More Northeast Brewery Tour... Touring

Nearly a month has passed since Voyageur Press published The Great Northeast Brewery Tour. The reception has been positive so far, and I've kept busy with appearances at bookstores and breweries and interviews with reporters in Connecticut, Maryland, and New York City. Snowstorms and the "Polar Vortex" teamed up to challenge my promotional efforts, but even extreme winter weather couldn't keep people away. (I'm guessing that thermal underwear convinced those on the fence to venture out in spite of the low temperatures.)

Well, in defiance of the cold and Punxsutawney Phil's pessimistic prediction, I'm hitting the road again at the end of February. This time I'm traveling as far north as Maine, and I'll also be returning to Philadelphia to the south. And while I will have copies with me, I'm more than happy to sign books that you've already purchased. I've listed the confirmed events below, but more information can be found on the book's Facebook page. Keep track of news and reviews by following me on Twitter, and stop by any of these places to say hello:

• Saturday, February 22, 2014 - Rising Tide Brewing Company (Portland, ME)
• Sunday, February 23, 2014 - Cape Ann Brewing Company (Gloucester, MA)
• Sunday, February 23, 2014 - Portsmouth Book & Bar (Portsmouth, NH)
• Wednesday, February 26, 2014 - Greenlight Bookstore (Brooklyn, NY)
• Thursday, February 27, 2014 - Lucky's Last Chance (Philadelphia, PA)
• Friday, February 28, 2014 - The Hop (Beacon, NY)
• Friday, February 28, 2014 - Crossroads Brewing Company (Athens, NY)
• Saturday, March 1, 2014 - The Green Toad Bookstore (Oneonta, NY)
• Saturday, March 1, 2014 - Hopshire Farm and Brewery (Freeville, NY)

Plan a Trip with Camping New York

Two years ago, after logging hundreds of trail hours in the parks and nature reserves scattered across Long Island, Eastern New Jersey, Southern Connecticut, and the Hudson Valley, my first book appeared in print. As any author will tell you, writing is a book is a lot of work, and Best Hikes Near New York City involved plenty of it. From trip planning and hiking (and in some cases re-hiking) each route, to mapping, photographing, and researching local history, I devoted a tremendous amount of time to that guidebook. Flipping through its pages now, I see little things I wish I'd changed and wonder if I could've added another hike or two. Overall I'm happy with it though, which is probably why, when my editor asked if I wanted to author a title in Globe Pequot's Where to Camp series, I said yes.

And so, once again, I consulted my New York State road map, charged my camera batteries, and rummaged around for the trusty Garmin GPS in the back of my closet. Then, armed with an Empire Passport and a new sleeping bag, I set out to write Camping New York, my second book for FalconGuides. It took me longer than expected, but it's out now in paperback and will soon be available as a Kindle eBook, too. In roughly 150 pages I concisely cover 130 campsites from easternmost Long Island to the top of Adirondack Park and west to Lake Erie. Hopefully the tour region maps, photos, and quick reference tables will make it easy to decide where you want to go, whether it's your first camping trip, or your fifty-first. Finally, for those who might be curious, the site pictured on the cover is at Mongaup Pond in the Catskills, the one place last summer where I actually spotted a black bear near the campground.

Beer Travel Talk at the New York Travel Festival

On Saturday, April 20th, I'll be moderating a panel discussion on beer travel at the inaugural New York Travel Festival (NYTF). Covering recent trends, brewery tours, and ale trails in New York and New Jersey, my session is one of dozens taking place at the Bohemian National Hall on East 73rd Street and will run from 11:20am until noon, with a beer tasting to follow. Panelists include: 

• Josh Bernstein, author of Brewed Awakening and the app Craft Beer New York
• Jeremy Cowan, founder of Schmaltz Brewing (NY) and president of the New York City Brewers Guild
• Gene Muller, founder of Flying Fish Brewing (NJ) and vice president of the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild
• David Naczycz, co-founder of Urban Oyster

Join us in the first floor cinema and bring questions! Then stick around to sample several beers, including Hop Manna IPA. Single day and package tickets (which include lunch and a Sunday tour) are still available: bitly.com/NYTF2013.

What's Cooking: Queens Gains a Homebrew Club

It all started with a simple idea. Gather a bunch of homebrewers, give them a short list of ingredients to work with, and let them do what they like to do most. There was only one catch: brewing beer, like event planning, might appear simple to execute at first glance (or taste, as the case may be), but actually involves a relatively complicated process.

