e-travels with e. trules

http://erictrules.com/episode43

Today's Bonus interview on “Podcast Junkies” is called: “Rebelling  Against Conformity and Finding Freedom Through the Arts”, and in it, Harry Duran and I cover my journey from pre-med college student to professional clown and recent podcaster. Along the way, Harry calls my work the “predecessor of flash mobs”. I'm not exactly sure that's true, but it sounds good and it is Harry's show. http://erictrules.com/episode42

My guest, Linda Ballou, is an accomplished travel and adventure writer - about whom world-wide explorer, Jim Dorsey, says: "Ballou takes the reader out of their armchair into the vast world as few travel writers can. Her eye for detail, combined with intimate knowledge of her surroundings, sets Ms. Ballou heads above most of the travel writing pack. In this age when everyone with a back pack proclaims him or herself a travel writer, it takes books like Linda's- to re-define the genre. This is just plain, great, travel writing.” Listen and enjoy. https://erictrules.com/episode41

Today we'll be time traveling again - a long ways back… to 1988, when I ventured to Edinburgh, Scotland to perform for the first time in the Edinburgh Fringe, the largest arts festival, if not on the planet, then at least in the Western world. I was 41 years old, living in Santa Monica, and I was invited to perform my one man show as part of a theater troupe called “New Voices from America” that was created solely for the 1988 Edinburgh Fringe by KPFK radio theater critic Stefan Tater. I was the lucky invitee because I had been wishing and dreaming of going to the Edinburgh Festival for almost 2 decades. It had magic and wonder and international arts painted all over its Scottish kilts. https://erictrules.com/episode40

Ladan Jiracek, host of the Travel Wisdom Podcast, is my Behind the Scenes guest today because… I just love the question that his podcast poses: “Can travel be more than just a fun thing to do? Can it also provide a learning experiences for later in life?” Ladan believes it can be, and that's why he's traveled to over 100 countries... hoping to plant the seeds of wisdom from faraway lands in the hearts and minds of his listeners. http://erictrules.com/episode39

New York City — 1977 — “back in the day” — when Studio 54 was all the rage and the new TKTS half-price tickets booth on 47th Street and Broadway was still bright-eyed and bushy tailed. When my rent at the infamous and sometimes dangerous, Hotel Woodward was $55 a week, and I had to figure out a way to pay it. As you'll hear, I was ingenious, and perhaps a little criminal, in the way I did so, but that's what's interesting about time travel, it allows you to look back on your life with perspective… letting you see the innocence and error of youth…. hopefully with a sense of humor. https://erictrules.com/episode38

Jen Ruiz is the author of “The Affordable Flight Guide”, has been featured in the Washington Post and on ABC news, and she documents her travel-hacking adventures on her website, jenonajetplane.com. She believes that too many people put off seeing the world until they retire, save up a small fortune, or find the perfect travel partner. She thinks that's a mistake because those circumstances might never happen, and meanwhile, the world is out there waiting. So if you want to travel for less, and experience more, then speak to Jen. Or start – by listening to today's episode. https://erictrules.com/episode37

Today I find myself at a cremation ceremony in Ubud, Indonesia, the cultural capital of the magical island of Bali. Thousands of locals and tourists are watching a Hindu-Bali ceremony… where the bones of Balinese men, women, and children, who have never received a proper burial, have been dug up, placed in giant coffin-boxes topped with carved wooden bulls, run through the streets, surprisingly like the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, and then set afire in a giant Hindu-Bali ceremony of flames and celebration. Amidst the humbling crowd are Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, and… me. https://erictrules.com/episode36

Roger Steffens is a reggae expert and collector extraordinaire. Also a poet, photographer, raconteur, and personal friend of Bob Marley. Which means… Roger's been to Jamaica many times, mon. If you know anything about reggae, you probably know that Roger co-hosted “The Reggae Beat” on KCRW radio beginning in 1979, the first and only reggae show in Los Angeles at the time. And I consider myself extremely fortunate to be presenting some previously-unreleased Bob Marley music from the singer's personal “Bedroom Tapes” that Roger has graciously allowed me to mix into our interview, “on loan” from “The Archives”….along with several original “dub tracks by The Wailers themselves. Enjpy….  https://erictrules.com/episode35

