Powerful Written Goals in 7 Easy Steps!

I’ve been spending some time this morning on the necessary but mind-numbing task of organizing all my Internet Explorer bookmarks. And now that I think of it, I’d probably never have to do this if I could actually get around to building a del.icio.us profile. But that’s not the point. The point is, I have a very impressive collection of links inside a folder titled Productivity & Personal Growth. And a few minutes ago, I came across an interesting how-to essay about the process of goal setting. Anyone who knows me well also knows I’m obsessed with the power of setting goals, so I naturally tend to stop in my tracks whenever I come across something that promises to make the process simpler. At any rate, the following essay was written by a fellow named Gene Donohue, and can be found at www.topachievement.com. The site doesn’t look like much, but it’s certainly filled with powerful content. As proof, here’s Gene’s essay:

GOAL SETTING: Powerful Written Goals in 7 Easy Steps!  The car is packed and you’re ready to go — your first-ever cross-country trip. From the White Mountains of New Hampshire to the rolling hills of San Francisco, you’re going to see it all. You put the car in gear, and off you go. First stop, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.  A little while into the trip you need to check the map because you’ve reached an intersection you’re not familiar with. You panic for a moment because you realize you’ve forgotten your map. But you say the heck with it because you know where you’re going. You take a right, change the radio station and keep on going. Unfortunately, you never reach your destination. Too many of us treat goal setting the same way. We dream about where we want to go, but we don’t have a map to get there. What is a map? In essence, the written word. What is the difference between a dream and a goal? Once again, the written word. Goal setting, however, is more than simply scribbling down some ideas on a piece of paper. Our goals need to be complete and focused, much like a road map, and that is the purpose behind the rest of this article. If you follow the 7 goal setting steps I’ve outlined in this article you will be well on your way to becoming an expert in building the road maps to your goals. 1. Make sure the goal you are working for is something you really want, not just something that sounds good. I remember when I started taking baseball umpiring more seriously. I began to set my sites on the NCAA Division 1 level. Why? I knew there was no way I could get onto the road to the major leagues, so the next best thing was the highest college level. Pretty cool, right. Wrong. Sure, when I was talking to people about my umpiring goals it sounded pretty good, and many people were quite impressed. Fortunately I began to see through my own charade. I have been involved in youth sports for a long time. I’ve coached, I’ve been the President of leagues, I’ve been a treasurer and I’m currently an Assistant State Commissioner for Cal Ripken Baseball. Youth sports is where I belong, it is where my heart belongs, not on some college diamond where the only thing at stake is a high draft spot. When setting goals it is very important to remember that your goals must be consistent with your values. 2. A goal can not contradict any of your other goals. For example, you can’t buy a $750,000 house if your income goal is only $50,000 per year. This is called non-integrated thinking and will sabotage all of the hard work you put into your goals. Non-integrated thinking can also hamper your everyday thoughts as well. We should continually strive to eliminate contradictory ideas from our thinking.

3. Develop goals in the 6 areas of life: 

Family and Home               Financial and Career
Spiritual and Ethical           Physical and Health
Social and Cultural             Mental and Educational

Setting goals in each area of life will ensure a more balanced life as you begin to examine and change the fundamentals of everyday living. Setting goals in each area of life also helps in eliminating the non-integrated thinking we talked about in the 2nd step.

4. Write your goal in the positive instead of the negative.

Work for what you want, not for what you want to leave behind. Part of the reason why we write down and examine our goals is to create a set of instructions for our subconscious mind to carry out. Your subconscious mind is a very efficient tool, it can not determine right from wrong and it does not judge. It’s only function is to carry out its instructions. The more positive instructions you give it, the more positive results you will get. Thinking positively in everyday life will also help in your growth as a human being. Don’t limit it to goal setting.

5. Write your goal out in complete detail.

Instead of writing “A new home,” write “A 4,000 square foot contemporary with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths and a view of the mountain on 20 acres of land. Once again we are giving the subconscious mind a detailed set of instructions to work on. The more information you give it, the more clear the final outcome becomes. The more precise the outcome, the more efficient the subconscious mind can become. Can you close your eyes and visualize the home I described above? Walk around the house. Stand on the porch off the master bedroom and see the fog lifting off the mountain. Look down at the garden full of tomatoes, green beans and cucumbers. And off to the right is the other garden full of a mums, carnations and roses. Can you see it? So can your subconscious mind.

6. By all means, make sure your goal is high enough.

Shoot for the moon, if you miss you’ll still be in the stars. Earlier I talked about my umpiring goals and how making it to the top level of college umpiring did not mix with my values. Some of you might be saying that I’m not setting my goals high enough. Not so. I still have very high goals for my umpiring career at the youth level. My ultimate goal is to be chosen to umpire a Babe Ruth World Series and to do so as a crew chief. If I never make it, everything I do to reach that goal will make me a better umpire and a better person. If I make it, but don’t go as a crew chief, then I am still among the top youth umpires in the nation. Shoot for the moon!

7. This is the most important, write down your goals.

Writing down your goals creates the roadmap to your success. Although just the act of writing them down can set the process in motion, it is also extremely important to review your goals frequently. Remember, the more focused you are on your goals the more likely you are to accomplish them. Sometimes we realize we have to revise a goal as circumstances and other goals change, much like I did with my umpiring. If you need to change a goal do not consider it a failure, consider it a victory as you had the insight to realize something was different.  

So your goals are written down. Now what?

First of all, unless someone is critical to helping you achieve your goal(s), do not freely share your goals with others. The negative attitude from friends, family and neighbors can drag you down quickly. It’s very important that your self-talk (the thoughts in your head) are positive. Reviewing your goals daily is a crucial part of your success and must become part of your routine. Each morning when you wake up read your list of goals that are written in the positive. Visualize the completed goal, see the new home, smell the leather seats in your new car, feel the cold hard cash in your hands. Then each night, right before you go to bed, repeat the process. This process will start both your subconscious and conscious mind on working towards the goal. This will also begin to replace any of the negative self-talk you may have and replace it with positive self-talk. Every time you make a decision during the day, ask yourself this question, “Does it take me closer to, or further from my goal.” If the answer is “closer to,” then you’ve made the right decision. If the answer is “further from,” well, you know what to do. If you follow this process everyday you will be on your way to achieving unlimited success in every aspect of your life.  

The difference between a goal
and a dream is the written word.
-Gene Donohue   

Just Published: About the Labor Party

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been noticing that some of the most popular posts on this blog are in fact not posts at all, but rather specific pages I’ve created that contain biographical information about myself, my work, or this very blog. Until recently, though, only one of those pages — my author bio – contained any sort of actual content. Which is why I’ve spent the past two or three hours banging away at a new page that attempts to explain the general concept of the Labor Party. If you’re interested, that page can be accessed here. 

