From the In Box: Sites on the Side of the Road II
Ramon followed up to that email with a short message saying:

By the way, what did you mean with "his diary entries are relatively sparse"? I just don't get that one...

I replied that the recent entries are all really short and mentioned where he was and who he had met -- but not much at all about what he was doing, what the place was like, and what the people were like.

Turns out that he posts skeletal place-holding entries to keep up to date, but that he later goes back and fleshes out his online diaries. And the full reports are much more satisfying! The entry marked "latest report" in his Online Reports is the most recent full diary entry -- even though it's about a week old. The more recent reports will be fleshed out later.

I am supposed to keep up with my reports, but my mind is not always cooperating. Also because it takes over 1 hour to write it, upload pictures and check emails. It's sometimes difficult when people want to show me around or don't have Internet. Just to let people know, I give a short update on the last days, while saying that the "full" report will come later. I just edited the reports index and added the NO REPORT YET next to the sparse reports...

Thanks for the clarification, Ramon!

From the In Box: Sites on the Side of the Road
Just 30 minutes after I emailed Ramon from Let Me Stay for a Day that he'd been name dropped in Media Diet, he emailed me back! My email ended with "How're things?"

I am doing great, however I must say this is a very exhausting 'job', but it's just the price to pay for it. Thanks for your publication! -- Ramon

Indeed: It's just the price to pay. Words to live by!

What the Hell?
Is the new lit journal The American Journal of Print a shameless knockoff of McSweeney's or what? I mean, the AJoP rips off David Eggers' design sensibility, mimics his and his laidback wit, credits Amy Fusselman -- whose The Pharmacist's Mate Dave published for crissake -- in their thank-you list, and even has the gall to sport a staff that, partially, lives in Brooklyn. My guess is that the town's not big enough for both -- or that David's got his omnipresent paws in this self-publishing dilettante, too. Still, Jeremy Simon's piece on the hard-scrabble world of Scrabble tournaments was excellent, and any article on pneumatic tubes, be they in New York City or not, screams promise. Consider my judgment reserved.

Sites on the Side of the Road
As I continue to plan the CoF Roadshow, I'm coming across other examples of people taking their projects and Web sites on the road. Here are some interesting examples:

Let Me Stay for a Day: Riffing off of Mykel Board's World for Free and the old Crash Network, Ramon left his home in the Netherlands in May 2001 and is traveling the world to visit people who invite him to stay with him. Many of his diary entries are relatively sparse, but so far Ramon's visited people in Denmark, the UK, and Ireland -- all because they answered his call for hosts. An awesome look at how personal travel can be -- and what opening yourself up to people can bring.

RVGirl: For about nine months now, Eliza Sherman, founder of Cybergrrl and Eviva, has been traveling the United States in an, um, RV, and staying occasionally at KOA Kampgrounds. Eliza's diaries are more robust than Ramon's, concentrating on her personal experiences -- and ample descriptions of the people and places she's encountering. You get much more of a sense of what's it's like to be where Eliza's going. Another good use of the Web to document a road trip.

Roadtrip Nation: Way back in 1999 there was some talk between Nate, Mike, and I about whether we should all go on the first CoF Roadshow together. It didn't make sense, but we've all kept on doing what we do -- hitting the open road to meet, do, and learn. Now they're taking their show on the road again -- also in September, just like me. While their 2001 site is scant, scant, scant, check out their two and a half month's worth of road reports from 1999. I hope to run into them this fall -- well, not literally, but you know.

Write the Hand That Feeds II
A new local business magazine just featured Fast Company in an article that paints a not-so-pretty picture of the state of things. Inside take: Things aren't so bad.

From the In Box: Write the Hand That Feeds
How about some Media Diet commentary on the G+J departure? (Perhaps that's cutting it close.) -- David Rosenblatt

An interesting point, Dave. How much should I bring up things from work at Fast Company in Media Diet? When I was doing my old personal zine Karma Lapel, several readers commented on how I hardly ever wrote about what I did at work -- just on the side. I wonder why that is. I mean, I like my work. It's interesting. It's even fun. But my side projects have always been kind of disconnected from my paid work, you know?

Regardless, to touch on what Dave emailed me about: David Carey, CEO of Gruner + Jahr's Business Innovators Group, quit this week to head back to the New Yorker -- he was their publisher before he came to FC, and now he's their publisher again. A sweet spot if you can get it! There's some basic coverage of the move in the New York Post and the Daily News.

Food for Thought
While I was in Nashville, Tennessee, last weekend, my friend Jody took me to a couple of "meat and three" restaurants. They're a traditional southern eatery that specializes in home-cooked meals made up of a piece of meat -- your choice -- and three side dishes. As a vegetarian, I was slightly nervous heading into barbecue country, but I didn't need to be. If you go to a meat and three and order the veggie plate, you get your choice of four side dishes -- sides such as mashed potatoes, turnip greens, corn casserole, red beans and rice, and spiced apples. What wonderful food! If you'd like to have a go at a traditional meat and three, Roadfood has compiled a directory of "memorable local eateries along the highways and backroads of America." You can even search for meat and three's -- yielding finds in Iowa, Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky -- even New Hampshire. According to a panel discussion at the Southern Foodways symposium, meat and three's are dying out. This might be the case, but the meat and three's that I visited were quite alive. If you head to Nashville, head to one of the local meat and three's. You won't be sorry.

Finds of Mine
Random shouts out to two online treasures I've been digging lately.

Space is the blog of a 19-year-old Singaporean girl who's into the Net, zines, color, and her dog. Her blog is extremely bright and happy-looking, and I've enjoyed reading the last few entries about her first days back at uni. Seems to have quite a community around her blog, too, as most posts attract a good share of comments and discussion.

