Around a Firepit, My Interrogations Continue

Last night we went to a party in a Holyoke neighborhood where there were eight dogs in attendance. It was a birthday party for a Pomerian-mix named Pinot, and among the friends were a giant Great Dane named Willow and assorted Bichon Frise and little lapdogs. One tiny white dog kept barking in Willow's face, challenging the slobbering behemoth, but she never took the bait.

Our hosts had just bought a new backyard firepit that stood upright with the fire contained in a vertical chamber. When the sun went down the pit was stoked, providing a cozy warmth in the cool May night air. Fires always bring out conversation, and as darkness cloaked us we stared at the flames.

Two of the men at the party worked for the FAA. I asked one of them a lot of questions and at one point I think I asked too many, the reporter in me is always looking for a story but I think it felt like a police interrogation. I backed off, apologizing, but later we got back to the topic of what the FAA does and what he does, which is the question I always want to ask people I meet for the first time.

I asked him about NextGen, the big push to bring more modern navigation to airline routes and he said it was a big, big job and a primary focus. He said that he travels around the country checking out airports and runways and that he loves to travel for fun, and goes often with our host and hostess on trips around the world. It was nice getting to know new people around a fire, and when we got up to leave and headed home, sleep came very quickly.

She's Off to Alaska, Where the Goods Are Odd

Last night I went out in search of fellowship at a local bar, but ended up talking to the bartenders. One 25-year-old named Rachel was hugging her fellow employees as she was leaving for a big trip in a few weeks, and ending her job at the bar. "Where are you going?" I asked her. "Denali, Alaska," she said with a smile. I asked her about Alaska's purported unbalanced male/female ratio, which she confirmed was eight to one in favor of men. "They say the odds are good, but the goods are odd," she said with a laugh.

I usually expect to find people I know at this bar but I didn't, so I walked out into the soft night. People were jaywalking across lower Main St., toward Fitzwilly's. I saw a big line in a corner restaurant called Local Burger. I had read about these guys in the NY Times. I had to have a taste.

The slender woman at the counter kept telling the people ahead of me that the Valley Burger was 12 oz. It cost $8.99. When I reached the counter I asked for an Angus burger. To go. It arrived in a paper wrapper, with lettuce tomato and pickles, and was about an inch thick. Oh boy, tooo good not to devour right away! I gotta give these people props, that was a world class burger and no wonder the line is so long to order!

I was awakened by Nathan who came into my room saying "It's Teapot day." I'm on duty with the little lad until 12, we'll hit the bikepath, make a dump run in the truck, and check out Deerfield's Old Home Day at the elementary school.

The Rain Keeps Falling and Strategies Need Plans

It's another gray rainy day, and for many of us that is just one day too long without sun. Ugh, it feels like we're living in Seattle. Despite how cool the people are, how great the coffee is, and how wonderful it must be to shop at Pike's Market, forget it--I'd never, ever live there if I had to deal with this rain four out of seven days a week!

Today's Friday, a shortened version of a work week since Monday was, well, Sunday. Today I hope to revive my television show idea that I got going but was sidelined when Marty the TV guy had a heart problem that landed him in the hospital. I think that a GoNOMAD cable TV show would be a lot of fun, and might even try to work something about cooking in the cafe into the mix.

One thing I thought about yesterday in my office: sometimes working for yourself is harder than having a job because nobody tells you what you should do next. So many of us just run around putting out fires instead of building our businesses and investing the time into projects that would ultimately be the most important.

Who tells me what to do? I sometimes have to step back and think, and heed the counsel of Cindy and my other friends. What would they suggest I do? Spend less time in the cafe, work on website projects that will build over time. So maybe spending a bunch of time trying to plan a TV show isn't a top priority. I bet that's what Cindy would say!

Experiencing the Hajj in Mecca

I've always been fascinated with the Islamic tradition of the Hajj, the mandatory pilgrimage to Mecca that all good Muslims must undertake at least once in their lives. I'm still enjoying "In the Land of Invisible Women" and Qanta Ahmed goes into great detail about this most cherished and closed event that turned her from a 'lite' Muslim to a much more devout one.