Working Abroad: How to find a job in Turkey

Yesterday’s post about working holidays and finding jobs abroad has proved so popular that I figured it wouldn’t be the worst idea to put together something similar today.     

I spent quite a bit of time working a few different jobs in Turkey during the summer of 2001, and after I eventually came back to the U.S. and settled in Seattle, I wrote a how-to article for Transitions Abroad about how anyone so inclined might do the exact same thing. Transitions Abroad, by the way, has been considered the absolute authority on working, studying and volunteering abroad for a very long time, and you’d be wise to buy yourself a subscription and spend some time on their website if you’re planning on doing any of those things yourself.

The magazine’s founder, Dr Clay Hubbs, passed away recently, although the magazine has impressively managed to push on with the same mix of good design, wonderful writing, and informative copy ever since. In fact, for anyone interested in having unusual experiences in other countries, I can’t recommend it highly enough. Continue scrolling down, and you’ll see the first article of mine that was ever published in Transitions Abroad. It’s called “Backpacker’s Turkey: Jobs Abound and Can Be Found Word-of-Mouth”.

Even to this day, if you Google the phrase “jobs in Turkey”, my article shows up on the first page, which I’ve always assumed is the main reason so many people have emailed me about this article over the years. It’s worth noting that while I’ve been freelancing on and off for over a decade, and full-time for more than four years, I very rarely get any sort of feedback about my work from anyone other than my various editors. But “Backpacker’s Turkey”, for some reason, has hit a serious nerve with the reading and backpacking public over the years. So for what it’s worth, here it is. Let me know what you think.

BACKPACKER’S TURKEY: Jobs Abound and Can Be Found Word-of-Mouth

By Dan Eldridge

It was early in the summer, and I had spent three weeks in Greece, ferrying from island to island and trying fruitlessly to schmooze my way into an under-the-table summer job. In my hasty pre-trip research back home I had learned that Greece was a land of golden opportunity from April until August, when Brits, Germans, and Russians invade the country on their annual holiday. Beach resorts need employees, yacht owners need deckhands, even the olive vineyards need staff. Work, I was assured, was everywhere.

But somehow when I showed up in mid-May, the tourist season still hadn’t. Hotel owners and bar managers all told me the same thing: “Come back in four weeks.” My money, however, was running dangerously low.

The further south I traveled, the more backpackers I met who had just come from Turkey, and no one seemed to have enough good things to say about the country.

Apparently, there were English-language academies willing to hire anyone, as long as he or she was a native speaker. No work visa? No TEFL degree? No problem. I decided to chance it.

Getting A Job

Making money was my most immediate concern, so after settling into a cheap youth hostel in the backpacker ghetto of Sultanahmet ($2.50 to $5 for a bunk bed in a shared room), I found an Internet café and logged onto EslCafe.com, one of the most popular clearinghouse sites for English-teaching jobs on the Web. If I had known all along that I would end up in Istanbul, I would have researched job opportunities in advance. (Another great site for potential English teachers is www.tesall.com).

I didn’t find any useful job leads at the Internet café, but I did notice that the woman sitting next to me, a Canadian named Emily, was updating her resume. And that’s when I took advantage of the backpacker’s most time-tested method for gathering information of any sort: word-of-mouth. Turned out that, like me, Emily had just arrived in town. She was busy searching for an English-teaching job and a place to live. She was also staying in a guesthouse just down the street from mine, and so we agreed to join forces: I’d share any new job leads with her, and she’d do the same for me. Soon, we became a disciplined team, asking every backpacker and every guesthouse employee we stumbled across for help.

One morning, Emily was making her way to an interview in a neighborhood far from the tourist district. The school she was looking for didn’t seem to exist, so she walked into a different school, British English, and asked for help. The director of the school sent her on her way, but not before mentioning that he, too, was hiring. The next day I called British English from a payphone, used Emily’s name to land an interview, and after assuring the director that I had a college degree (he never asked to see it, and he never asked if I had TEFL certification, which I didn’t), I was given a job. Seven million Turkish lira an hour, which was about $5 U.S.

Emily, by the way, eventually found the school she was looking for. Just like me, she was hired on the spot, on the basis of her native English-speaking status alone. (At the time, she didn’t even have a bachelor’s degree.).

But in Istanbul, teaching is only one way a backpacker can make money. Our friend Meghan found well-paying work as a nanny, simply by being social and asking around in the backpacker ghetto, where nearly all the locals speak English. Another friend found work at a tourists’ pub. The job came with all the free beer she could drink, not to mention a free room above the bar.

Outside of Istanbul, opportunities in the tourism industry abound. If you find that English teaching isn’t for you, get creative: Charismatic travelers can find work in the carpet-selling shops of Cappadocia, an otherworldly region in central Turkey, and others get jobs with hot-air balloon companies that operate nearby. Busking and bar work is possible along the Mediterranean coast, if you’re the entertaining type. And don’t forget: Greece is just a ferry ride away. Maybe by the time you show up, that fabled tourist season will have finally started.

Work Your Way Around the World: The working traveller’s bible

I was surfing back and forth between a few of my favorite travel sites yesterday when I happened to stumble upon this Gadling interview with Susan Griffith. Susan is a writer and editor who reports mainly on the phenomenon of working abroad, and her extremely popular book, Work Your Way Around the World, is an absolute legend in independent travel cirlces. Incredibly, Susan has gone through the process of updating the book every two years since 1983. In other words: She’s doing something right. 

If you’re the type of person who tends to willingly go out of their way in order to find unusual experiences while travelling abroad, I can almost guarantee this is a guide you’ll want to become acquainted with, post haste. The very user-friendly book is full of information about how anyone might go about the process of finding a job in a foreign country. And the truly fascinating aspect of WYWATW is that while Susan does write about the obvious and time-tested expat jobs – like teaching English in Asia, or pulling beers in a London pub — she’s got a lot of the bizarre in here as well. Here’s how her publisher, Vacation Work, describes the book’s thirteenth edition, which is now available for sale on Amazon.com:

“This is the thirteenth edition of the unique and acclaimed guide for the working traveller that explains how to find temporary work around the world, not only in advance, but also on-the-spot, while travelling. It incorporates hundreds of first-hand accounts from people who have actually done the jobs with a mass of hard, factual information to offer authoritative advice on how to find work – from selling ice cream in Cape Town to working as a film extra in Bangkok.

