My Ten Favorite Places

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page" - St. Augustine

When I was 18, I left the safe confines of my parents' suburban Detroit home for the frozen tundra of Marquette, MI. Moving eight hours north doesn't seem like much now, but back then it was like relocating in a different country. Ever since then, moving and traveling has been my greatest passion.

Moving around so much is exciting, but also a heavy burden; saying goodbye to friends, girlfriends, and the occasional good job hurt each time. Regardless, I wouldn't trade my experiences for anything.

I lived in Marquette for four years, London for six months, Chicago for almost two years, the San Francisco Bay area for nine months, and now New York City for nine months. It's been a wild ride.

With a contemplative mood overtaking me, I decided to make a list of my ten favorite places. It wasn't easy to narrow down. I've been working on this post off and on since January. I figured I better finally finish it before I leave for Africa in two weeks (I'm hoping the trip might add a few new favorite places).

I have to list a few honorable mentions that did not make the list: Times Square (NYC), Santa Cruz (CA), Michigan Ave. (Chicago), and Russell Square (London). Without further ado, here are the places I love most:

10. Coney Island, Brooklyn (New York) - There are very few places in New York City - and in the area - where you can go and not spend a dime. At Coney Island, you can walk straight off the train, stroll down the boardwalk, and enjoy a mile-long sandy beach on the Atlantic Ocean for the cost of subway ticket.

In contrast, the Jersey Shore (a favorite of New Yorkers), actually charges people $7-8 to go on the beach. To make things worse, all the restaurants and hotels "down the Shore" are outrageously overpriced.

Right now, companies like Thor Equities have their eyes on Coney Island. They are looking at the broken-down rides, the less-than-clean beach, and abandoned lots with dollar signs. They want to take the peninsula (it is no longer an island) and turn it into an expensive theme park.

So before Coney Island goes the way of the Shore, hop on the N train, bring a cooler of beer (and plastic cups), and throw on your swim trunks for a beautiful day at the edge of the continent.

9. Wicker Park (Chicago) - If there is a hipster mecca in the Midwest, this would be it. I lived here for seven months in Chicago in a tiny apartment next to the El train. The five streets that intersect in the neighborhood's center are filled with used book shops, bars, restaurants, and tons of bohemian shops. The people there are as weird as they are interesting.

For me, Wicker Park is a bit of a tragedy. It is the unfortunate tale similar to the Haight Ashbury in San Fransisco and Camden Town in London: there is an old neighborhood where only poor people live, then a bunch of cool artsy type people move there because of the cheap rent, and the area becomes an awesome place to live and visit. Then, a bunch of rich Yuppies move in and ruin it. They drive up rent prices, attract real estate scum, and put in a bunch of shops most of the residents can't afford to go in.

I wouldn't want to live there again (I much preferred the Lake Shore area on Belmont I moved to when they closed my building), but it is still one of my favorite places to visit in Chicago.

Some of the best spots are Estelle's bar (best jute box of any bar I have ever been too), Smiths night at Danny's Tavern (I heart Morrissey), and the Mediterranean food of Sultan's.

8. Isle of Bute (Scotland) - Every American that visits Scotland or Ireland wants to see one thing: Those countries as they were 200 years ago. For those Celtic searchers, they will be disappointed to find very, modern, urban, and advanced places. But, there is one place where it comes pretty close to Old Scotland: the Isle of Bute.

A 20-minute drive and a 15-minute ferry ride from Scotland's most populated city, Glasgow, will get the adventurous traveler to the island. You'll be happy to find old world pubs and extremely think Scottish accents.

The scenery from Rothesay (the main city on Bute) is breathtaking: there are a bunch of smaller islands surrounding it, they have palm trees all over the island (apparently Bute has the perfect temperature for them to grow), tons of farmland, and woods (hard to come by in Western Europe).

A tasty reminder of British imperialism, Indian restaurants can be found all over Rothesay. It was actually the first place I ate Indian food.