Her decision to make the trip to Mecca was greeted with delight by her fellow doctors and residents in the Saudi hospital where she works. It was the number of pilgrims that amazed me as I read her exhuberant report of the experience. Joining the march around the cube-shaped Kaaba, seven obligitory rotations, she joins a crowd of hundreds of thousands, swept into a joyous delirium of religious fervor. Here, we realize she is at the apex of Islam, no holier place on earth exists.

Entering the Grand mosque at Mecca called Al-Masjid al-Haram, that holds 750,000 pilgrims on three floors, she describes a sea of white clad bodies, all carefully veiled, no hair showing, segregated by sex. It's hard to imagine a building that holds a crowd seven times as big as most major football arenas, and it is this same torrent of humanity and absolute flood of people throughout the entire two-week experience.

A convoy of hundreds of thousands of buses take pilgrims to the Plains of Mount Arafat, where they will camp in air conditioned tents. One night she's called to help a sick women in a faraway tent; en route she realizes that there are hundreds of thousands more pilgrims who spend the night beneath trucks and on the roadsides. They can't afford to be in the tents, but endure the desert cold with no complaints.

Ahmed's description of her powerful transformation as a result of doing the Hajj left even an athiest like me impressed; jealous of the joy that being a true believer brought her.

Authors and Places Have Their Moments in the Sun

I've managed to split my time in almost exactly half today---beginning at 6:30 am at the cafe, helping Sara open up and minding the register, and ending publishing my article about Beaumont Texas at 5:45 pm. Today we published an article by Elizabeth Bagley about the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound, a place I was in love with when I visited in 1999.

Publishing an article about a place gives you a little window, that day, into that place. I spent some time looking at a map to determine the name of the body of water that contains the four islands (Puget Sound) and got that info from a friend on Twitter named Mika who lives in Portland. I also spent time poring over a map of Nova Scotia, planning a trip on the hydrofoil Cat ferry for Steve Flahive, who will go north in June. I asked Skip the PR guy if they had any good breweries there, and he said no. He added that there is a distillery that makes super high test whisky, even too strong for him to enjoy.

I'm also trying to get an idea of where to visit in Portugal, where I am looking at going to the southern most tip, called Sagres, and over across the Algarve region, at the bottom of Europe. This will be a road trip with Sam along for the ride. I enjoyed traveling with him in England, so he'll join me on this September trip.

Prisoners Will Fight for the Glory of the Tour

Reuters reports today that in France, prisoners are the new athletes who are racing on bikes.

NANTES, France (Reuters) - Close to 200 prisoners will cycle around France next month, watched by scores of guards on bicycles, in the first penal version of the Tour de France, authorities said Monday.

The 196 prisoners will cycle in a pack and breakaway sprints will not be allowed. They will be accompanied by 124 guards and prison sports instructors. There will be no ranking, the idea being to foster values like teamwork and effort.

"It's a kind of escape for us, a chance to break away from the daily reality of prison," said Daniel, a 48-year-old prisoner in the western city of Nantes, at the official launch of the event. His last name was not given.

"If we behave well, we might be able to get released earlier, on probation," he told reporters.

The prisoners' Tour de France will take them 2,300 km (1,400 miles) around the country, starting in the northern city of Lille on June 4 and stopping in 17 towns, each of which has a prison. However, participants will sleep in hotels.

A Strange Synchronized Saudi Kissing Geometry

Qanta Ahmed is a doctor who spent a few years practicing medicine in Saudi Arabia. When I heard about her book, entitled "In the Land of Invisible Women," I knew I wanted to read it. In fact I liked the title and the story so much we just published an excerpt of this book on GoNOMAD. The author, a proper British Muslim who has never experienced life behind the abbayah, tells stories of what life is like here in what some call the most repressive and backward 'modern' country on Earth.

Yet she describes wonderful moments when women can take off their black abbayas and have fun behind 20 foot high walls of private homes. Joyously smoking a hookah, dancing to evocative sexy Arab music, and discovering how beauty can be enriched when it's so elusive, Qanta loves this part of her new life.

