District of Carberry

Well, I'm long overdue for a driving rant, and that also means I have a lot of pent up road rage to vent. Prepare for some heavy vitriol and venom, and also be prepared to take offense as I hurl invective at all manner of drivers--any you just might be one of them. Anyhow, on Friday, March 13, I drove from DC to Phillipsburg, New Jersey for my grandmother's 95th birthday. Of course getting from my neighborhood to an actual highway was the usual stupidity of local traffic exacerbated by the ludicrous traffic light sequencing I have come to know and... Read more

Cash talks, or does it? I have learned a few lessons from (mistakes made during) my travels. For example, find out if places accept credit cards or have ATM’s. Make extra copies of your passport of other sensitive documents—especially if you are a journalist and will need to get credentials where you are working. Carry extra passport pictures. So, I’ve developed my skills, but Congo threw me yet another curveball. I knew I would need cash for everything. Based on my research, I found that American dollars would be accepted anywhere in the country. I also determined there would be no... Read more

I'm not one of those people who believes that everything in life happens for a reason. In fact, I don't believe that anything happens for a reason. But, I do believe it is possible to draw conclusions, lessons, and other things from events that do happen. I can't say I was supposed to go to the Rat in Kenmore Square that February night in 1992, but I can point to all the things (much of my music career) that happened directly as a result of that. Now, I doubt today's events will have the same impact (key word) on my... Read more

Sunday, January 12, 2009 I woke a few minutes after 5 am and took what was a surprisingly pleasant, and warm shower. I stumbled back to the VIP tent (in the dark, and the cold), and quickly packed my bags. The calf in the veal pen next to mine snored away the entire time. I hauled my gear across the base to the PX terminal and got there at 5:50--exactly when I had been instructed to arrive. I waited until 6 and no one showed up with a sign-up sheet or any flight information, and a young, cute female soldier sitting... Read more

I left DC on January 7 at 10 pm on United Flight 976 to Dubai. The first several hours of the flight we experienced the kind of turbulence that makes me want to stop the plane and get off. I’ll admit, the kind of turbulence that requires the flight crew to take their seats whips me into a state of anxiety that vodka simply can’t combat. It wasn’t the way I wanted to start the trip, and I was the proverbial unhappy camper for the first chink of the flight. But things settled down, and after 11 or so hours... Read more

Raw Audio of Hunter Thompson Interview So, I was recently going through some old audio files and found something that I thought was overdue to see the light of day--or at least thump some tympanic membranes. Back in September of 2003 I took on a new assignment at WBUR. I became the political producer in charge of New Hampshire primary coverage. I produced interviews with the candidates and a number of other stories, and spent a healthy amount of time stomping around the Granite State. As a certified political junkie, I saw the new gig as an opportunity to indulge in a... Read more

I’ll fill in the gaps in a later session, but suffice to say the trip home was a real joy. I had to take a taxi from my hotel at 4:30 am to get to the airport for my 6 am flight to Casablanca. I actually arrived at my hotel at 4:35 am, having just left a disco by the beach (again, more on this later). When the taxi dropped me off at the hotel there was a cab waiting for me, and several hotel employees outside, all waiting for me and wondering where the hell I was. I ran... Read more

OK, let’s start with now, then work backwards, jump around a bit, then come back to close to now… I have to start with the Blue Night while it is still fresh. I was going to go to bed around 1 am, but decided I had to have one last drink and see the Blue Night Discotheque. According to the pictures in the hotel, it is a hip place to drink and check out women—especially the ones dancing around the room. I asked the man at the front desk if there was a dress code, and he said “no problem, tell... Read more

I woke up only partially aware of my surroundings, and after a few minutes realized it was time to dig in. I made a few calls, and then hit the train station to head to Rabat for my meeting at the US embassy. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised by the quality of the train. Far, far nicer than any commuter train I have ever taken in the US. Granted, I did pay the extra dollar for first class, so I don’t know what economy looked like, but the first class car was a modern two-floor... Read more

