Flexible Planet Blog

LA Times Festival of Books This Weekend (4/26 & 4/27)

Once again, the LA Times Festival of Books invades UCLA campus. This annual event offers books, panels, book signings, staged performances and readings, and thousands of books. Hundreds of publishers will be selling books on every subject, including travel and languages. The panels range from fiction to poetry to science and then some.

Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a travel panel this year. The only recognizable travel writer on the list is Pico Iyer, and he’ll be on the panel entitled “Nonfiction: Blurring Boundaries.” Whether or not this will have much to do with travel is unknown, but I’m sure Pico will have something informative and engaging to say. That’s what he does. That's how he rolls. (Did I sound hip right there? No?)

Airport Security Presents: Whole Body Imaging—Millimeter Wave of the Future (or, The TSA Wants To See More of You)

Our friends at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have a new device to help better detect dangerous objects passengers might sneak on flights. Using “millimeter wave” body imaging, the TSA can see what’s under any passenger’s clothes. Luckily, the machine being used is large enough that the traveler has to step inside it. (I fear the day technology reduces it to the size of those creepy x-ray specs you see on the backs of comic books.)

According to this CNN article, this type of security is secondary to the usual metal detectors we’re so fond of. Only after the initial screening process will randomly selected people be subject to the wave machine (that name makes it sound relaxing, no?). Anyone reluctant to try the machine can opt for a pat down instead.

When Authors Go Bad--Lonely Planet Author Lied About Book

When it rains, it pours…

This morning, I was searching for new and soon-to-be-released travel books on Amazon in order to present timely book reviews on this blog, and I came across Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?: A Swashbuckling Tale of High Adventures, Questionable Ethics, and Professional Hedonism by Thomas Kohnstamm. Perfect, I thought, not released yet. I can be one of the first to get it and review it. So I added it to my cart. I even clicked on the author’s name to see what else he had written. Several books, including some Lonely Planet guidebooks. OK, a credible writer, I suppose.

Pico Iyer 2-fer at UCSB

Veteran travel writer and part-time Santa Barbarian Pico Iyer makes his rounds in May for UCSB’s Arts & Lectures series with two events:

#1 Salman Rushdie in conversation with Pico Iyer

May 4th 4 p.m. at Campbell Hall

$25 / $15 for UCSB students

Not so much a travel writing event, but Iyer fans will enjoy the discussion between the two authors. Surely they’ll be discussing Salman (The Satanic Verses) Rushdie’s recent release, Shalimar the Clown as well as his forthcoming novel The Enchantress of Florence, and perhaps some of Pico’s works as well. If you’re looking for intelligent, well-thought-out conversation, make sure to be there.

Book Review: The Masked Rider by Neil Peart

[A version of this review was posted on the now-defunct http://blogs.bootsnall.com/flexible/ on December 13, 2005 and has been revised and posted here in a gratuitous attempt to add some quick content]

After almost seven years, I finally got a chance recently to sit down and re-read the first travel narrative I ever read. Perhaps my favorite travel book (by one of my favorite writers), The Masked Rider chronicles Peart's month-long bicycle tour through Cameroon, West Africa, as part of a five-person group. Being a fan of both Peart’s band RUSH (Peart is the drummer and lyricist) and Peart's various essays, I was very excited to grab a copy at one of their shows (much better choice than a $25 shirt). With a friendly conversational tone, Peart describes in colorful detail the numerous local characters and modern inconveniences his group encounters along the way.

Welcome to the Flexible Planet Blog!

Hi Everyone. We've finally got the Flexible Planet Blog up and running! In the upcoming days (and weeks and months), we'll be posting various travel-related items as well as adding functionality to the site. We'll also be adding info to the Contents section in the next few days.