VTP: India

This post is part of a monthly series of eye candy at Fly Brother, imaginatively named VTP (short for Vintage Travel Posters). We'll see how travel companies and bureaus have been enticing people off the couch since international leisure travel first became a bourgeois conceit. Few places stimulate the imagination for better or worse than India, though travel posters seem to have focused primarily on elephants, the Taj Mahal, and multi-armed Hindu deities to sell a continent-sized country full of over a thousand languages and just as many cultures. Still, the colorful, detailed designs make up for the lack of thematic ideas.

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Executive Decisions -or- Sometimes, It's Okay to Pass

For those of us averse to a sedentary, monotonous lifestyle, there often comes a point when we have to make executive decisions regarding our time, our resources, our needs, and our wants. I'm both extremely sociable and intellectually inquisitive, so living in the capital city of a large South American country known for its highly-sociable population and culture, executive decisions have been the order of the day, almost every day.

Had I not committed myself to an every-third-day blogging schedule, posts at Fly Brother would be haphazard and sporadic, reflecting the random socializing that inevitably presents itself whenever more than two Brazilians get together. As I'm inclined to accept any welcome diversion to the mental and sometimes emotional strain of penning new text, it takes major focus on my part to decline the enticing offer of movie night or an embassy cocktail or karaoke or sushi with the crew, especially on school nights (booty calls, however, always get answered; y'all know how it is).

Now, if my professional objective were only to stack then spend bills, rolling out every night would gravy. But to appropriate a recent tweet I ran across, "a real writer's job isn't to be popular." That particular tweet referenced an article on the responsibility of journalists, or any event chronicler, to report the truth, no matter how unpopular or even dangerous doing so might be. I take that quote, however, on a much less profound level to mean you can't be a real writer and be hanging out all gotdamned night; not unless all you do from noon to four, once you wake up, is write. Sometimes, you just gotta say, "nah...I'll pass. Thanks, though" (you do, however, still want to be invited to stuff).

And it's not just about writing; it's about balancing your life in such a way that all of your projects become manageable and still get done, whether or not that's raising well-read, well-rounded kids or starting a business or planning your first round-the-world trip. After all, life's too short to just be focused on work, but ain't none of us heir to a hotel dynasty. Like they say in Spanish, unos por otros (basically, one thing for another). Yes, you may have a twinge of regret about missing one thing or another, but when you've finally reached your objective, you won't regret not doing what it took to get there. And there will always be another movie night or embassy cocktail or booty call (though maybe not with the same person, since you flaked out the last time).

So yesterday, instead of meeting up with a large group of friends for the closing day of the Robert Polidori retrospective I'd been wanting to see, I decided to stick around the house, stock up the fridge, finish preparing two tests, call the important women in my life and thank them for their interminable maternal love, deflect the few regrets that did arise about waiting too late to get to the Polidori showing, and continue conceptualization of upcoming Fly Brother expansion.

I've also decided to cut my planned two weeks on the road this summer to only nine days, starting with the TBEX '10 travel blogging conference in New York, followed by a week of fellowship with two very good friends in Toronto (holla TDK and La Femme Nikita). Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City were originally on the itinerary, but it felt wiser to shorten the trip and deepen the finances available to me in NYC and YYZ than to spread myself too thin across eastern Canada. Executive decision.

And now, I can buy a nice video camera and take you good people with me on some of my fly-falutin' adventures. See...it's all about you, baby (wink).