Paul Hanna's Naked Acid Castle might not be of much interest to you if you don't know Mr. Hanna, but I've gotten a kick out of his friends' recent discussions and shenanigans. Paul's a contributor to Pop Image and seems to revel in the work of Warren Ellis and similar creators. Come to think of it, if you check out the Acid Castle, you might want to stumble over to Warren's discussion space. You'll find many of the Acid Castle's denizens there, too.

Building the Next Beantown Zinetown
Tireless DIY media maker and political activist Rich Mackin is starting to think about Beantown Zinetown 4, the next iteration of this annual grassroots media gathering. And he's going to do it a little differently this time:

"As I start trying to organize Beantown Zinetown 4 way ahead of time so as to not only avoid the annoyance that has plagued the last 2 but to also make it more a multi-event conference instead of the standard BZ bunch of zinesters in one room, I have decided to make up a Yahoo! group about it, instead of having an increasingly complex mailing list on my email account(s)."

I know you probably don't need another mailing list, but if you live in the Boston area, this is the premiere zinemaking gathering, and it might be fun to get involved. You can access some past reports on Zinetown thanks to Lone Ranger Radio, Wred Fright, and Rich Mackin himself.

Pull off, Plug in, Log on
Former bOING bOING and Wired editor Mark Frauenfelder writes monthly column for Playboy called Living Online. Most months, there's not too much of interest in his reports from the inside of the Web. But occasionally, he picks a winner and highlights a Web site well worth visiting. As I plan the CoF Roadshow for this fall, the more I realize that the less I carry, the better -- and that if I can't get online, I can't get to the next city in good shape. So I was psyched to see Mark's writeup of Cybercafes.com, an online directory of more than 4,000 Net cafes in 148 countries. You can learn about their hours of operation, their rates, and what kind of equipment they have on hand. Now I know that I won't need to dial in using my laptop all the time. I can just pull off to the side of the road, plug in to one of these cybercafes, and log on. Thanks, Mark.

Throwing the Book at the Boomers
This past weekend I read the most wonderful book almost in one sitting. John Strausbaugh, editor of the New York Press has written a smart, funny, and insightful book about the state of rock 'n' roll, how quickly the counterculture became a commodity, and how the Boomers who once led the revolution might have been the very architects of its demise. "Rock Til You Drop" starts as a screed against aging rockers a la the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen but quickly becomes an analysis of the commercialization of rock -- and how the rock "revolution" of the '60s as propelled by MC5, Jefferson Airplane, and other musical groups was never really meant to happen. Strausbaugh holds up several solid examples of how this happened: the Stones themselves, Rolling Stone magazine, and the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. If you have any interest whatsoever in music's role in politics or the politics of music, pick up Strausbaugh's book.

On the List: As the Globe Spins
For more commentary on the Phoenix's coverage of the recent editorial changes at the Globe -- and what they might mean for the paper -- check out Keith Berman's contribution to the Media Diet mailing list.

From the Inbox: As the Globe Spins
Have you seen the amazing Dan Kennedy piece in this week's Phoenix about the changing of the editorial guard at the Globe? Wow -- very thorough stuff, though it's too bad that new editor Marty Baron didn't give him an interview. -- Scott Kirsner, July 20

You mean Goodbye to All That? I hadn't read it yet, actually. And, man oh man are you right: It is thorough. Dan Kennedy's one of the best writers at the Phoenix, and his work documenting the media and journalism scene in the Boston area is one of the things that makes the Phoenix a true alternative paper, despite its corporate organization (the Phoenix, WFNX-FM, Stuff@night, etc.).

I'm not too surprised that so many Globe-trotters are keeping mum. This is a big deal. And I won't be too surprised if the rounds of layoffs that we've seen recently are followed by an exodus of top-level editorial talent that didn't get the head editor nod. Kennedy's right, Baron needs to build bridges with some of these folks quickly; his arrival is indeed the end of an era at the Globe. It'll also be interesting to see what the outsider's arrival means in terms of the Globe's changing focus. The paper's had a rash of plagiarism charges and bad blood internally. It's dropping sections left and right these days. Will the paper continue to lose credibility and weight? Or will it step up and renew its search for excellence? -- Heath

Meet the Meta-Community!
Web Crossing Inc. is holding a public online think tank called Return on Investment: Can Your Community Pay the Bills? through July 27, and so far, I am hella impressed with it. The people involved -- including Cliff Figallo, Jon Lebkowsky, Nancy White and other online community notables -- the ideas already being shared and discussed, and the whole feeling of the gathering energizes and inspires me like nothing else. If you have any interest at all in online communities, check it out.

While I'm on the topic of online communities, I'd like to tip hat to Craig Newmark, founder of Craig's List, which just last night won a Webby Award in the Community category. As a nominating judge in that category, I tried not to have any vested interests in the nominees, but I've got to say that I'm proud and pleased that Craig's pet project has been recognized so. Right on to someone I consider an inspiration, a colleague, and a friend.

Shows of Note
In the spirit of Bill Graham, I'm now a show promoter. Friday night, Friday the 13th, natch, I organized a concert featuring three bands: The Tardy, Clare Burson, and Gloria Deluxe. And it was a blast. After a series of near disasters -- previously scheduled bands losing band members and promised venues falling through -- Handstand Command connected with the friendly and funky folks at the MIT Electronic Research Society. Every month, MITERS holds what they call SHOW+TELL potluck performance art parties. We collaborated to punctuate the usual technology demonstrations, mime performances, poetry readings, and other high art shenanigans with live music. Folks seemed to have fun. Now Kastle, my partner in crime for this, and I are thinking of organizing another show in a month or so. Woohoo!