In one hospital scene, she's waiting for a Saudi surgeon to look at one of her patients, who of course is fully veiled and covered even in a hospital bed. But before any patient care, elaborate greetings must be done. A gaggle of male doctors meets another, and it's time for kissing and lengthy hand holdings. "slowly, methodically, the men were kissing one another on each side of the face: each cheek, twice, thrice, four times, even more, as I lost count. At the same time they shook hands and embraced in endless combinations of two--a strange synchronized kissing geometry. Nothing could proceed until every Saudi scrub suit had greeted every other Saudi scrub suit. Of course, all women were excluded, the veiled phalanx stood wordlessly, as usual to one side"

It's Like Having Two Saturday Nights in a Row

Memorial Day, like many of the "Big Six" holidays, feels like Ground Hog Day. That's because when you wake up on Saturday morning, it's like Friday, and then on lazy Sunday, well, it feels like Saturday. It's fun for me to look back at what I was doing over the past few years; last year I was just about to depart for the Loire Valley. A blog I wrote then showed twelve lovely feet, all wearing flats, in a cooking class I took in Tours that day.

France has the biggest pull for me; there's something about France that I love more than any other country. I am excited about going back there in late June, taking a trip to Normandy where we will meet chefs and locals and stay in a town called Brix.

This morning I got a foreboding sensation of what can happen when I leave. A call-out at the cafe almost had me jumping in the truck and heading north, thank God other staff rallied and we solved the problem. I refuse to knuckle under, and keep planning trips; I just hope that everything survives in my absence. Portugal, Italy and New Zealand are coming up in the months ahead.

Today we'll visit with old friends we met in 2004 when we all took a cooking class together at Mami Camilla, in Sorrento Italy. Alim and Laurel live in Geneva and are here for her Smith College reunion. It will be a lot of fun to have lunch here with them and catch up with their lives as expats. We've tried several times to include a stop in Geneva during one of our trips but it's never worked out. Cindy and I are very pleased to be able to see there here in Holyoke.

Nollywood's Chances Are Hurt by Rampant Piracy

Have you ever heard of Nollywood? Apparently, Nigeria's film business is 2nd only to its better known cousin from India. A story by Will Connors datelined Lagos told the story of a booming business that's threatened only by something insidiuous--piracy. In 2006 nearly 900 movies came straight outta Lagos.

Not the piracy we hear about off the Somali coast, no the type that undercuts so many legitimate software companies, music labels and filmmakers. It seems that Nigeria's creative output is huge, and the demand is so high that when fans can't buy a legal copy they go out and get the bootlegged version, killing prices for the struggling filmmakers.

One title that the story said gives Nigeria its biggest chance at international exposure is called "Usuofia in London," about an African who goes straight from his village into London. So far more than 500,000 DVDs have been sold. In Nigeria films are shot for between $15-25,000 and hit the street vendors and video clubs quickly. But 70% of their yearly revenue from selling the films is lost to piracy, since they burn the movies onto non-copy protected DVDs. A big seller will run short of these legal copies so pirates fill the void, but of course none of them pay anything back to the filmmaker.

The police here seem to have more important work to do than crack down on DVD-copying operations....one raid ended with a brief confrontation and the pirates burning the police truck to the ground, but no stop to the copying.

Now the Writing Part, the Hardest Thing About a Press Trip

I'm thinking about Beaumont, Texas on this glorious pre-holiday Friday. The cafe was booming so I finally now have time to do what I spend many hours avoiding every day. That is writing the stories that result from my travels.

Travel writers will tell you that getting back to a story is tough, once you've put the notebook away and you've begun thinking and planning your next trip. No, you're not out of the woods, you think, you've still got to chronicle and describe that last place. If you let it go too far, then you've got real problems, so I always try to get it done within a month or so. I'm getting to the end of the time I give myself.

Texas was an eye-opening experience, and the people I met there were friendly, welcoming and a lot of fun. It should be easy to write this story, I've just got to nail myself down to this chair and do it.

As is often the case, one of my blogs got me into trouble, so I've removed a post from earlier in the week. I hope that everyone is happy now, some day I've got to learn how to write a blog that people won't ask me to remove.

Mary Louise Parker Wishes Her Nipples Weren't on YouTube

The other day I found a story about the top ten high tech busts of the past decade. A few surprised me. On the list was YouTube.com, Microsoft's Zune music player, Microsoft's Vista operating system, Sirius/XM satellite radio, Gateway Computer, and the Segway device. Oh, and the Iridium satellite telephone service, that once cost $5 per minute.

