Feb

28

Class Report - Pico Iyer

February 28, 2004 | Comments Off

The class of 30 was sold out, and there was a 30-person waiting list for Pico Iyer’s “Catching a Spirit of Place” at Book Passage. Although the class format was unusual, we covered a lot of ground, and were treated to Iyer’s delightfully ironic sense of humor. (”I’ve never taught a class before; maybe the people on the waiting list are the lucky ones.”) Here are a few of my notes.

Read the full post . . .

Feb

27

Karen Misuraca

February 27, 2004 | Comments Off

Karen Misuraca travel and golf writer, author, editor.

Feb

26

Get Lost Travel Books

February 26, 2004 | Comments Off

Get Lost Travel Books is between Guerrero and Valencia (as well as Laguna and Octavia), at the corner of Pearl Street. We are on the south side of Market Street. (415) 437-0529.

Feb

26

Michael McCarthy

February 26, 2004 | Comments Off

Michael McCarthy founded The Intentional Traveler.

Feb

26

Rikke Jorgensen

February 26, 2004 | Comments Off

No website yet, but here’s Rikke Jorgensen’s article about Tomales and — my favorite — her story about contending with a pubic hair in her food at a French restaurant A Taste of France.

Feb

24

Closet Anthropology

February 24, 2004 | Comments Off

One of the things I love about travel and travel writing is exposure to multiculturalism — to ways of thinking and acting, dressing, eating, and celebrating, that are new to me. But one needn’t travel far to experience a cultural whup-up-side-of-the-head. I recently came across an article by educational visionary Marc Prensky about the “Nintendo Generation’s” cognitive style changes — new ways of thinking such as active, graphics-based, “twitch speed” parallel processing. Read the article if you’d like to communicate better with the under-30 crowd, or to remind yourself about the importance of illustrating your travel articles with photography or other graphics. And if you have any doubts about the author’s credibility, get this: he has designed training games for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Feb

21

Mad Dog

February 21, 2004 | Comments Off

No virtual trip to SF writers’ sites is complete without a stop at Mad Dog’s bizarre and visually offensive site. But the guy can write.

Feb

19

World Travel Watch

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off


World Travel Watch: Updated weekly. Larry Habegger and James O’Reilly reporting on security and safety issues to help you make informed judgments about travel. (Because conditions can change overnight, always make your own inquiries before you leave home.)

Feb

19

Practical Nomad

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

Edward Hasbrouck’s Practical Nomad offers travel planning resources and advice, includes info about traveling in this time of war, airline bankruptcies.

Feb

19

Ethical Traveler

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

Ethical Traveler, founded by Jeff Greenwald, is dedicated to educating travelers about the social and environmental impact of their decisions, showing how travel can be a potent form of diplomacy, and giving travelers a forum through which their united voices can serve the world community. Thanks to Jeanne B for this link.

Feb

19

Net Travel

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

Michael Shapiro’s Net Travel,“a selective guide to online travel resources by the author of Internet Travel Planner,” includes articles, travelers tools, last-minute deals, dining guides, budget travel info, lots more.

Feb

19

Pop Planet

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

PopPlanet National Library of the Environment is wholly managed by the National Council for Science and the Environment. The site is for learning, information sharing, and communication about population, health, and environmental issues. Thanks for link info, Debi.

Feb

19

Global Spin

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

Global Spin links to more than 100 foreign news sources.

Feb

19

Currency exchange

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

This currency exchange site provides rates and a calculator for figuring out how much money you have in various foreign currencies, including many you probably never knew existed.

Feb

19

DangerFinder

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

Robert Young Pelton’s Come Back Alive includes the DangerFinder guide to the world’s most dangerous places. (You decide what to do with the information.)

Feb

19

Center for Disease Control

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

The Center for Disease Control, so you can be sure to get the right shots (no, not photos) before you travel.

Feb

19

Paper or Plastic?

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

Begining writers sometimes ask whether it’s better to write on paper or on a computer. Here’s the answer:

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Feb

19

Foreign Substance

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

From dg: “In June of last year, after spending six months in Italy, I returned to LA and had a chance conversation with a Belgian friend just back from a year in Korea. Our experiences were similar. During our extended travels we’d each discovered revealing aspects of foreign cultures that elude most Americans. How unfortunate, we thought, that there isn’t an online space to get unusual and timely insights from likeminded people around the world, a place where people can share perspectives, compare one lifestyle to another, or even map trends as they evolve around the planet …

We decided that as America becomes increasing isolated, increasing unaware of what the rest of the world thinks, there just might be value in such an undertaking. With that realization, Foreign substance was born.

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Feb

19

Lone Schneider

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

Sweet, silly, sexy, sassy: sample Lone Schneider’s tasteful black and white boudoir and portrait photography at Lolo’s Boudoir. In her other life, Lone is a writer and producer. Lone is a writer, photographer and film producer. Born in Denmark, she has a master’s degree in political science from Aalborg University Center, Denmark, and she has worked and taught in the U.S., Scandanavia and Nepal. Lone has written for magazines in Denmark and the U.S. She is a recent winner of the prestigious Tanenbaum Award for nonfiction and is currently completing a book about an ill-fated Tibetan pilgrimage.

Feb

19

Cathleen Miller

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

Cathleen Miller, best selling author of two memoirs (Desert Flower and Birdhouse Chronicles), Wild Writing Woman, professor, editor, workshop leader.

Feb

19

Jacqueline Harmon Butler

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

Jacqueline Harmon Butler, travel and food writer, workshop leader, Wild Writing Woman.

Feb

19

Pamela Michael

February 19, 2004 | Comments Off

Pamela Michael, environmental writer, KPFA fm, travel editor, founder (with Robert Haas) of River of Words, Wild Writing Woman.

Feb

16

Christopher P. Baker

February 16, 2004 | Comments Off

Christopher P. Baker, writer, teacher, author of lots of guidebooks.

Feb

10

First they came for the Communists

February 10, 2004 | 2 Comments

Thanks to Burton Winn for sending the quotation I was looking for: “I found the quotation in question etched in stone on the New England Holocaust Memorial. The memorial is adjacent to the Boston Freedom Trail, the subject of my piece for Don George’s Travel Writing class. The message is timeless, I guess that’s why it is in stone. Here it is:

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Feb

10

Poetry everywhere

February 10, 2004 | Comments Off

Some people find poetry in the strangest places. Thanks to Chris L for forwarding this from our newest beat poet: “Man, that Rummy cat is outta sight and alright! I think that he’s going to reinvent himself as a beatnik poet and tour small, basement coffeehouses around the country, dressed in dark shades and a black turtleneck sweater, reading his poems like this one:

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