Wow, I realized there’s been a blog famine. I’ve been busy catching up on my business during a brief window between returning from a two-month European-research trip and vanishing for 20 days — which I hope to do in a day or two to finish a new book of essays about how travel shapes your world view (to be published sometime in 2010). Before I knew it, ten days have passed without an entry, and people are wondering if I fell into one of those Mount Rainier crevasses I wrote about in my last entry.
I love my work because it is a hailstorm of variety. In the last week, I gave a talk at the Adventure Travel show in Seattle (whose attendance was murdered by a sunny weekend). I do travel show talks on the condition that I can give my political talk. Many people gather fun ideas for their upcoming trips at these shows. But sometimes at these shows I feel like I’m in a huge exhibition hall noisy with crass tourism come-ons. It’s a poignant environment for a talk that challenges people to travel for more than gaining calories and a tan.
(By the way, when I call cruising more hedonistic than travel, I don’t say that in a judgemental way. Why do people think hedonism is in itself bad. Cruising is a great passtime and full of fun. It’s… hedonistic.)
Last week I also gave a talk at a fund-raiser for a great group called Global Visionaries which sends Seattle high-school students (whose families can’t afford to give them the luxury of foreign travel) to Guatemala for a chance to connect with a developing world culture and see our country from that vantage point. A 16-year-old girl fresh from her Global Visionaries experience — brimming with passion and hungry for a chance to put her new perspective into action — inspired us all (and was a very tough act to follow).
Just yesterday in Los Angeles, I gave a talk to the German Marshall Fund organization which is a subversive (to ethnocentrism) European organization that funds worthy young American professionals on international educational tours so they can come home and infect their workmates with a global perspective. There were many Europeans at the event and I even got invited by EU parliamentarians to give my talk in Brussels at the EU headquarters. (They figured Europeans are too hard on themselves and could benefit from a Euro-phile American like me, charmed by the Continent’s earnest efforts to grapple smartly with its problems.)
I was actually in Los Angeles to attend the Public Radio Program Directors (PRPD) Convention. The program directors of the nation’s public radio stations gather annually to network, share notes, and work to get the very best lineup of programs. I was there, like many radio producers, to convince those who don’t already air my weekly hour to get on board. (My show is three years old and is now aired by 99 stations. Many checked it out at the start — when I was pretty bad — and said no way. Now, 150 hours of shows later, we’re worth another look.)
I forgot my business cards — but thank goodness, rather than spend our promotional money on a booth, we had opted to buy an ad on the lanyards that held attendees’ convention tags. When someone asked for my Web address, I just pointed to the printing on the strip of cloth around their neck.
It was an oddly different schedule from being at other programs where I usually give talks. When there were workshops, I got to relax, but then during each break, meal, and social event, I worked — meeting all the program directors who needed to know more about my show.
Many of the big NPR personalities were there. The man who wrote this week’s Time magazine feature on our financial crises gave a talk and taught me nothing — other than the realization that I don’t like pundits and experts that try to be humorous as they tell me that no one knows why we’re in this economic mess or where it’s taking us. (My hunch is that the people whose mantra is “get the government off our backs” succeeded. Greed greased the skids — and voila. I wish I understood the whole mess but my gut knows that the money didn’t just vanish. While a tax-paid bail-out may be necessary, I bet it’s just another trickle-up transfer of wealth in disguise. And, while government regulations may be depressing to some, they’re depressing to all when employed only after the abuse they are designed to prevent takes its toll.)
A highlight of my LA visit was a trip to the Getty Center. Wow. Perched above the city, this art museum is as impressive as any museum I’ve seen in Europe. And the city views at sunset are enough to get you started. Architecturally, it’s like walking through a vast computer-generated vision. While there were few famous masterpieces, there were exquisite works by top artists throughout European art history — brilliantly lit and displayed and described as well as any I’ve seen. Oil money put to fine use…thank you Mr. Getty.
The current buzz in radio, as in the newspaper industry, is how to embrace the Web and stay viable. I came out of the PRPD convention committed to making Web-based interactive support for my radio show which each station can host to drive listeners to their websites. And back in my office, I’m in discussions with my newspaper syndicate as they see newspapers readying for the day then they are primarily Web-based news services.