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Strange Passage

Living outside of New York, it's easy to miss entertaining, insightful, and even inspirational stage plays. Thanks to Spike Lee, the entertaining, insightful, and inspirational Passing Strange was filmed on its very last Broadway performance in 2008, capturing an amazing theatrical experience in an appropriate medium for temporal and spacial export beyond the Great White Way. The semi-autobiographical, gospel/pop/rock-infused story of a black, middle-class, angst-ridden teenager who jets off to Europe in search of "The (ever elusive) Real" in the early 80s was brought to my attention by a college buddy of mine, himself casting off the binds of a nine-to-five to pursue artistic endeavors; he said he immediately thought of me and suggested I order the DVD. He explained his understanding of the show in a series of text messages:

[Passing Strange encompasses]...searching for the real more as a metaphor rather...ur purpose...the reason y u live and breathe...and the reason y ure here. Yes...this can apply to racial identity and culture but i thought it as something deeper than that. Defining your soul...devoid of culture or race. Him trveling and visiting different cultures trying to find where he fits is on the surface...but underneath it all laid something universal...regardless of upbringing...background...or race...the search for truth and the journey for inner peace. This can be applied to anyone...the person hopping from job to job trying to figure out what he or she needs to do in life to be happy...the person hopping from religion to religion to find the truth...or the truth that satisfies him or gives him peace...the chick hopping from man to man trying to fill the void that'll finally make her feel complete...etc.

To me the play hit on so many levels...so many artistic levels and the struggle that artists grapple with on a daily basis...established artists and up and comers trying to find their spot...their niche. Brilliant.

Need I say more? Watch this clip from The View, in which the supporting cast welcomes the protagonist to Amsterdam and "The Real," then order the DVD and fly.

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From the AV Room: Philly Prodigy

While I catch up from a hellified week of handling personal business before the trip and the move, I thought I'd share this inspiring clip of a 13-year-old violin virtuoso that I encountered last week earning a lot of change on the street in Philadelphia:

Philly Prodigy from Fly Brother on Vimeo.

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Motivated.

Often, just when we are in greatest need of motivation or inspiration, it comes suddenly and without warning. For me, these last few weeks have been marked with anxiety about my future, annoyance with my present, and a general ping-ponging between frustration and fatigue, feeling over-burdened and over-committed.

Enter Chris Guillebeau's 279 Days to Overnight Success, a succinct, engaging guide to establishing yourself as a full-time artist and/or social media guru, offered free-of-charge on his amazing site, The Art of Non-conformity. Having been profiled in The New York Times, on MSNBC, and here on Fly Brother, Guillebeau outlines his quest to hit every country on Earth by the age of 35 and to make the world a better place in the process. In his encouraging manifesto, which I read in a little under two hours, he discusses his successes and failures as a full-time writer, the expectations to succeed but not to receive much front-end financial gain, self-discipline and prioritization, the extreme importance of maintaining an accessible connection with your readers, and, above all, remaining true to your own voice to attract the right audience for you.

Amidst the chaos of increasing work and life pressures, reading this guide today was a needed splash of cold water, underscoring the intermittent messages I've been receiving from the varied reaches of the cosmos in one orienting, 79-page stroke. In forty-two days, I'll be done with high school teaching and Colombia, at least for a while. Between now and then, there's nothing to do but buckle down, prioritize, and get the documenting, grading, blogging, reading, writing, working-out, planning, and packing done. Over the next few weeks, I'll be making the necessary changes that reflect my commitment to my readers and my writing, giving voice to an under-heard perspective of international travel at Fly Brother and other venues, and I'll be utilizing many of the techniques outlined by Guillebeau and other young, successful, full-time writers who are doing exactly what I want to be doing—making a living while doing exactly what they want to be doing. And I urge anyone who's interested in that lifestyle choice to read 279 Days to Overnight Success.

Today, children, I leave you with three quotes that came to mind as I wrote this post:

From the aforementioned manifesto -
"[Y]ou have to find a way to keep making art during the not-so-fun times."

A very shaky paraphrase of a sermon I heard a few years ago by Rebm, Jr. at Bethel Baptist Institutional in Jacksonville, Florida - "Sometimes, you cain't be waitin' on nobody else. You gotta hold your own hand up."

And something deceptively simple, profound, and oft-said to me, most recently by São Paulo trailblazer Kevin of Club Whirled -
"You can do anything you want."

Stay tuned.



