Category: Creative Projects
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How To Create A Gorgeous Travel Photobook That Engages & Inspires
Step 1: Do Something Inspirational I don’t mean inspirational for anyone else; I mean for yourself. Creative juices run swiftest when you’re truly inspired. Seek out what moves you most and allow the process to take you places you didn’t know existed, literally and figuratively. Continue reading →
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Images From The Journey: Introducing the official #Janapar Photobook
Whenever I head out on an adventure, I constantly find myself wondering why it took so much thinking and dithering before actually doing it. This still happens after years of experience. “It’s so easy just to do this! Why didn’t I do it ages ago?” The same thing happened with the photobook that I’m launching this week. I could have created this at any point in the last couple of years. Instead, I dithered. But now I’ve got off my backside and created the definitive photo travelogue of Janapar, I’m wondering why it took so long to do it! About the book,… Continue reading →
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Some thoughts, as the Beer Can Stove video goes viral
At the time of writing, the video above has been played 1,311,131 times. Needless to say, when Armen and I popped out to buy a couple of cans of Kozel for this film, we were not expecting this to happen. It’s been fun to watch the statistics over the last few days. It’s also been interesting to ruminate on why content ‘goes viral’ — internet shorthand for a shedload of people seeing something online in a short space of time. What it boils down to, I think, is simple, resonant ideas put into easily shareable form, plus a dice-roll. The dice… Continue reading →
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A Rather Open Update-Rant on the Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Janapar
No, I’m not selling anything. I know almost everyone who reads this blog has seen Janapar now. I’d just like to share a selection of the more interesting, challenging and downright bizarre things that have happened since we released the film one year ago. The first thing that happened, at 9am on November 27th 2012, was that most of you bought Janapar and watched it. We received a lot of fantastic feedback and took a strong first step towards paying off the (considerable) costs of the film (no, we haven’t finished doing that yet). The second thing that happened, a few days… Continue reading →
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How To Free Your Inner Adventurer
There are, broadly speaking, two categories of Big Adventure. Category One is the “blank slate” journey. It begins with a wholesome hatred of present circumstances; an acknowledgement of the stagantion of the protagonist’s life. This loathing catalyses a full-bodied response: burn each and every bridge, dispose of all tangible reminders thereof, and bugger off into the sunset. The desire never to be seen or heard of again is strong, and few concessions will have been made. And there is absolutely, definitely, no plan whatsoever to return. This is a fresh start. A blank slate. Category Two is the “life on hold”… Continue reading →
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The Cycle Traveller Who’s Going Nowhere (Plus, Upcoming Screening Events)
You know what I love most about this fantastic little film? (Do watch it.) It’s the fact that what our protagonist has unwittingly done is exactly the same as embarking upon a really long bike trip. The only difference is that he never leaves his home city. (But then if life on the road is less about leaving home and more about feeling at home anywhere — is there really any difference at all?) * * * Speaking of films, we’re about to kick off a new round of Janapar events in the UK (and a few elsewhere too). If you’re in or near… Continue reading →
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Talking bicycle travel (and more) on Roz Savage’s Adventure Podcast
Last week I was honoured to be invited as a guest on a new adventure podcast series hosted by Roz Savage, ocean rower extraordinaire and all-round legend, cunningly entitled Roz Savage’s Adventure Podcast. (iTunes link / RSS link.) My incomprehensible burblings comprised the series’ 7th episode, which has so far featured the likes of Al Humphreys, Dave Cornthwaite, Ray Zahab, and other figures more articulate, handsome and adventurous than I. Roz is very good at probing the psychological and philosophical side of adventure. Here are a few of the things we chatted about: 02:45: How I went from bog-standard university graduate… Continue reading →
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On Adventure Storytelling (and more) with Travis Sherry of the ExtraPackOfPeanuts.com Podcast
A little something for your listening pleasure this Thursday evening, now the nights are drawing in and those epic evening bike rides aren’t quite so tempting. (I apologise awfully, as always, to any alienated anti-autumnal Antipodeans. And also to any alliteration-averse Aussies.) But enough with the terrifyingly bad wordplay. Continue reading →
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How This 2‑Minute Clip Won The ACA’s Bicycle Travel Video Contest
This year I was asked to be a judge for the Adventure Cycling Association of America’s first Bicycle Travel Video Contest. Like many of the other judges (whose number included Dom, Alastair, Friedel & Andrew, Russ & Laura, Michelle, and Ryan), I watched a lot of videos that were kind of OK. I watched a few that were quite terrible. I watched a handful that were really good. But Stefan’s winning 158-second clip was far ahead of the pack. Watch it and see why. What was it about this video that I found so compelling? Continue reading →
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Highly Embarrassing Outtakes/Bloopers From Janapar
If you’ve enjoyed the Janapar deleted scenes series I’ve been running over the last couple of weeks (here’s the first one, in which I faceplant into some concrete), I’ve got a little bonus for you — a comedy “outtakes reel” of the most embarassing footage I wish I’d never given to the editor in the first place. (Oh, the humiliation!) Now! Next week is going to be rather exciting, as I’ll be publishing the first in a series of articles I’ve been working on for almost a full year. If I’m right, it’s going to cause a bit of a stir, and so… Continue reading →