Not exactly sure which construction is more dramatic, or if they are equivalent—one of those word play things that would require more brain cells to compute than I have functioning at the moment. The trip from Needham, Massachusetts to Casablanca Morocco was quite literally one of planes, trains, and automobiles. It began with an automobile leg—driving my father’s Mini Cooper S from Needham to Cambridge. There I met up with my ex-brother-in-law so we could descend upon the Lehigh-Harvard football game. Given that I have degrees from both institutions, I couldn’t really lose the game—although my loyalty in a head-to-head contest... Read more

Saturday, August 9 I finally relented to my bladder around 5:50 and then proceeded to the transit tent for role call. When I arrived I saw a beautiful site—a flight posted for BIAP with a 6:55 role call and 72 open seats. At that point, I figured my waiting was over. Can you tell by that line that it wasn’t? After the general role call at 6:30, the next announcement was that the rolecall for the 6:55 BIAP flight had “slipped” to 8:20. At least that gave me time to run to breakfast, pack my bags and get my gear to the... Read more

A little bit about the process of flying into Iraq from Kuwait for a media embed. The LSA camp is basically a bus station in the desert. Soldiers, contractors and journalists hang out while waiting for seats on C130s or C17s to fly into Iraq (or Afghanistan). Most soldiers, and many contractors have reserved seats, but others don’t and have to fly standby. That requires signing up with the Air Force, showing up to role calls at 6:30 am and 8:30 pm, and then sitting around in the giant bus-station-like tent waiting to get called for a flight. Twice a... Read more

August 6, 2008 The taxi ride to Dulles was surprisingly relaxing. Despite a couple of pockets of traffic, there was a certain serenity to the drive. Dusk approaching, and everything just seemed quiet outside. It seemed prophetic in certain ways—a brief respite from the chaos of the previous three-week trip to Lebanon and Syria, and a calm before the storm of the coming adventure in Iraq. The ride was a difficult moment actually. For the first time in months I felt I could just sit and breathe. There wasn’t anything I could or should do during the ride, other than soak... Read more

If you're bored of watching the Olympics, you can listen to my story about the political impact of the 1988 games on the host country, South Korea. This aired on the public radio program Here and Now on August 6. http://www.here-now.org/shows/2008/08/20080806_9.asp

I think that in my entire high school and college career, I smoked less than one full pack of cigarettes. It was an easy decision--basically whenever I smoked a butt, I felt sick. I could never understand what all the fuss and attraction was about. It was simple cause and effect logic--I smoke, I feel sick. Simple solution: don't smoke. Despite a few attempts to use the cigarette angle to pick up a girl back in the college days, I still think I smoked about 15 cigarettes in my life. Granted, I do enjoy a good cigar or shisha from time... Read more

International travel always presents certain challenges in terms of staying in touch with friends, family, and of course, work. Last fall, after painful research, I determined the best option was to switch from Verizon to T-Mobile and get the Blackberry Curve. The wifi enabled device allows for unlimited free calling (to US numbers) over the internet when connected to a wifi network. So, I can be in a hotel room in Sudan and make calls over the internet to America at no charge. Add to that your standard Blackberry email services and you have an impressive package. Of course, theory... Read more

Why is it always the south side? "The South Side of Chicago," the southern suburbs of Beirut, just about the whole southern hemisphere.... It seems that the south side of town is often the less affluent, and less appealing area. Damascus is no different. The northern side, I'll admit, is surprisingly developed, clean, and attractive. It's far from a modern looking city, and there are certainly no modern architectural spectacles like in the gulf, or some of the new buildings going up in Beirut. There actually seems to be some urban planning, along with some very attractive neighborhoods and areas.... Read more

Covering political events is usually more work than fun, and covering the Hezbollah side of the prisoner exchange event wasn't exactly the most pleasant day of work I can remember. The excitement started the night before when I found out the call time would be 9 am, which meant leaving Beirut by 6 am to make the drive (which isn't that long) and pass through all the military checkpoints (of which there were many). At a little after midnight, I got a reprieve in the form of a message from my driver saying the event had been pushed back to noon.... Read more

Some days don't go quite as expected--what a horrible cliche, and I'm disappointed I couldn't come up with anything better, but I digress. My trips to Saida and Tripoli started out with some semblance of structure, and I ended up accomplishing a couple of main objectives, but things didn't quite follow the plan. In Saida I was supposed to meet with a local NGO, learn about their activities, tour some of their sites and work, then meet the mayor, then do more of a demographic tour of Saida. The city is predominantly Sunni, and largely pro-Hariri (that's ruling party, or pro-western... Read more