If you remember, I last left you at the end of Part 1 getting off a hot, crowded bus which took me from Tetouen, Morocco to… Chechaouen, Morocco. It turns out that not all “ouens” are the same. I'm getting off the bus when I see a seated Islamic man dressed in all white, staring intently at me. He has a computer in his lap, and it's not too long after 9/11. He points at me and I'm…. terrified… expecting the explosive worst…. only to find out that he's pointing at my blue plastic CD player which I've left in my seat. “Shokrun”, I say, “thank you”, the only word I know in Arabic, as I get off the bus, the victim of my own racial profiling. http://erictrules.com/episode34

Chuck Jonkey is an adventurer, composer, and musician who transforms his off the beaten track travel experiences into sound, music and film. Chuck's exotic adventures have taken him to the furthest reaches of the planet where he seeks out some of the world's most isolated tribal groups, embeds himself in their cultures, and records their music. His musical explorations have taken him from the deep rain forests of the Peruvian Amazon to the Far East Asian jungles of Cambodia. Along the way, he sometimes has to steel his will and politeness to endure a special dinner…. of RAT. https://erictrules.com/episode33

This adventure — is about my trip to Morocco, after I finish my travels in Andalucia. I take a boat from the southeastern tip of Spain's port, Algeciras, across the Strait of Gibralta, to the northern-most tip of Africa, Ceuta, still Spanish territory… until I cross the Spanish-Moroccan border – by foot – and end up in Tetouan…. Morocco… at the base of the Atlas Mountains. This is not your typical tourist trip to Tangier, Fez, Marrakesh, or Casablanca, but more like a Paul Theroux personal odyssey to see the green cannabis fields and rising moon over…. Chefchaouen. http://erictrules.com/episode32

Greetings from the Outback, Maties! Today I'll be talking with James Michael Dorsey, explorer, photographer, lecturer, and award-winning author, who has traveled to over 47 countries in the last 15 years. “Jim” has been called a “combination of swashbuckling adventurer and spiritual seeker” because he visits and documents disappearing indigenous tribes by embedding himself in their cultures. He told me “when you contract with a remote tribe, you roll the dice on whether you're going to come back alive.” Exciting travel, Maties! http://erictrules.com/episode31

It was a crazy idea. Loco. No, a good one. Bueno. Driving thousands of miles in my white Toyota Celica, which stood out like an automotive sore thumb… all the way from LA to… Ciudad Juarez… to Chihuahua… to Real de Catorce, an old silver mining town in the sacred hills of the Huichol Indians. Along the way, Miguel and I discovered many things… the most outstanding of which… was not only the immense beauty and variety of Me-hee-co herself, but even more striking — the ageless differences between ourselves, me, a 50 year old gringo… and him, my  http://erictrules.com/episode30

Kate Erickson emanates all the sunshine and positivity of Southern California. She is passionate about helping entrepreneurs create freedom in their businesses and in their lives – through developing systems and processes that can help their business scale and grow. I wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but Kate explains it all in this episode…. along with talking about plans for a new EoFire travel podcast about “audio walking tours of the world's greatest cities”. http://erictrules.com/episode29

We're back in Deadwood, South Dakota…. where you last left me in Episode 26…. in jail. It's September, 1970 and I've been arrested for reckless driving,,,, by Sheriff Deadwood Dick McGraff. I'm in Wild Bill Hickok's jail cell, on the day after Jimi Hendrix died of a drug overdose. I have long Jewfro hair just like Jimi, and my jail mates have taken a distinct dislike to me. I've just woken up the day after my arrest. I'm lying on a cot next to a gigantic Native American Indian named “Neck”. His arms are the size of tree trunks. http://erictrules.com/episode28

Mike Siegel is a professional stand-up comedian, fellow travel podcaster, and TV host based in Los Angeles, California. Plus… he's an overall good guy. Mike created the Travel Tales Podcast in 2011 – which he sees as a lighthearted conversation highlighting the best, and worst, experiences that travel has to offer. I think Mike and I are both trying to do the same sort of thing on our podcasts…. bring the world closer together… one travel tale at a time. http://erictrules.com/episode27