Work Your Way Around the World gives information on all the main areas of temporary work including the tourist industry, teaching English, childcare and voluntary work, and business & industry. In addition, it explains how to travel for free by land, sea and air. It explains how to earn money by spotting local opportunities. And it gives dates and details of harvests from Denmark to New Zealand. Included is a country-by-country guide of all the opportunities to be found.”  

At any rate, Gadling’s conversation with Susan reminded me of the time I spoke with her myself while researching an article for Young Pioneers, my one-shot, self-published magazine about independent travel culture. I’ve been thinking a lot about Young Pioneers these days because, as some of you already know, a partner and I are in the process of relaunching it as a magazine about creative and unusual entrepreneurs. In fact, that’s why I often write about creative entrepreneurs on this blog — the Labor Party was actually created to be a companion piece to the magazine, as well as a promotional tool. But before YP 2.0 actually becomes a reality and gets shipped off to the printers, I thought it might be fun to revisit some of the original travel content. So without further ado, here’s my Q&A interview with Susan herself – first published in the Spring 2004 issue of Young Pioneers. (And if you’re interested in having your very own print version of the magazine, ultra-rare copies of YP01: Independent Travel Icons can now be purchased via PayPal at this site. You’ll have to scroll down to the bottom of the page.) >>>

If you’ve spent much time in youth hostels or cheap guesthouses abroad, there’s a good chance you’ve once thumbed through a battered, out of date copy of Work Your Way Around the World — a veritable backpacker’s bible that’s been connecting budget travelers with under-the-table grunt jobs in far-flung locales around the globe for nearly twenty years.

The guide has sold more than a quarter-million copies, but more importantly, it offers real world advice from travelers who’ve been there. Want to be a film extra in Bombay? An English teacher in Cairo? A bartender in Hong Kong? Acording to Griffith, it’s all very possible, and she’ll even throw in a few addresses and phone numbers to get you started.

In years past, Griffith has worked as a vineyard assistant and dog-kennel cleaner in Greece. These days she stays a bit closer to home, and every two years updates another edition of the most inspirational work of travel lit you’re likely to read in a lifetime.

Young Pioneers: How did the book first come about?

Susan Griffith: Well, I got a job with a publisher in Oxford because I had been in this country as a student and I wanted to stay on. I’m from Canada. This little press published some very boring directories of summer jobs and one or two travel titles, and I started as an editorial assistant. But by coincidence-although I’m sure it’s partly also why I got the job-I liked to travel as well. And with these boring directories, I thought it would be much better to have a lot of that hard information, but to cut it with the stories of the people who did them, just to make it that much more readable. The publishing house had a good basis of information to start from with the organizations that set up jobs abroad, but we didn’t have contacts with the students and the young people who did it. So we just put little ads in The Guardian that said “Have you ever worked abroad in any capacity?” I set up meetings with people who answered the ad and took them to the local pub, which was around the corner from the publisher. No one had ever taken a real detailed interest in what were often very low-level jobs. You know, shit jobs, basically. And so that’s how the first edition came about. It couldn’t be thoroughly researched. It was just random, really.

YP: It must have been tough to get hard facts.

SG: Well, there were some hard facts, they were just so sketchy! You know, “If you go to Crete in November then that’s when they start to pick olives and if you ask around you might get work.” It seemed rather risky. I wrote a whole chapter on Iceland based on one story, but it seemed to work. And the next edition I got loads of letters and postcards saying things like, “You mentioned this town, but where I was picking olives at the other end of Crete it was much better because we didn’t have to compete.” So it just sort of wrote itself. I just sat back and waited for all the people using the book to write in. I think there happened to be a real demand for that kind of thing at the time. A lot of people bought it and a lot of people wrote back.

I always corresponded with them, and some of them-one or two-are still writing back! One of them now has an organic farm in Thailand, and is now welcoming the next generation of readers of the book. Some people have moved on to really respectful things. Some guy-I was really impressed-he drove a taxi in Sydney in the 80s, which was kind of a six-to-twelve month job, and now he’s a producer for a radio station. Some of them have made good. Some people pull it together and other people continue to drift, but that’s not to say their lives are wasted.

YP: It’s almost as if there were a lot of people who were just waiting and waiting for a book like Work Your Way Around the World, but didn’t even know they were waiting for it.

SG: I think that’s right. A lot of people were doing it, but they were just absolutely winging it. In fact, once they persuaded themselves they were going to do this-go on the road for an extended period and take what came-they did meet up with other people who guided them, but they always started out pretty cold. In the early days-this doesn’t happen anymore-but in the early days loads of people wrote in and said, “Oh, I wish I’d had this book when I started.”

YP: Were you ever afraid that you were going to steer somebody onto the wrong course?

SG: Yeah, kind of. In fact I had a couple of letters saying, “I imagined that it would be different from what it was, but it was much harder. You make it sound too easy. I came home without ever having got a job and ran out of money.” But then they went on to say they had a great time. You know, they had a wonderful time camping in the south of Spain. So in a way it couldn’t lose, because traveling is great fun. Anyone who wants to go away is probably going to end up enjoying it even if it doesn’t work out in the way they predicted or hoped.

YP: Do you feel like there is such a thing as a “working traveler” subculture? And I don’t necessarily mean people who are just out of university and are going off to have a working holiday, but an actual culture of people…

SG: On the road, sort of semi-permanenty, you mean? I think there definitely is. There has always been this kind of subculture of people who are very good at picking up casual jobs and just following the seasons around Europe. I can’t say how big it is. I don’t know if it’s bigger or smaller than it used to be, but it definitely exists.

YP: It seems to me that most of the people who’ve been doing it for more than, say, two or three years, seem a little odd or a little eccentric. A little out of the loop. It seems that most normal folks call it quits and go home after a year or two.

SG: Time to go home and get back to your real life. I think that’s right.

YP: Why do you think that is?

SG: Well, I don’t know that people who’ve been doing it for more than two years are necessarily eccentric and odd. But the longer it goes on, the further you are from your roots. I mean, you’re cutting yourself off. It’s certainly true in teaching English. A lot of people just do it for one or two years and then they go back to England and get a “real” job, and it was just a kind of break. But other people kind of move from one post to another, and there’s not much of a career structure there. I mean, there is-you can do it-but you’re sort of stuck on one level. A lot of those people are misfits, I would say, who are satisfied with two years in Damascus. It’s kind of exciting, but on the other hand the expat life that you can live in these places is not that on the edge. It’s a kind of alternative, comfortable way of life, but it sort of prohibits the normal stuff like buying houses and having kids.

YP: Do you think there was a larger expatriate community around the time you started the book?