I have to admit, it’s always cool to enter a presidential palace. Not that I’ve done it too many times to begin with, but I can’t imagine the feeling getting too old. Today I also created a lasting memory for a Beirut cab driver by asking him to take me to the presidential palace so I could interview the president’s political advisor. At first the driver thought I was asking him to take me to a hotel. It hadn’t even dawned on him that a sweaty, scruffy-looking American would hop in his cab in downtown Beirut and ask him to... Read more

OK, all the metaphors, similes, and aphorisms are overused: a study in contrasts, a case of extremes, paradoxical, whatever… But the fact is, Lebanon is a place of amazing contrasts, contradictions, and conundrums (mostly political, but some of the women too—but we’ll leave that aside). The country exhibits staggering beauty—mountains, valleys, coastlines (and the women)—but some of the ugliest scenes imaginable—refugee camps, scars of war, extreme poverty. There may be no better summary of Beirut than the 2006 photo that instantly circled the globe via the Internet. You know the one, the young and beautiful people in the shining red... Read more

I'm not exactly sure what time we landed. Given the 13 hour time change, and the 13 hour flight, that adds up to 26 hours, and that's more than one day, so I simply can't count that high. I'm not sure, but I think I might have traveled into the future (in case you're wondering, gas prices are still high, and there's no peace in the Middle East). Anyhow, I think it was around 4:40 pm on Friday when I finally got off the Korean Air flight in Seoul. I proceeded through immigration, customs, and the cellphone rental counter--my Fommer's guide... Read more

No, not that kind... work frustration. I've been spending hours on the phone, sending countless emails, and attending every event I can (so far I have crashed a US embassy party at the JW Marriot Ballroom, and a press conference about the beef crisis in the Foreign Correspondent's Club) in hopes of getting interviews with people about the Seoul Olympics. But, it seems that there are five people left alive who have anything to say about it. I have managed to interview two of them, another is in jail, and it's not looking good for the other two. Considering that... Read more

It was my spiritual guru Hunter S. Thompson who sagely quipped that "there is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge." While truer words may never have been written, the fact is, we are a long way from the halcyon days of ether binges. Today, I would modify the aphorism to read: "there is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a drunk in a suit." I say this having just returned to my room from the bar at the Four Seasons hotel in Chicago. Now, a quick disclaimer is in order--I am on... Read more

To say I have been remiss is to enter in the Understatement of the Year contest... I have written nothing since I was in Taiwan in February. Not only that, I never completed stories from my trips in October and November of last year. Add to that the fact that since Taiwan I hopped off to Miami for a story-and that was a disaster of a trip. I brought my girlfriend who came down with the flu-from-hell as soon as we landed in Miami, and I ended up sick as well. We didn't make to the beach or do anything... Read more

There is simply no excuse... I'm sitting on the Taiwan High Speed Rail heading south to Tainan. The train is traveling at a speed far in excess of what the Acela could ever hope to achieve. The ride is smooth, tight, and feels like a Porsche or some other exotic sports car. The Acela on the other hand is like a Ford Mustang--it can go fast in a straight line, but the ride and handling are sloppy, it feels heavy and inefficient, and the whole package feels like it was designed and built by a committee (that couldn't possibly be... Read more

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What does it say about the world when I am constantly and pleasantly surprised when people are nice? The people of Taiwan never cease to amaze me. Every customer-service type interaction I have had has been fabulous. People have been friendly and helpful. They have smiled. They have shown a pride in their jobs. They have been patient if I have had a language problem, or didn't understand a rule or custom. Compared to my recent travels to Russia, Sudan, and Egypt (and true it's not really fair to compare those countries to a young, modern, and democratic country like Taiwan)... Read more

OK, more musings on Taiwan. Taipei strikes me as a very young city. I can't think of any other place I've been where I have seen so many young people on the streets, in stores, and on the subway. Granted, it's not any kind of representative sample, but to my eye it seems like half the people I see in public are under 25. It certainly adds to the energy I feel here. It's still raining in Taipei, and it doesn't look like I'm going to see a clear day while I'm here. It's too bad because it makes the city... Read more

