Feature photo by Lst1984. Photo above by hey mr glen.

Taiji and qigong exercises have been used by people in Asia for over 4,000 years. If you have ever visited China and gone into one of the many parks in the morning, you have seen groups of people doing these exercises.

What is not so well known is that besides taiji (tai chi), many are practicing qigong.

A new book, Breath Energy Work: Exercises for the Mind & Body, provides the traveler (and non-traveler) an introduction to qigong (a combination of breathing and moving). It includes a collection of hand exercises that give you instant gratification, face and lower back massage, and a good assortment of stretches.

Photo by Lapsklaus.

There are many exercise programs, but what makes this program unique is that it can be done almost anywhere, anytime, without the need for special apparel, place or equipment. All you need is to spend a little time going over the text and practicing.

This is a short morning routine to help get you started. A routine should be modular, exercises strung together in a way that suits your needs. You can change the order I suggest, adding or subtracting as you see fit.

Belly Breathing

When I refer to breathing, I’ll always be referring to diaphragm breathing, using the diaphragm rather than the chest to draw breath in. To practice this type of breathing, lie down, place your hands on your abdomen just below the navel, and allow the hands to rise as you inhale, and return to the original position as you exhale.

With practice, you should be able to do this while standing or seated throughout the exercises.

Eventually, you will also notice a little expansion around the lower back on the inhale. Just be patient with this process, practicing the breathing only for short periods of time. With practice, breathing will help you to maintain a healthier pulmonary capacity throughout your life.

Photo by нσвσ.

When you get the chance, visit my website to learn the hand exercises I’ve put up as a short video. This introduction to hand massage will give you an excellent beginning to your routine.

Face Washing

Then, try one of the face washing techniques. Be sure your hands are clean first. Place both hands on your face and wipe down, then return the hands to the original position and wipe out. Repeat nine more times for a total of ten. This exercise is great for stimulating and refreshing the facial muscles.

Lower Back Massage

Reach around and give your lower back a massage. Start as high up as you can reach and rub down a few times. Then, using your thumbs, start high and knead your way down on both sides of the spine. Now, using your fists, tap up and down on the lower back, alternating the fists. Ask those muscles to relax and remind yourself often.

Leg Raises

While sitting on the edge of the bed or in a chair, raise one leg and extend out in front of you. Now raise it a little higher and hold for a thirty count. Now do the other one.

Then, clasp your hands under one leg just above the knee for support and raise your lower leg 30 times. Now do the other one. Finally, raise one leg up and rotate the foot around 15 times in each direction. Now do the other one.

Arm Raises

In the standing position, feet shoulder width apart, bend at the knees to end of shoes with both hands in front of your chest. In one motion, raise up and throw your arms out and up to top of head height. Do this quickly while counting to ten. Up and out, up and out.

Photo by fabola.

Clapping
Now, clap your hands together down low in front of you ten times, then at chest height ten times and finally behind you ten times. Just try it; it’s very invigorating.

Standing Meditation

Place your hands in front of you, palms up at about waist height, fingers pointing inward, as if your hands were lying on a table. Your elbows should be extended out to the sides, shoulders natural and released. As you inhale through the nose, the hands rise up to chest height, and your shoulders remain loose (don’t let them rise up).

At chest height, turn both hands over and exhale while pushing down to waist height. To repeat just turn the hands over, palms up, breathe in and so on. Do at least 5-10 times.

It helps to get into the habit of doing your routine daily: regular practice produces better results.

Community Connection:

Looking for more relaxation in your life? Check out Tim Patterson’s blog post, Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There, or Brave New Traveler’s How To Choose Your Perfect Yoga Retreat.

Photo above by lunita

Tommy Carson loved doing rails of coke on his dashboard, then barreling his truck down The Bog Road at break-everything speed. Mrs. Allen was having sex with at least two men who weren’t her husband, one possibly under eighteen.

And once, while I was standing in line at The Video Stop to rent Gremlins, I watched Mr. Holland walk in and clock the kid who had slashed his tires the week before.

This is where I grew up. With a population that hovered around 1,000, Bristol, NH seemed like an idyllic lake town to outsiders. It’s the kind of place that cityfolk dreamed about; no stoplights or traffic, no pollution or car alarms, no leashes on dogs.