I was doing one of the most patriotic things I've ever done in my life – going to Mt. Rushmore - to see George, Tom, Abe, and Teddy… whose Presidential images were all cracked and decayed… just like our country. I end up making a little detour – to the old cowboy and mining town of Deadwood, South Dakota… long before David Milch, Al Swearingen, and HBO got there. Rumor has that Wild Bill Hickok was Sheriff of Deadwood back in the day, and I… discover something about Wild Bill's jail… first hand. And about the new Sheriff in town named… Deadwood Dick McGraff. http://erictrules.com/episode26

“I've always wanted to be an ‘ex-pat', an American living outside of the United States. Never more so than in this tenuous time of Trump!” So at Podcast Movement 17 in Anaheim, I do a live interview with Shannon Moore Martin of Podbean, who lives in Shanghai. We talk of many things – like living internationally, and working for one of the biggest podcast hosting companies in the world. http://erictrules.com/episode25

This season, I'd like to start thinking about travel in a new way.Time and place, Maties. Because I think there's something profound and universal about a good travel story, connecting us more deeply to a unique place at a specific time, to ourselves, and to the other people we meet along the way. At the end of this episode, I'll recall a tribal tale from the outback of Northeast Borneo in East Malaysia.... where you'll hear how Rungus tribesmen dealt with love, jealousy, and revenge back in the days of animism and black magic shamans. http://erictrules.com/episode24

Ho! Ho! Ho! And Happy New Year! Having just passed the 1 YEAR ANNIVERSAY of my podcast, I am announcing GOOD NEWS — the release of “e-travels with e. trules” on SPOTIFY! To celebrate, I'm releasing the 4th and final BONUS EPISODE – between Season 1 and Season 2. It's my interview from this past Fall with Joshua Rivers, also known as “The Podcast Guy”, and host of “Podcasting Experiments from the Creative Studio”.  http://erictrules.com/episode23    

It's the 1 Year Anniversary of the Podcast, so today to celebrate and to tickle your travel podcast fancy, I'm releasing a BONUS episode, my guest interview with Jeremy Collins, host of "Podcasts We Listen To". Jeremy contacted me from Capser, Wyoming, where is a UPS driver, as well as the creator of "Podcasts We Listen To", a popular podcast and the largest podcast-based group on social media, with over 16,000 members on Facebook. It's one of the great hings I love about podcasting: everybody has a place at the table. It doesn't matter where you live or what you do. All you need is a microphone and a passion to have your voice heard.  

Mike Siegel, Comedian and Host of the Travel Tales Podcast: “What do you think travel has taught you about yourself, people in general, and about America?” Trules: “How much time do you have?” http://erictrules.com/episode21  

In between Seasons 1 & 2, the podcast offers a BONUS EPISODE of Trules' guest interview on the "Travel Stories Podcast", with host, Hayden Lee. http://erictrules.com/episode20

Here it is... one of kind.... a travel story not about... me! Along with excerpts from Season 1, and final travelogue. "Tear" is about a 15 year old Chicano boy named Alejandro Chavez, my "mentee", and the bus trip he took across the US-Tijuana border in 1995. Alex, as he like to be called, told me this story, and I've tried to capture it here. I think it's a love story about the distance between cultures and countries, in our modern age of... President Trump and all the challeges of immigration. I also think it's a bitter-sweet and appropriate ending to the End of Season 1 on the  "e-travels with e. trules" podcast. http://erictrules.com/episode19

These words from my guest in this Episode, Debra Ehrhardt, solo performer and native of Jamaica: "Your saying 'no' to me is just a way of my saying, ok, how can I get 'yes'?" "In America, there is no class system; they see you as you are." "When a man is involved in a child's life, it makes such a difference." "People who travel are so much more interesting than those who stay in their tiny little city." http://erictrules.com/episode18

