still havana funny, it doesn't look like havana. but maybe that's because we're stuck inside this white, windowless box of a room over the garage at the back of the driveway of jose and maria's casa particular in vedado. there's a standard air conditioner where the window should be, but it's impotent in the face of this crushing tropical heat. in fact, it seems like we have 3 strikes against us: first, money: fidel taking 2 dollars out of every 10 we spend, magnified by our not being able to use our formerly omnipotent ATM or credit cards, as punishment for being americans. second: language
Jamaica, mon, 2009: chapter 4, from Kingston to Negrille
chapter 4 august 1, 2009 montego bay, jamaica gracias a dios!. we're back in jamaica, mon. after just 12 days in communist, ganja-free cuba, our discomfort and disappointment have forced us to eat the $300 ticket-changing penalty, and get the hell out of dodge (i.e. havana)! apparently we haven't learned our jamaican lesson yet. and duh? what exactly is that lesson? "pardone-me, senor." i've bumped into a short, stocky, maybe 60 year old gentleman behind me in line, as we're making our way through the havana airport rigamaroll. he's well dressed in a white pleated cubano-style dress shir
America’s Southwest, 2009: Surya’s (& her husband’s) excellent adventure to the 4 corners
june, 13, 2009 the american southwest i'm lying face-up on a hard redwood picnic table, about 10 miles southeast of durango, colorado, staring straight up at the big sky through the towering green ponderosa pines. i'm looking for something, but i don't know what. the clouds are moving so fast overhead that rain threatens every 5 minutes or so. in between the dark gray celestial galleons, the hot sun burns down strong enough for me to bare my soul, i mean, my chest. i'm at the zenith of our hard-driving toyota matrix' 12 day roooaaad trip across john ford's amurhican west. we're covering 25
Amsterdam, 2008: just about my favorite city on the planet
the perfect city, a place to grow old in. "perfect"? i remember in alleppey, india, sitting at the edge of the gently flowing, cow brown river, laid back with my feet up on the old wooden arms of the traditional "grandfather chair", feeling i was in the "perfect" place.... watching the river flower... at peace w/ myself and the universe. not having to move anywhere, not having to pursue anything, just letting "it" all come to me. via river. i mean, why could spalding (gray) never find his elusive "perfect" moment when i was finding them, and am still finding them, all the time. perfect eno
China, 2007: chapter one: meshugah
beijing, china there's a funny and perfect word in yiddish, "meshugah". simply translated, it means, "crazy". for example: you're a young, privileged new yawk woman, possibly of the jewish-american persuasion, the boss' daughter to be exact; you've convinced your rich, 1st generation american daddy to make your husband, chosen against daddy's firm will, vice president of the company; then after having 2 perfect and wonderful kids and filled up a huge long island house with countless, keep-up-with-the joneses possessions, you fall in love with the puerto rican cabin boy, after which you a
China, 2007: chapter 2, who’s conning who in the forbidden city?
the forbidden city, beijing here we are. da wife and i. within the forbidden city. within the ancient, restored red chinese walls. under the massive yellow-tiled roofs. amidst the largest and most impressive conglomeration of historical buildings in all of china. this would have been unheard of any tine within the last 500 years, from the initial encasing of the royal walled city in the 15th century, up until 1911, the year when the 5 year old "last emperor", puyi, was forced from the throne. for 500 years, no commoners were allowed inside these hallowed and fortified walls, from where only t
China, 2007: chapter 3, a medicinal journey thru china
july 28, 2007 xi'an, china i love oysters. always have. half a dozen, cold on the half shell, with a tan beer and fresh, warm bread. and butter. a perfect combination. i remember a trendy blues club on the north side of chicago, ratso's. named, no doubt after dustin hoffman's "midnight cowboy" lame hustler. notice i said "north side", not the black south side, where the blues came up from mississippi and new orleans to the big city and got electric, but on trendy lincoln avenue, pre-steppenwolf, circa 1972. anyway, ratso's had the best oysters, and even when i was broke on a hundred d
China, 2007: chapter 4: sino synchronicity
> august 8, 2007 (1 year countdown to the beijing 2008 olympics), nanjing, china, i remember back when i had cancer. hodgkin's disease. cancer of the lymphatic system. stage 3B. 1989. after the initial shock of the positive biopsy and doing my due diligent research on every steve mcqueen, alternative mexican cure i could find on the early world wide web, i opted for, and committed to, treatment by chemo therapy. whereas hodgkin's disease had, just a generation before, killed a good deal of my boyhood hero, mickey mantle's, family in the 40s and 50s, and used to be an absolutely fat
China, 2007: chapter 5, tending gardens
august 10, 2007 suzhou, china i want to talk about gardens. and gardening. and life. my own. life and garden. and more geographically relevantly, suzhou’s gardens. one of the great national treasures of imperial and contemporary china. tucked just a few fertile miles upstream of shanghai, before the mighty and muddy yangtze curls and opens her wide, dragon-like mouth into the great pacific. you see, historically, the great, fierce, and warring chinese imperial dynasties always valued and invested in their beautiful and sumptuous gardens. as palaces and private kingdoms to entertain in. as
China, 2007: chapter 6, the traveler’s best friend or… shanghai-ed in shanghai
october 15, 2007 los angeles, CA i know, i know, these are supposed to be travelogues, stories from the great far off unknown. stories of adventure, insight, and discovery. stories of long houses, longer rivers, of great walls and forbidden cities, of multi-cultural, trans-global complexities. e-travels, dammit! and here i am e-mailing you from echo park, a home run away from dodger stadium, already back in LA for almost 2 months. but the fact is that i’ve been begrudgingly back to the daily grind and routine that all of us are plowing our communal and idiosyncratic ways through - since lat