But I can't help but think the author, Douglas McIntyre, is wrong. Segway sales, for example, were up fifty percent in 2008. While the public may have balked at the high price tag of the mobility device when it first came out, tourism entrepreneurs and police are using them across the world. They're even working on a tiny Segway car, so I don't think Dean Kamen is done yet.

YouTube, of course is ubiquitous and some day soon Google will find the most efficient way to make money from topics like Mary Louise Parker's nipples, which the actress says she really wishes she didn't expose on her television show 'Weeds, ' to be immortalized on a million hard drives. I met people from Google's advertising division at a show who said that using custom YouTube channels was a key to helping destinations like Las Vegas market themselves. With hundreds of millions of monthly users, how can this not some day pull an Amazon and become a big money maker. Remember how long it took that company to make a profit?

Satellite radio...well I can see that one did arrive with great promise. But the problem here was that they paid Howard Stern half a billion and didn't expect new car sales to fall off a cliff. I think something that's free for decades like over-the-air radio is damn hard to charge money for especially during a severe recession.

Gateway? When I owned Computer Cleaners, these boxes were the ones we'd see more than others, they were truly crappy systems and the story said their downfall was that they didn't get into making laptops fast enough. HD-DVD was another victim, since there was only room for one high-def format and like the great Beta/VHS debate, one winner that is Blu Tooth.

May Grayness Bums Out New Englanders

I sat on the treadmill at the Y yesterday and watched a silent TV. Silent because the jack that I was supposed to plug into didn't work. On one of the TVs a man bowled and I watched him throw 12 strikes! The show was called "America's Best Bowler" and by God, this guy sure qualified, putting down a perfect 300 on ABC-TV. Like a hole-in-one, you rarely get to see people go 12/12 right there in front of you.

The greyness of the day is frustrating for frozen New Englanders like me who are collectively yearning for warmth and sunshine. Maybe later in the week. I was happy not to get any text messages today about call-outs, so we should be 'all hands on deck' today at the cafe.

As I plan our trip to Normandy in late June, I just hope that all is ok and everything works fine in my absence. This year's travel has been reduced because of my fear that being away will create meltdown conditions as has happened in the past. I was happy though that Sony went to Tunisia instead of me...so far her blogs have been wonderful and I know her story will be first rate. We're sending Izzy our beloved intern of this semester off to Valencia on Delta's inaugural flight out of JFK, and we're working with New Jersey tourism on a family travel story to their seashore.

Gotta get up to Deerfield and get back into the fray. It should be a good day!

A Story that Makes You Glad You're In a Small House

I awoke with great relief the other morning. The big lump in my abdomen was only a dream. I compared this wash of relief to how I felt today as I read a long, sad winding story about Edmund Andrews, a New York Times business reporter, who experienced first hand almost losing his overmortgaged house. The facts were plain--he and his girlfriend who he married after she made the move cross-c0untry simply fell under the water and despite his $120,000 a year Times salary, they still expect the ax to fall soon on their big Maryland house. I kept thinking how worth it it is to be tripping over all of this stuff in our crowded house and not have problems like this guy.

Times reporters make $120K a year? No wonder the company is losing so much dough. But Edmunds story included a bedroom scene where he tossed and turned at 3 am, thinking about bills he couldn't pay and the looming spectre of his giant mortgage payment. He wakes up his wife and she begins to hassle him; why can't you stop fretting about the bills, even on my birthday? She loses her job and he has to borrow from his mother, but even this $15K is not enough to keep the wolves at bay. They're now 30 days behind on their big mortgage.

He tries to call CitiBank but there are so many foreclosures, they don't even return his call; clearly he's just a blip among a huge pack of the unfortunate and everyone needs to take their turn to get the beleagured bank's attention. His kids love the house and adjust well to the local schools, but looming out there is the reset that will put his mortgage payment into an unreachable place.

Edmunds wrote a book about his nightmare, but as the narrative ends, we don't know whether the house was foreclosed, and if he and Patty are now living in a cheaper apartment. Just glad that he ain't me.

