United Airlines' "Smashing" Hit Song (and Video)

It happens. Luggage goes lost or damaged and no gives a damn at the airline. The series of tubes known as the internets, however, is giving the occasional bit of power to the people.

I admit that I once too had a guitar eaten up by an airline. When I arrived for the first time in Turkey, with my life packed up in a couple suitcases, I also had a bass guitar in tow. It didn't show up at the baggage claim. It was a couple days later that I got the call that it had reappeared and when I got back out to the airport, the bottom of the case looked like a shark had taken a bite out of it. Fortunately for me, the case did its job and the guitar was not harmed. Turkish Airlines cut me a check for the price of a new case. Fair enough.

Not so for Dave Carroll, a country singer with a band called Sons of Maxwell. They were on tour back in 2008 and on a connection in Chicago's O'Horror they watched out the window of the plane as their instruments were tossed around willy nilly. Carroll's guitar, worth over 3 grand, got the Pete Townshend treatment. Everyone can guess what happened next. No help and no care -- and hours of phone time from here to India to confirm that. But Carroll's new music video "United Breaks Guitars" got him the attention he deserved and a bit of vengeance. He has two more videos on the way. Great ad campaign for United.



***In honor of Galapagos Islands National Park's 50 year anniversary, I put up a Galapagos photo gallery and reposted an article about my trip there. There is an accompanying video at the bottom as well.***

Dillinger, Capone, Public Enemies: Radio Interview in Portland

The New York Times piece I wrote caught some attention from a Portland radio show. KPAM interviewed me about gangster travel in Wisconsin. If you're interested, the piece will air on Saturday, July 11th, at 8:00 a.m. Pacific (10 a.m. Central), with a repeat Sunday, July 12th, at 10:00 a.m. Pacific (noon Central). Streaming is available at www.kpam.com.

I just confirmed a book signing at Taste of Wisconsin in Kenosha on Saturday August 1 from 5-6:30 pm.

All this stuff will be under Appearances/Galleries on The Mad Traveler if you're curious. I hope to post more about the Gangster "getaways" later this week on the home page.

Summerfest Finale: Elvis and ELVIS (Costello)

Let me reiterate that I consider myself a photographer but not a concert photographer. I know I don't have the proper equipment and experience, and that fact was never quite so clear as when I managed to finagle my way into the photo pit for Elvis Costello and was waiting around with three guys who obviously ARE concert shooters. Two massive cameras around their necks, top of the line stuff, long lens. Um, ear plugs. Yeah, didn't think of them, didn't care. Too excited. I saw them all make their surreptitious glances at my Olympus Evolt E620. It IS a decent camera for my purposes, but Olympus' efforts to lighten both body and lens make it look even less serious than my previous digital SLR which was one model step down and three years back. I wondered if there was some giggling about it after the show. It surely raised at least an eyebrow.

I had warmed up shooting The English Beat. Great show, by the way, and I was the only photographer there. (Oh well, to each his own.) It's their 30 year anniversary (whoa) and they also did General Public material, "Tenderness" which is going on to the MP3 player this week. I have that on vinyl for cryin' out loud.

Luck was with me for Elvis Costello and the stage manager let me in with the rest of the photographers without a specific pass. Two songs. No flash. It's really intense. Lights changing, Costello putting on a show for the photos (seemed to me - lots more jumping around and dramatic guitar poses during those first two numbers), 7 or 8 photo guys dodging and weaving around each other. My goal was nothing more than to get ONE decent photo. The other guys surely were pulling in great shots with this or that in the background, other members of the band (The Imposters, this tour). Whatever. I parked it in a couple of good places, braced myself on the edge of the stage and shot like hell. Over 440 photos in the space of two songs and I lost time switching cards!

I can't even tell you what the first song was, but "Pump it Up" was the second and really appropriate for the adrenaline rush. I can see the attraction of this type of photo work. Total intensity and a sort of "beat the clock" scenario. I walked back out into the masses jittery and dizzy and pretty damn sure I got at least one good shot. Mission accomplished.

I'm pretty sure this was the moment when he looked at me and thought, "Wtf? Does that guy have some kind of bullshit point-and-shoot?"

Shooting Photos at Summerfest 2009: Rodrigo y Gabriela

11 Days 11 Stages over 700 Bands. If that doesn't say it all, I don't know what I can add.

This was my first time in the photographer's pit and though I didn't access to the big Stevie Wonder show, I don't feel too bad because neither did the Summerfest photographers themselves! What's THAT all about? And the handful of approved photojournalists were allowed SIXTY seconds to shoot. I applied for permission to shoot the amazing Rodrigo y Gabriela. I'd seen them before at an international music fest in Madison. Formerly in a Mexican metal band they packed up and set out on their own landing in Dublin, Ireland. Hard work and a bit of luck and they were a smash and their CD became the first instrumental album to top the charts there in a long while.

I was surrounded by experienced concert shooters one of whom offered me a lot of advice just before we got started. We were given the traditional "first three songs" and danced around each other to find the best angles. As one of the other guys said, unlike ohter photography this is a sport. "Even in sports you know where they are going - to the end zone." On stage the constant movement of musicians and the changing lighting in color, angle and intensity, create a real challenge for getting the proper shots. I just shot a few hundred photos using both cameras as there was no time to switch lenses.

