The Beat Below The Street

~ One of the real pleasures of my two month stay in New York City during 2008, was the wonderful encounters with musicians playing on the subway system.

I was constantly amazed by the quality of many of these muso’s, and often stopped to listen to several songs in succession before catching a train back to my room at the Greenpoint, YMCA (see Greenpoint, YMCA Review, Part 1 and Greenpoint, YMCA Review, Part 2), or before heading above ground to begin another long day exploring New York City.

Some musicians accompanied themselves acoustically; others were able to plug in and perform electrified; while still others sang karaoke style to CDs plugged into portable players. Without exaggeration, all were universally good, some were great, and a few were outstanding.

I had to admire their fortitude and their ability to continue singing in the face of constant noise, fumes, dust, apathy, screeching subway train brakes, public address announcements, and the ebb and flow, and push and shove of thousands of commuters. It takes real determination and staying power to persist with your music and performance while all is in flux around you. Gear has to be humped up and down stairwells; depending on the season, hands and fingers may be numb with cold, or constantly wet with sweat; in addition, hours of singing above the constant noise can damage vocal chords, and lead to major problems if not monitored daily.

Which brings me to Steve McGookin, and his blog The Beat Below The Street.

Steve is an out of work journalist (and musician), who has decided to keep himself occupied by documenting his experiences busking on the passageways and platforms of the New York subway system. Steve writes:

“I’m planning to play on the platform for a while to get a sense of what the city's buskers face every day and be able to tell their stories a little better. Then, for the price of a Metrocard, I’ll go wherever the music leads me; I’ll talk to the musicians it leads me to and I’ll introduce them to you.”

To this end, Steve has set himself the objective of spending 48 days over summer performing on New York's subways. Why 48? Simply because that’s his current age. As Steve says:

I’m guessing that as it goes on, every day will feel like a year, so I figured I’d do one day for every year I've been around just to remind myself how good it is to be alive and able to do this.

He also writes:

“But playing at the stations is just a starting point; I’m doing this, first and foremost, to be doing something creative and be telling stories again, but also to spread the word about some of the remarkable musicians who - in most cases - make riders’ days a little brighter.”

Steve McGookin is currently several weeks into his project, and is documenting his explorations underground as he goes. If you want to follow Steve’s adventures, visit his blog, The Beat Below The Street and either subscribe to his updates or signup to follow his posts (better still, do both). And if you are in New York reading this, look out for the man, and throw a couple of dollars into his guitar case.

I’m sure he will appreciate it – as will any other street/subway musicians you support in this way.

IMAGE: New York subway mosaic, Jim Lesses

Addendum to 'Road Trip USA' Review

~ Road Trip USA: Route 66, and Road Trip USA: Pacific Coast Highway, Pocket Guides

“These books are perfect for ‘slow travellers’. For those adventurers who are curious to explore the road less travelled; the unusual and the real; the small towns and the back roads that lead to them – and which in turn lead to the heart and soul of America.”

Yesterday I posted a review of Jamie Jensen’s Road Trip USA (In Review: Road Trip USA). This post is an addendum to that review.

The new edition of Road Trip USA is now supplemented with two pocket guides, Road Trip USA Route 66, and Road Trip USA Pacific Coast Highway.

The two pocket guides have been lifted straight out of the main Road Trip USA volume, and apart from a few small but useful additions, contain the same content as that which is included in the Route 66, and Pacific Coast Highway sections of the main text.

Just for the record, my comparison of the pocket guide: Road Trip USA Route 66, with Road Trip USA shows extra pages have been added to the pocket guide providing additional information about Chicago, St Louis, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. While comparing Road Trip USA Pacific Coast Highway

with Road Trip USA shows the pocket guide has extra information covering Seattle and Portland.

I expect that before too long, the other nine routes detailed in Road Trip USA will soon find their way onto the shelves of bookshops as pocket guides in their own right. And why not? It makes perfect sense to take each of the eleven major routes in Jensen’s book and create separate guides for them, since the main tome is large, heavy and not entirely practical if you are only planning one major American road trip. I assume the choice of starting with the Pacific Coast Highway and Route 66 has been governed by research showing these are two of the most popular road trips undertaken in the US.