But as anyone who has grown up in a small town will tell you, there’s a rip current in places like these that can send a soul straight for the rocks. A nice, quiet life sounds possible until monotony takes hold, driving even the nicest old lady to cane the paperboy.

Photo above by Althewebmaster

Google Earth verifies that the town still isn’t much to look at. Life centered around a Cumberland Farms store (”Cumbie’s” to locals), a gas station, a bakery, Bristol Pizza, a bar and a lone fancy restaurant. Many houses were treated as works in progress, with half-built additions and porches propped up on concrete blocks. Quite a few residents tapdanced above the poverty line, just one transmission repair away from not being able to buy milk.

School was colorful. There were the teachers, who had to deal with everything from bus sex to shutting off televisions when the O-rings failed a spaceship carrying the state’s favorite teacher, Christa McAuliffe. I especially remember the French teacher, who taught the language with a New Hampshire accent so thick that it has since made me the laughingstock of every restaurant in Paris.

Photo above by libraryimages.net

There were my best friends, a brother and sister who had rescued me from excellent grades and fashioned me as a hoodlum. Matt smoked two packs a day at fourteen and Debbie had a habit of making other girls’ faces collide with her fist. We’d down Soco while waiting for the bus, which could be quite late, given that its first pickup was thirty miles down a rural route.

Most women seemed to trudge along with a tinge of buyer’s remorse when it came to their children, while men worked speed-fueled shifts at the local plant. There were never any arguments involving ethnicity because there wasn’t a single person of color – the town was still 96% white as of the 2000 census. Mr. Shakey, whose grocery store parking lot was THE place to hang out, seemed only able to hire high school girls who had developed earlier than the rest of their class. The cops were a Deniro kind of ruthless, all seeming to have a side bet as to how many kids they could toss into Juvie.

Photo above by Derek DMan

Winter began in November and ended in April, with temperatures so low that ski masks were a fashionable accessory. John Cheever wrote here during the summer but was smart enough to evacuate before the leaves started falling. Every road led to a mountain and every mountain was next to another. And every inch would be blanketed with snow by December. Most houses were a lighter color from four feet up because the snow banks didn’t permit sunshine until they melted.

Despite the underbelly, there was nothing sinister about Bristol. It was the kind of town you’d drive through while singing to your radio, completely unaware that a population had just passed. Most drama happened behind closed doors, allowing it to be a wonderful place to visit but a tricky place to live. I have not been back in many years and I do not think that I would want to. I don’t want to know if there is a Papa Gino’s, or if what was made in factory has been outsourced to Korea. I don’t want to hear if Tommy is finally Working The Steps or if they now have Gremlins on Blue Ray. I like how it sits in my brain just fine; a sleepy little town full of invisible nightmares.

Photo above by Ed Karjala

Feature Photo: theothermattm (Flickr creative commons)

This Thanksgiving, the great organization Story Corps is declaring November 28, 2008 the first annual National Day of Listening.

From their website:

This holiday season, ask the people around you about their lives — it could be your grandmother, a teacher, or someone from the neighborhood. By listening to their stories, you will be telling them that they matter and they won’t ever be forgotten. It may be the most meaningful time you spend this year.

We at Matador agree that listening to the stories around us–and helping to share them–makes for a richer, more connected and meaningful world. We encourage everyone to participate in the National Day of Listening . . .simply by recording a conversation with a friend or loved one (check the video guide below).

Photo by xybermatthew. Feature photo: jblyberg.

Maybe you’re ambitious and want to try your cooking skills for a crowd this Thanksgiving? if so, a couple of whole turkey recipes are included here as well.

Let’s begin with a few tips.

Turkeys are really oversized chickens. So if you can cook chicken, you can cook turkey, too.

Whole turkeys available at supermarkets generally weigh between 10 and 25 pounds. Those weighing less than 20 pounds are usually hens. Other than weight, there is no difference in taste between toms (more than 20 pounds) and hens.