Fortunately, I had Brewstoria to help me. Founded by Astoria resident Ryan Crook in 2010, this homebrew club has since grown rapidly and had been looking for a chance to involve a bunch of its members in a larger, collaborative brew day. As for the ingredients, I decided to challenge them with spices from Thailand, additives that aren’t commonly found in beer recipes but do appear at many a grocer across Queens—ginger, Thai basil, cilantro, chili pepper, and lemongrass. Theoretically, any one of these adjuncts could work with the right beer, and I was curious to found out just how creative the Brewstoria crew could be. Plus, if this borough really is the most diverse in a city that already represents America as melting pot, it only seemed fitting to add a dash of international flavor to the proverbial brew kettle. To my delight the group didn’t just accept the idea, they embraced it.

Being the industrious, let’s-get-right-to-it, sort of people that homebrewers usually are, they managed to make arrangements to use the kitchen and courtyard at The Foundry, an event space in Long Island City. And by the time I turned up on a sunny Sunday morning last February, things were nearly in full swing. Six teams had set up at indoor and outdoor brew stations, and the air was already thick with promising smells. Fittingly, I also caught a few stanzas from a Red Hot Chili Peppers song floating from a pair of portable speakers.

Village Voice Holiday Guide to Reading

The Union Square Holiday Market is in full swing, the 30,000 lights decorating the Rockefeller Christmas Tree will be lit next week, and even without any snow on the sidewalks, retailers have turned Manhattan into a wonderland of tinsel, snowflakes, wreaths, and garlands. If you're not the kind of person that eagerly awaits the Yuletide, then it's probably time for a drink. Egg Nog or hot buttered rum are always solid options this time of year, but maybe you'd rather just have a glass of wine or a pint of beer. That and a good book.

In the current issue of the Village Voice, I choose and review five new books that any beer geek, wine connoisseur, or cocktail enthusiast will want to add to their library. Titles like To Have and Have Another, Allagash: The Cookbook, and How to Love Wine are all great resources for someone planning to throw a party in the next few weeks, but most people with an interest in ales, spirits, or oenology will find at least one of these books worth reading. I agreed with much of Mr. Asimov's wine manifesto and definitely enjoyed the Hemingway Cocktail Companion by Philip Greene, but I was especially pleased to include a cookbook highlighting craft beer. As far as I'm concerned, a good new beer publication is worth celebrating any time of year. 

Beer, Books, and Blogs Meet at the Seaport

Way back in 2009 (OK, I guess it wasn't that long ago), three beer-loving New Yorkers decided that craft breweries could use a little help getting their products into the pints of punters across the five boroughs. With that goal in mind, they founded the Good Beer Seal, a convivial group committed to "identifying bars that serve quality craft beer and demonstrate a commitment to the community in which they do business." After defining their mission and creating a snazzy logo, the trio next took the ambitious step of petitioning the city to declare July "Good Beer Month." As it turned out, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was persuaded by their well-written letter, and earlier this summer, offered what has now become an annual proclamation in the Big Apple.

Craft beer has gained thousands of friends in the years since the first Good Beer Month, and the organization now counts more than 40 participating bars in New York City. There's even talk of expanding to Long Island. They also host a number of events, including this week's Beer Book, Blog, and Video Fest at the South Street Seaport Museum in Lower Manhattan. For $15 (or $10 for museum members) you'll get admission to the festival, two hours of beer samples, and food from Coach Farm Cheese, Sigmund's Pretzels, Jimmy's No. 43, and more. I'll be there along with authors and bloggers like John Holl, Christian DeBenedetti, Joshua Bernstein, John Kleinchester, and Niko Krommydas.

New York's Beer-Bathed Cheeses

I'm certainly not the first person to make this observation, so I'll just rephrase what's already been said: Beer and cheese, long kept apart by the somewhat defensive motives of wine, have found each other again. And they couldn't be happier. As numerous craft brewers have argued, the two complement each other harmoniously, avoiding the clashes in flavor prompted by some wine pairings. To quote Greg Koch, CEO and co-founder of Stone Brewing Co, "Sorry pseudo-wine experts; the jig is up. Beer is, and always will be, the supreme cheese pairing beverage."