This episode finds Trules chugging up the Mighty Mekong River, on a flat-top, tin-roof, diesel-puffing dinosaur, from northern Thailand to southern Laos, metaphorically and musically searching for mad Mr. Kurtz, from Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", and of course, more recently adapted by Francis Ford Coppola into his film, "Apocalypse Now", where Kurtz is notoriously played by mad Marlon Brando. http://erictrules.com/episode17

Trules speaks with one of Los Angeles' true musical and theatrical treasures, Morlan Higgins. Be serenaded with Morlan's mandolin, learn about his acting with Pulitzer-Pfrize winning playwright, Athol Fugard, and hear about "the river of life" http://erictrules.com/episode16

Amsterdam, Christmas 2013  As ex-heavyweight champ, Sonny Liston, always said, "Life... a funny thang". It comes and goes -- in cycles. When we're in an "up" cycle... feeling good about ourselves and our lives, it seems nothing can go wrong. We're invincible. When we're in a "down" cycle... of loss, transition, fear, it seems that nothing can go right. We're unworthy. Me? I'm more like Chicken Little, always expecting the sky to fall... than like Mary Poppins, always ready to fly away into her next optimistic adventure. But on this trip, I talk about "perfect moments"... you know those evasive, ephemeral life experiences that you so seldom capture. Those things that my solo performance predecessor, Spalding Gray, always yearned for, but never found. Anyway.... this episode is about Amsterdam and perfect moments. Or... "perfect enough"...... if you are in the right place at the right time... with the right attitude. Please listen to Episode 15, "Amsterdam, the 'Perfect City': http://erictrules.com/episode15

In this lively episode, Trules talks with Liz Femi, a fellow solo performer and storyteller, who was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in Nigeria, a country not many tourists - or travelers - know much about. Liz is a small, smart, beautiful, and feisty young woman who her Mom describes as: "a really bendy, bouncy branch... connected to a strong Nigerian oak tree". http://erictrules.com/episode14

Echo Park, the one time immigrant-socialist-artist neighborhood of Los Angeles, has undergone the sad and inevitable process of "gentrification". Trules, a long-time Echo park resident, goes to the annual Cubano musical festival and is confronted head on with "unneighborhly" gentrification. Complete with original Cuban music composed by Amanda Yamate and an original score with roosters, fireworks, & gunshots by Alysha Bermudez. http://erictrules.com/episode13

Trules speaks with long-time friend and Israeli diplomat, Raphael Morav, who he has visited in Rome, Jerusalem, Helsinki, and Paris. Hear them chat about politics, Israel, diplomacy, kibuttzes, travel, SERVAS, the United Nations, and more.  http://erictrules.com/episode12

In December, 2001, just months after 9/11, Trules arrives in Kota Kinabalu on the island of Borneo in East Malaysia. Teaching at an all-Islamic university on a Fulbright grant, he is confronted with images of Osama Bin Laden - on the screensavers of his university colleagues - and on t-shirts in every shopping mall. Talk about culture shock, he learns that Bin Laden is the most admired man in Malaysia for being the only man to stand up to George W. Bush and Goliath America. Still, Trules tries to make peace with the natives.  http://erictrules.com/episode11

Trules talks with long-time travel blogger and podcaster, Chris Christensen, "The Amateur Traveler"... whose cool rules of the road include: 1- "Never lose your sense of wonder and adventure when you're traveling." 2- "Never complain that you don't do things that way at home; that's part of the point of traveling." 3- "Never whne, because in the grand scheme of things, if you can afford to travel, what do you have to complain about?" Enjoy the banter between Trules, who travels, and Christensen, who interviews about travel. http://erictrules.com/episode10

Trules arrives at the international airport in Denpasar on the magical island of Bali - to meet his Indonesian wife - but she is not there. She is, instead, in the local Kasi Ibue hospital with... dengue fever... one of the most feared, mosquito-born illnesses in the world. After waiting a week with Surya on intravenous drip, they go to the "Good Karma" bungalows on the still-pristine East Coast of the island, where Trules promptly has a head-on motorbike collision by driving on the wrong side of the road. A comic misadventure with original gamelon music composed by Amanda Yamate, the Trules survive, managing to lose 2 of their collective 18 cat lives amidst the Balisnese magic and the good karma. http://erictrules.com/episode9