“Organic”, “free-range”, “natural” or “minimally processed” turkeys have been held frozen for several weeks. “Fresh” turkeys are kept in for much less time, so they will taste significantly better than frozen. Photo by Francisco Collazo

Some turkey terminology:

• Self-Basting Turkeys: These have been injected with broth or vegetable oil or butter plus seasoning to enhance flavor and increase moistness.
• Wild Turkeys: Are quite different from the common supermarket ones. Hens are about 5 to 7 pounds, and toms are from 9 to 12 pounds. The meat is usually darker, just like a goose.
• To obtain a tender and juicy roasted turkey, the breast needs to be cooked to an internal temperature NOT greater than 165F, and the legs must be cooked to 175-180F.
• You can get 10 to 25 one-pound servings out of a turkey.

Now that you’ve got the turkey basics under your belt, here are five recipes I’ve developed inspired by spice combinations from around the world that will liven up your bird.

Photo by Julie Schwietert

ROAST TURKEY- CRIOLLO STYLE

Makes 10 servings.

Ingredients:

• 13 lb./5.90 kg whole turkey
• 1Tb. Salt, or to taste
• 1 Tb. ground black pepper
• 2 onions, peeled and quartered
• 5 fl oz clarified butter
• 12 to 15 parsley stems
• 1 tsp. fresh oregano
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 12 oz mirepoix*
• 40 oz chicken stock, hot
• 5 garlic cloves
• 4 bay leaves
• Flour (3-5 Tb.)

For the Mirepoix:

Mirepoix is an aromatic vegetable combination that provides a subtle and pleasant background flavor.

• 2 parts onion
• 1 part celery or leek
• 1 part carrot

(dice all ingredients finely)

Preparation:

• Defrost turkey. Mix the salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, cumin, and parsley; then season the cavity of the turkey with the mixture. Place onions and bay leaves inside the cavity.
• Rub the skin with the clarified butter, and truss with twine.
• Place the turkey, breast side up, on a rack on a roasting pan.
• Prepare the mirepoix and scatter around the bottom of the turkey. Pour half of the broth around the bottom of the pan as well.
• Roast at 350F/177C for 3 hours, basting from time to time.
• Remove turkey from the roasting pan and allow it to rest.
• Place the roasting pan on the stove and cook the liquid and the mirepoix until the mirepoix is brown and the fat is clear. Strain all but 1 fl oz. of the fat.
• Add the flour to the liquid and cook it for 3 to 2 min. Whisk it until smooth.
• Simmer the gravy for 20-30 min. until it reaches the desired consistency and flavor. Separate the grease and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Strain through a fine mesh sieve. Carve the turkey in portions and serve it with the pan gravy.
• Remove turkey from the roasting pan and allow it to rest.

Photo by ninjapoodles

PAN-SMOKED TURKEY BREAST

Makes 10 servings.

Ingredients:

• 10 turkey breasts
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• Wood chips
• Marinade
• 12 oz white balsamic vinegar
• 4 oz white wine
• 2 oz minced shallots
• 3 tsp minced garlic

Preparation:

• Rinse the turkey breasts, pat dry, season with salt and pepper. Place the turkey breasts in a shallow pan.
• Combine the ingredients for the marinade and pour over the turkey breast, turning to coat evenly. Marinate, cover in the refrigerator for 3 hours or up to overnight.
• Place the turkey breast on a rack over lightly dampened hardwood chips.
• Cover tightly and heat in a 450F/232C oven until the smell of the smoke is apparent, 6 to 8 minutes.
• Smoke for 3 minutes from that point. Then transfer the turkey breasts to a baking pan and finish baking (without smoke) in a 350F/177C oven until cooked through (165F/74C), 10 to 12 minutes more.

I recommend that the pan smoked turkey breasts be served with mixed green salad (arugula, spinach, alfalfa).to compensate and balance flavor.

BRAISED TURKEY THIGHS WITH OLIVES

Makes 4-5 servings.

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds boneless, skinless turkey thighs
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 cup chopped onions
• ¼ cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes (drained if oil-packed)
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary, or dried, crumbled
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup of port, sherry, or madeira
• 1½ cups sliced pitted Kalamata or other brine-cured black olives
• 1 jalapeno pepper seeded and finely chopped

Preparation:

• Roast the garlic and peel it.
• Place oil in a Dutch oven. Add the turkey thighs and brown them on all sides.
• Stir in all the ingredients (except the chicken stock, the olives and the wine) and cook for 3 minutes at medium heat.
• Add the chicken stock, olives, and wine; cover and simmer over low flame for 2 hours or until tender.
• Add water if needed.
• Remove from heat and add salt and pepper to taste.
• Chop scallions and garnish.