But beer and cheese work well together in other ways, too, as I wrote in the spring issue of Edible Hudson Valley. Beginning centuries ago in Europe, brewers and cheesemakers bathed wheels of cheese in ale solutions to extend the shelf life of their products. With the advent of artificial refrigeration, longevity became less of a concern, and larger dairies turned to mass production. Now that more consumers have embraced the local food movement though, washed rind cheeses are reappearing as small farms like Dutchess County's Sprout Creek seek collaborations with receptive beer companies:

"Today, these practices of washing the rind are more typically employed by creameries looking to contribute additional flavor to the products they distribute to wholesalers and local cheesemongers. In Jefferson, Harpersfield Dairy makes a semi-hard cow’s milk cheese washed in local Ommegang Abbey Ale that has broadened the perception of what cheese could be for many. Further west, in Mecklenburg, Bronson Hill Cheesery makes an aged raw cow’s milk cheese with Ithaca Beer Company’s Gorges Smoked Porter. And in Poughkeepsie, Sprout Creek Farm recently experimented with various brews from Brooklyn’s Sixpoint to create a new seasonal cheese exclusively for sale at Whole Foods Markets in the Northeast."

A Year Afoot

For me, 2011 was anything but typical. After spending Christmas on Ko Samet in the Gulf of Thailand, I watched January quietly arrive from a sixth floor balcony in Bangkok. By February I had made two short trips to Cambodia—one to Siem Reap and another to the capital. A month later I was hiking up an active volcano in the Philippines and then in May, I huffed and puffed along a winding jungle trail in Penang, Malaysia (pictured at right) to reach Muka Head and its impressive nineteenth century lighthouse. Meanwhile, in the United States, FalconGuides published Best Hikes Near New York City, my first book since going freelance two years ago.

At the start of summer I was back on the carriage roads and footpaths of New York and New Jersey, leading groups of nature-deprived urbanites for Outdoor Bound. A friend's June wedding in Kentucky was my chance to explore a fraction of the Red River Gorge Geologic Area, although I didn't make it to the state's well known natural bridge. Then in September I spent some time in Vietnam's central provinces trying to learn what I could about the pre-colonial history of the region. I was only back on the East Coast for three weeks before I dashed off to Denver for the 30th annual Great American Beer Festival, a trip that also included a day hike through the red rocks at Roxborough State Park. Finally, just before Thanksgiving, a brief magazine assignment took me to Idaho, where I got a crash course in trout fishing and stopped at the Riverport Brewing Company.

All told, I covered a lot of territory last year, and from this vantage point, 2012 doesn't look like it will involve much sitting still. I've already begun to make plans for a trip to Europe, and once the snow melts in the northeast, I'll get going on my next book, another outdoor recreation guide. In fact, as I peer into the future and consider the amount of travel I'm likely to do in the next 12 months, I have to wonder whether 2011 was really so atypical after all.

Two Minute Interview: Andy Chase

Many years ago I placed a short ad in the Village Voice. I'd recently moved to New York from a very small town in Ohio, and hoped to form a band with a drummer friend who had relocated to Manhattan at about the same time. We brought a batch of songs with us that I'd written in college, and planned to take the New York music scene by storm. As it turned out, fame and fortune proved elusive, but the ad worked, and a few weeks later we were collaborating with a talented guitarist/producer.

Apparently one of my favorite bands, the pop trio Ivy, also has the Voice to thank for introducing songwriters Adam Schlesinger and Andy Chase to one another. I mention this because together with Dominique Durand they've just released All Hours, their sixth full-length album of moody, hypnotic songs. In many ways, I think it improves on In the Clear, their last release for Nettwerk Records. Fresh off a short run of shows promoting the album, Chase made time to answer a few travel-related questions for my Two Minute Interview column.

Fountains of Wayne: The Troubadours of Travel

"Radiation Vibe" was the first Fountains of Wayne song I can remember hearing. Their debut album appeared as I started my freshman year at Kenyon College, and I played it until I'd memorized every drum fill. To my ears, it's just as much of a near-perfect power pop song now as it was 15 years ago. Earlier this month the band released Sky Full of Holes, their fifth studio album, and listening to it this week I realized something about their lyrics. Over time, the theme of travel shows up with greater frequency. 

