the tale!

So yeah, I’m gonna video blog it. Of course. If you don’t like coming back to check for new videos, have them downloaded automatically by subscribing to the podcast via iTunes! Click here to do that.

Technorati Tags: povertyjetset, jobs, sundance, travel, video, videoblogging

(photo: e-liz)

I’m not sure what it is about The Poverty Jet Set blog and boats, but for some reason we’re fascinated by them. Have a look at the photos we took this summer at an abandon shipwreck on the Delaware River!

The particular hobo boat I speak of now (pictured above), however, isn’t in Philly. It’s in Brooklyn. I have, on occasion, walked on or over the Gowanus Canal where it is docked, so maybe I have seen it and didn’t know that it is one of the coolest art projects / youth hostels / community / collective around! Dang!

For those of you too poor to stay in posher digs in NYC, you might want to hit these kids up. Looks like they’re good people.

[thanks, Gridskipper]

Technorati Tags: boat, brooklyn, povertyjetset, concept, community, couchsurfing, travel

Well, everyone, thanks for watching Audrey and my road trip video blog this holiday season! We’ve had fun making it and we’ll probably be making more zaney lil’ videos in the coming weeks in Philadelphia. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, we wish you all a lovely and prosperous New Year Celebration and 2007!

Here’s our last road trip video, for your viewing pleasure.

After 6000+ miles over the last two and a half weeks, we finally made it to (nearly) the end. We’re in Jim Thorpe, PA (named after the great Native American Olympian who won like every single event in something like 1912) with my family. More funny holiday videos to come, folks. Things are gettin’ hectic! Yes!

Watch the Video

I think that title should say it all. Heh.