*I recommend that this dish be served with mashed potatoes & butternut squash.

Photo by Benimoto

ORANGE-GINGER TURKEY

Makes 15 servings.

Ingredients:

• 20 lb/9 kg whole Turkey
• 1Tb. salt
• 1Tb. white pepper
• 7 oz. clarified butter
• 2 onions
• 6 garlic cloves
• 2 Tb. fresh ground ginger
• 3 Tb. lime juice
• 1 cup finely chopped celery
• 1 cup finely chopped parsnip
• 20 oz. chicken stock/turkey stock
• 30 oz. orange juice
• 3 Tb. flour
• 1 Tb. honey
• 1 Tb. red flake pepper (optional)

Preparation:

• Defrost turkey. Season the cavity of the turkey with salt, pepper and garlic. Place onions inside the cavity.
• Rub the skin with the clarified butter, and truss with twine.

• Place the turkey, breast side up, on a rack on a roasting pan.

• Combine all of the remaining ingredients except the celery and parsnip, and pour on the turkey.

• Roast at 350F/177C for 31/2 hours, basting from time to time.
• Scatter the celery and parsnip around the turkey and continue to roast for 30-40 min, until the thigh meat registers an internal temperature of 180F/82C.

• Remove turkey from the roasting pan and allow it to rest.

• Place the roasting pan on the stove and cook until the celery and parsnip are slightly browned and the fat is clear. Strain all but 1 fl oz. of the fat.

• Add the flour and cook for 2 to 3 min. Whisk until smooth.
• Simmer the gravy for 20-30 min. until it reaches the desired consistency and flavor. Separate the grease and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Strain through a fine mesh sieve. Carve the turkey in portions and serve it with the pan gravy.

• Garnish each portion with green scallions.

*I recommend serving with stemmed jasmine rice or noodles.

BBQ TURKEY LEGS

Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

• 6 whole turkey legs
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1tb crushed whole pepper
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup soy sauce
• ½tb five-spice powder
• 1tb honey or brown sugar

Preparation:

• Rinse and towel dry the legs.
• Mix /blend the ingredients. Pour ¾ of the blend on turkey legs and let it rest for 3 hours in refrigerator.
• Set oven at 350F/177C and cook for 40-50 minutes. Turning them in between to cook it evenly.
• Pour the rest of the sauce and cook it for another 20 minutes or until the leg inner temperature reads 175-180F.

*I recommend to be served with stir- fried Chinese vegetables, such as bok choy, mushrooms, cornichons, and snow peas.

Photo by paveitapics

Growing up in Ghilarza, I knew I couldn’t spend my entire life in such a small place. Now I happily live in a fast-paced London and I admit that looking back, the reasons that made me leave are the same that make me happy to return each time.

Arriving from the airport, I cross the village and, running alongside my former secondary school, head up Via Nessi, then Via Matteotti. After a while I reach Piazza degli Eroi (Heroes Square), and my house, an old-fashioned building dating back to 1870.

The first night we talk family updates over a huge dinner of fresh lasagne followed by wild beef steak with a side dishes of crispy season vegetables.

Kitchens in Sardinia are the main rooms of the house and the windows are kept open–winter and summer alike–to enjoy the calm of early afternoon or evening.

Waking up the next day in my childhood room, I realize that I don’t need to be ready in fifteen minutes to catch the bus.

In fact, in Ghilarza there are no buses. In half an hour you can easily walk from one side to the other along il Viale, a long boulevard that marks the end of Ghilarza and the entrance to the adjacent village, Abbasanta.

Photo by SingAsong ♫

In the center of Ghilarza is the Piazza di Chiesa (Church Square), with a post office, a market, and the smell of spit-roasted chicken at Da Cristina and homemade wheat bread at Pische. Around one o’clock the town seems to be falling asleep: all shops are closed.

And just after lunch you might see only one or two cars and just a few folks–retired farmers or masons, meeting up in their favorite bar for a poker game.

My window opens to the main street Corso Umberto, named after the former Italian King Umberto I. As a teenager, I used to watch amusedly as black-dressed ladies rushed to the church for the 7am Holy Mass.