A Man From Iran Stood Waiting for His Daughter

It's gonna be a hot day today, all of that pent up heat finally pouring forth from the May sun. At the cafe we've got some new people working in, getting a feel for what we do. I was stunned yesterday when I called five applicants back and asked them on voicemail to come in and meet us. Each had replied to a Craig's list ad, just a week back. To a person, none showed up. I thought people needed jobs and that times were tough...but apparently they aren't tough enough to actually show up and interview for a job.

I did have a bright spot, though, when a new intern at the website showed up five minutes early for her get acquainted interview. Her name is Kimya and her family is from Iran. I saw a man standing out on the corner of our building, waiting there, looking around. I didn't know who he was, and so I finally asked him if I could help. "My daughter is in there talking about her internship," he replied with a smile. I approached him and shook his hand, telling him about my visit to Iran in November. "Rick Steves, when he went to Iran, was really all wrong about how he described the government," he told me. "He shouldn't have commented on that."

I told him about how Steve's stories made me excited about visiting, and how much I liked meeting the friendly people. "I haven't been back to Iran in twenty-nine years," he said. "You'd know more about Iran now than me."

So we've got three solid interns for the summer, and are still looking for those elusive reliable baristas. They're out there, I guess we just have to look a little harder.

Advice for Travelers in Reader's Digest from GoNOMAD

Here is some advice that I gave the writer from Reader's Digest who just published a guide to travel bargains around the US. I was in good company, including Pauline Frommer, Peter Greenberg, Matt Gross (NYT's Frugal Traveler), and AP travel editor Beth Harpaz.

Massachusetts and Vermont: "Ecotourism doesn't have to mean roughing it in a jungle. You can do something in an afternoon, like a white-water adventure on the Deerfield River in Massachusetts. Put in at Florida and you end up farther south in Charlemont. Choose a group raft and a professional guide, or bring your own tubes and kayaks and do a self-guided trip. Kingdom Trails, voted best trail network for mountain biking in North America by readers of Bike Magazine, is in East Burke, Vermont."
--Max Hartshorne, editor, gonomad.com

Read more of the story here.

Hiring During the Recession

It's a new day and time to meet a bunch of new potential hires. I will put four prospects to the test, I asked them all to stop by and meet us. Half the test is seeing if they actually show up, or call as a result of our reaching out.

It's that first impression that often carries over into what people will be like as employees, so this is what we're checking on. I just read on Jim Neil's blog that reporter Mary Carey lost her job at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. The sad thing is that she's one of their best reporters, and on her blog she showed a photo of her with two much older reporters. Shouldn't they, and not her, been the ones to kick to the curb?

I wonder if she wants to work in our cafe. It's a step down from the joy of being a full-time reporter...but writer Jackie Stevenson has enjoyed working for us part time, even as she continues her writing jobs as a freelancer and part-timer.

I'll reach out and see, maybe she wants to come over and work with us. If not I understand, but it's tough out there and a job is a job, isn't it?

The Pain Is Worse When You Get Older

I was walking down the cellar stairs, carrying an enormous basket of laundry, when I hit something and my feet came out from under me. I landed with a thud, but not a lot of pain, on my mid-back. I made it through my day so far without a lot of pain, and then wham, driving, it hits me again like it's been stored up and waiting to pounce.

One thing about getting older is that hurts hurt more, and you can't just bounce back so fast. It's now throbbing in pain as I sit here and go through my blogging duties. I am hoping that Arnica will do the trick, waiting for my son-in-law to get back to administer the dose.

It's a soggy day here and it's nice to have editor Stephen Hartshorne back in the office after his joyful trip down to Texas. His blog was absolutely exhuberant about his adventures visiting parades, meeting orchestra conductors, playing with baby alligators and eating crawfish.

I'm excited too about sending people around the world in search of stories...today we're dispatching one of our all-time favorite interns Izzy to Valencia, Spain, and old pro Kent St. John to Athens to view the restored Acropolis. I'm hoping to be able to round out these travels by going to Normandy with Shoul, if the fates line up right.

A Declining Bounce Rate Is Good for GoNOMAD

We woke up to unseasonably cold temps in Holyoke, and were glad the heat came on to warm the chill. A lot is happening in my busy world, it's spinning like a top. But what's the alternative? A slowed down world wouldn't be any fun, so I forge ahead and try to hang on.

