September 2011
1 post
“Our epoch is determining, day by day, its own style. Our eyes, unhappily, are...”
– Le Corbusier
June 2010
1 post
In Which My Spirits are Trodden Upon: My First...
I recently had the delightful good fortune to be accepted into graduate school, and have decided to attend MIT’s program in Art, Culture and Technology. Cambridge is a helluva lot farther away from sunny Southern California than a hop, skip and jump, and my journeying to a brand-new city has provided more meat for your favorite travel blog. I can only imagine your excitement.
I’d been...
March 2010
1 post
"Why do Christians smell so bad?" and other things...
“Hey, American! American! Walk like an Egyptian, eh? Eh? You see?? YEAHHH!!!” - middle-aged Egyptian man in Cairo and yes, he was actually doing the Bangles’ “walk like an Egyptian” dance. And yes, he was pretty good at it.
“Hey, America! Howdy howdy! Yankee doodle doo!” - an entirely different middle-aged Egyptian man. No dancing this time.
And the...
October 2009
2 posts
7,000 Miles & 3 Hours
I wore a watch today that I bought in Hong Kong. It’s black and square, and the face is covered with interlocking rectangles of neon blue and green and yellow and black. It’s a knock-off, and the paint (which probably has lead in it) is scraping off, but I think it’s rad. I noticed, putting it on, that the time was off by three hours. This sets the stage for a mini flash-back...
WatchRemember my ranting and raving about the swine flu brewhaha? (My new favorite tongue-twister, by the way - swine flu brewhaha) Well, it turned out I shouldn’t have been quite so cavalier.
When my plane arrived in Shanghai (after oh, I don’t know, about 13 hours) we weren’t permitted to leave the plane. We had to wait, we were told, for the crew of quarantine swine flu...
September 2009
1 post
Addendum to Previous Post: Egyptian Streets are...
After I made my previous post, full of witty observations on the state of hygiene on different continents, I came across an article in the New York Times detailing Egypt’s trash problem. I was very interested to read it, for you’ll remember that I called out Egypt for having some of the filthiest streets I’d seen in all my wanderings. I apparently had the disadvantage to visit...
August 2009
2 posts
Studies in Global Hygenics: an Informal Analysis
Americans are more obsessed with cleanliness than any other people I’ve ever seen, with the exception of the Japanese.
There are certain cleaning amenities I’ve become accustomed to in day-to-day living, as most people do. These included clean tap water, napkins, toilet paper, and toilet seat covers. I did not, in my limited experience, realize that these were luxuries.
The first...
The Planet's People are Cautiously Loving of Obama
Throughout my travels on this big, lopsided planet of ours, I was surprised at how our new president mediated, to some degree, the way I talked to and interacted with citizens of other countries.
I can remember a time when Americans were admonished to try to pass as Canadians when traveling overseas. To some extent, I think that’s still applicable, but I felt no such stigma anywhere I went....
July 2009
1 post
In Which I Incite a Near-Riot and Barely Make it...
I got a bad scare when I incited a near-riot during the making of a video art piece.
While I was filming myself for a project I’ve been working on (which involves me crawling on the ground towards my camera, also sitting on the ground) an hysterical Chinese woman ran up and grabbed me and tried to pull me up. She was foaming at the mouth and screaming, “CHINA! NOT ANIMAL!!! YOU...
June 2009
3 posts
Electric Eels in My Blood!
Today is Monday. I leave in two days.
Passport: check!
There are a bunch of new illustrations in here that I don’t remember being in the old passports. My original was cheerfully empty of all pictures save my own (if you’re reading this and you’re the bastard that stole my old passport, feel free to draw a mustache on it cause I’ve got a new one … It’d make a...
Flu of the Swine be Damned!
I’ve spent the last few months scoffing at the idea of swine flu. I’m one of those obstinate douche bags who likes to remind people that hundreds of thousands of people are killed every year by the regular ol’ flu, while the swine variety has offed less than 500. Shoot, bacon kills more people than the swine flu, and you can have my bacon when you pry it from my cold, dead...
Welcome to My Glorious Adventure. Hyperbole not...
This is the first post of what will eventually grow into your favorite travel blog. Shhh you don’t have to thank me now.
I am planning to fly by the seat of my pants (pants that happen to be inside of an airplane) all around the world this summer, with planned stops in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and London. Hopefully there willl be many as-yet-unplanned stops after that. I know you’ve never...