In Ghilarza, Catholic pulpits are taken very seriously. Every single child has gone through the first four holy sacraments up to the Confirmation.

Photo by cristianocani

Three times a year Ghilarza has the mysterious atmosphere of a ghost town. For nine days each time the inhabitants move to tiny built-up areas to worship three important Saints of the Catholic calendar.

Celebrations start only after the Saints’ statues have been brought to visit and bless every single house. Once celebrations have started, all the houses are left open so that you can go back and forth to anybody’s place, stopping for lunch, dinner or just a drink.

On the day of my departure my parents’ main worry is that I can’t taste everything on menu they had prepared for me. So the last lunch must be memorable: a starter of seafood salad is followed by pasta with mussels.

After lunch I know what to do: my baggage is ready, some home-made delicacies packed, a last glimpse at my room before switching off the light and going down the cool stairs, promising it won’t be so long before the next visit.

Photo by Martineric

What other explanation could you give for running over 42 km in a single stunt? You can’t. Every runner in the history of time has had at least one race where he questions his sanity at the starting line.

For those who stay in the game, these are constant feelings. No matter how accustomed you grow to the mileage, no matter how much energy you seem to have down the road, it will always come back to you, standing cold and wet in the mud between two cheaply-constructed barriers surrounded by thousands of scantily-dressed muscle-clad runners.

We live for this.

If you’re thinking about joining the club, here are a few tips to get you started:

1. The Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials

…You don’t become a runner by winning a morning workout. The only true way is to marshal the ferocity of your ambition over the course of many days, weeks, months, and (if you could finally come to accept it) years. The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials. How could he make them understand?

You are not going to just be running 26.2 miles or 42.195 kilometers. No, far more than that. For the months before, you are going to slowly increase your distance during long runs, your speed during interval workouts, and your muscle mass with weight training. 26.2, daunting as it may be to a beginner, has hundreds of miles that come before it.

Photo by darkmatter

2. Getting Started

Set a goal time. You can change it depending on how your training proceeds – you might even decide to settle for a half-marathon finish – but set a goal. Do you want to qualify for the Boston Marathon, or just finish so you can say “I DID IT!!”?

You might even decide to do a half marathon instead of a full, but either way, set a goal.

3. Avoiding Stress Fractures

You don’t have to take a nasty fall to break a bone. Stress fractures are caused by repeated loading on the bones and usually occur in the legs.

Think of your muscles as the shock absorbers on your car; without proper training, the shocks don’t function properly and the stress is forcibly absorbed by the only thing available – the bones.

As a result, it’s a very good idea to only increase your weekly mileage by 10%. Start out doing 10 miles/week? Next week you can do 11.

There are other considerations as well, from the surface you’re training on – concrete or trail running – to the support provided by footwear.

If you do want to try and reduce the stress on your legs, consider aquajogging: a way of running underwater that effectively exercises the legs without providing any impact forces. You should also try to avoid everything but the high-end treadmills, as many increase the stress on your legs and knees.

4. More than Leg Motion

Although it’s certainly possible to finish a marathon after months of straight running, it’s also a good idea to combine those miles with other cardio and anaerobic workouts:

• Swimming is great for building stamina and lung efficiency. It also brings you one step closer to training for a triathlon.
• Weight training is kind of necessary, in my humble opinion. Doing squats and intensive exercises will improve your leg muscle and overall performance.
• There are many schools of thought here: running and yoga, running and Tai Chi. See what feels right to you.

5. Set a Timeline

You can do the math yourself, depending on your starting weekly mileage (i.e. how long will it take you to get up to 20+ mile runs by adding 10% weekly?), but if you’re used to going a few miles and have a little racing experience, 4-5 months of training should be sufficient. Six months would be ideal.

Don’t fool yourself; training up to do that kind of distance is going to be a major time commitment. You’ll reach the point where you need two hours or more to do your daily run, and that doesn’t include time for weight training or everything else.

I nearly failed my fall semester at university because I was reaching the end of my training and topping 50+ miles/week.

Photo by CyboRoZ

6. Nutrition

Two simple rules:

• Avoid alcohol and caffeinated beverages.
• Hydrate.