SG: No, I’m not sure there are fewer now. And certainly a lot of those expat characters in weird corners of the world, like Papua New Guinea, are real characters. They have a fantastically interesting history, and they’re often kind of old-style hippies. The idea of moving back to wherever they came from and putting in a job application is just as remote as can be. They couldn’t possibly do it. They fly bush planes and all that kind of stuff. I think there’s plenty of types out there still doing that, but they’re probably not moving around all that much. They’ve made their homes in some developing country and probably plan to stay there.

YP: It seems like every single person on the backpacking circuit either has a copy of your book with them, or has at least heard of it. Does that put a lot of presure on you?

SG: It sure is weird, especially when I stay at a hostel and see people carrying it. I think, Oh my God, really! It’s not necessarily all true, you guys! But if it gets you started along certain lines-if you go to a certain village to go orange picking and you find out it’s full of Albanians and there’s just no hope-at least if you go you’re meeting the people who have come from somewhere else and know what to do. Some of the concrete information is usable by almost anybody. Kibbutzim in Israel, for example. I maybe wouldn’t recommend it just at the moment, but it can work for anybody. If you don’t know where to start and you just had the chapter on Israel and a couple of addresses-you’re off!

Pioneer Content’s temporary splash page goes live

I’m extremely proud to report that just a few days ago, the temporary splash page for my online journalism portfolio and content creation service, Pioneer Content, made its official internet debut. The site’s conception and design are the work of the very talented Carrie Voegel, who studied graphic design at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University. Carrie and I will both be building out the remainder of the site this week, so if all goes well the entire thing should be fully functional before long.

In the meantime, please feel free to try out the page’s (admittedly minimal) links. And if you’re so inclined, scroll to very bottom of the page to check out all the fun stuff we have for sale, including very rare copies of the premiere issue of Young Pioneers. This issue’s theme, Independent Travel Icons, proved so popular that the magazine was nominated for the prestigious Independent Press Award by the Utne Reader. The nomination was especially unusual because we had published only one issue! 

Interested readers, by the way, should snap this issue up before it’s gone forever, as supplies are relatively limited. Featured icons include Lonely Planet’s Tony Wheeler; Vagabonding author Rolf Potts; war correspondent Robert Young Pelton; Holly Morris of the PBS program Adventure Divas; travel writing legend Jeff Greenwald, Transitions Abroad contributor and Work Your Way Around the World author Susan Griffith; James Crotty and Michael Lane (aka the Mad Monks) of Monk magazine; former Lonely Planet literature editor Don George, and many more.      

Lonely Planet’s Spirituality Tourism in Thailand

My most recent article went live on the Lonely Planet website earlier today. [Update: This article has also been published on MSN's Australian site, ninemsn.]  It’s essentially a round-up piece about alternative health resorts and various meditation retreats in Thailand. I spent about ten weeks travelling through the country recently while researching the upcoming edition of LP’s Southeast Asia on a Shoestring, and I somehow managed to see these sorts of places almost everywhere I looked. I suppose it’s something of an interesting comment about the state of today’s Western world. Never before, I don’t believe, have so many of us looked to so many alternative and obscure forms of spirituality in order to keep our mental states in proper alignment.    

At any rate, click here to see the story online, or simply scroll down to read it below.

Lonely Planet: Feature Article

Spirituality Tourism in Thailand

By Dan Eldridge

Meditate with monks in a monastery, or increase your karma with a lemon juice fast. Spirituality seekers are spoilt for choice in Thailand: here’s a guide to the best rests.

Every year thousands of tourists head to Thailand for a dose of Buddhist spirituality and liberal open-mindedness. But many opportunities for travellers on the Thai trail to Nirvana go unadvertised and unnoticed. We’ve compiled this list of suggested meditation and alternative health retreats as something of a print ‘n’ save mini-guide.

ALTERNATIVE HEALTH RESORTS

The Sanctuary, Ko Pha-Ngan

Tucked into a postcard-perfect bay and almost engulfed by the surrounding jungle, the non-traditional healing centre known as the Sanctuary rests upon the largely undeveloped southern island of Ko Pha-Ngan. Many of the Sanctuary’s guests come specifically to spend time in the Detox & Wellness Centre, a non-eating area where the removal of toxins from the body is the only item on the menu. Visitors, or ‘cleansers’, as they’re known here, have a wide variety of scheduled events to choose from — everything from sungazing to pilates to shamanic healing. Colonic and liver cleansing programmes last anywhere from one to seven days. And should you happen to encounter your soulmate during, say, an Iyengar yoga session, the Sanctuary can even organise a traditional Buddhist wedding ceremony.

Samui Dharma Healing Center, Ko Samui

Founded in 1998, the Samui Dharma Healing Center was originally a language school where spiritual counselling and water movement were also taught. These days, the main activity is an intense diet known as an elimination fast. The process involves ingesting a Chinese herbal formula that acts to soften the body’s toxins. Twice daily, fasters give those toxins a helping hand by self-administering a caffeinated colonic irrigation (also known as a coffee enema). Twenty classes are also offered; most teach participants how to maintain their newfound healthy lifestyle after returning home.

The Spa Samui, Ko Samui

This is the Samui location of a Thai-based chain of health resorts, all of them reportedly well-managed. (There are other branches in Ko Chang and Chiang Mai.) The Spa’s American founder, Guy Hopkins, likes to call his business ‘a family-run oasis for self-improvement’, although this collection of body- and mind-improvement resorts are also known for their high-quality vegetarian and raw food, meditation, yoga and massage. The Spa especially stands out because of the sheer number of courses and activities on offer. Interested in numerology or hypnotherapy? Care to take a Chi Gung class? Aqua detox? Even if you aren’t the macrobiotic-and-Bikram yoga type, consider checking out the Spa’s website to read about its Five Habit System to Longevity.

Health Oasis Resort, Ko Samui

Health Oasis is a good example of a slightly higher-end Samui resort and a smart choice for families travelling with children. Its wide array of educational courses means it’s also recommended for anyone more interested in relaxation than, say, starvation. Of course, like many of Samui’s health centres, fasting and colon cleansing are featured activities, but Thai cooking classes can also be booked, as well as training courses in yoga, reiki and meditation. There are specific events for children, a standard free-weight gym and a large selection of takeaway health products.

MEDITATION RETREATS

Wat Suan Dok, Chiang Mai

Formerly known by backpackers primarily for its Monk Chat programme, Wat Suan Dok is now sponsoring a two-day, free-of-charge meditation retreat – certainly one of the most unusual ways to spend a Tuesday night in Chiang Mai. The retreat begins every Tuesday at 2:30pm with a brief series of lectures explaining the basics of Buddhist thought. Following three hours of meditation and an early bed call, participants rise at 5am the next morning to the sound of a gong. More meditation, chanting, and even alms-giving follow; the retreat ends that day at 1:30pm. The retreat is understandably popular, so call the temple (tel: 0 5327 8967) well in advance to book.

