Posts tagged as Travels
Monument Mountain
Because I had only planned to stay in the Berkshires for less than a day, my friend suggested we go on a hike up Monument Mountain. I agreed: New York City has a lot going for it, but mountains are not included. I was also happy to take my mind off of a reading I was scheduled to give that night as part of a local arts festival. My slot was between two bands, which when I accepted the invitation sounded great in theory but felt more problematic as I saw myself talking to a bunch of drunks about opera, German Romanticism and the challenges of being a non-heterosexual writer of literary fiction in the modern era. If I was going to be killed, I thought, at least I could first find a nice place to scatter my ashes. READ MORE
"Guy Debord's Détournement Turned Loose on Geography"
"On the floor of one cavern, officers discovered an ominous metal container. The object was fat, festooned with wires. The police called in the bomb squad, they evacuated the surface, they asked themselves: What have we found? They had found a couscous maker." READ MORE
Come Back to Greater Kazakhstan
It's always delightful to read about places that one has no temptation to visit and will never, ever see! So today's travelogue of Kazakhstan and its 16-year-old capital, Astana, is fantastic, and as you are a subscriber to the New Yorker, you will have no problem reading it online or in the magazine, yes? Plus there are some excellent and blunt surprises—if, I suppose, corruption and horror and vast wealth going hand-in-hand are ever a surprise—mid-tale for those who are similarly and happily uninformed as I. Gosh, I hope I never live to see this frosty new hell-hole in person.
A Temporary and Equitable Technocracy: SxSW's Hunter-Gatherers
SXSW Interactive is the convergence of utopian techno-futurism and base primitivism. Men hold screens in front of their faces as they ride down escalators. These devices work the best that they ever have. Instead of Tweeting into a void, they’re communicating with people on the other side of the convention center. People use their location-based applications to tell friends which bars they’re at. Women that meet in passing can follow each others Tweets and reunite an hour later, better-informed. These technologies are working exactly the way their developers say they should. Human beings connect to one another. READ MORE
Ten Days in Haiti: A Photo Diary
Awl Occasional Contributing Photographer Stephen Kosloff was in Haiti from November 20 to November 30 to take pictures of the cholera epidemic and national elections, which were held on November 28. Here are 26 of his shots. READ MORE
Notes from Mexico City: Software Piracy as a Measure of Societal Progress
I love Latin America. I'm not sure if it's the food, the people, the culture or its vibrant collection of knockoffs. READ MORE
Mild Dread and Some Aversion in Aspen
When Hunter S. Thompson used to make the quick trip from his home in Woody Creek to downtown Aspen, he would stop at the J-Bar, the ancient watering hole that has soused up the tenants of its adjoining Hotel Jerome since 1883. "Right over there," the bartender at the 19th-century artifact said, as I ordered a Stella. "Hunter would always sit in that corner." The bar even has one of the iconic "HUNTER THOMPSON FOR SHERIFF" posters hanging there. And, yeah, it's a genuinely classy place. It has a classic rust-bruised tin ceiling that would be "trying too hard" if it weren't, well, real. Yes, Hunter might like this place. But hold on a second, you think to yourself. You're in Aspen, and the people here blow. READ MORE
An 81-Hour Break From Civilization At Sasquatch Music Festival 2010
The port-a-potty situation is universally humbling. The brand is Honey Bucket, which is so gross and psychosexually radioactive a name that the excreta deposited and vacuumed out of them gains a strange and terrible power over our imaginations. Retching sounds and maniacal laughter alike drift from the banks of plastic shitboxes scattered throughout the camping area. A mysterious chalk homage to the waste receptacles appears at the venue gate. Legends spread of Honey Buckets where the filth rises above the level of the toilet seat. Pissing in the thick heat of one, I'm suddenly able to hear, from some far-off stage, the distinct and chipper chorus of Avi Buffalo's big hit, "What's In It For?" A song that begins: "I walked in on a plan to dissolve all of your wishes / But I couldn't help your mouth, which I missed by two inches." READ MORE
Paris Is Incinerating
It's hot out! And this is the unofficial start of summer. Hence our series of essays this week: Here Comes Summer! READ MORE
The McKee Botanical Garden
On a recent trip to Vero Beach, I was interested and a little dismayed-in a way that's probably unavoidable in Florida when you consider the ongoing clash between the lush vegetation and strip-mall civilization-to learn that my parents' condominium is situated on the former site of a large botanical garden. Originally called Jungle Garden, it was built in 1922 on land purchased by Arthur McKee and Waldo Sexton (an engineer and a citrus grower, respectively) who like many of today's rich-ass motherfuckers financial leaders were obsessed with orchids and water lilies, and brought rare specimens from around the world to showcase to the interested public. READ MORE