Other than that, generic nutritional advice will do: be smart, eat fresh fruit, avoid fatty foods, and get some quality protein into your system. O

Once you start going 10+ miles/day, you can pretty much eat anything you want without consequence. Just like a pregnant woman supporting some strange cravings, you should listen to what your body is telling you to ingest.

7. The Long Run

There’s an ongoing debate among marathon runners: what should your longest run be before the race? 20-22 miles, or something more conservative?

For my first marathon, the 2005 Austin Freescale, my long run was up to 20 miles, and I had competed in a 30K six weeks prior to race day. I must admit, I wasn’t thrilled with the time it took my legs to fully recover from that three-hour run, but I did feel so much more prepared for the actual distance, knowing, if nothing else, I could finish 20/26ths of the race.

Before the 2006 Boston Marathon, I kept my long run down to 16 miles. Although I was confident I could finish, part of that was due to my prior marathon experience. I did manage to finish with a semi-decent time, 3:04:46, but my leg muscles were on fire after the race, and I attributed that to improper training: I should have pushed myself and just accepted a few days of recovery.

The bottom line? It’s different for each person. Ask trainers, listen to your body, and consider how much time you have to run.

8. Keeping Pace

Maintaining the pace you’re most comfortable with and keeping the time you want are difficult tasks, which is why training groups and stopwatches were invented.

During the race, depending on the size, there might be a few assigned pace leaders, their respective finish times pinned to their backs. Follow them if need be, or in the footsteps of your experienced friend who is known for keeping his pace consistent.

Photo by zhurnaly

9. During The Race

Hydrate and eat a protein-packed meal before your race. After that gun goes off and your brain turns to Swiss cheese when you think about the reality that you actually have to run this thing now, you can start to consider strategy.

Try to avoid the Poweraid or sugary drinks provided along the course; although you will have to stop and get some water eventually, energy drinks typically give you a large drain when running before any noticeable results surface.

The wall. The wall is the point at which your brain and your legs are screaming and clawing their way for you to stop performing such arduous tasks like moving one foot in front of the other. After the wall, the only thing propelling you is sheer determination.

We’re past logic and reason. The only thing left is force of will. “Chuck Norris wouldn’t stop,” a sign boasted before the 20-mile mark in Boston.

10. Pain

I’ve never really subscribed to the philosophy of “no pain, no gain” when it comes to distance running.

As long as you build up your distance properly, take the time to stretch before and after workouts, and do whatever is necessary when you need to cool down – massages, short runs, striders, stretching, walking in a circle – you should not have to go through the excruciating pain one might associate with running from Marathon to Athens.

community connection

If you want to do some more reading about marathon running, I recommend the following books:

Again to Carthage

Running the Seven Continents: Tales of Travel and the Marathon

The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei

I also recommend:

Keeping Pace in Japan (my homepage, with information on running in Japan)

“How to Run a Marathon” Expert Village Videos

Feature photo by PoYang_博仰. Photo above by Stuck in Customs.

Vancouver, it seems, has a knack for incorporating the undesirable into the accepted norm of everyday life. There are months of rain, an out of control homeless situation, and an undeniably poor public transit system, but the city forever saves face with its stunning mountain views and seagulls at the quay.

It’s for this reason I felt that the effects of September’s economic tsunami would have less obvious signs of impact here.

This past September, Vancouver saw a 42% drop in home sales. That’s fundamental for any city, but it’s an especially bold underscoring of the end of an era in Vancouver.

Throughout the past five years, Vancouver housing prices have thundered on in anticipation of the upcoming 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Now, with the global economy in its current state, confidences waver.

Add to this the fact that the Olympic games are to cost taxpayers an estimated $2.5 billion in lieu of the original declaration of $600 million, and things begin to look as though Vancouver is facing its very own financial problems.

Photo by Road Fun.

Still, there’s only one way to find out for certain. I decide to view the busiest district of Vancouver – its downtown – on foot looking for anything and everything. First it’s Robson Street, a lengthy strip of shops, buskers and restaurants.

This is Vancouver’s beauty belt, one in which Vancouverites and tourists alike have always poured great gobs of cash into.