A few other notable spots are a castle that was half destroyed by Oliver Cromwell, a mountain they call "the sleeping Indian" that from a distance actually looks like a Native American lying down, and Kingarth, Scotland's own Stonehenge-like rock formation.

Below, I have one of the first videos I ever took with a digital camera. The quality is crap, but there it is: The Isle of Bute.


7. Downtown Detroit (Michigan) - Like anybody my age who grew up in Suburban Detroit, going downtown has always held a sort of mystical flair. Our parents "got the hell out of there" and retreated to the 'burbs (sometimes with good reason) and we were all denied the joy of visiting a classic American city. Growing up, I think I actually knew Chicago better than I knew Detroit.

Downtown is pretty much abandoned by any normal city standard, so going down there is like being able to run free in a ghost town. You can sneak into the amazing abandoned train station, Michigan Central Station, and walk around all the beautiful art deco buildings in the New Center area and downtown with only seeing a handful of people.

Of course, you have some of the coolest stadiums in America all within a two mile radius: Joe Louis Arena (Red Wings), Comerica Park (Tigers), and Ford Field (Lions).

My favorite things to do there are eat at Lafayette Coney Island, walk around Hart Plaza (where they have the Techno Fest every year, go to the Corktown bars (Lager House, Nancy Whiskey's), hit up all three casinos in one night, ride the People Mover drunk, and head over to Windsor for some gambling and Cuban cigars.

6. Millennium Park (Chicago) - At heart, I'm just a big tourist. And there is nothing more touristy than Chicago's Millennium Park. The gigantic park (which contains Grant Park) is an excellent mix of architecture, lavish gardens, and some of the best sites of the city.

I really like these two huge pillars that have gigantic faces on them that spit water at you, the famous Cloudgate (which residents call "the bean" and my mom calls "alien hat"), and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion (where I saw the Decemberists for FREE).

Above all, the best thing about it is you can stand in the middle of this place and be surrounded by dozens of huge American skyscrapers. Doesn't get much better than that.

5. Golden Gate Park (San Francisco) - This park puts Central Park, Hyde Park, and Grant Park to shame.

No where on earth would they cut out around 20% of their city to create an oasis that is free to everyone...except San Francisco. Some of the amazing things in this place are the Devry Museum (free to go to the top and see the best view of SF), the botanical garden, conservatory of flowers, Japanese tea garden (actually $4 to get in), the redwood forest, and hundreds of other little things that make this park a hard place to pass up.

Just for a contrast, Millennium Park hosts a three day festival, Lollapalooza, that costs about $300. Golden Gate Park hosts a three day festival, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, and it's free. That's my kind of city.

Below, I have a video of my mom and I at the park:

4. Trafalgar Square (London) - Much like Millennium Park, this place held a magical tourist hold on me. The huge square is a dedication to the battle of Trafalgar where Admiral Nelson defeated Napoleon. The main sites are the statues, large fountains (that the bobbies need to kick people out of in the summer), and Nelson's column.

The square has a 151 ft column with a statue of Nelson on top at the front of the square. I must have starred in awe at this thing over a dozen times. Also, at the rear of the square is The National Gallery. I can't even begin to describe half the stuff in there. Oh, and it is free.

I lived for three months on Store Street in London and it would only take me 5-10 minutes to walk to the Square. I dragged friends there after long nights of drinking, anybody that visited me, and often went there myself to sit on the steps leading up to the Gallery.

Flags flap from every country in the world in the area surrounding the square - it seems like they all have a spot there.

The view from the top of the steps is breathtaking. Sunsets are cool everywhere, but watching the sun drop on central London is something else altogether.

3. The Valley (CA) - There is a magical land, hidden between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, where hippies and nature live in total harmony.

In the Valley, banana slugs slowly slide on dead leaves, raccoons search for delicious trash, deer prance through the gigantic redwood trees, occasional coyotes and mountain lions run past in the distance, salamanders gingerly swim in Winter Pond, and hippies frolic in the expansive Worley Flat.