To participate in Wat Suan Dok’s Monk Chat, during which foreigners are welcome to speak with monks and novices about nearly every aspect of their lives, simply arrive at the temple a few minutes before its 5pm start time on any Monday, Wednesday or Friday. Monks chat freely until 7pm.

Wat Kow Tahm, Ko Pha-Ngan

Recommended only for experienced meditators or those with extreme powers of mental discipline, the Mountain Cave Monastery (AKA Wat Kow Tahm) offers a virtual bootcamp of compassionate mental development. The Monastery is owned and operated by Rosemary and Steve Weissman, a couple who have been meditating for roughly 35 years. The enhancement of compassion and understanding is a particular passion of Steve’s, although the 10-, 19-, and 20-day retreats explore all manner of Buddhist practice. To assure that participants are achieving their desired goals, all retreat-goers are interviewed three times throughout the meditation experience.

Dan Eldridge 

Dan Eldridge spent 10 weeks in Thailand while researching the 14th edition of Lonely Planet’s Southeast Asia on a Shoestring. While attempting to achieve spiritual bliss and karmic renewal, he instead acquired a newfound appreciation for both massaman curry and air conditioning. Dan has also worked on Lonely Planet’s Turkey guidebook, and is the author of Moon Handbooks Pittsburgh. He blogs at www.jointhelaborparty.com.

Pittsburgh: An Expert’s Guide

I’ve written at least once on this blog about The Next Page, which is the anything-goes department published every Sunday on the back page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Op-Ed section. I’ve written about how I consider it to be the P-G’s most intriguingly creative feature, hands down. And I’m very proud to write that on Sunday, August 26 (yesterday), an article of my very own appeared on The Next Page.

The piece is called Pittsburgh: An Expert’s Guide, and it’s essentially meant to be something of an ultra-insider’s guide for locals. I managed to sell the Op-Ed section’s editor on the idea because I recently wrote a Pittsburgh guidebook for Moon Handbooks/Avalon Publishing Group.

He was particularly interested in the idea that during the book’s research and reporting phases, I picked up a fairly decent amount of odd and unusual Pittsburgh-specific knowledge which, for one reason or another, never ended up in the guide. As I’ve already explained to quite a few disgruntled small-business owners (or small-business boosters, in some cases), Moon Handbooks Pittsburgh was never meant to be a telephone book. On the contrary, it’s a very carefully detailed collection of recommendations. But still, there were certainly a number of people, places and things I would have enjoyed recommending that nevertheless ended up on the cutting room floor, so to speak. Those were the recommendations the Post-Gazette hoped I would share with its readers.

The article has only been in print since Saturday morning, and I’ve only gotten feedback from two P-G readers thus far. But I’d love to know what The Labor Party community has to say, so do leave a comment at the end of this post if there’s anything you’d like to share.

Before posting, however, please take a minute to read the note directly following the article; it attempts to explain why the P-G’s website — including the online version of my article – looks so embarrassingly amateurish. On that note, if you happen to live within the P-G’s distribution range, please pick up the paper and take a look at the article in its printed version — it is beautifully designed and incredibly well illustrated.

* * *

For nearly a year, I researched, wrote about and photographed our city in order to produce a Pittsburgh guidebook for Moon Handbooks. I thought I knew this town: I’ve spent more than a decade here as a high schooler, a curious college student and an inquisitive journalist. But creating the book took me to scores of places that caught me by surprise.

Pittsburgh is famously a self-conscious and defensive city. But if I learned anything during the often arduous process of digging for and discovering rare and unknown facts about this small corner of the Keystone State, it is this: Pittsburgh is perfect just the way it is.

I couldn’t possibly fit everything into the book. So here are some highlights of the outtakes — places I think might surprise fellow Pittsburghers:

YOU CAN GO FISHING ON YOUR LUNCH BREAK

The local outdoor enthusiast club Venture Outdoors has organized many unusual activities, but their weekly “urban fishing” endeavor has got to be the most offbeat. If you work in the Golden Triangle, check out the Downtown TriAnglers.

The TriAnglers previously met at the fountain in Point State Park, although you’ll now find them gathering in Riverfront Park on the North Shore. Fishing takes place every Wednesday from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., from May until the end of October. The seasonal per-person charge is $5.

CONTEMPLATE WORLD-FAMOUS CROATIAN MURALS WHILE GHOST HUNTING 

True, visiting a church is not everyone’s idea of a good time. But consider this: St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church (24 Maryland Ave., Millvale, 412-821-3438), which you’ll find smack-dab in the heart of Millvale, is famous for its art and its resident poltergeist. That’s right — this place is haunted. Or so they say. But first, a word or two about the murals.

There are 20 of them in all, although you shouldn’t arrive expecting to spot Jesus or the Mother Mary. The paintings, created by the legendary Croatian artist Max Vanka in 1937 and 1941, are distinctly political in nature. They depict Croatian immigrants suffering from harsh conditions, for instance, or mothers weeping over their war dead. Most critics consider these to be Vanka’s masterpiece works, which surely helped the church win its National Historic Landmark status.

So, what about the ghost? Some believe the frightful figure to be the apparition of a former parish priest. The alleged ghost, which is usually seen inside the chapel draped in some sort of black cloak, has been around so long that even Vanka himself claims to have had a sighting. He says it happened during the middle of the night, while he was cranking away on one of the murals. (Then again, it might have been the paint thinner.)

One other (alleged) haunted house in the Pittsburgh area is The Harmony Inn, located in the Harmony/Zelienople area (230 Mercer St., Harmony, 724-329-5512). It is said to host supernatural guests. Possibly stranger still is the fact that management is rather proud of it: You’ll find newspaper accounts of the haunting legend right in the restaurant’s lobby.

BORROW A FREE BEACH CRUISER 

Organized by Friends of the Riverfront, the corporate-sponsored Dasani Blue Bikes Program offers the use of an absolutely free bike — a sky-blue beach cruiser — for anyone wishing to explore the length of the city’s Three Rivers Heritage Trail. The bikes are stored in a locker at the start of the trail near Terminal Way on the South Side, but it’s necessary to first visit the Friends of the Riverfront office (33 Terminal Way, off E. Carson Street, 412-488-0212), where riders will be issued a swipe card after presenting a state-issued driver’s license or passport. The cards are then validated for one year, and only two rules apply: Bikes must be returned before dark, and they’re to be used on the Heritage Trail only.