Well, of course I never finished chronicling my adventures in Cairo. I went on that trip before I finished blogging about Sudan. That trip followed my trip to Serbia and Russia that I never seemed to finish writing about... notice a pattern yet. Well, time to start another chapter, and we'll see how far this one gets before I hit the road again... Right now I'm sitting in my room at the Caesar Park Hotel in Taipei Taiwan, with the bright, white "Taipei Railway Station" sign beaming into my window. The weather is disgusting--9 Celsius according to the station's thermometer, and it's... Read more

So, back to the topic of ranting about driving in DC... This afternoon I had to go to the office to pick up some of my audio gear, and I decided to drive the one mile in each direction. I figured it would be a quick trip, but I had to stop for a red light at the end of every block. Without exception. Whether I turned onto a new street, or continued straight on a street, I did not go a single block without having to stop for a red light. I'm simply dumbfounded by the light sequencing here.... Read more

So I spent part of one afternoon wandering around Zamalek, which is the upper class neighborhood on the island of Gezira. I stumbled across the Botanical Gardens and Aquarium, and paid the $.20 entrance fee when the guy wouldn't accept my press ID. The park looked like something out of a Twilight Zone episode when mankind is wiped out and you see a park that had been abandoned for 20 years. There was trash all over the place, and the same layer of filth that coats the whole city. I also felt very much out of place walking around since... Read more

OK, I want to modify my previous statements about Cairo--it is the dirtiest major city I have visited. Even worse than the nasty parts of Bangkok, which had some pretty filthy neighborhoods. And, rather than a cross between Shanghai and Bahrain as I initially thought, it is definitely a cross between Shanghai and Khartoum. Now, this isn't to say I didn't like Cairo, it's actually a fun and exciting place with a lot to see and do. It just so happens that I didn't see and do a lot since I was running around working much of the time, and... Read more

Expectations really are everything. Well, not really, but they count for a hell of a lot in life. I can't count the number of times I heard people talking about how dirty Cairo is. I heard it from Egyptians as well as others. People painted a pretty stark picture--one that the city couldn't possibly live up to, especially considering that last month I was in Sudan, where it's hard not to think about E.Coli and hepatitis, among other unpleasant things. Anyhow, Cairo isn't a place where I'd eat my food off the floor, but it wasn't as bad as I was... Read more

I was expecting trouble from the Sudanese government, but I have to admit I wasn't expecting a run-in with the American government while in Sudan... Nobody expects the American Government. Our chief weapon is fear... fear and surprise... But I digress. Anyhow, Sunday November 11, Fixer #1 picked me up and took me to the AMIS (African Union Mission in Sudan) office. I filled out my paperwork and made my request for AMIS services--flight to El Fasher in Darfur, lodging, interviews, etc. From there I went downtown with fixer #2 to register my passport... again--well I mean attempt to register it again.... Read more

My fixer picks me up (he has secured a rental car for me) at the hotel to take me to the mall to the Western Union office to get my cash. I’m feeling reasonably well rested, though the cold shower wasn’t what I was hoping for—the funky wall-mounted hot-water heater in the showed didn’t work, so I had to make due with cold water that smelled worse than I did before I got into the shower. Anyhow, we get to the mall and retrieve my cash without incident. I’m feeling better now—nothing like the security of having a few dollars in... Read more

Friday is a holiday in Muslim countries, and Sudan is no different. I spend the day making calls, preparing to face the crushing bureaucracy of Khartoum, and learning an important lesson about Sudan. It’s one of those details you’d think I would have come across in my research and conversations with others who have traveled to Sudan, but somehow it didn’t. I decide to change hotels, and therefore have to pay the bill for the night at Bougainvilla. When the woman adds it all up, I ask her which cards they take, and she tells me they don’t take any. She... Read more

Thursday, November 8, 2007 I actually arrive in Khartoum on time. Getting off the plane is easy, but getting through passport control isn’t. The lines are painfully long, and the agents show no interest in making this a quick process. It doesn’t help that half the staff is in a prayer box just to the left of the row of counters. Timing is everything. I look around at the people in line, and the majority appear to be Chinese. That makes sense given the relationship that China has been cultivating in Sudan (diplomacy dollars). Oil workers, engineers, aid workers, and businessmen, all... Read more