Two blocks into my walk, for lease signs begin popping up in gutted storefront windows. By the time I’ve walked the length of Robson, no fewer than ten of these signs have created an ugly gap toothed grin along Vancouver’s favourite street.

Next I head to Gastown, Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhood. Here I really don’t see many signs of a city facing an economic crisis. The tourist shops are still crammed with tacky souvenirs. Japanese and Korean tourists hurry by, shopping bags in hand, cameras hanging faithfully from their necks.

I follow them to the steam clock where other tourists are poised with their cameras for the famous whistle that takes place quarter hourly. Standing there amongst this eager crowd, I can’t help but feel a renewed confidence. I head off with the sounds of the steam clock’s tune behind me.

Photo by Duane Storey.

Onward into Yaletown, a converted old warehouse district that now houses high-end condos, shops and restaurants. This is Vancouver’s denizen of comfort and financial security: Ugg-booted, yoga pant wearing moms push tandem strollers, gabbing on their mobile phones as they glide by.

The sounds of construction seem to be everywhere – a direct contradiction to the ten for lease signs I count in a matter of blocks.

Things go from bad to worse when I spot the Vancouver Condo Centre building, its windows plastered with for lease signs. I walk on, stopping at the corner where construction of a luxury apartment complex looks to be all but stalled.

The sign at the base of the lot proclaims the complex to be “Yaletown’s Last Opportunity”. I wonder if this “last opportunity” actually rests more firmly with the seller than any prospective buyers.

It’s getting late and the daylight begins to drain away. I decide to head for home. My mind buzzes with unanswered questions as I walk: are we suffering? Or is it business as usual in Vancouver? Are things just slow or are they slowly grinding to a halt?

I pass a homeless man, his arms raised in exaltation to the sky, mumbling frantically to himself. Whatever he knows, he’s certainly not telling.

Photo by Duane Storey.

Vancouver’s lips are sealed, forever doing its best to save face. I continue on, passing a hipster guy sporting an Obama shirt that declares, “Black is the New President.”

It’s been less than 24-hours since the first black president in the history of the United States was elected and already there is evidence of his presence here. I consider this: maybe it isn’t all a matter of hiding the bad with the good.

Maybe Vancouver knows that the bad is fleeting and that the good, no matter how premature, deserves our immediate attention. Maybe Vancouver understands a thing or two about the importance of hope, chiefly that in ways both metaphorical and literal the sun will come out sooner or later, and dry up all the rain.

With this in mind, my eyes drift toward the mountains on the horizon. The seagulls are busy squawking and circling the bay. All we can do is hope, but just between you and me, I think there’s a sea change coming.

Feature and above photo by Norm Walsh.

I grew up in Bedford, MA, an old Revolutionary War town wedged between Lexington and Concord. Bedford is moderate in all regards. Poorer than Lexington and Concord and without the war fame, but not quite as poor as Billerica to the north, whose strip club and blue-collar ballsiness give it limitless intrigue.

Burlington, to the east, has a comparable demographic to Bedford’s, but its sprawling commercial district—anchored by the Burlington Mall and AMC Cinema—draws immense traffic and makes the town a place of many options. Carlisle, to the northwest, is woodsy and rich, and dotted with farmland.

Bedford, cruelly surrounded by so many places of interest, offers little more than a good school system and the easily ignored legacy of having the first flag in America. (The Bedford Flag shows a metal-plated arm protruding from a cloud and waving a dagger at the words “Vince aut Morire”—Conquer or Die.)

Back when I was growing up, the main thing to do was hang out in someone’s basement and watch TV, or wander the streets like a vagrant. When I was 17 I fell into eight handles of Smirnoff vodka, and so spent my last years of high school sneaking off to various places—house parties, “the shack” off Davis Road, the abandoned train tracks in Billerica—to get drunk with friends, as did everyone else I knew.

Eager to leave after high school, I headed off to college in Maine to become a wicked booze-hound and redneck. I drank myself stupid, bought some guns, took up hunting and fishing, and tried my best not to get involved with politics.

When I graduated college I strayed even further, finding work on a salmon boat up in Bristol Bay, AK. But that quickly turned sour, and I ended up running away in the middle of the night, back to Bedford to wallow in shame at the old house.