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Fly Brother's Fly-By-Night Dime-Store Travel Philosophy

Photo by barb 11

Lately, I've been reading through traveler extraordinaire Chris Guillebeau's The Art of Nonconformity, an inspiring multipurpose blog encouraging people to live, work, and travel outside the box. With posts like "Why You Should Quit Your Job and Travel Around the World" and the downloadable "A Brief Guide to World Domination," Guillebeau seems to have found that elusive je ne sais quoi that allows him to jaunt off to far-flung destinations at a moment's notice (being debt-free and having operated several successful small businesses being a part of that je ne sais quoi), and he's willing to share the knowledge of being your own boss, traveling the world, and improving our planet to anyone who's open to non-conventional wisdom. Each one, teach one.

Anyway, I recently read a post titled "Developing Your Own Philosophy of Travel," in which Guillebeau describes his motivation for and styles of travel. His current goal is to visit every country on Earth (nearly 200 sovereign nations) before his 35th birthday, and he's well on his way to accomplishing that goal via round-the-world plane tickets, finagled stop-overs, and a rainbow of sleeping arrangements - from airport floors in Texas to fleabags in Ulaan Bataar (that's Mongolia, folk) to the overpriced Le Meridian in Malta. And he got me thinking about my own travel philosophies, those objectives, habits, rules, and stimuli that drive me incessantly to the nearest international airport whenever time and income allow.

• As I've mentioned countless times on this blog, I'm drawn most strongly to Latin American cultures with a very visible African element, particularly in terms of music and dance: the Spanish Caribbean and Brazil most notably. I also like cities with large Afro-Diasporic populations - London, Paris, Toronto, Montreal, and the States-side stalwarts NYC, DC, ATL, and MIA. Basically, I like to see myself reflected in the people when I travel. And I like to travel under the radar, where if I don't speak, people don't know I'm not from there.
  

• That doesn't mean I limit myself to the lands of salsa and samba. Within the next five years, I'm trying to hit Mozambique, South Africa, Ethiopia, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria, and Tanzania in the Motherland. Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Croatia, and Turkey. Hong Kong. Australia. Papua New Guinea. India! And, of course, wherever a cheap last-minute plane ticket takes me.
  

• I'm a true urbanist: the bigger the city, the better. Give me a week in Sydney over a week in the Outback any day. Not that I'm averse to hiking or outdoor activities (I quite enjoy rafting), but the humthumpbuzz of an urban center stimulates more of my senses than the whistletweetshush of the campo. I enjoy museums and mass transit and people watching at the mall. I would, however, make exceptions for natural wonders like Ayers Rock, Victoria Falls, and Antarctica.

• I like to spend an entire week or ten days in a city (more, if possible). It's a great way to see sights and stake your claim on a neighborhood or local routine for a short while. I like getting lost among the crowds and making my way "home" or getting to know the waitstaff at my corner breakfast nook. After a few days, I start to notice commuting patterns, discover hidden delicacies, and sometimes even get to indulge in a nice romantic fling (I have, in Paris, Havana, and London).
  

• I don't like hostels. I'd rather stay in a 1-star matchbox that's reasonably clean than at party-central for a gaggle of 20-something, boozy backpackers. No thanks. There's also CouchSurfing.

• I haven't done my first round-the-world trek yet, but I'm planning one soon. I could be an airline network loyalist, racking up the frequent flier miles with SkyTeam or Star Alliance, or I could go with Airtreks or Air Brokers to get the cheapest deal (as low as US$1700, taxes included). Either way, I get geet (as they say in Atlanta) whenever I think about jetting ahead of or against the rotation of the Earth.
  

• I try never to check a bag. My size-13 tennis shoes often hinder that little plan, especially on smaller planes in South America.

• On trips to developing countries, I try not to take photographs of people, especially folk doing heavy lifting or unpleasant drudge-work. I mean, I'd be pissed if somebody snapped a Polaroid of me struggling to balance a 50-pound basket of trout on my head. Don't take a picture, you bastid...help me carry this!
  