ATTAIN SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT AT THE MYSTERIOUS FOURTH RIVER 

You may have already heard of the existence of Pittsburgh’s fourth river, but if not, it’s a perfectly convenient bit of trivia to share with out-of-town guests. Why’s that? Well, it happens to be located right beneath the fountain at the tip of Point State Park, where you’ve probably made plans to take them already (though you’ll have to wait until the park, now under renovation, reopens next year).

Contrary to popular belief, the Wisconsin Glacial Flow, as the so-called fourth river is properly known, is not technically underneath the earth and hidden from human sight. In fact, if you’ve ever visited the Point when the fountain was spouting, you’ve seen it, shooting 6,000 gallons of water per minute in the form of a 30-foot-tall plume. The Flow (as I like to call it) gets airborne only during the spring, summer and fall seasons, and only between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that many Native American tribes consider the site where the fountain sits to be sacred.

This has something to do with the fact that three separate rivers converge at that specific site. According to the ancient Maya tribe, in fact, Pittsburgh is one of only 12 locations on the planet that will soon play a major role in fulfilling a spiritual prophecy. If you’ve ever considered taking up Zazen meditation, in other words, the fountain at the Point might not be a bad place to start.

PAY A VISIT TO THE HOLY LAND, ACROSS THE STREET FROM MISTER ROGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD 

With a collection of more than 100 temperate and tropical plants, a small waterfall, a stream representing the River Jordan and a desert scene depicting the biblical lands from Lake Galilee to the Dead Sea, the Biblical Botanical Garden at Rodef Shalom Temple (4905 Fifth Ave., Oakland, 412-621-6566, www.biblicalgardenpittsburgh.org, Sun.-Thu. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sat. noon to 1 p.m., closed during winter) is meant to symbolize the universal love of the Bible.

Many of the plants here have biblical names (Moses in a Basket, Biblical Coat), and during each season, the garden focuses on a differing theme of Near Eastern horticulture.

The experience of wandering the garden is meant to be something akin to a stroll through the Holy Land of ancient Israel, but even nonbelievers will enjoy relaxing among the beauty of nature here. The Temple is within walking distance of both the Carnegie Mellon and Pitt campuses and sits across the street from WQED studios.

OUR POSTCARD VIEW HAS A LOT OF COMPETITION 

The Grandview Avenue strip on Mount Washington is far from being Pittsburgh’s solitary locale for spotting spectacular city views — it just happens to be the most well-known.

The next time you’re tooling around town, see if you can’t track down some of Pittsburgh’s lesser-known Grand Views.

Fineview Hill. Given the name, it should come as no surprise to learn that certain hilltop vistas from this North Side neighborhood are simply breathtaking. Located behind Allegheny General Hospital, you can’t miss the main attraction — get up there and then look toward the Downtown skyline. The viewing platform is at Catoma and Meadville; it’s essentially a smaller version of those located along Grandview.

The West End-Elliott Overlook. The various city views that can be seen from the former coal-mining communities of West End and Elliott have always been beyond spectacular. But thanks to a $2.1 million renovation to the overlook itself, which boasts an enclosed pavillion, indoor restrooms, a designated picnic area and a rooftop observation deck, it’s no wonder half the city seems to show up whenever fireworks are scheduled to explode. You’ll also find a busy crowd here on Light Up Night. It’s appropriately on Rue Grande Vue (at Lorenz Avenue).

South Side Slopes. Although it lacks the tourist facilities of the West End Overlook, the city view atop the Slopes certainly scores high when it comes to convenience; neither a car nor public transportation are necessary to explore the area. And exploring is exactly what you’ll need to do if you aim to find your own secret vista. For a head start, wander up South 18th Street and keep your eyes open for any of the city’s famous steps, which is where you’ll find quite a few views at their most powerful.

GET FREE INTERNET ACCESS DOWNTOWN 

It happens even to the best of us: You’re wandering the streets of Downtown, when suddenly an urge strikes, telling you to check your Gmail account. But what to do?

There’s always the Downtown & Business branch of the Carnegie Library (612 Smithfield St., 412-281-7141, www.clpgh.org, Mon.-Thu. 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m., Fri. 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat.-Sun. closed), where high-speed access is free to anyone with a valid library card. But the waiting list for a terminal can often be, uh, terminally long. And there’s always a good chance your neighbor may be emanating a certain eau de garbage. So you can skip the stacks, and wander around the corner to the Regional Enterprise Tower (425 Sixth Ave.), where all-access Internet terminals can be found scattered about the lobby.

The terminals, along with a bank of flat-screen TVs broadcasting world news at all hours, are part of the Xplorion project (412-392-1020, www.xplorion.org), an exhibition space intended to encourage investment in the region. Technically, only the Xplorion Web site itself is meant to be accessed on the terminals, and because the site is such a wonderfully organized collection of local info, I highly recommend checking it out. But it is possible to type in the Web site address of any site (including that of your favorite Web-based e-mail provider).

UNLEASH YOUR INNER ARTIST 

It’s no secret that the North Side’s Andy Warhol Museum (117 Sandusky St., 412-237-8300, www.warhol.org) is one of Pittsburgh’s most creative spaces. But even many locals who’ve visited countless times aren’t aware of the museum’s comprehensive education programs. The Weekend Factory is one of the most unusual. Participants in this hands-on studio program learn how to create any number of Warholian-like consumer creations. The projects themselves change from time to time, but currently include buttons, screen-printed T-shirts and greeting cards. The Weekend Factory is open on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.

Speaking of T-shirts and greeting cards (not to mention posters and tote bags), a North Side arts organization known as Artists Image Resource (518 Foreland St., 412-321-8664, www.artistsimageresource.org) hosts an Open Studio session in its own screen-printing factory each Tuesday evening. The roomy and well-stocked upstairs studio is open to the public from 7-11 p.m., and all necessary screen-printing supplies, such as inks and rollers, can be used for a small fee — usually $5.

Unleashing the creativity of your newborn or toddler, as we all know, is often easier with toys. But unfortunately for parents attempting to survive on a budget, children’s toys are anything but affordable. And that’s where the Pittsburgh Toy Lending Library comes in (5401 Centre Ave., Shadyside, 412-682-4430, www.pghtoys.com, Mon. & Thur., 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; Tue., Wed. & Fri. 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., closed on first Saturday of the month, remaining Saturdays 10 a.m.- noon. Closed remainder of August).

This volunteer-run organization owns more than 300 toys (and books) available for members to take home and beat the heck out of. Membership is a maximum of $75 per year, per family; anyone willing to volunteer can get that fee significantly lowered. Nonmembers can choose to pay a $5 per-child fee when visiting the indoor play space, which includes an infant play area.

