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Travelers Tales: the World is a Kitchen

Kimchi 김치
Originally uploaded by Nagyman.

kimchi
Living in Korea, kimchi was the staple. Back stateside, the cravings panged. First I bought it, then I made it, to make Mr. Cho proud.

Food and travel are deliciously intertwined, and cooking is a great way to get immersed into a culture. I learned it making kimchi in my Fort Mason backyard, and love to reconnect with true tales of food cultural immersion.

The World is a Kitchen, the new Travelers Tales anthology, bridges cuisine and culture in 37 stories from writers around the world. With an extensive directory and fab accompanying website, the book speaks to its growing community.

San Francisco Zine Festival 2006

Fine Print Revisited: Way back in 1994-95 I worked at a small- & independent-press distributorship down in Austin, TX; Fine Print Distributors, long R.I.P.

I still pine for the days we'd pull down a new pallet with the latest Temp Slave, Hate, or Punk Planet aboard. Many hours spent soaking up information from far-flung outposts, valuable stuff in those final months before Mosaic upended the forklift.

King of all? Factsheet Five, the Sears Catalog guide to the small & alternative publishing world, reviewing hundreds of titles on all subjects, many available for price of postage or fair trade.

Back in the days of DIY innocence before the web leveled economies of scale and relandscaped publishing, the 'zine scene was the way for indie media voices to get word out. It was the punk rock parallel to big journalism, niche creators of content unbeholdened to corporate interests, typed at temp jobs and stapled by fellow travelers with Kinkos gigs.

Nostalgic? Shit yeah, for zines had little if any monetary prospects, so the scene was pure.

But the problem with nostalgia is it implies something is over, when in fact, 2006, its becoming the year that 'zines came back.

No surprise, really: the publishing platform that usurped zinemaking has evolved into the mainstream itself, so a natural reaction would be for indie print publishing to return, price inefficiencies and all.

Two great indicators. First, the return of the San Francisco Zine Fest, held this weekend, Sept 9-10 2006, at CELLspace. A two-day conference of indie & underground publishers, the show offers workshops, film screenings and opportunities to connect with nearly 1,000 like-minded creatives and creators. Bonus: costs our favorite price - free!

And in news that warms our media dork hearts, 2006 also sees after an 8-year hiatus the return of Factsheet 5. Plans are for FS5 to continue covering the small & alternative/independent zine and media world, branching into other publishing platforms including radio, blogs and DVDs. Currently they're ramping up their editorial staff, and are wide-open to contributors, so if you've got an itch for this, start scratching.

What's next? The Meat Puppets reuniting to tour?

Media Bistro getting their props

Market info is a commodity as key to travel writing as backup pens and a steno pad. What's hard is wading through the dreck. Search functionality has yet to free the web from heaps of useless links atop the Google charts. But that only helps the choice places stand out.

Among my favorite freelance writer sites, Media Bistro stands out for its job board, freelance marketplace, extensive How to Pitch articles that give the full scoop on querying magazines, and pro development classes on myriad topics, from breaking into health writing to penning comedy and writing your way around the world.

Journalists in the Bay Area looking to branch into travel writing should check out the upcoming Travel Writing Boot Camp, an 8-week intensive class geared toward ramping up your skill set and revealing the inner workings of the travel publishing world. It's a great write-off, and the instructor is aces too.