Today is the first day since leaving Los Angeles that I’ve been able to breathe. All the other mornings I was awoken by the sound of the alarm clock or the discomfort of jet lag. But not today: I woke slowly, ate breakfast slowly, read the paper leisurely, walked along the green banks of the [...]

What’s the point of getting drunk anyway? The point is this: you’re at the bar, you’re having fun, you walk upstairs, you take it all in. And you leave. There’s no need – no reason – to leave, but you leave. You’re on 3rd and Santa Monica and you start walking. You don’t know where [...]

I wrote this a few weeks ago while riding the subway from Madrid’s airport to Paseo de Prado. Apparently someone was listening and developed the helpful Web 2.0 Suicide Machine. “Meet your Real Neighbors again!” is a great tagline, destined to become a neo-romantacist mantra.
It’s the question: what is important, what is not important, what [...]

It all started because I needed a way to get from Kiev to Skopje. I had heard from Onnik about the World Blogging Forum; that they were paying the travel and accommodation costs for all attendees. I was turned off by the language on the website: that they were only inviting “A-list bloggers” (how I [...]

Today a Ukrainian friend of mine had her first English class with an American Peace Corps volunteer.
“He has very American eyes,” she told me. I let out a little chuckle, not quite sure what very American eyes are. “They are very big,” she explained, “and they are always staring at you. It makes me feel [...]

Internet Hungary was surreal. Unlike any other conference I’ve ever spoken at. The day before it began I was met at my hotel by my driver, the Hungarian version of Vin Diesel who I was sure spent all his spare time enacting scenes from Fast and Furious 1, 2, 3, and 4. He was accompanied [...]

Thick braids rest on each breast while her interlocking fingers are clasped seductively behind her head. With eyes nearly closed, she looks as if she is either being pleasured or on heroin. Her jeans are unbuttoned; a sultry invitation.
The peasant pigtails suggest the slow life of the countryside, but her makeup and injected lips are [...]

It was the briefest of observations, an exchange that lasted no more than two seconds, and yet it has stayed with me ever since. CB and I were on Boston’s Silver Line, on our way to the airport, and eventually to New York City. It was, apparently, a popular day for travel and the seats [...]

Like most middle class white people my grooming habits can be a bit lacking. When stateside, I’m lucky if I get my hair cut every two months. But when I’m traveling I look for a haircut in just about every new city. It is one of the best ways, I’ve found, to get in with [...]

For two years of my life I woke up, more often than not, at 5:25 a.m. It’s only bad when you’re not used to it. After a week of waking up before sunrise nothing could feel more normal. It’s amazing what we adapt to. Anything. My alarm was always set for 5:30, but I would [...]