It stands out more on their second album, Utopia Parkway, but even "Radiation Vibe" hints at a certain longing to move. Maybe it's just a commute, a summer escape from the city (lots of their songs are set in and around New York), or a three-minute chronicle of life on tour, but again and again songwriters Collingwood and Schlesinger return to the subject of travel for their clever compositions. Since these songs also happen to be some of my favorites, I decided to compile a short tracklist that makes my point. Here they are, in no particular order:

• A Dip in the Ocean (Sample lyric: The waterfront is alight with citronella flame/Tourists flashing the night from the grottoes/And gathering now on the heel-worn planks/For a drunken promenade or a mambo)
• Acela (Sample lyric: When they called All Aboard/You were nowhere to be found/Though you swore, you were sure/You'd come with me out of town)
• Fire in the Canyon (Sample lyric: And I'm checking out the roadsigns/Highway hotels/And their air-conditioned cable-ready cold padded cells)
• I-95 (Sample lyric: They've got most of the Barney DVDs/Coffee mugs and tees/That say Virginia is For Lovers but it's not/Round here it's just for truckers who forgot/To fill up on gasoline/Back up near Aberdeen)
• New Routine (Sample lyric: Two men sit in the corner of a diner/One of them says I might take a trip to China/It's one of those things we should do before we're too old/Thanks but no thanks, bring me back an egg roll)
• Trains and Boats and Planes (Sample lyric: Trains and boats and planes are passing by/They mean a trip to Paris or Rome/To someone else but not for me/The trains and boats and planes/Took you away, away from me)
• No Better Place (Sample lyric: And it's running back and forth inside your mind/Just how that town defined you, dressed you up, painted your face/And now you're leaving New York/For no better place)
• Bought for a Song (Sample lyric: Tried to take a shuttle to Spain/They kicked me off the plane/I guess I'll go to Japan/It all looks the same when you stump for the man)
• Utopia Parkway (Sample lyric: I got it made, I got it down/ I am the king of this island town/ I'm on my own, I'm on my way/Down Utopia Parkway)
• The Valley of Malls (Sample lyric: They drive in Winnebagos from the Everglades/Pulled over by the troopers in the mirror shades/ The Caravan is sorry/The driver has a twenty and change)

Over the Hudson for Rails to Trails

It was an overcast morning last autumn when I boarded the train to Poughkeepsie. Arriving at the Queen City of the Hudson, I walked uphill from the station to Parker Avenue, where I soon found the entrance to the world's longest pedestrian bridge, the Walkway Over the Hudson. I had made the journey north from New York before, but that day I was on assignment for Rails to Trails, researching my second piece for the magazine.

In the two years since the 1.3-mile long recreational trail opened to the public, it's won awards from the Society for Industrial Archeology, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the International Bridge Conference. And with a new connection to the Hudson Valley Rail Trail on the west side of the Walkway, the park is an ideal place to get some exercise or take the dog for a walk. Both ends of the bridge are also wheelchair accessible. But the dramatic views up and down the river make it worth visiting even if you're not inclined to take Metro North to Poughkeepsie for a workout. Read more about the Walkway—easily one of my favorite places in the Hudson Valley—in the fall issue of Rails to Trails.

South Mountain Reservation Guided Hike

Join me at South Mountain Reservation on Saturday, June 4th for a guided hike in Millburn, New Jersey. Beginning on the Lenape Trail, this moderately difficult, scenic route offers sweeping views across Newark Bay to Staten Island and passes by Hemlock Falls before turning back to the Locust Grove parking lot. Get a little exercise, support a local park, and celebrate America's 200,000 miles of trails. Hikers should bring sturdy footwear and a reusable water bottle; granola bars will be provided. Please note that this event is rain or shine. 

For additional day trip ideas in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, pick up a copy of my new guidebook, Best Hikes Near New York City.

Best Hikes Near NYC Book Trailer

Mostly because I'd never used iMovie before, making my first book trailer took longer than it should have. But in spite of the time I devoted to it, I doubt anyone is going to mistake me for an auteur anytime soon. That said, I do hope this short video will encourage locals as well as visitors to consider day hikes as another fun way to experience greater New York this summer. To purchase a copy of my new hiking guide, I recommend supporting local business by shopping at an independent bookstore near you.

 

Two Minute Interview: Marcellus Hall

Sure, a brassy horn part can reliably put a smile on my face, but when it comes to my favorite songs, I'm partial to those with clever lyrics. Few other things stick with me as long as a creative phrase set to music. Shortly after moving to New York, I started listening to White Hassle, and often found myself walking around Manhattan with one of their wordier songs stuck in my head. It's been several years since the band has toured, and even longer since their last recording, but in February Glacial Pace released The First Line, the debut album from former White Hassle vocalist/guitarist Marcellus Hall. In this, the third Two Minute Interview, he spoke to me about Beavis and Butt-Head, stardom in Holland, and home-cooked meals in Italy.

