A dispatch from Mina, Nevada and reflections on breaking bread with strangers on the third anniversary of Anthony Bourdain’s death.
Category Archives: Travel
To Japan
I never planned to go to Japan. It wasn’t an accident, just somebody else’s idea. That somebody else was my daughter. I’m in the fortunate position of writing and making films and media for a living. And sometimes I get to travel to wonderful places and tell stories about interesting people. I fall in loveContinue reading “To Japan”
Searching for Shark Girl
It’s hard to say where stories come from. It’s a sort of archaeological game that we tend to play if we’ve ever taken a literature class and made the wildly speculative assumption that such origins exist. The online journal Failbetter.com published my novella @SharkGirl79 earlier today, so I guess if there’s a moment to spendContinue reading “Searching for Shark Girl”
Hope and resilience in Bangladesh
I expected to travel to Bangladesh to portray stories of climate victims. I expected to see a graphic illustration of a nation that is dealing with climate change problems that they had no hand in creating. I expected to see frustration and maybe even righteous fury. But instead, I found hope, grit and determination. WhenContinue reading “Hope and resilience in Bangladesh”
Traveling cinema in Colombia
Do films actually matter? I spend a lot of time wringing my hands over this question, especially since I’ve committed so much of my life to making them. A recent trip to Colombia to screen our latest film provided some answers.
Three days in Chicago
“Make no little plans,” or so they say. This is your guide to spending three days in Chicago, featuring pizza, blues and architecture.
Watching ‘Saving Atlantis’ in the belly of the beast
Star Wars, spotted owls and showing a science documentary about anthropogenic change in the heart of timber country.
Losing Mesopotamia
The Iraq War, the Sixth Extinction and the lightning bolt that allowed me to appreciate contemporary art.
The epicurean’s gift
Giving the gift of flavor in Burgundy
Totalities
Viewing the eclipse seventy miles off of the Oregon Coast: thoughts on hype, denial, climate change and whatever remaining hope we have to make things right.
Five books that helped me survive 2016
Five books that I read in the past year that changed the way I think.
Back to Burgundy – Three Days of Glory
Heading back to Burgundy to make a film about a tough year and a great wine celebration.
Plunder on the Spanish Main
Feeling like a pirate leaving Cartagena not with a ship full of stolen Spanish plunder, but with a treasure of stories of the people working to save a small piece of of threatened reef.
What to read this summer: recommendations from writers who teach
A pair of fiction writers and teachers offer their summer reading picks.
Zester Daily – Burgundians dig deep to face climate change
I returned to Burgundy for the first time since writing my novel Vintage.
From disaster cassoulet to La Belle Époque
Within the span of a single day, I recently experienced the best and worst French meals of my life.
Home for the holidays
Some food, travel and social notes from holidays in Central Europe.
Eating Poisson Cru in the tropics
Poisson Cru is French for raw fish. But as the local Mo’orean who told us about the best restaurant that serves it says, “the only thing French about it is the name.” It’s the traditional dish of the Society Islands, and much of Polynesia. We tried it in a restaurant run by a woman named Irene who, weContinue reading “Eating Poisson Cru in the tropics”
Creating a life in wine
It’s rare when you find someone who has figured out exactly what he wants to be when he grows up and then take that extra step to actually make it happen. But Scott Wright is one of those people.
Stewed Rabbits, Guinea Pigs and the Eye of Mordor
What hobbits can teach us about the miracle of cooking, and why carrying two pans in your backpack is the ultimate symbol of hope.