However, one of the benefits of the one volume Road Trip USA is that if you decide to make a side trip that falls outside the boundaries of say, Route 66, to visit Memphis, Tennessee, (which is not listed in the Route 66 pocket guide), you can simply turn to the section on The Great River Road – which follows the Mississippi River, and which does include Memphis – and continue following directions from there.

The same caveats apply to the pocket guides as those already expressed about the main volume. That is, that neither of the guides include internet addresses for any of the main attractions or destinations listed in the books. And neither of them include information that would be useful to travellers embarking on their first major road trip.

Even more surprising is the fact that the few Road Trip Resources pages at the end of Road Trip USA containing useful information about hotels and motels, car hire companies and other details have been dropped completely from both pocket guides – so you will have to do your research well, before you set off on your adventure of a life time.

Again, I should stress that the lack of web links and additional resources does not detract in any way, shape or form from the excellent and detailed information contained in any of the guides. These books are designed to get you off the interstate freeway system and on to America’s two-lane highways, hence the full title of Jamie Jensen’s book, Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways.

These books are perfect for ‘slow travellers’. For those adventurers who are curious to explore the road less travelled; the unusual and the real; the small towns and the back roads that lead to them – and which in turn lead to the heart and soul of America.

Highly recommend.

Click on link to purchase your copy of Road Trip USA Route 66
Or click image to purchase direct from Amazon website…



Click on link to purchase your copy of Road Trip USA Pacific Coast Highway
Or click image to purchase direct from Amazon website…

Publication Details…

Road Trip USA Route 66 First Edition, by Jamie Jensen ISBN 13: 978-1-59880-205-4 April 2009 * 114 pages * US$9.95	Road Trip USA Pacific Coast Highway First Edition, by Jamie Jensen ISBN 13: 978-1-59880-204-7 April 2009 * 146 pages * US$9.95
Published by Avalon Travel A Member of the Perseus Books Group

In Review: Road Trip USA, Jamie Jensen

“Road Trip USA…takes you as close to the real America as you are ever likely to get.”

Here’s a question for you. If you had the time and the money to undertake just one extensive road trip on any continent on the planet, which one would you choose, and where would you go? I ask this question because time and money seem to be the only things stopping many people from undertaking their ultimate dream vacation.

Last year (March 2008), a survey conducted by the Australian online automotive website Cars Guide indicated that Aussies love to road trip. In fact, the survey of 810 respondents, found a whopping 99 per cent of Australians would go on a road trip because of the freedom and spontaneity it allows.

Not long after the Cars Guide survey appeared, a Rand McNally survey (May 2008), examining American attitudes to road trips found similar opinions to this form of vacation. According to the Rand McNally survey (of 2,030 U.S. adults), three in four adults (75%) were at least somewhat likely to take a road trip, and about three in ten (29%) said they were very likely.

Meanwhile, in a recent article published in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal (May 2009), the American Automobile Association reported that the road trip was poised to make a comeback as the American summer travel season began, despite the lingering recession and rising fuel prices. Based on data gathered in a survey of 2,700 U.S. households, the AAA estimated the number of car travellers during the annual Memorial Day holiday would hit 27 million.

While the cost of fuel and accommodation were nominated as the two biggest concerns both in Australia and America, it seems our respective love affairs for the open road is not likely to diminish any time soon.

Which brings me to Road Trip USA.

Jamie Jensen’s best-selling guide book, Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways, (Fifth Edition, Avalon Travel, 2009) takes you as close to the real America as you are ever likely to get.

With 11 road trips to choose from, covering classic American landscapes such as the Appalachian Trail, Atlantic Coast, Oregon Trail, and the famed Route 66, Road Trip USA steers intrepid road warriors through major cities like San Francisco and Chicago as well as remote, but charming all-American towns like Dyersville, Mississippi (where the baseball field created for the Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams attracts visitors from near and far); or the small blue-collar town of Seneca Falls, in New York state (which saw the birth of the American women’s movement in July 1848).

