A discussion of the fine art of Adventure, and how to live in an Adventurous Manner, by several Gentlemen who know a (very) little bit about the subject.
Now that President Obama has had his beer with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, and James Crowley, the police officer who arrested Gates, I think it’s high time I, as a member in good standing of the League of Gentlemen Adventurers, offered some wild conjecture and totally unfounded analysis of their beverage choices.
The media have given no small amount of coverage to the respective brews in which the president and his guests will partake. For Gates, it will be a Red Stripe. For Crowley, a Blue Moon. Obama will have… I can barely bring myself to type these words — a Bud Light. Why did the pick these beers?
Are geeks born that way? Is being a geek a product of nature or nurture? That’s a question I’ll leave to the scientists. I know that I began to have geek thoughts in Junior High – collecting Wolverine and Fantastic Four comics, playing “Legend of Zelda” and “Metroid.” Then I had my first real geek experience around the age of thirteen, with the older brother of a friend of mine; I was invited to join his Dungeons & Dragons game.
My parents were supportive when they found out I was a geek, but I could tell they were a little disappointed. The other kids at school weren’t as nice – I was ridiculed, and made to feel like an outcast. I reatreated into the closet, and learned to keep my geek life a secret from classmates, friends, and co-workers. Only after I get to know someone will I reveal that I’m a geek, and even then I won’t go into great detail about what I do. And I know that there are lots of other geeks out there that feel the same way.
But once a year, there’s an event where geeks get together to be their flamboyantly geeky selves. That event is the San Diego Comic Con. The geeks take over the streets; they dress like stormtroopers, or anime characters with oversize papier-mache weapons; they talk loudly and pubicly about the strengths and weaknesses of comic book characters; they get excited about meeting Stan Lee or Lou Ferigno; in short, the geeks make the “normal” people deal with them on their own terms.
So I want to congratulate San Diego on another successful Geek Pride weekend. It gets bigger, better, and more accepted by the public at large every year. (I went to my first Con in the early ’90s, when it was a small, furtive event for the most committed geeks.) The Geek movement has made significant progress, but there’s still more work to do.
My fellow G.A., Mr Gregory Bass, is a connoisseur of steampunk style and design, and, while I’ve not delved into that particular subculture as deeply as he, Greg has inspired me to enjoy the odd steampunk fashion spread or art project. So when I saw a review of Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society’s new album “Infernal Machines” in which Mr. Argue was quoted describing his group as a “steampunk big band,” I figured that I owed it a listen. I can safely say that it is the best jazz record of the year, and probably my favorite jazz album since Brad Mehldau’s “Largo” from 2002 – possibly even including that fine record. It has a great, unified sense of mood, and, unlike so many recent jazz albums, it’s fun to listen to – all without sacrificing its boundary-pushing jazz estotericness. This is certainly music to adventure by, though I leave it to Greg to say whether there’s anything “steampunk” about it besides the graphic design.
The Hans Cottage Botel, mentioned by Andy and me in our recent LGA meeting as one of our strangest accommodation experiences, has a website. The copy on the site mentions the inhabitants of their lagoon – also a point of podcast discussion – and includes one which we forgot. How could we fail to mention that our hotel (pardon me – our botel) was built over a crocodile-infested body of water?
Also, and I’ll ask Andy to back me up on this, I believe that the gentleman pictured on the homepage may be the one who, in our story, was asked to remedy the coffee/tea mixup.
In any case, if you ever find yourself near Cape Coast, Ghana (not Kumasi, as we stated on the podcast), and are in the mood for a… unique hotel experience, we highly recommend the Hans Cottage Botel.
I’m just back from a short jaunt around the Republic of Ireland, and here are a few photos of the trip. The slideshow starts in Dublin, then heads to Dingle town. Then (the bulk of the photos) comes the Dingle Way – a walking trail that goes around the perimeter of the Dingle Penninsula. I hiked 41 miles of the Way, from Dingle town to the village of Cloghane. Finally, we finish off in the city of Cork.