We did some tweaking on GoNOMAD, following the advice we got from our friend Enrique, who does Search engine optimizing down in CT. He came up and not only gave us great advice, but loved the short tour I gave him of Deerfield's lovely farm fields and spread out neighborhoods. The great news is that our 'bounce rate,' or the percentage of people who visit our site and click into read more has improved by nearly 25%! That's a giant step for us, and is very good news.

We also like having more navigation buttons on the sides and soon we'll add a slideshow function and some other cool stuff to the site. We've added new hotel and hostel affiliations and expect that these will pay us dividends down the road as we implement them across the site.

We put up a new collection of photographs from Sardinia in the cafe, taken by Donna Connor, a talented shooter who we met on that trip. It's nice to have some new photos in the cafe, and to have something new to release to the press. Gotta keep thinking about them, each new show an opportunity to get in the papers.

Paper Says "We're Sorry" But Do Readers Care?

In London, newspaper marketing has reached a new low. In today's WSJ, a story reveals a new strategy to promote a revamped Evening Standard, the lone paid daily paper, that competes with two free dailies and is losing the battle. Their pitch? We're sorry.

The afternoon daily began a billboard campaign that declared 'Sorry for being compacent,' and 'for losing touch,' and 'being predictable.' The paper's new owners are trying to convince reluctant readers that they're now in touch, and that they'll be different, and hopefully more appealing. The unidentified billboards use the same typeface as the paper's logo, but their stark message has taken Londoners by surprise.

The new owner is Russian business tycoon Alexander Lebedev, who is toning down the conservative paper's opinion pages and redesigning the broadsheet to be launched on Monday. A new set of billboards and ads will promise that the paper 'will listen,' and 'to surprise you.'

You Can Share Your Own Little Wi-Fi Bubble

David Pogue writes with clarity and eloquence about complicated topics that other writers make too dense. He, like me, is inspired some times by new products and inventions and a recent Personal Tech column in the NY Times stood out.

The device he was raving about is called the Novatel MiFi 2200. It's a tiny little pad that creates a personal Wi-Fi circle that people can share with their friends, or seatmates on a bus. It brings Wi-Fi anywhere, and is better than an iPhone because it creates a tiny portable network, not just a single connection.

Verizon is going to cash in big on this device, and they deserve to make a lot of dough. MiFi is the size of three credit cards or an elongated pack of about 25 playing cards. For $40 a month you can get email and surf the web. If you want to download music and movies, you can pay for a $60 a month plan to do that..There's even a $15 pass for 24 hours, in case you're doing a tradeshow or want to pass the time in a place with the 'Net.

The MiFi doesn't need a power cord like your home router does, it uses a rechargeable battery like a laptop; a single charge can last a whole day. This is one device I am definitely jonesing for, and can't wait to give you my personal report and impress fellow passengers by sharing my signal the next time I'm in an airport where they charge too much for Wi-Fi.

Two Cities, Two Scenes, All Good

Some evenings shine brighter because it seems you're just in the right place at the right time. Last night I hit two cities that both drew energy from the enthusiasm of the people who were there. I began with a Compari and soda on Shoul's back deck, a bright red drink I'd heard of but never tried. Refreshing!

We drove down to Paper City Studios on Holyoke's lower canal to a massive art opening for about a dozen artists who have their studios there. The building has six tall arches outlining the upper windows in decorative brick, and inside the studios have high ceilings and lots of space. The crowd was deep, people milling outside holding drinks, and we entered a big room where girls dressed in black brought out delicious food like satays, steamed buns and platters of chicken. Signs directed us to visit more studios here, and to veer off there to find photography. I ran into John Williamson, affable old bud, and saw Marc Berman and his wife Betsy, and my blogging buddy Peter Van Dog. who took the photo above.

We made our way through room after room, each unique and filled with chatting artists sipping wine, until we got to the top floor, where old friend Ben Banville had a massive installation, with dangling points and a giant farm implement. Across the room, Amy Johnquest had thousands of plastic balls laid out in a pattern near three mysterious old vending machines. The art reminded me of what I've seen at Mass MOCA, I didn't get it but I did remember it. We talked to some of the artists who moved down here from Florence to save about half the cost of rent, across the street at Canal St. Studios. What a view one artist has, a cozy seat by the big window overlooking the canal!

