Remember Slackerology? My probably best-selling, award-winning, religion-changing, planet-saving book proposal may have fizzled out on the desks of 26 editors, to the detriment of all society (history will vindicate me), but I’m still living and honing the theory every day. [If you need to get up to speed on the…

Some days the requisite pitching that goes with being a freelance writer is akin to being the homeliest bachelor at the ball. Out of 20 women you ask to dance, 19 either say ‘no’ or don’t acknowledge your presence at all and the last one says “Yes! Just let me…

What’s the secret to my modest success as a freelance writer? Timing? (“Bad timing” still counts as timing.) Dreamy eyes? Liberal amounts of humor writing? Let’s say it’s a delightful combination of all three. Humor writing is the great equalizer in the world of writing. The ability to write funny…

I haven’t bothered Googling to find out for sure – because who has time? – but on the strength of mounting evidence, a post on how to set up a travel blog apparently doesn’t exist and is long overdue. [If reading makes you sleepy, you can now watch me read…

Did you know that I juggle? Yep. Since I was 12 years old. Related, I did not first kiss a girl until much later than the average guy. Last week I went to the International Jugglers’ Association annual festival for the first time in a decade. While I was there…

The three or four people closely following my glorious career, and composing various unauthorized biographies about me, peed themselves a little recently when I quietly launched a new side project: A gangsta rapper alter ego known as “Righteous Culo.” This was combined with the announcement of my first album filled…

Researching the awesome “Florence Explorer 2.0” city guide app (UPDATE: sadly, now defunct) contractually required me to once again to sacrifice the bod and eat prodigious amounts of food during my recent visit. Since one of the guidelines was to put together an “author favorites” list, and since the app…

(This is an amendment to the “So you want to be a Lonely Planet author” piece that I originally posted here in April of 2006. Whereas that piece was filled with personal details of my first, grueling LP guidebook gig, this one focuses on the mechanics and general pros and…

For most of us, drinking a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino is a special occasion on par with celebrating a birthday divisible by ten or being rear-ended by Donald Rumsfeld in front of a military hospital while 500 beered-up, wounded vets are attempting to set the world record for piñata…

Members of the travel industry ritually self-harmed this week when it was announced that felonious halfwit Tommy Lee would soon be debuting his own travel show on the Syfy channel. In related news, travel TV producers on both coasts unanimously did not spit out their coffee upon hearing the breaking…