If you have never been, you wouldn't understand. If you have, your mind drifts back there in crowded subway cars, suburban traffic jams, and tiny "apartments" that would be better characterized as closets.

It was the best place I ever lived and the hardest to leave.

SHABOOYA

2. The Upper Peninsula (Michigan) - One of the best things about this area of the country is no one knows about it. The only people that have some faint clue it exists are Suburban Detroiters who are just as likely to visit there as an Israeli going on vacation in the Gaza strip.

The natural beauty of the U.P. cannot be overestimated. In the words of Bob Ross, "God was having a good day when he created this." Maybe it has something to do with the fact it snows eight months out of the year, but this place seems untouched by man.

I lived in the U.P.'s biggest city, Marquette, for four years and it still seemed like I was in the middle of the woods.

In the winter, go skiing at Mount Bohemia or Marquette Mountain. They are much cheaper than any other ski hills in the world and have some fantastic hills. In the summer, check out the beautiful peninsula Presque Isle for the best views of Lake Superior, go rock jumping at the Black Rocks (like my friend, Ben Cline, and I above), tour Northern Michigan University's gorgeous campus, and enjoy the beaches of Marquette - the water is freezing, but it is worth it to swim in a lake that is so big it looks like an ocean.

There are a million other things I could mention, but this article is long enough already. It was a great place to go to college and I hope to visit there many times in the future.

1. San Francisco - There are very few places I mention above that I can say I would like to live at for the rest of my life. I had fun at all those places, and can't wait to visit someday, but I can't see myself living there. San Francisco is different. I loved it there and it is the place I want to move to someday.

Surrounded by the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, this seven-mile-by-seven-mile peninsula has some of the best views and natural beauty of any place in America.

The downtown is bustling with workers and loud cranking trolley cars on Market Street. On the last Friday of every month, these sounds are replaced by the grinding of bicycle gears and Critical Massers (CM actually started in SF) starting their long bike ride from the Ferry Building.

Walking a few blocks from downtown, you can stumble into China. I say China, and not Chinatown, because it feels like you have teleported out of California into a bustling Beijing shopping center. Block after block after block is nothing but shops with Mandarin writing on them; normal Chinatowns have a few restaurants - here there are dentists, doctor offices, and everything else you can imagine. This is truly a Chinatown.

A little bit north of Chinatown is Fisherman's Wharf, a mix between a tourist trap and a fishing village. You could probably never afford to live there, but shopping and staring out at Alcatraz there is a must. My favorite place there, I'm partial because I used to work there, is Pier 39. It is a tourist place, for sure, but it is nowhere as congested and horrible as Navy Pier in Chicago. Plus, you get to see a bunch of Sea Lions barking and lounging around. They are the real attraction, and the reason why there are so many touristy places on the pier.

Two of my favorite restaurants in the world are in the city: The Stinking Rose (a garlic-only menu) and Chutney (the Chicken Tikka Masala is unbelievable).

So much has already been written about San Francisco that I think it is beneficial for me to clear up a few misconseptions about the city:

1. It's gay - Well, I hate to say it, but I hear this one the most. First off, let me say, if you aren't going to move somewhere because there are gay people then you mine as well move into a small shack in the middle of the woods and never talk to people again (you know, like the Unabomber). Gay people are everywhere, whether you like it or not. Second, there are so many single straight women there it would make any guy's head spin. Trust me.
2. It's expensive - This place doesn't even come close to how expensive New York City or London is. The strong activist culture here won some serious victories for renters, so rent, in general, isn't that bad. I lived in a room with a turret where I could see Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park for $700 a month. I know people, at the time, who were paying way more in Chicago.

3. It's hot - As "someone" (usually attributed to Mark Twain) once wrote, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." The weather there is rainy, only mildly warm, and it gets really cold at night. The occasional good day makes it all worth it. Note: sometimes it is just better to let friends and family believe San Francisco is hot and you ride a surfboard to work everyday. It's a real buzz kill to have to break the news to them.

