The Poverty Jet Set

I was kinda bored yesterday, so I thought I’d redesign my blog again. What can I say? It’s addicting.

Hey guys… thanks for watching our video blog from our road trip! I’m stoked to hear your feedback and know that you’re all following our trip. A couple things…

I’m sorry that you had to log in in order to comment. I had to do that because my site gets spammed like crazy if I don’t. I’m going to turn off logging in for the duration of our trip so that you can comment freely… Please do! We’d love to hear from you! We haven’t been checking our email that much, but we’re blogging often!

Also, have a look at some still photos that I just uploaded!

Thanks for watching the videos! We’re having a lot of fun making them.

An episode where we embark on a number of forays into roadside America. Nashville to Dallas…

Audrey’s the star of this episode, as you’ll see. From stretching to Cracker Barrel, we’re getting loopy with all this dang drivin’. Observe:

Well, used-to-be our Dorothy. Unfortunately, our lovely contributor has overwhelmed herself with many another project and has officially resigned from The PJS. But you can still keep up with her on her personal blog on MySpace, as I do every week.

Have a read of the interview. Awesome cuz’ Dorothy’s an awesome chick, and of course, she gives us a great shout-out.

Technorati Tags: povertyjetset, philebrity, magdalenus, interview, Philly, blogging, dorothyrobinson

Here’s a quick teaser from a documentary-in-the-works by my friend Marc Brodzik. I’ve been helping shoot it, and believe me, this is only a small taste of the awesomeness that is Darren… the film’s gonna be sick. Stay tuned.

And as an extra special treat, because you braved the storm, read the blog this far, you are entitled to a peak at my glamorous personal defense of the almighty Speedo.

Technorati Tags: art, darren, film, magdalenus, performanceart, Philly, povertyjetset, speedos, video

(more…)

I took this random photo out of my window this morning:

What do you make of it?

Treehugger just posted a great diagram today detailing a hypothetical instant disappearance of all humans on earth. It’s really amazing, have a look:

Technorati Tags: apocalypse, endoftheworld, environment, magdalenus, povertyjetset, people, sustainability

I just read about these couple guys (in Vagabonding) who’ve taken it upon themselves to hitchhike to all 50 state capitals within 50 days. Now that’s the kind of adventure I can get behind. Total pointless, totally cool, totally Poverty Jet Set. And fun as hell. Not only that, but they’re promoting themselves in an entertaining and oh-so-Web-2.0 manner — Flickr photos, YouTube videos, a MySpace profile and more.

Too bad they won’t be through Philly. Only Harrisburg, I suppose. Yuck! Oh, all right, Harrisburg isn’t ALL bad.

Hey guys, do you know about CouchSurfing.com already? Surely…

Technorati Tags: concept, hitchhiking, magdalenus, driving, povertyjetset, adventure, travel, blogging, ontheroad

My best pals and I were in need of a little dood action (not that kind of action, get yr mind out of the gutter). Just thought I’d share a couple of late night pics with the ladies in the house. This is what really goes on during a boyz night out on the town.

Technorati Tags: magdalenus, love, povertyjetset

This is what I’m thinking:

[From Treehugger]

Technorati Tags: magdalenus, droppingout, povertyjetset, architecture, design, endoftheworld, offthegrid

I find this rather beautiful travel map mesmerizing in all it’s implied ugliness:

Click the image to see more photos of the message on a billboard.

Links courtesy of one of my favorite blogs on media, democracy and control: Sivacracy.

Technorati Tags: CIA, magdalenus, povertyjetset, travel, waronterror, map

I feel like I’m surrounded by people (including myself, if it be possible for one to somehow surround oneself) who have been talking about the apocalypse lately. I don’t mean the fire & brimstone kind, either. It’s more of a general feeling I’ve had since say, 5 years ago, after that one particular event we all seem to want to dwell upon as a society. Do we all see this glimmer of the collapse? What is it about life in the 21st Century that seems so… doomed?

Everywhere I go it’s on the tips of people’s tongues. Maybe it’s my relative view of things. I have, after all, been hanging out on the fringes of society. Is everyone in America afraid? I just read this article by Kurt Andersen in the New York Magazine discussing how people are indeed fearing the end of the world. Hey, if it’s in national magazines, it must be true.

Not sure why we’re so focused on it these days. As Mr. Andersen points out, perhaps we’re just at a peak of the natural ebb and flow of the doom and gloom clouds that tends to hang over our collective subconscious.

But seriously, it sorta does feel like the world’s ending, doesn’t it? Sometimes I feel like dropping out and building an off-the-grid little adobe hut with a garden and solar paneled roof is the only way to save myself from participation in the total annihilation machine.

[Image credit: Laurence Acland, via calimdoudouu]

Technorati Tags: sustainability, povertyjetset, endoftheworld, droppingout, freedom, offthegrid, magdalenus, apocalypse, doom

Well, here it is, the brand-spanking-new site design. What d’ya think? Comments?

Audrey and I decided a couple weeks ago that it was high time we went and did something totally awesome (for a 10-year-old). We spent the day at the zoo.

It was a total Ferris Bueller day. Ditch work to spend time in the beautiful equinox sunshine. We took the Girard Avenue street trolley down its eastern length, over the Schuylkill River and to America’s Oldest Zoo.

We walked hand-in-hand while surrounded by ankle-biting kids on field trip (yay! field trip!) in swarms around us. We ate ice cream. We communed with the big cats, gawked at the giraffes, meditated on the size of the elephants and laughed at the flamingos standing around on one leg.

Sometimes its hard to remember that there are so many cool little things in life. We tend to forget about field trips in our cynical age. Zoos are awesome. I was completely overwhelmed by the tourist kid I became for a day. How do we get stuck in our hipster scene, slumming it in dive bars all the time? Three cheers for being a kid!

More photos here.

Technorati Tags: adventure, america, magdalenus, philadelphiazoo, Philly, povertyjetset, fieldtrip, zoo

I made it back to Philly. Actually, on Friday. Spent the weekend recovering, sleeping, eating. You know, normal things. The other thing I did was upload my photos and a short video. Here are the photos. And here’s the video. It’s nothing too special, as I shot it on my still camera. Its interesting, though, that a crappy little still camera can take video footage. I do like the campy-ness of it all. My apologies for the quality.

Technorati Tags: povertyjetset, music, grizzlybear, video, magdalenus, travel, america, adventure

In the spirit of Southern California, I share with you the following story (thanks, BoingBoing):

Viva Border Volleyball!

California’s most desolate and unknown beach is desolate and unknown for a reason. It has no name, no facilities, no parking lot. There are no signs for it inside Borderfield State Park. There are no signs for the park either. To get there, you depart the 5 freeway 10 miles south of San Diego, follow the roads to where the gas stations give way to horse stables, get lost in the overgrowth and streams of the Tijuana River delta, and from there walk the dirt road two miles through coastal dunes to emerge at the Pacific. [click to read the rest]