• I am a travel crackhead: I've been known to spend my rent money on a plane ticket. Not recommended (but I don't regret it).

• I'm usually a loner; I like to do what I want to do when I want to do it. I do enjoy trips with my friends or other travel companions, but mostly when they're also experienced travelers and are keen on doing their own thing for part of the trip. We don't have to be together every waking minute: we can spend our afternoons making independent memories that we can share with each other later at dinner. Besides, there's too much inadvertent cock-blocking that can happen when you travel with other people.

My travel philosophy, in two words: Do you. Cuz I'm damn sure gon do me.

What's your travel philosophy?



Fly Brother welcomes your views. If this post hit the spot, please comment below and/or click .

Cubano Libre

This month, the brief but insightful CNN program "My City My Life" follows brotherman and ballet phenom, Carlos Acosta, around his beloved Havana. Having been forced into ballet by his father as a way to keep him out of trouble, Acosta wound up being the first black principal dancer in the London Royal Ballet, followed by a starring role at the Bolshoi. In this short clip from the special, he intones the musicality and flow of the everyday Cuban's walk, labeled esoterically by Cuban novelist Antonio Benítez-Rojo as "a certain kind of way."

(I love the group of men arguing about sports and politics in the park around 3:00; from the barbershop to the park to the church picnic...there we are.)

Click here to learn more about Fly Brother Carlos Acosta, "My City My Life", and the beautiful Caribbean queen, Havana.

Fly Baller Dhani Jones on the Travel Channel

Why I would not be tapped to host a travel show involving riding large animals or attempting popular sports in other countries:



Not because I couldn't handle the fall off a horse, but because there's no way in West Hell that I would have fallen off that horse without a stream of filthy, nasty, no-he-didn't expletives directly related to having fallen the fuck off a got-damned horse.

Cincinnati linebacker Dhani Jones, on the other hand, will be globetrotting with much more success at world sports (and much more control over the dreaded "potty mouth") on the Travel Channel's new show, "Dhani Tackles the Globe."

From Singapore to Switzerland, this Fly Baller picks up balls, rocks, boxing gloves, sticks, and all manner of foreign objects used, if not originally designed, for athletic competition. At first, I was kind of jealous of the brother...'til I saw him fall off that horse.

The first episode of "Dhani Tackles the Globe," Thai boxing in (where else?) Thailand airs this Monday, March 16, at 9 PM on the Travel Channel.

Don't forget to subscribe to Dhani's YouTube channel, y'all. Support.

Global Juke Joint: The Fly Brother Theme Song

"Adore" by I:Cube. The sonic embodiment of travel.


The video's not bad; I love his jog through the terminal. Flight 245 to Caracas: I'm on it!

First heard:
Atlanta to Madrid
First Class Cabin (buddy pass)
Delta Air Lines
August 2004

Last heard:
Five minutes ago

Appears on:
Adore
Hotel Costes Vol. 2 - La Suite
Afterdark: Paris

Longer, better version here.

Fly Original: James Weldon Johnson

Black History Month ended on February 28th, and though it wasn't mentioned much on Fly Brother, all month long, my ninth-grade world history students had to present an African-American hero to their class for a test grade. One of these heroes seems to be channeling me from up above.

A native of my own hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, James Weldon Johnson was the son of an educator, who would later become an educator in his own right, in addition to being a diplomat, poet, novelist, lyricist, and civil rights activist. At only 24, Johnson became a high school principal and founded a newspaper, before being the first black person to pass the Florida bar exam. Soon, he collaborated with his brother, musician John Rosamond Johnson (who happened to be the musical director at the church I grew up in, decades prior, of course), on several theater projects, and penned the amazing lyrics of the Negro National Anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (which I had learned at least by age six).


These ten li'l high school jitterbugs better sang! ('Specially the last verse at 2:45).