But our night was young, and I had to bring Paul and Pam to my new Holyoke fav, so we drove to the Bungalow. It was a balmy evening and we enjoyed a drink on the patio next to the roaring firepit. "A lot of people come for the first time and don't come back," said a manager there. But my Northampton friends were very impressed with my secret.

We didn't stay as long as I would have liked but it was time to head up to the city that is used to claiming all of the Valley's nightlife. We walked into La Veracruzana to a raucuous scene, a latin band was blasting salsa and meringue and the crowd was dancing wildly. Owner Martin Carrera brought us beers and told me he'd love to open up a family style Mexican place in Holyoke. The band, led by Freddy Chapelliquen, was called, MarKamusic and had the crowd going wild playing Colombia songs and then Oye Como Va, to the delight of the dancing crowd.

I turned to Shoul and as we chowed down on enchiladas; we agreed that Northampton's still the place to be on Friday nights....even as Holyoke gets better and better.

Radio Faces a Battle Over Music

Radio stations have a new problem to add to their woes. They're being challenged by a proposal by record labels and artists to require them to pay up to $500 million more in royalties for the priviledge of playing their songs.

Radio stations already pay out hefty fees to songwriters and music publishers to license the tunes. But big names like Sheryl Crow and Tony Bennett are trying to woo Congress to support a bill that would assess the additional fee, pushing some overleveraged radio stations to financial brink.

For the music industry, winning a new levy like this would prop them up after decades of declining CD sales, and a losing fight against piracy. Each side is fighting hard, the radio people saying they are the ones who promote music, and the musicians saying that without them radio is nothing.

One lobbyist for the music industry claims radio's promotional value is on the wane. So many people get their music from so many different sources, she says, 'music promotes radio,' not the other way around. But Boston's famous radio programmer Oedipus retorts, 'Can you imagine the outrage if radio stations demanded to be paid for playing a song? After all, it is a commercial for the band."

According to the story in the WSJ, the House Judiciary Committee could vote on the bill as early as next week. Stay tuned, and keep listening!

Connecting Rail Trails Will Double Their Usage!

Excellent news for anyone who rides a bike or thinks they should ride their bike a little more often. Northampton officials have announced that citizens will soon vote about extending their trail to meet the Manhan Rail Trail in Easthampton, making the connection between towns that will turn the trail into a useful path for commuters and not just a recreational haven.

Here are some details from the Gazette.

The project, which is being financed with federal stimulus money, hit a roadblock when a towing company owner with land along the route claimed a right to the property, but the city has settled with Frank N. Fournier III, and all the land acquisitions along the 2.6-mile route will be "friendly" takings, city officials said. The project is scheduled to get underway this summer and completed by 2011. The link will stretch from the Manhan Rail Trail in Easthampton just north of Ferry Street to the intersection of Grove and Earle streets in Northampton. There it will join a newly paved section of trail that leads to the Roundhouse parking lot behind the Peter Pan bus station.

Other sections of that trail through downtown Northampton are in various stages of construction. When completed, it will cross Pleasant Street and run parallel to an active railroad line, crossing Main and North streets on new bridges installed last year. The downtown trail, which does not yet have a name, will come out on King Street near the Stop & Shop supermarket, where it will link up with the Northampton section of the Norwottuck Rail Trail.

Most of the right-of-way from Easthampton to Earle Street belongs to National Grid, which has agreed to a friendly taking by the two cities using uncontested eminent domain procedures, according to Northampton Planning Director Wayne M. Feiden. National Grid took control of the rail corridors for its transmission lines, when railroad operations ceased decades ago.

Watching the Next Generation Write Brings Joy

I'm slightly morbid about some things. My dad is the same way, he talks about dying and what to do when he dies....he's even written a complete obituary to be printed after he passes away. I too regularly read obits and contemplate the bitter end. But today I posted a story that gives me great happiness and faith in the people who will follow me after I'm gone.