My publisher came to town, took me out to dinner, and tried to convince me to join the move to “pocket-sized full-color” short versions of guidebooks. It’s true that the “top ten” type distillations are out-selling the full-fledged real guidebooks. But I don’t want to enable my travelers to just get everything in bullet points. However, one proposal I jumped at was my publisher’s offer to do a tenth-anniversary edition of my Postcards from Europe book with a 16-page color-photo insert. This book (which I’m busy assembling now — to be published April 2009), with a new intro and “outtro,” or epilogue, commenting on how European travel has changed since its first printing, will make a handsome new version of a book that I think should have done better than it did when produced back in 1999.
In a couple of weeks, we’ll release our new TV series (two years in the making). We currently have 10 shows finished and three more in the works, and it’s exciting to have stations all over the country start airing the new series before we’re done producing all the shows. We are committed to finishing shows 11, 12, and 13 before the first ten weeks of shows go on the air. Because of our shooting schedule, each season we always have this nail-biter finish, but we always deliver in time.
Rick, It drives me nuts when I do not have a new blog to read. However, I would prefer to have a blog like this every week than a quick shoddy one every day. Keep up the good work……Also, I would very much like to read a blog about languages and your family/friends/employees. What languages do they know, how they learned, and how traveling helped.
Looking forward to the new shows Rick! Any idea when they’ll find their way to DVD? [Editor’s note: This new season of shows will come out on DVD in November 2008.]
Great Post. Thanks for sharing. Going back to Europe this year? When will the Iran show air? [Editor’s note: The Iran show will air in January 2009]
Rick said: The man who wrote this week’s Time magazine feature on our financial crises gave a talk and taught me nothing. Think again Rick, what it taught you is that experience is not all that important, brains are. When the financial giants get experience, they make use of what they learned the same way a politician does, after he gains seniority. Look at the Congress, and tell me that the most experienced members of Congress are each and every one the best. Tell me about Rangel and Byrd for a couple of examples. This also taught you that the experience that the Alaskan Sweetie has gained, is better than the experience of the Alaskan Senator Stevens. Of course I like her experience, among other things, rather than OBamBam. ======= Next time you visit Los Angeles, please visit the Getty Villa, the original Getty Museum. The oil billionaire, J. Paul Getty, built a museum in Malibu, near Los Angeles. The Museum plan is based on the Villa dei Papiri, buried near Herculaneum by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, 79 AD. Sweetie and I visited the museum a dozen times at least, we visited Herculaneum twice. We were told in both Malibu and in Italy that we are the only visitors they knew of, who visited both the Museum and Herculaneum, that they know of.
A book about how travel shapes a person’s world view! When is the expected publication date? (In time for Christmas?) Best regards, [Editor’s note: No, sometime in 2010.]
Rick, I saw your spiel for Maryland Public Television yesterday, and from what you were saying, it appears I just missed the new Burgundy episode! Oh well, I’ve waited two years for new shows, I can wait a little longer. The present financial crisis can be nicely paraphrased by reworking some old adages: Although credit may grow on trees, money doesn’t, and somebody has to eventually pay the piper. Too many people (consumers, homeowners and businessmen alike) borrowed too much money that they couldn’t pay back, and the Fed kept interest rates too low for long. Will be interested to hear more about your book about travel and world view.
What I hear all the pundits say, though they do not say it in these words, is that the only way out of the subprime lending mess is for banks to write more subprime loans. That doesn’t make sense.
A big part of the problem in the financial markets is the desire to assign blame and get a quick “fix” (a typically American approach). D’s and R’s don’t really care about root causes or cures – as long as the other party is seen taking blame in public opinion. It seems to me those are the last people capable of sorting the problem out and developing good policy. Who is to blame? Lax regulation? Greedy corporate bosses? A feeling the market could only go one way? All probably have a little to do with it. The fact that for more than two decades low interest rates allowed many marginal credit risks to obtain credit with little or no personal investment (read down payment) is probably the single biggest reason for the current crisis. In other words, we’re in this mess because the banks said yes to those loans we asked for (turns out they should have said no more or at least required a healthy down payment). Legislative policy allowing people to deduct only mortgage interest created an incentive to load all debt in mortgages. Policy designed to allow more people to buy homes with little or no down payment probably didn’t help either. For years the number one cause of bankruptcy was dealer financed new car loans, the dealers had an incentive to get the car sold and approved loans to borrowers with excessive debt and no down payment. While the borrower was happy to get the loan and drive their new car home. It’s not fun to find you owe more on your car than it’s worth. Reposession and/or bankruptcy aren’t good for your financial health. We should have seen foreclosures and/or bankruptcies aren’t good for the country’s financial health either. My biggest worry today is that government will take over and the American dream become the casualty. I hope we don’t get to the point where our homeownership rates are the same as the planned economies. The vision of landlord and tenant classes in the U.S. is scarrier to me than the current financial crisis.