Tired of the racist buffoonery of popular music at the time (hmmm...so nothing's changed?), Johnson left that industry, entered Columbia University, and in 1906, was named U.S. consul in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. After being transferred to Nicaragua, where he wrote his impactful novel The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, he left the foreign service (they weren't trying to hook a brother up with a decent post back in 1913), settled in New York, became general secretary of the NAACP in 1920, published three anthologies on Negro poetry and spirituals, a collection of poetry, and his own true autobiography. Sadly, he was killed at the age of 67, when a train hit his car in 1938. Still, Johnson is remembered by the students of the various schools that bear his name (my brother went to the one in J-ville) and by the millions of black Americans who get teary-eyed at the last lines of "Lift Every Voice and Sing":

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.

In belated honor of Black History Month, Fly Brother salutes fellow Duvalian, Renaissance Man, and Fly Original, James Weldon Johnson. May I be half as prolific as he.

Inspiration: A Man, A Plan, A Canal - Panama!

In the face of life's always unexpected challenges, I've been needing a little inspiration to stay motivated on many fronts. After searching through some old travel notes, I found a great quote by a great man about a great feat of human ingenuity:

It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

-Theodore Roosevelt, from a plaque in the rotunda of the Panama Canal Administration Building.

Travlin' Music

I was in college when I first started traveling frequently by plane, between Florida and the Northeast on Delta or the defunct MetroJet by USAirways. This was the late 90s and my musical horizons, already broad for having grown up with a band directing father and a soprano-singing mother, were being expanded even further beyond R&B and Miami bass by the international students I interacted with on my internship program in DC, and by a good buddy who studied in Boston and put me onto his own discoveries. Now, electronic (particularly drum-and-bass and lounge/chillout) and world music have become the staples of my aural diet.

One of the first groups to catch my ear and have a permanent space on the playlist was Sade's band, Sweetback. Their self-titled first album dropped in 1996, chock full of songs originally written for their Afro-British muse but sung on this CD by neo-soulsters like Maxwell and Amel Larrieux. Two instrumental tracks, however, have a special transportative power and, when listened to on an airplane, seem to progress at the same speed as the plane traveling over the Earth. "Chord" gives you daytime Atlanta-to-DC while "Walk of Ju" takes you over New York and Philly at night. Ignore the videos and just listen.

Get Fly

A few years ago, edgy London-based airline Virgin Atlantic came up with a kitschy but cool marketing campaign aimed at Jetrosexuals, the breed of international traveler who "leaves terra firma behind each day to move business and culture forward." Though that particular campaign with its snazzy Bond-like mini-movies showcasing the amenities of each US-UK flight has run its course, I'm still enthralled by the idea of being a part of the new jet set, a group that isn't constrained by social norms or even financial limitations. Going global, being worldly, getting fly truly is all about the mindset - allowing a fleeting desire to taste the unknown manifest into a visceral, sensory, life-changing experience.

I'm a high school teacher, which is hardly a job that entails jetting up-front between Ny-Lon-and-Kong every week, crashing at this Hilton or that. But I move culture forward every day by virtue of just living abroad. Like it or not, in the classroom and in the street, I represent Americans in general, Black Americans in particular, Floridians who aren't from Miami, Southerners, English-speakers, people from the "First World" (hate that term), and just about any other category that can be identified one way or another by my birth, upbringing, or experience. I constantly challenge or confirm stereotypes and every moment is educational - for me, the person I encounter, or both. And having the power to shape and change perceptions positively and on an international level, to me, is fly.

Consider the impact you have on other people and whether or not you're influencing them positively. Even if, at this point, it's only on a local level with your feet planted squarely on terra firma, if what you do makes people feel good or brings a smile to their faces or inspires them to be better, then that's fly. But what's supa-dupa-fly is taking the show on the road (or to the skies, rather), flexing that passport, and accepting your role as lay ambassador with verve and aplomb.