1. What are some of the most memorable places you've performed, and why? Where would you go back first? Railroad Jerk enjoyed brief inexplicable stardom in Holland for a time. That was fun. White Hassle performed at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California for All Tomorrow's Parties. I remember the weather was perfect. Japan welcomed Railroad Jerk with sincere enthusiasm. I would love to return there some time. Some places in Italy were memorable. An Italian promoter's mother once cooked us a delicious lunch before we hit the road for the next town. A friend tells me that if I were to learn a lot of Eagles songs, Thailand would welcome me with open arms. 
2. Describe something surprising, humorous, or disappointing that's happened in your travels. I recall poking fun at the European stereotype of Americans by playing that stereotype in a conversation with some Italians not long after September 11th, 2001. They were remarking on how it was the first time, besides Pearl Harbor, that the United States was attacked on its own soil. I assumed an earnest expression and said, "Oh no, that's not true. When America first started we were attacked repeatedly by the Indians!" The Italians' expressions of outrage, and uncertainty about whether I was serious or not, were priceless. Another funny experience was when Railroad Jerk and Chavez were touring Europe. Dave Varenka, Railroad Jerk's drummer, and I were traveling in a separate vehicle (there was a van and a car that we all took turns riding in). The show that night was in Ljubljana, the capital. When we got to the Slovenian border, Dave and I and our German driver were welcomed. The van, however, with Chavez and the other Railroad Jerk members, happened to go to the wrong entry point and was not allowed into the country. Without cell phones at the time, Dave and I and the anxious Slovenian promoter waited at the club unaware of what happened to the others. When the rock-hungry Slovenian fans began entering the club, the promoter turned to us and asked if we could somehow perform. It just so happened that Dave and I had just finished recording our debut album as a duo under the name White Hassle. We borrowed a guitar, an amp, some drums, and random pieces of metal and put on one of our best shows. The audience loved it and we were treated like kings. Chavez and the other members of Railroad Jerk, of course, were pissed. They had spent the night at some dreary hotel, while Dave and I rocked Ljubljana.
3. When you were starting out with Railroad Jerk, or even with White Hassle, where did you dream of playing live? Our dreams were modest. Each step in the lives of both bands was a nice surprise. Just getting a record deal was unexpected. Railroad Jerk was featured on Beavis and Butt-Head and White Hassle got to record for the John Peel show in England. Those were exciting breaks. To play in front of a large audience was a dream that eventually came true. Opening up for some better known bands and playing festivals allowed that.
4. As a fan, do you have any enduring concert-going memories? Who did you see? When I was in college (and just after that) I went to see a lot of bands that influenced me (for better or worse). Among them were Big Black, The Pixies, Pussy Galore, Killdozer, The Jesus Lizard, Galaxie 500, The Replacements, The Ramones, Sonic Youth, Black Flag, Jonathan Richman, Richard Thompson, Sugar Blue, The Beastie Boys, Dinosaur Jr., The Throwing Muses, Dave Thomas, Half Japanese, The Cramps, The Gun Club, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Bunny Wailer, The Swans, Live Skull, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, White Zombie, and Firehose.
5. Many groups compose songs on the road (during sound checks, in the van, etc.) and tracks like "One Drop of Rain" and "Don't Go" seem to be about distance, meetings, and partings. Did anything on The First Line come to life that way? Very few of the songs on The First Line came about on the road. On the other hand, the two tracks you mention are indeed about distance, meetings, and partings. The former is actually a true story.   
6. Do you look forward to touring, seeing cities through the eyes of a working musician, or would you rather be writing and recording from the comforts of home? I admit to having soured over the years on the rigors of touring. That being said, it's been a while since I was last on the road and I'm raring to give it another go. There is a certain giddiness and romance one feels in rolling into a town and then high-tailing it out the next morning (or even, in some cases, that very night). Like the Beatles though, I do enjoy recording.
7. As a musician (or even as a visual artist) what do you find most exciting or inspiring about New York at the moment? The things I find exciting about New York now are the same things I have always found exciting about New York: the diversity, the history, and the energy of the people.

Hiking the Big Apple

Almost exactly a year ago today, I was approached by a publisher to author a book. As a former nonfiction editor, I spent close to a decade helping dozens of writers develop their titles, and occasionally I wondered about my own aptitude for writing something more than a few thousand words in length. Of course, none of the projects I envisioned ended up becoming my first book. Instead, my career as an author will begin on April 1st (no, I'm not kidding) with Best Hikes Near New York City. 