Here is a video of my mom and I going to Alcatraz. You get to see downtown SF as we get sent to jail:

I don't know if I'll ever move back to San Francisco. I want to get a job as a print reporter - and I'll go wherever that takes me. I have a fear that if I ever go back to San Francisco that it won't be the same as last time. I was there at a period of my life when I was still a bit soft (living in New York for nine months and getting chewed out by editors and professors, and writing a ton of stories about murders and manslaughters, changes a man) and don't want to tarnish my image of the place.

Well, I guess there is no point dreaming about the future while I'm still exploring another great city and getting ready to move to Africa for two months. Until next time, have a great day!

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All pictures in this article are by me except the turret shot by Heather Nicholson, Lafayette Coney Island by Steve Molnar, and the Trafalgar Square and Black Rocks shot by people I can't remember.

Visiting Boston

Last week I took a trip to Boston to visit my family there. My cousin Brad and his wife, Sarah, live with their adorable baby Maggie and three dogs in Marlborough, MA.

I took the Fung Wah Chinatown bus from New York to Boston for just $15. The bus was, as expected, quite uncomfortable. Regardless, the bus driver was on a mission: He drove so crazy that we got there in 3 and 1/2 hours! The one thing I didn't like about the Fung Wah was that even though I bought my ticket online, I almost didn't get on the bus. Turns out they had overbooked. I don't like that much uncertainty when I travel. Any other questions you might have about the Fung Wah are answered beautifully here.

On the way back, I decided to take the Mega Bus. For $1 more, I rode in a much nicer bus, didn't have to worry about not getting on, got to watch The Matrix on the bus TV, and was able to spread out over two seats.

The highlights of the trip were eating at Fire & Ice, visiting two breweries in one day (Harpoon's and Sam Adams), going for a run in Marlborough, watching a bunch of HBO shows, walking the Freedom Trail, watching Maggie (see video above), and getting to relax. With NYU classes starting in two days, I needed a calm trip like this.

You can follow the adventures of Brad and Sarah at The Great Boston Experiment.

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Times Sq. New Year's Eve Report

2008: The Most Amazing Year of my Life

In 2008, I took a lot of chances and found out what I was capable of. I never have “lived” so much in a short period of time, made so many friends, and seen so much.

I started out the year living in an old, rusty trailer in the middle of a Redwood forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I had accepted a job as a Naturalist at the San Joaquin Outdoor School, and for the next five months I would be living in the woods.

I was scared shitless. My job involved teaching 5th and 6th graders science for one week at a time. I had never worked with kids, didn’t know much about the outdoors, and sure as hell didn’t know crap about science.

A few months earlier, I had left my desk job in Chicago for the brighter pastures of California. I hated Chicago and, especially, my job. I told all my friends there that I liked Chicago, but had to leave. That was bullshit. Chicago wasn’t the city for me.

As time went on at SJOE, I found I loved working with kids, and from what I could tell, they really liked me. I also loved living in the redwoods. And, I wasn’t far from San Francisco either.

I took the nature name, Squirrel, because growing up in Suburban Detroit they were the main animal around. I loved to climb early on and identified with the animal.

I played guitar and sang to groups of 100-130 kids every week. Not exactly the crowd I imagined when I first picked up a guitar, but I loved it. Playing hits like “The Banana Slug Song” drove those kids into a frenzy. With my two best friends at SJOE, Cirrus and Dragonfly, we put on an amazing show of skits and songs.

My favorite things to do with the kids were a salamander hunt (four different species!), hiking to Worley Flat, and practicing survival skills.

Also during my time there I met a girl. I was very happy...it was pure bliss.

Throughout those five months I was also applying for journalism grad schools. It was a plan I had long before coming to the San Joaquin Valley. I had been writing freelance for three years and felt it was time to get serious. In early March I was accepted to my top pick, NYU.