And you don't have to be all slick and flashy in Trump-wear at the airport, but it does help if you're rolling with the fly carry-on.

11 Commandments of a Jetrosexual

"Points of Departure": A Little Inspiration

Just as there are destinations you “must visit before you die,” there are also must-do travel experiences. High on the list: traveling luggage-free.

“Will you be checking bags or just carrying on?”

The next time you respond to that question with a proud “neither” you’ll be embarking on one of the most enjoyable journeys of your life. Leave the house with nothing more than the clothes on your back. Arrive at the airport stopping only to grab a stack of new glossies, newspapers, and a bottle of water. Yes, it’ll feel like you’re doing something unnatural. Because everything is easier. Your fingers aren’t raw from carrying a bag. Your shoulders don’t ache. The security line seems almost tolerable! Sure, you still have to take off your shoes, but provided you didn’t wear lace-up boots (few people should) that should be easy enough to survive. And more than just enjoying the sense of luggage-free travel, you’ll be savoring that most crucial of all pleasure-travel emotions: impulsiveness.

We’ve all looked up at the itinerary board, rested our eyes on our destination and flight number, and then scanned up and down the flight list: Hong Kong, Cape Town, Dubai. What if I had chosen another destination? Is it too late to change my flight? What if I could just change my ticket to…Paris? Savor those urges, and promise yourself that sometime soon, you’ll just drive to the airport as is, and board a plane.

Safe travels.

John F. McDonald
Editorial Director & Publisher
CITY Magazine

"Why Should White Guys Have All The Fun?"

According to the short bio in the back of his best-selling "self-help" tome, The Four-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, Tim Ferriss "speaks six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide, and has been a world-record holder in tango, a national champion in Chinese kickboxing, and an actor on a hit television series in Hong Kong." Dude is my age. Damn.

Fundamentally, Ferriss is all about "lifestyle design," which includes personal outsourcing, information management, and mini-retirements that maximize personal free time (to be filled with things you want to do, not have to do). On his blog this week, Ferriss interviews one of his own inspirations, Rolf Potts, writer and professional vagabond who just released his second book, Marco Polo Didn't Go There, "a philosophical book about seeing time as wealth and using travel to actualize that wealth." Now, many folks might not be all that into philosophy, but picking up and traveling, leaving our comfort zones, experiencing the unfamiliar all require a philosophic leap of faith that both Ferriss and Potts try to encourage through their books and websites.

Granted, looking at them - young, Abercrombie-esque, "affluent" white guys - a person of color with a possible interest in international travel might not exactly see themselves reflected in the life experiences of these guys. In fact, the dearth of recorded, comparable experiences by colored folks is the reason for this blog. But these two gentlemen have inspired me to take their advice, borrow some of their techniques, and use their knowledge and experience, plus the seemingly-inexhaustable positive energy reflected in their writing, in planning my life journey.

I've certainly encountered racism in my travels and would never assume that the same open arms extended to Nordic-looking Tim Ferriss by the TV producers in Hong Kong would be extended to Caribbean-looking me. But that doesn't mean I couldn't get on a show in Germany. It doesn't mean I couldn't write my own show and have it produced in Venezuela (or Hong Kong, for that matter). I also know that there are streets I can walk down in Latin America and not get a second look as an easy tourist target, while Tim Ferriss wouldn't last ten seconds without being swarmed by screaming multitudes hawking native trinkets, blood emeralds, overpriced designer knock-offs, or underaged girls. But it's not about comparing myself to these guys with an attitude of disdain or jealousy. On the contrary; right now, I'm trying to do what they're doing - traveling and writing professionally - and damn if I'm not going to learn a thing or two from these intrepid lads. As deceased black muti-billionaire Reginald Lewis once asked, "why should white guys have all the fun?"

There's plenty of fun to go around.

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Two more short but excellent interviews with Rolf Potts about his new book and the art of long-term travel can be found on World Hum and Vagabondish.