When will the postcards book be released? [Editor note: Look for it around April 2009]
Also, is there any chance you’ll consider releasing the last season + this new season together on DVD? I own all of them (2000 + before) through 2005 and really don’t want to buy the full set again to get the last season that I’m lacking!
For the Bush years, the fiscal policy of the USA has been to drive the value of the dollar down. It worked. Now our leaders act like they didn’t know it all along, say it is a major emergency, isn’t enough time to clearly think things through and want to consolidate financial power into to hands of one man? And people get upset when Rick talks politics. The same politics that make our travel 40% more expensive and substantial more dangerous than it was in 2000. I guess for some people, being able to spell “think” and know what “think” means is the same thing as being able to do it.
i definitely agree that you should not do a top ten book. i love your books the way they are. almost everything in there is essential to a fun trip.
On your point about blending your radio shows with online, take a look at what Radio France Internationale are doing: http://atelier.rfi.fr/
Speaking of “top ten” guides…that is one thing I noticed in Rome this past April. I saw more of those guides in the hands of married couples…while single people (like myself) seemed to prefer good ol’ Rick. Just an observation I wanted to pass along.
Well said, Brad, you hit the nail on the head!
Rick, Glad your blog is back online:-))
Brad, you must have read Scott Burns financial column this morning. Neither the D or R know what to do and can’t get by the party politics. He predicts there will be a third party by 2012. Rick, good to have you back. There are many of us who need our daily Rick fix.
Keep up the great work, Rick! Please tell us more about the German Marshall Fund and the program you mentioned, the one sending young American professionals to Europe!
Your guides are pretty well distilled down as it is. Maybe what is needed is not gutted pocket editions per se, but what about putting the essential trip planning info(suggested routes, dates, schedules, logistics, maps) in compact hardcopy form, and the narratives ( opinion, guided tour, superlatives and things that are more useful while on the trip itself ) on a CD that can be loaded to one’s MP3 player for the trip. I suppose those could also be, uh, offered on someplace like Audible.com, too. People could tour without the Blue Book syndrome,eg “looking like a Tourist”.
Somehow I doubt you mentioned your belief (at least the one you expressed to me 5 years ago) that all American troops should be withdrawn from Europe during your talk to the German Marshall Fund.
I like your guides the way they are and the purpose they serve. For the pretty pictures I go to Eyewitness. I purchase all my books from half.com and buy two or three different ones for dirt cheap. Your 2008 France guide is selling for $1.84, how great is that. So instead of spending 21 dollars on one book I can get 3 different ones for about 15.00. I check out the selection at Barnes and Noble then go home and order from half.com.
Good to have you back, Rick. I have a question for you and I’m not sure where to put it. Since you seems to encourage polical sharing please share some on this. I have heard from two different sources (and hope they’re both wrong) that the UK has removed the Holocaust from their school curriculum to avoid offending groups who claim it never occurred. I am horrified by any censorship, especially of history! Has anyone else heard about this?
DeAnn, it’s an urban myth. As always when you hear something ridiculous on the Internet about Obama or anything else, your first stop should be snopes.com. They are completely nonpartisan and debunk the endless nonsense that people pass around as truth. Here’s the specific link for your query: http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/holocaust.asp Great blog, Rick! Wish you wrote down at least a few short thoughts a day rather than waiting for them to build up, but I also know how hard that can be to do (much less to make a living at it!).
Good blog entry, Rick.
Thanks, Steve. I “Bookmarked” the site.
I find that a huge exhibition hall filled with crass tourism come-ons is a poignant environment for a talk that challenges people to travel for more than gaining calories and a tan. I attended the Exhibition and I was at your talk. I understand the point you were trying to get across – namely when you travel do so not just to take a break but to experience the local culture and gain an understanding of the local people. That’s a great point, I just wish you could have found a way to say it without being insulting. To call people who go on cruises ‘hedonists’ is for the most part mean. You want us to be understanding of other cultures and give them the benefit of the doubt for their views. Funny thing is you weren’t doing that for those of us attending your talk. My folks have been on cruises and they DESERVE those vacations. They did without a lot to raise my sister and I and if now that we’re older they want to have some fun who are you to call them crass hedonists? Most of the people at that expo are middle income folks hoping for a deal on travel – not rich people who just call up the travel agent. Oh and by the way after going to that expo their next trip is to China! They wouldn’t be going so far out of their comfort zone if it weren’t for that crass tourism expo. I’ve been a fan of your shows for years but I was really disappointed in you for taking an hour yell at a crowd of people for wanting to do what you do for a living!