 A former music editor of Pittsburgh City Paper, Dan Eldridge (dan@youngpioneers.com) is a Lonely Planet guidebook writer whose work has appeared in Seattle Magazine, Punk Planet and AOL’s Cityguide. “Moon Handbooks: Pittsburgh” was released this summer (www.moon.com). He is also the founding editor of Young Pioneers, an independent travel publication that will soon be relaunched as a magazine about creative entrepreneurs.

* * *

A note about this article’s online version:

 The Post-Gazette had its website completely redesigned a few days ago, and while I don’t mean to poke holes in what appears to be something of a sinking ship, it’s not a good look. To be fair, the online versions of P-G articles have (more or less) always looked worse than their print counterparts. (That’s assuming that the print version came complete with a fair amount of art.)

During the summer of 2005, I wrote an article about the week I spent living and working at a Hare Krishna compound in West Virginia, for instance, and although the web version isn’t necessarily horrible, I can absolutely assure you that the print copy I have displayed in my portfolio is far superior.

Why? For one thing, the titles indicating paragraph breaks were never set in bold type in the online version. They weren’t even capitalized! But why not? How hard would it possibly have been for an editor to match both my manuscript and the print version of the story to the piece posted online? Answer: It wouldn’t have been hard at all. It might have taken a little extra time and effort, but it certainly wouldn’t have been difficult.  

That tells me one of three things: Either the P-G’s web department was populated with lazy employees at that time, or the editors who should have been checking the web department’s work weren’t doing their jobs, or the company’s software was garbage. My guess? Probably a little bit of each.

As for the paper’s recent redesign, let me first assure you that I’m not the only reader (nor the only blogger) who has soundly turned up his nose. Local poker obsessive Gene Bromberg has an August 22 post worth reading. Among other well-placed insults, he had this to say:

“The Post-Gazette site was outdated and needed an upgrade. Making it WORSE took some doing. Congrats, P-G. On the heels of Steely McBeam, what is happening to my fair city?” 

The first reader to comment on Bromberg’s post had this to say about the redesign: ”It’s totally hideous. I may need to end my camping trip in Alberta, Canada early and come home to burn down the PG.”

The next poster managed to hit it even more squarely on head by writing this:

“It pains me to know that some morons are getting paid BIG money to do major media outlets’ websites without [the] understanding of how people actually use the internet. But then again, these internet “consultants” — the ones charging a lot to say “blogs are big! you gotta get blogs!” — are the ones getting the gigs, so maybe they aren’t the dumbest internet people after all.”

And while the P-G’s new site is quite obviously not a blog, it does appear to have been built with blogging software. I didn’t even realize this at first myself, but when I showed the site to my girlfriend, a CMU-educated graphic designer who builds web sites for a living, she guessed that not only did the P-G purchase simple blogging software, but that they probably got ripped off as well. Why did she suppose that? Probably because I was pointing to the date at the top of the site’s page, which for some reason had been set exactly seven days into the future.

But enough bitching. As long as daily newspapers continue to give away their entire content for free to anyone with an internet connection, can we really be justified in laughing loudly at their all-too-public gaffs?

To send your own comments about the P-G’s new site to the P-G themselves, click here and fill out the online form.

Inc.com’s 26 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs

This is a relatively old round-up piece from Inc. Magazine, although when I happened upon it a few days ago while doing a random Google search for “unusual entrepreneurs,” I found that it really wasn’t dated at all — on the contrary, it essentially sucked me right in. Here’s a small bit of explanatory text from the intro:

Inc. goes behind the scenes with 26 entrepreneurs who best exemplify the extraordinary drive, creativity, and passion of American business. Our top 26 list, one for each year of Inc., spans the gamut of the entrepreneurial world … No matter what the accomplishment, each entrepreneur profiled here offers a fascinating case study in what it takes to thrive in today’s economy.  

Martha Stewart, Richard Branson, and Dell Computer’s Michael Dell top the list, and it’s certainly interesting to note that this piece was compiled after Stewart’s conviction. “Agreeing to serve time without delay was a sacrifice,” says the Stewart profile. “But her decision also served the best interests of employees, suppliers, business partners, and customers. Going to jail may have been a strategic retreat. It was also, in a very real sense, a selfless act.”  

Many of the 25 other entrepreneurs are hugely intelligent businesspeople whose companies we’ve probably heard of, but whose lives and specific work habits we likely don’t know much about. And because each one of the entries comes complete with a brief biographical capsule, this is a relatively quick read that nonetheless packs a strong informational punch. I’d like to suggest a close reading of the following profiles:

Fritz Maytag of Anchor Brewing (No. 7), an heir to the Maytag washing machine fortune who was essentially responsible for the existence (and subsequent growth) of the microbrewed beer industry in the United States. In 1965, when Maytag purchased a 51% stake in the then-failing business and managed to reverse its fortune in the space of six years, he was forced to deal with a problem that many managers might consider enviable: Customers were practically beating down Anchor’s door for product, which was selling quicker than Maytag’s company could possibly produce it. “In business school they say, ‘Raise your prices,’” says Maytag in the Inc. article. ”Not in the real world. You get a backlash if you raise prices too much. You lose your validity.” So what did Maytag do instead? Microbrewing was growing in popularity at the time, so he chose to help his new competitors in developing their brewing skills. As a result, many of Maytag’s former customers began buying from the other new brewers instead, and soon enough the heat subsided. According to the Inc. profile, which was written by journalist Bo Burlingham, author of Small Giants: Companies That Choose to be Great Instead of Big, Maytag believed that continuously growing in size would compromise the quality of both his product and his operation. ”This was not going to become a giant company,” he says in the Inc. profile. “Not on my watch.”

Izzy & Coco Tihanyi of Surf Diva (No. 24), two twins who founded a girls-only surf camp in La Jolla, Calif. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Tihanyis and their (all female) trainers experienced more than their fair share of boneheaded, locals-only attitude when Surf Diva was first getting its sea legs. “Guys who surfed the same beach heckled their classes and sometimes cut in front of their students,” writes Alison Overholt. But the best part of Izzy and Coco’s story has to do with their hugely inspiration can-do attitudes. According to Overholt, herself a graduate of the Surf Diva course, the women launched their business in 1996 with nothing more than “$328 and Izzy’s surfboard collection.” And here’s another interesting fact that the seasoned entrepreneurs among you will probably relate to: According to Overholt’s profile, approximately 50% of the Surf Diva’s revenue comes from sales of apparel, swimwear and accessories. If any of you are struggling to generate unique product ideas for your own company, click here to see the Divas’ rather innovative lines. Or click here to see delicious women modeling Surf Diva bikinis. Y-Y-Yum.