My daughter Kate wrote an article about Wellfleet, Cape Cod that we just published on GoNOMAD.com. It's her second article, and it's well written and has good information for anyone who might want to travel there. My son Sam wrote a story about his trip to Alaska too. Earlier in the week, I posted a story by Chance St. John, son of Senior Editor Kent St. John, about Denver. That story was much better than a story about the same topic that we rejected...this kid can write!

We also sent Associate Editor Stephen Hartshorne's daughter Sarah to southwestern Louisiana to write a story for us. That will be appearing on GoNOMAD soon. The point is that we all have offspring who are just as good writers as we are, and they're discovering the same joy that we find in sharing interesting observations about our travels.

It all makes me feel great that this endeavor will go on for a long, long time, and that waiting in the wings are solid citizens who can keep the flames lit and the passion intact. That's a great feeling to have, even though at 50 I'm hardly ready to hang up my suitcase.

The Eddie Haskellization of Today's Reporting

A discussion in a recent issue of Editor and Publisher referred to 'verbal fossils,' references to old television shows and characters that most of today's readers just don't recognize. Calling Tim Geithner án Eddie Haskell' is fun for us oldsters but what about people who never saw an episode of 'Leave it to Beaver?'

With the skewed viewing on hundreds of cable channels, there are not as many touchstone descriptions that everybody saw or remembers. E and P's article warned that those writers who must harken back with references to people named Cleaver risk alienating readers.

For people who don't have television, these tele-adjectives just pass them by. But the fear, says Ralph Keyes in the story, is that these types of phrases are what's keeping teens and young adults tuned out. "The implicit message seems to be: 'Hey if you don't know what we're talking about, maybe you should butt out. Haven't you got some Twittering to do?"

Who Is This Guy?

I am in a cafe in downtown Bethlehem and I am trying to discern the story behind a guy at the adjoining table. He is wearing a shirt with a neatly cut row of holes running across the back, as if each one was deliberately punched out, about an inch each, until the bottom where the holes become huge rips.

He is wearing a belt that a cop would wear, and on the belt are about ten pouches, army green, that look like they have gear for survival. The pockets of his faded dirty fatigues bulge as if filled with socks or extra clothes. His boots are sturdy government issue, and are muddy as if he got here by climbing through a mud-filled stream. His arms are tattooed with barbed wire tats and I noticed that he was shopping for what looks like a new pair of army boots on line.

Beside him is another large gear sack, as if he is ready for anything sitting here at this cafe in Bethlehem.

He has everything he'd need except a canteen to survive in the woods. I wonder where he came from?

Driving Hills and Dales in Delaware River Country

The day is coming to a close, and I feel peaceful and relaxed as I sit here at the Wired Gallery and Cafe in Bethlehem, PA. It's a college town that's full of revitalized apartments, a huge new arts and housing complex to be built at the former steel works and a gentrified feeling in these leafy streets.

Cindy, Graham, Trudy and I spent the day riding down and around winding country roads through small towns like Riegelsville, Bangor and Wind Gap PA, and Alpa, Hope and Fine NJ. We stoppped at several of our host and hostesses favorite antique shops including one farm right next to the road where a giant cat named Buddy relaxed on a bench waiting to be petted. Inside were all sorts of treasures in a series of connected rooms.

At another stop I found a bakelite Western Electric rotary telephone; and in Hope NJ, I found the perfect present for Nathan who turns four tomorrow...a set of Tinkertoys, those old fashioned connecting rods and spindles that used to fascinate me as a child.

We passed enormous landfills and heard tales of how their former owners cashed in big time by selling out to Waste Management, and learned of the split among the residents of Easton PA between supporters and opponents of expanding their own giant landfill. So much trash is being sent to these green hills by the overcrowded places like NJ and NY.

We rolled on, passing little burghs that felt very old and colonial with the Delaware River on one side and the canal right beside it, the houses tight up against the narrow road. It was a warm spring day but there was still a bit of a chill; trees called Red Buds showed their two-week-long pink plumage along the roadsides. After puttering around, everyone taking their time and enjoying peeking in shops, and walking around towns, we headed here to this cozy cafe, where I could chronicle our day on the blog.

Now my three compatriots are playing Scrabble while I enjoy some time here on the laptop. There's no internet at their house, so I gotta connect now, or forget any records of this fun day by the Delaware River with good old friends.