I have since moved out and back, living for a year in Boston then attempting another half-brained adventure which put me squarely on my ass yet again. And that’s exactly how it feels. No matter what I do here, I get the sense that I am sitting down. Bedford is a place for sitting: not for falling backwards, but not for moving forwards either.

I’ll have productive days—fishing, splitting wood, disputing medical bills—and I’ll have days when I do nothing but lie on the couch and watch old episodes of “The Simpsons,” which I TiVo fanatically. Two weeks ago a friend asked me if I would paint his house, and I gladly accepted. The work is moving along, but the paint is drying slowly because the nights are so cold.

The leaves are starting to turn now and the wood stoves are burning at night. Fall approaches. And though fall brings the promise of hunting and flannel underwear, I can stay here no longer. I have sat long enough—nearly two months—and I am anxious to stand up, and walk away.

Feature photo by BEAT NIK. Photo above by ibcbulk.

It’s nearing the end of the year and you’re either out of dough or out of vacation days.

Glossy travel catalogs are showing up in your mailbox, taunting you with images of destinations you can’t even think about visiting right now, leaving you in a fall funk.

If you happen to be in New York, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Tucson, Gibara, Cuba, or La Paz, Mexico though, don’t despair. These five film festivals—all focused on travel or place-based films– will transport you around the world at a price far lower than that of a transcontinental plane ticket.

Photo by Photochiel.

NEW YORK, New York, USA

The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival: November 14-16, 2008

2008 marks the 32nd anniversary of this film festival, which will present 26 international documentaries over the course of two days at the American Museum of Natural History. This festival was started to showcase anthropological films from the field.

This year’s selections include topics as diverse as “African thumb-piano players, Laotian bomb technicians, primate scientists in Abkhazia, prostitutes in Phnom Penh, and Manhattan pre-schoolers”—topics and places obscure enough to satisfy your desire for a sense of the “exotic.”

Photo by Leto A.

SANTA FE, New Mexico, USA

National Geographic All Roads Film Festival: December 3-7, 2008

This is the fifth year of the All Roads Film Festival; the final stop in the itinerant festival’s 2008 season is Santa Fe. Like the Margaret Mead festival, the majority of the 29 films in the All Roads Festival tend towards ponderous themes; however, you can’t beat this festival for cultural and geographic diversity: films are from 20 cultures and 15 countries, and the majority feature communities described as “indigenous and underrepresented minorities.”

Photo by fangleman.

SAN FRANCISCO, California, USA

South Asian Film Festival: November 13-16, 2008

Unlike a few of the other film fests on this list, the flicks in the South Asian Film Festival aren’t limited to documentaries. The offerings at the SAFF range “from Indian art house classics to documentary films and from innovative and experimental visions to next-level Bollywood.”

Buy tickets online before the 12th and you’ll get a cheaper rate than you’ll be charged at the door. And while the Mead and All Roads Film Festivals are likely to be followed by esoteric anthropological conversations, the SAFF offers some serious post-film partying at an accessible cost for any budget: $5 will get you into an opening night party at a local café-bar.

Photo by Roger Smith.

TUCSON, Arizona; USA

Tucson Slow Food & Film Festival: January 8-11, 2009

Just as the chill of North American winter is settling into your bones, Tucson offers a film festival to fill you up with images of warmth. Slow food + film= winning combination. Features, short films, animated films, and documentaries—all focused on food—will be shown at this festival.

Although this film fest is just four years old, it has a history of showing films featuring food from around the world; past movies have included “Like Water for Chocolate” (which is sure to send you off in search of some Mexican mole after viewing), “Chocolat” (which will make you want to open your own boutique chocolate shop), and “Tortilla Soup” (which will send you home to Google this recipe).

Photo by Néstor.

GIBARA, Cuba; LA PAZ, Mexico

Cine Pobre Film Festival: Dates vary in Spring 2009

Described as one of the world’s most “charming and authentic” film festivals, this low-budget film festival was conceived by Cuban film director Humberto Solas about eight years ago. The concept has since spread to other countries, including Mexico, which hosts its own Cine Pobre Film Festival each spring.

The 2009 Cine Pobre festival will kick off on May 5, 2009; if you’ll be in Cuba, their Cine Pobre festival is a few weeks earlier. Next year’s selections have not yet been announced, but past features have tended to represent selections from every continent.