In May, I was sad to leave the Valley. I had made so many friends and it was, quite possibly, the happiest I had ever been in my life. I said my goodbyes and drove my Chevy Nova, with my gf, across the country.

We stayed in a hotel in Salt Lake City, visited my friend Robin in Denver, stayed with some of my gf’s family friends in St. Louis, stayed with my cousin and friend in Chicago, and eventually ended up in Holland, MI. After dropping my gf off, I stayed with my brother in East Lansing and then went home to St. Clair Shores. It was an amazing trip.

I planned to stay for two months in SCS and just get ready for NYU. Well, two days after arriving in Detroit, I hit a pothole with the Nova and it was totaled. That signaled some rough times. Unfortunately, no matter what I do in my life, I am still a kid to my parents and they weren’t the easiest to live with either.


I applied at every restaurant in SCS’s Nautical Mile. No one would hire me. Eventually, I got the idea to see if my old company from a few years ago, Brogan & Partners, would hire me. Well, they did and it was an amazing time. I got to brush up on my writing skills working on their blog and made a ton of new friends. It really made the rest of my summer great.

After writing letters back and forth to my gf throughout the summer, she dumped me a week before I left for NYU. I was crushed.

I left for New York with my cousin, Nathan, and dad two weeks before classes started. Nathan and I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle in Hoboken, NJ for two weeks while we searched for an apartment.

After a very hard search we eventually found a five-floor walk-up in the East Village that was in our price range and actually in Manhattan! It was cheaper than the places we were looking at in Brooklyn and only a little more expensive than a place in Harlem we almost took.

When NYU classes started, I had mixed feelings. I was expecting to meet people that had been journalists before that were there to get some extra training, or people like me that took some soul-searching after undergrad to find out what they wanted out of life. Well, my whole class was 21-22 year old girls straight from undergrad.

Eventually, I got off my high horse and became really good friends with some people in the class, especially Kate and Andrea (both from WI). I grew to like everyone in my program, even if I didn’t see eye-to-eye with them. In our sister program, Reporting the Nation, I met some other great friends too. We would meet at least once a week for drinks.


I still didn’t like New York City though. I was heartbroken, and my mind would often drift back to the San Joaquin Valley. I was filled with uncertainty and sadness; I was happy in California, should I have stayed? Also, the Big Apple was overwhelming. Screw defeating stereotypes, the majority of people her ARE assholes and it makes for a very hard place to move too.

I found some kindred spirits in the NYU student group, Bags N’ Boards. We met every Thursday and discussed comic books. It was a huge stress relief. Most meetings, even though we were supposed to be working on a publication, involved us laughing, geeking out, and making fun of Jeph Loeb.

I threw myself into my studies. I worked night and day to prove myself. In hindsight, I probably didn’t need to work as hard as I did. But, it all paid off in the end. I was running to every borough, interviewing people, taking pictures, and writing the best stories I could.

I finally started to make some friends too. I got a job my first week at NYU in the journalism equipment room and met some amazing people. My two co-workers, James and Will, were a riot. I actually sort of liked coming to work. We started hanging out outside of work and it was cool to have some non-NYU friends.

By the end of the semester, I was able to sit back be really proud of what I did. Graduate school was way harder than what I thought it would be. But, I was very successful (at least by my standards), and it felt great. Some of the highlights were being asked if I want to be a grad assistant next semester, getting five stories published on NYC Pavement Pieces, and drawing two comics in the NYU Comic Book Review.

I still am unsure about New York. But, I hear it takes a while to really start to like it. So, I’m hopeful for the future. I can’t imagine 2009 will be better than this year - ’08 would be a hard year to top. And if things really suck next year, all I need to remember is places like the San Joaquin Valley exist and things can always get better.

Bob Ross Wikipedia Article

I love Bob Ross. Recently, I have been working my way through season 15 and I love his calm voice and caring nature. After a stressful day in the Big Apple, nothing chills me out like watching "The Joy of Painting."