Wow Sue well done. I have never been on a cruise, always done Europe for as long as I have been able to take vacations but the next year or two coming up i don’t know that I will be able to do anything BUT a cruise. Just an economic reality
Carla and Sue, I hate to say it, but as far as I am concerned, cruises are not nearly as much fun as they used to be. (Of course, neither am I!) We took a couple of cruises on the new large ships, and didn’t like them at all. It was as if they took one of the Vegas hotels, laid it on its side and floated it to Mexico. We enjoyed the smaller ships and the passengers of 30 to 40 years ago, so much more. Our first cruise was on the Carla C, with the name “Princess Cruises†on a bed sheet hung over the side of the rented ship, they didn’t own a ship yet. And our first Carnival Cruise was on the Mardi Gras, their first ship. We took a 7 week freighter cruise with 70 passengers, on the Enna G to Saipan, and crossed the Atlantic on the TSS Stefan Batory with about 300 passengers. And a few other cruises on what would now be called small ships, for a total of over 100 nights on the water. Of course if my Sweetie had been with me on my first “cruise†over 62 years ago (a troop ship to Calcutta and back, with my 18th birthday in Singapore) I would have enjoyed it much more. We also spent 968 nights in Europe (605 of them in our RV in campsites, 300 with Sweeties cousins), so you see, we liked to travel, travel, travel. Oh, one of the most interesting nights on a ship, we fixed our meals and had a good nights sleep in our RV, as we sailed from Italy to Greece.
I would love to buy the new DVD’s when they come out. We have all the DVD’s you have produced now. I really liked the way you first did the guide books, they had just enought info to follow while you travel. Last year when we went to Italy I felt like I was hauling around a huge thick book.
Sue…… what you experienced at the expo was Rick’s liberal elitist snobbery!
Rick, If you indeed were extremely anti-cruise, please consider this. My elderly father is no longer capable of handling a lot of walking in Europe. Going on a Rhine/Mosel or Danube cruise (the last two cruises my parents have done) gives him the opportunity to re-visit some favorite places and explore new places as he is able without having to re-pack every time he moves from one place to the next. Their next cruise will be a month-long cruise around South America. Interestingly, my captcha word is “chrism” which should be familiar to Catholics and Episcopalians on here.
I get your point, Sue. There are many modes of travel and we each take the one we feel comfortable with or need at a certain point in our lives. Me, I like to try them all (probably a “liberal” point of view?)
Mike, give it a rest. Calling Rick (or me) a “liberal” is a compliment. While his speech appears to have been snobbish, there was certainly nothing insultingly liberal in it.
Of course for those who like to take advantage of any opportunity to throw around “liberal” as if it were an insult, I guess any forum will do.
Hear, hear, +1, and word, Jungle George!
Jungle George…… glad you enjoyed the compliment! Nevertheless, it was Rick who injected the political tone into this blog (which he has every right to do), even going so far as to include a disclaimer about political content in the home page of the blog. I’m sure Rick is well aware that by openly stating his political opinions and taking cheap shots at conservatives, that he opens himself up to criticism from the other side. Believe me, he’s a big boy, and he can take it! You might find it interesting that I actually AGREE that there is much to be gained by understanding other cultures, and while there are definitely some things we as Americans can learn and potentially implement into our own lives from these experiences, I don’t believe that we need to fundamentaly change our country (as liberals tend to advocate)in order to be more like them. Cradle to grave entitlements, and the high taxes required to pay for them (as is the case in Europe) is simply something that many in America are opposed to, and things which Rick appears to advocate. So if it looks like a liberal and talks like a liberal…. I’ll call it a liberal! Again, I hope you enjoyed the compliment.
No, Rick. Jesus was not a community organizer. He was a KIng above all kings. And those who trivialize Jesus the Christ to a campaign slogan are no different from the non-believing rabble who tried to crown him as a earthly king, then turned on him later.
THANKS for asking… but I am doing just fine! Just a little LAZY ya’ know?! lz-blogger.blogspot.com ~ jb///