In the end, it took the better part of six months to research, map, photograph, and transcribe the notes I scribbled on the trail. My blog certainly suffered for a while, and I saw less of my friends. It turns out a ten-mile walk in the woods at the height of summer isn't everyone's idea of a good time. Looking back though, I'm still glad I took the job and I hope I've produced a guide that's useful and unique. If you're going to be in the New York area later this year, watch this space for news about guided trips* to a few of my favorite parks. 

*Please note that any and all hikes I lead will absolutely end at a bar serving pints of local craft beer.

The Morning After: Manhattan

Sweet or savory, affordable or extravagant, I'm a big fan of brunch. For that reason, I was more than happy to accept another assignment from DRAFT magazine. Writing for their Morning After department, I set out to find a handful of restaurants in Manhattan with excellent brunch offerings. Choosing them was far from easy, but in the end I narrowed it down to three places.

One of them, Resto on East 29th Street, also happens to have an impressive list of beers that includes (among many other things) pale ales, dubbels, and saisons from Luxembourg, Belgium, and Cooperstown, New York. If you're a beer drinker and plan to be in the city for more than 24 hours, do yourself a favor and pay them a visit. You'll want to take your time with their menu. To find out what my other picks were, track down a copy of the magazine, or sign up for a free preview of the digital edition.

Village Voice Winter Guide

While ice carving isn't exactly something I expect to think about (or frankly, see) in the next few months, I do know of a place where curious New Yorkers can go to watch sculptors at work: Walton Fairgrounds in the Catskills. And that's not all. If you happen to be in the mood for a winter seal walk, a dram of locally-distilled whiskey, or even a few hours of curling, I've got suggestions.

This is because I recently complied a travel guide to area winter getaways for the Village Voice. Of course, the cold, bleak days and weeks that fall between Thanksgiving and St. Patrick's Day are also a great time to catch up on your Netflix queue, or you could always stay warm by perfecting your Chocolate Smoked Porter Cake recipe. But if a little adventure starts to sound good after being cooped up indoors with your sunlight-deprived roommates, check out my weekend trip ideas, hop in a car, and head upstate. Oh, and unless you want Mom to worry, don't forget to wear a hat.

Salty Food and the Strangeness of Songwriting

Although her second and newest LP has only been out in the U.S. for a few weeks now, I sat down with Ólöf Arnalds back in March to discuss her native country, the strangeness of songwriting, and the loneliness of touring. We met at Veselka in the East Village on a cold afternoon and talked for about an hour; she ordered a Brooklyn Lager, I went with coffee. The caffeine helped to keep me alert as I scribbled frantically, anxious to capture her answers to my long-winded questions. 

Leaning in frequently and speaking candidly, she  struck me as a thoughtful, opinionated, and ambitious musician—six months before the release of Innundir Skinni, she was already excitedly describing her ideas for a third album. eMusic has the full Q&A online now. This Saturday she begins a tour that will take her to Pittsburgh, Louisville, Dallas, and Denver.

David Farley's Irreverent Curiosity

A couple of weeks ago I sat down with David Farley at Jack's Coffee in the West Village to talk about travel, writing, and Restless Legs, his ever-expanding support group for the wanderlust stricken. This week my Q&A with the author of An Irreverent Curiosity appears in Time Out New York. Here's an outtake from our conversation.

You’ve given advice on how to write a bad travel story. Which kinds of travel writing are you tired of reading? What makes you cringe?
 
Good question. One thing I really like about good travel writing is when the writer puts the place or the thing they’re writing about into a context. In travel writing, the best stories will entertain us and educate us at the same time. And when they’re just writing about what they did it’s neither entertaining nor educating at all. I want that nice balance of understanding the place and being able to see the place. I want the person to describe the landscape and interpret the landscape.

Pick up a copy of the magazine for my full interview with Farley or, if you're allergic to paper, read it online.

Of Blogs and Books

If you happen to read this blog with any regularity, you may have noticed that my postings have tapered off of late. Well, I decided to explain myself this afternoon, lest I face accusations of laziness and/or abandonment. The actual reason I haven't kept up with my blogging is simple—I'm writing a book. More than that, I've even got a publisher for it.

My hiking guide won't be released until next year, but in the meantime I have a lot of research, writing, and mapping to do. So although I will continue to add links to my stories and interviews as they appear online, I won't have time to update this site as often as I have in the past. While you're waiting for me to get around to blogging again, why not spend some time outdoors yourself? Because whether you live near Seattle, WA or Washington, DC, there are dozens of trails a short car, bus, or train ride away. Go ahead, take a hike.