I decided to look up a little information on the man and found this hilarious description on Wikipedia. I've been laughing for about 15 minutes...

Wikipedia: "In 1995, Ross received his widest exposure when he created what many of his critics claimed to be the greatest painting of all time. This painting would not only be the greatest of his career, but the greatest in the history of the universe. It was, in fact, so realistic in nature that it was more real than reality itself. This painting was said to have bridged the void between the dimensions and, consequently, Bob Ross painted himself into another dimension where he resided until 2001. Despite this, however, Ross has made contact multiple times to this plane of existence."


Visit the Midwest Review blog for TV reviews: TMR: The Midwest Review

Ed Shaw Interview

I wrote a story recently about the aging HIV community, and an amazing man, Ed Shaw.

The story is currently on the front page of NYC Pavement Pieces.

This was my first time conducting an interview using video and I made some mistakes. Regardless, I know for next time and was able to use the audio on Pavement Pieces.

Music was provided by Paul Karam. He is a Detroit musician and I really dig his stuff. Hopefully, I can use his music again when I get better at video.

Cheers!

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City Island, The Bronx

Hello there dear reader,

Kick off your shoes, grab a cup of coffee, and relax as I weave a tale of tranquility, beauty, and adventure from the "Seaport of the Bronx"

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A Dream Fulfilled

When Jeremy Bridgman moved to the Big Apple he had one dream: to run the New York marathon. He completed his mission yesterday. All it took was four years, four months of training, and waking up at 6:30 a.m. on a frigid fall morning.

“This is the quintessential New York experience,” said 26-year-old Bridgman about the 38th annual ING New York City Marathon.

“For some people, that [New York] experience it is going to the Empire State Building or Statue of Liberty. For me, this is it.”

Bridgman moved here four years ago from Cincinnati, Ohio. He ran one marathon in his home state, but that was nothing compared to this.

The New York Marathon is the largest in the world, with 37,000 participants, and runs through all five boroughs.

The race is so popular that potential participants must enter a draft. After three years of not being selected in the draft, Bridgman was granted entry.

On marathon morning, Bridgman stared off across the water as he rode the Staten Island ferry. He wore his favorite yellow “where’s the beef?” t-shirt, checked his iPod’s classic rock playlist, and anxiously drank blue Gatorade.

He was chatty and excited.

Once the ferry docked, he took a 20-minute bus ride to the starting line. His usual talkative nature was replaced by silence.

Hundreds of runners piled out of buses into Arthur von Briesen Park.

Bridgman’s nervousness took hold. He began frantically wandering around the park looking for where to put his clothes, struggled to tie his ChampionChip (penny-sized device that tracks his time), and talked mainly in fragments: “stay loose”, “that’s not it.”

It was four months ago he began training. Running 5-7 miles each weekend, one or two short runs during the week, and not going out on Halloween had all led to this. At 9 a.m., he left for the starting line.

As Bridgman ran, his girlfriend, Lauren Buller, 24, went to Central Park. She would often run with him over the past months. Now she struggled through the thick crowd to find him. Bridgman’s friend Scott Iwata, 30, was also there.

“I’m excited to see him…and hear all his stories,” said Iwata.

The spectators were in the thousands. “I think the crowd appreciates seeing someone push themselves to an obscene limit,” said Iwata.

Ingrid Edwards, a 50-year-old volunteer and former marathon runner, understood the attraction: “It’s that New York feeling – so exciting.”

Iwata and Buller waited for a half hour. Buller was concerned she had missed him. Then, out of the crowd of tired runners, came Bridgman stumbling over. His face was blood red, his eyes watery, and shoulders were wrapped in a blanket.

Buller and Bridgman passionately kissed.

“I’m just happy to be done,” said Bridgman who finished in four 4 hours and 33 minutes.

The hardest part for him was running by his apartment in Harlem: “I knew I had my keys on me. I could have just run in there. I had cold beer in the fridge.”

With his goal of completing the marathon over, he thought ahead to his future: “Now I drink.”

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