I was warned. I read information. I prepared myself. Yet, I was still shocked by the level of bureaucracy in Sudan. If there is one word that sums up the experience of working in Sudan, it’s “Permission.” There’s no point mincing words, Sudan is a police state, and a horrible place to try to do journalism. The government gets in your way at every turn—and often has some interesting explanations why. The first challenge is getting into the country. Some journalists report that it took months or even years of waiting to get an entry visa. I got lucky and managed... Read more

Clearly I'm not cut out to be a blogger. It's been a month since my last entry... Although, in my defense I do have a day job that tends to keep me busy, and the travel (that I want to be blogging about) takes up a fair amount of time. I haven't even finished writing about my October trip to Serbia and Russia, and I've already been to Sudan and back. A week from tonight I'm off to Cairo, so who knows when I'll get any of this stuff online, but I'll try (not like anyone's reading this or anyone... Read more

A quick interlude as I continue to search for time to complete the travel log from my Serbia/Russia trip... Last Thursday I had the privilege of seeing one of my favorite musicians--Johnette Napolitano. For those of you who do not recognize the name, she was/is the lead singer of the band Concrete Blonde. For those of you who are not familiar with Concrete Blonde, 1) I'm sorry to hear that because you're missing out on some fantastic music, and 2) I'm not going to give you any more hints or information--try google. Anyhow, she was performing at Jammin' Java, a funky little... Read more

I hopped out of bed at 7 am and “enjoyed” a shower using the hand-held unit—I was getting better at not spraying down the entire bathroom. I decided to take my chances on Hotel Union breakfast. I sat down, and about 5 minutes later someone decided to actually come over and take my order. I had the choice of sausages, omelet, and a couple of other standard breakfast items. I figured that sausages in “Europe” would be a good choice. Minutes later the waiter presented me a plate festooned with three boiled hot dogs and a pile of mustard. I... Read more

Not surprisingly I woke up a little later than I wanted to, and I immediately hopped into the shower, got dressed and wandered out to the pedestrian street and Kalemegdan park/fort to talk with people. Along the way I stopped at a store to buy a disguise. To this point I was clearly sticking out as American, and more than once I had been asked if I was a spy of some kind or another. I wandered into a clothing store and found a Scandinavian-style jacket—one of those grey, military-looking things so common in Europe. I figured it might help... Read more

I arrived in Belgrade around 1:30 pm Saturday. The DC-London and London-Belgrade flight were uneventful and on time. I walked through passport control faster than anywhere else in the world I can remember. No questions, no funny looks, no landing card; just a stamp and a grunt. That struck me as odd given the rumors of Serbian suspicions about Americans entering the country—the suspicions being that we are all spies. Anyhow, I proceeded to baggage claim, and after a pleasantly short wait, my bag came through and I walked through customs. There weren’t even any officers in the “Nothing to Declare”... Read more

Well... much has transpired since I posted my last bit of drivel. I finally moved into my apartment. It was an ordeal, as moving usually is. I flew up to Boston on the evening of the 14th, spent a couple of hours packing and then went out to meet some Kennedy School folks at a party in Cambridge. I got home around 3 am and then got up at 9 to begin the moving adventure. Of course I started out the day with problems at U-Haul (which reminds me that I haven't complained to their management). They had my reservation,... Read more

A quick update, even though I don't have much to say at the moment... Did more "adventuring" over the weekend. Went to Havana Village on Friday night for a salsa lesson and some Cuban food. Both the tostones and maduros were excellent. The chicken dish was spectacular. Dancing was a bit crowded for a lesson, but still fun. Mojitos were on the sweet side, but above average. Saturday I ran my first 5k "race". It was the Arlington, VA Sheriff Dept's 9/11 memorial 5k. I haven't exactly trained for race conditions, but I finished ahead of my goal. I'll leave it at... Read more

Hello from DC. I figured it was time to start talking about myself and my life as if anyone out there cared since... well... everyone else seems to do it, and I'm such a conformist by nature. Anyhow, it's more of a case of the technology existing, so why not do something with it... I've now been in DC for a month. I started my new job at America Abroad Media on August 6. This is the first time I have "permanently" moved outside of Boston. I went to college in Bethlehem, PA, and that certainly wasn't going to be my home.... Read more