As you might expect, Jensen’s road trips also lead to popular destinations such as Disneyland, Yellowstone National Park, Niagara Falls, and the Statue of Liberty. Complete with local lore; oddball trivia (Memphis’s gifts to American culture – and the world’s – include the supermarket, the drive-in restaurant, the Holiday Inn, oh, and Elvis Presley). Filled with noteworthy details and roadside curiosities (a sign in Texas spelling out the command: “Rattlesnakes Exit Here”), Road Trip USA contains a wealth of recommendations on where to stop, what to see, and where to eat and sleep. This is one guide aimed at getting travellers off the freeway system, and driving into the heart and soul of America.

Other features of this edition include:

• A flexible network of route combinations, colour-coded and extensively cross-referenced to allow for hundreds of possible itineraries

• More than 125 detailed driving maps

• Full-colour interior with modern and vintage photos and illustrations

• A road trip resources section with contact information for popular hotel and motel chains, car rental companies, state tourism boards, and road condition centres

My personal criteria for a good guide book is that it should inform, enlighten, and occasionally even surprise, so I’m please to say that Road Trip USA has no trouble being informative, enlightening, and yes, even surprising.

“I have no hesitation in saying that when I undertake my own road trip across America, Road Trip USA will be the one book I will have by my side at all times.”

What’s Missing?

Unfortunately, Road Trip USA is almost entirely devoid of links to online resources. In an age when almost every printed piece of paper has a website URL and an Email address on it somewhere; and when so many modern electronic devices come Internet ready, this seems to be a glaring omission. I can only assume this is a deliberate choice by the author and publisher. With thousands of places of interest detailed in the book, they may have taken the decision to try and cut down on the visual clutter associated with URLs, and make the contents more ‘readable’ by avoiding them altogether.

While one doesn’t expect a URL or Email address for every location mentioned in Road Trip USA, surely major places of interest do warrant the inclusion of a web link (where available). A quick look through other guide books on my bookshelf reveals that all those printed over the last five years or so, include web addresses throughout, and future editions of Road Trip USA would be well served to do the same.

Before You Go

I think Road Trip USA would also benefit from a ‘Before You Go’ section outlining basic information regarding preparations for the journey. This chapter might cover such topics as:

• Useful (online and offline) sources of information regarding trip preparations.
• Information about safety (personal, vehicle break down, and other safety issues)
• What to do in an emergency (break downs, accidents, personal attack, etc)
• A checklist of possible items to pack and prepare
• A checklist of pre-trip vehicle preparations (brakes, tyre and engine checks, etc)
• Travelling with children and pets

Road Trip USA does have a small Resources section at the end of the book, running to just eight and a half pages – four of which contain a Recommended Reading list. The others refer to organisations associated in some way with automobiles and highways; a short list of hotel/motel chains, and car rental companies; and a list of U.S. and Canadian agencies dealing with State Tourism and road conditions. And that’s pretty much it.

The good news is, the omissions noted above do not detract in any way from the overall depth and quality of the detailed information presented in Road Trip USA. At just over 900 pages, I think it is fair to say that Road Trip USA covers all the ‘bases’ and then some. In deed, I have no hesitation in saying that when I undertake my own road trip across America, Road Trip USA will be the one book I will have by my side at all times.

Click here to purchase your copy of Road Trip USA…
Road Trip USA: Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways

Or Click image to purchase direct from Amazon website…

Visit the Road Trip USA website here…

Read more about the Cars Guide survey here…

Read more about the Rand McNally survey here…

Read the Wall Street Journal article here…

Publication Details: Road Trip USA

Fifth Edition, by Jamie Jensen

ISBN 13: 978-1-59880-101-9

April 2009 919 pages US$29.95

Published by Avalon Travel

A Member of the Perseus Books Group