07/04/2020
I miss the Road. The Road is where I do some of my best thinking. I’m sending out a video of one of my favorite stretches of blacktop. This goes out to the times we’re living in.
It’s derived in part by all the creative ways musicians and photographers, gardeners, restaurateurs, poets, philosophers, and other creatives have used the new technology to keep us informed and inspired.
I gave my first tour 31 years ago this past April. I don’t know what lies ahead for the American Dream Safari. My kind of model for the tour business falls clearly in the Experience Economy. Anthrotourism is what I call it. It depends on local culture and it relies on authenticity. Up close and personal. Touch it. Taste it. Smell it. Embrace it…..
That kind of approach may not work for awhile. I think it will come back. It will be different. I want it to come back, need it to come back. But I just don’t see it on the near and new horizon. And I’m not inclined to give an ersatz tour.
I’ll get back out there as soon as the science gives the all clear, when the joy returns, when the music is back and the dance floor is full. Because I’m in it for the long haul.
And so for now this is my little postcard from the Road. There’s no sound to it, you turn on your own radio. Maybe some Howlin Wolf or Leonard Cohen. Van Morrison or Miles Davis. Maybe something from the 21st century I might have missed. Right now Springsteen’s “Hello Sunshine” fits my mood.
Just take it for a ride and try to forget these troubles for a little while.
I’ll see you at the Crossroads.
And Happy 4th of July America -- You gigantic grotesquely gorgeous big bad beautiful beast of all our collective memories. Of Thee I Sing. I love you.
Road Therapy #1