Also fascinating: Warren Brown (No. 16) of Washington, D.C.’s uber-chic Cake Love and Love Cafe. Brown’s story is of particular interest to me because he appears to be the ultimate epitome of the Young Pioneer. (By the way, that’s Brown in the photo at the top of this post.) Back in 2000, he took a leave of absence from his job as a federal litigator to begin a DIY bakery of sorts — in his own kitchen. He grew his business mostly by word of mouth — his cakes were said to be especially toothsome — and because the effort continued gaining traction, Brown eventually leased a storefront. Thanks to the assistance of a $125,000 SBA loan and a stack of credit cards, Brown’s business, Cake Love, was becoming a runaway success. Here’s a particularly fascinating aspect to the story: According to the profile’s author, Patrick Cliff, the original Cake Love location sits in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood where a growing number of residents are certified members of the Bar — just like Brown himself. In the profile, a college friend of Brown’s suggests that ”in D.C. it seems that almost everyone is a lawyer. They can live vicariously through Warren when they go to the bakery.” That’s an interesting point, and well worth thinking about. Today, Cake Love has a second location in Silver Spring, Maryland, and has plans to open an Arlington, Virginia shop sometime in the very near future.   

Moon Handbooks Pittsburgh in the Post-Gazette

It occured to me recently that while I had posted the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about Moon Pittsburgh on my MySpace blog, I’d never actually gotten around to posting it here. So … here it is.  

Sunday, June 17, 2007

By Caitlin Price, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A quirky guide to Pittsburgh 

PITTSBURGH — Dining on a dime, bar hopping like a Pittsburgh native and a brief rundown of the city’s sport celebrities all can be found in the new guide “Moon Pittsburgh”. Written by Pittsburgher Dan Eldridge, “Moon Pittsburgh” is intended to be “kind of a quirky guide” to the city, he said.

“Pittsburgh is a really great place for what it is,” Mr. Eldridge said. “[It] offers a lot, but definitely in a different way than other cities do.”

Fashioned after the popular “Lonely Planet” series, “Moon Pittsburgh” ($17.95, Avalon Travel) is the latest in the Moon Handbooks travel guide series, which launched at the end of May.

This one combines the typical “whats” and “wheres” of the city with a taste of Pittsburgh’s history and culture. It includes fun sidebars such as “Pittsburgh’s Holiest Houses of Sin”, which highlights several places of worship that have been transformed into clubs, restaurants and bars. It also is very up-to-date: A sidebar about the smoking ban dispute warns visitors about the controversy.

The main features of the book are color-coded maps found in the back. Each of the seven maps designates a specific part of town, from Shadyside, Point Breeze and Squirrel Hill to the North Side. It mainly focuses on Downtown and the East End. Every restaurant, venue and exhibit is referenced to its respective map, making it quick and easy to find destinations throughout the city. Also included is a handy map of city bus routes.

Mr. Eldridge created the guide with the mindset that Pittsburgh is somewhere to “reinvent yourself or start a new career,” adding that he finds the city ideal because it’s a “small town with a big-city feel.” He said he wrote it for new and temporary residents, but he also searched for unusual spots even natives would find interesting. It’s written in a casual manner and with a “young person’s attitude about it.”

“Moon Pittsburgh” can be purchased at most major bookstores and online at Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.

Caitlin Price can be reached at cprice@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1419.

Jessie Thorn’s “The Sound of Young America” and The New Sincerity

For me, one of the most exciting aspects of discovering the work of creative entrepreneurs is the jolt of enthusiasm I usually experience as a result. Whether I’m reading about a particularly inspirational person’s life, or about their business, or about the creative process that took that person from the place they used to be to the place they are today, I find that I almost always walk away having learned something new. It seems that every time I read a story about how a so-called ”regular” person went about the process of creating the life of his dreams, I come away from the experience with a huge jolt of psychological pep — a renewed sense of energy, you might say.  

And that’s exactly how I felt last night, after discovering The Sound of Young America, a radio program hosted by Jesse Thorn, a fairly fascianting 25-year-old writer who also performs with a sketch comedy troupe known as Prank the Dean. The Sound of Young America, which is only broadcast on five national radio stations, but can be accessed free-of-charge as a downloadable iTunes podcast, has apparently been around for quite some time. Indeed, a handful of both mainstream and independent media outlets have already documented the brilliance of Thorn’s show, which the host himself describes as “a public radio show about things that are awesome.” On the program’s website, Thorn also encourages potential listeners to think of his show “like … Fresh Air but more fun.”

 As someone who overwhelming respects the interviewing skills of Fresh Air’s Terry Gross, I’m afraid I have to disagree with Thorn’s comparison to that show. Although I will say this: Thorn’s show certainly is a massive breath of fresh air, in and of itself. And that’s not only because of its quite often unexpected guests. (Last night, for instace, I listened to a conversation between Thorn and the underground publishing maverick V. Vale, who founded San Francisco’s legendary RE/Search Publications company.) It’s also due to the attitude of sincerity that The Sound of Young America seems to purposefully convey. Or to put it in simpler terms: Thorn’s show is not meant to be any sort of an insider joke, appreciated only by an exclusive coterie of wannbe hipsters who spend their days making fun of the world at large on internet message boards.    

Earlier this morning I came across an especially interesting print inteview with Thorn on Gothamist,  a New York-based web magazine. The piece begins with Thorn being asked about something called The New Sincerity; apparently this is a new cultural movement founded by Thorn, along with his former radio co-host and a handful of friends. Here’s a short excerpt from that interview:

What is The New Sincerity?
It’s a new cultural movement founded by yours truly with a lot of help from various folks, including Jordan Morris, my former co-host. At its core, it’s a rejection of what we called The Old Irony, which ruled the cultural roost, or at least the hipster part of the cultural roost, for the past fifteen years or so. It’s not the same as the Old Sincerity in the sense that it is bigger and better. Things that wouldn’t necessarily fit into the Old Sincerity, like Bootsy Collins, do fit into the New Sincerity. Part of what the New Sincerity is, is being larger than life, and the acknowledgment that the coolest stuff comes from being completely unafraid of being seen as uncool. It encompasses everything from small things like high-fiving and flying a kite to bigger things like being Evil Knievel.

What is the Old Sincerity?
Regular, boring sincerity.

Wow. How true that is. Regardless of the fact that Dave Eggers — known in some circles as the former Prime Minister of Irony – proclaimed some years back that irony was indeed dead, the sad reality is that irony seems to remain something of an everyday attitude among smart people of a certain age. I’m personally fascinated by Thorn’s New Sincerity model, and if I happen to dig up any more useful information surrounding it, I’ll be sure to mention it here.