Afterward I was told by another photographer - don't beat yourself up over this one: the lighting was terrible.

Plenty more shows coming up. I'm going to see Elvis Costello and for a bit of 80s retro, The English Beat. Have a look at some of my sample photos from Sunday here at my website. They look pretty good until you can zoom and see the faulty focus and a bit too much noise. Oh well. Learning!!!

Here's a site that was recommended to me for concert photography. Todd Owyoung has some pretty fine stuff! I'm inspired, but a very long way to go to even begin to get such great shots.

Traveling With Michael Jackson

The passing of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, oddly enough caused me to think of some of my travels. Coincidentally, my first New York Times article, regarding visiting the places once visited by Dillinger and Capone in Wisconsin, came out today and will be piggybacking on the tragic events of yesterday. I tried to tell my editor my article may be causing the boost in sales today. He wasn't buying it I guess.

Michael Jackson is about as universal as a superstar could be. I remember Sarp, one of my sixth-grade Turkish students in Ankara who used to delight in getting up in front of class and busting a few MJ moves, the moonwalk in particular, for his classmates. My co-teacher Chad once pulled out the phrase "mama say mama sa mama koo sa" which he had taught to a student who brought me the attendance book from his classroom each period. Of course it didn't matter where in the world I was but someone was playing one of his songs and no matter how bad the English, they could sing along. Remote bus stations or airports with one of his tunes piped in. Yesterday when he was officially announced to be dead, I received a call from Thailand when it must have been about 6 a.m. The news was already going around.

My favorite MJ reference was from a pirated CD on a sidewalk display in Peru several years back. It was a Greatest Hits compilation, one of many he had over the years. For some reason pirated CDs have the exact digital copy of the music and what appears to be the exact album cover, even the font, but for some reason, most everything on the cover is misspelled. One would think these things are scanned and thus identical. I never figured out why the spelling discrepancy was there. Some obscure loophole in a copyright infringement law? Who knows? But the title was for the song "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough." The transcription of that came out as "Don't Stop You Learn English." Well said.

If you've got a Michael Jackson story from an experience abroad, please post it here. I'd love to hear it.

New African Exhibit at the International Crane Foundation

This weekend was the grand opening of the four new habitats at the International Crane Foundation. If you want to see some impressive birds, the ICF is the place to go. The four new habitats gave the four African species room to stretch their wings and better viewing for visitors.

In North America there are only two species: sandhill and whooping. Wisconsin might seem like an unlikely place for such a center, but sandhills are everywhere in Wisconsin and you can see them in the fields or hear them on the wind. And the whooping crane rescue effort is based out of here.

The ICF was the first place to breed all 15 species of cranes in captivity. The most endangered of all the cranes is the whooping crane. In the 1940s the population was as low as 17. 17 birds from extinction. Can you imagine? Loss of habitat and some poaching brought the birds to this critical
moment. Organizations came to the rescue and one of those was the International Crane Foundation, founded by Ron Sauey and George Archibald.

The first trick for saving the whooping cranes in particular was simply to increase the numbers and make a genetic bank. The second perhaps was trying to avoid the genetic bottleneck imposed by the low population. Inbreeding would have been as big a threat as anything else. But the breeding efforts eventually started to see good results and the population began the slow process of recuperating. But to introduce these birds to the wild was the final challenge. These are migratory birds and the young learn to make the journey from the adults. Without a flock, there was no one to teach them.

Operation Migration was the unlikely answer: fly an ultralight plane and show them the way. Long clever story short, it worked. The population is at about 500 including about 80 which have learned the path to Florida for the winter.

Not only is this place international for its collection of the fifteen species of cranes from around the world, but it is also partnered with some conversation and crane rescue projects in places such as India, Japan, Korea, parts of Africa and Russia.


They are magnificent birds with some pretty good dance moves which you may witness if you are lucky. (Come during the courting season in spring). A real treat is to go during the week when fewer people are around and just sit for a moment until the cranes ignore you and go about their business.

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Birthday and Travel Ambition

It's not just Johnny Depp's birthday today...
Egypt just before I turned 30.

Cuba when I was "the age of Christ" (33) -- so said everyone in Guatemala with a sigh when I said how old I was.

I've counted and recounted and I don't think I've missed any. And counting Hong Kong independent of China and the US Virgin Islands as a country (I'm sure to get arguments on that), I am saying that up until today, the first day of what will be my 42nd year, I have visited 47 countries. My goal is to hit 50 by New Year's and I can already say that Malaysia will be one of the three (in October), though probably not number 50. For some reason I feel like 50 should be something special, a significantly desirable place (as opposed to say a layover in Moldova - no offense Moldovans*). I am open to ideas. Any suggestions???

I've been to all of Central America, much of SE Asia, half of South America, parts of the Middle East, right few in Europe and Africa) What's a worthy Number 50? Comments are open. Post 'em if you got 'em!

*If you haven't read it, I highly recommend The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner. The author travels to the alleged happiest countries on Earth to see what makes them so dang happy. He hits a couple of unhappy ones as well and one is Moldova, the name of which even sounds a bit bleak, like "mulled over." The book offers pretty good insights into a number of rather different cultures and makes for some good laughs along the way. Who knew Iceland was so freaking happy? And I love Thailand's secret: "Don't think too much." If only that were possible... Anyway, post some ideas please!