My guest this week is Jonathan Munoz-Proulx, otherwise know as “JMP”, my former student and now independent theater artist, who first gave me the idea of doing a travel podcast. After seeing me do many readings and performance of my stories on stage, and then reading them on my travel blog, he said: “Your stories are SO MUCH BETTER when we hear your voice! You should do a podcast.” And the rest…. is history.  Full show notes: http://erictrules.com/episode8

Beijing, China, 2007 It's a year before the Beijing Olympics and there are crowds and pollution everywhere. I've been invited to teach the LDTX Bejing Modern Dance Company, the Joffrey Ballet of China. I'm 60 years old and I haven't danced in over 30 years. What am I going to do? "Figure it out," says that jackal trickster, Travel. "Improvise! Isn't that your specialty?" "Thanks, a lot, Travel. I will"! And so I do... as along the way, I ask myself... and my listeners, "Why travel?" Why leave the comfort and familiarity of home? For a change of scenery and pace? For rest and relaxation? To stretch your boundaries? For some new food? Or for something else? Full show notes: http://erictrules.com/episode7

My guest this episode is Hayden Lee, the self-professed son of a hippie and a biker, and the host of the popular, Travel Stories Podcast. Born in rural Shropshire, England, Hayden is a musician and an intrepid world traveler who can't help but navigate every conversation into a story. In fact, Hayden, like me, believes that memorable stories are what travel, life, and podcasts... are all about. The Travel Stories Podcast is a weekly show that brings you original stories of freedom and adventure from seasoned travelers. And whether you are one or not, a seasoned traveler, you probably already know that certain road stories capture not only a moment in time, but also all the emotion, serendipity, and wonder that come with travel. It was a little surprising... how many times Hayden said to me in our interview, "I think we might be the same person... only separated by a few years and geographical time zones." Hayden interviews fellow travelers, podcasters, digital nomads, and other guests about their lifestyle, their entrepreneurship, and about their amazing stories from the road... all with original music.... by Cody Crabb. On his next solo travel adventure, he will be heading out to ride a motorcycle through every country in mainland Europe. Full show notes: http://erictrules/episode6

Alausi, Ecuador. 2003. I married for the first time at age 55. Also in 2003. I married an Indonesian girl from Sumatra who I met in Bali, who was 31 years younger than I was and who spoke almost no English. Go figure, huh? But in the summer of 2003, a few months after we tied the knot in LA, we took our first extended trip together, to Machu Picchu in Peru, and up the Avenidas de los Volcanos, along the mountainous spine of Peru and Ecuador. For 2 months, we traveled by all-night buses with "los indiginos", the local natives, dressed in colorful sarapes and gray bowler hats. I loved it. My wife hated it. And this trip was... as much about our new marriage as it was about South American culture and adventure. Enjoy and Happy Trails... Full show notes: http://erictrules.com/episode5

My guests this time are my 2 trusty and talented production colleagues, Alysha Bermudez, our imaginative and immersive sound designer, and Amanda Yamate, our composer who creates music tapestries from all over the world. Both are college students well on their way to professional careers. Alysha is in the Sound Design program at USC and Amanda is in the Film Scoring Program at Cal State Northridge. We work in the studio of USC's Sound Design Program on Jefferson and McClintock in South Central LA, usually early on Saturday mornings, and although we work quite hard and meticulously, we also usually also, have a lot of fun. Hear about the technique of scoring a podcast, who and what inspires them, how they "hear" the world. And listen to another "Trules Travel Quiz". Enjoy and Happy Trails... Full show notes: http://erictrules.com/episode4

June, 2006. Trules has arrived in Mumbai on the day that 5 bombs have exploded in 5 different train stations in the financial hub, but still beggared, megalopolis of the sub-continent. He heads southeast, up into the mountainous tea plantations of Munnar, high in the Western Ghats of the province of green, green Kerala. There he takes a terrifying bus ride down a serendipitous mountainside where his whole life flashes before his eyes. Full show notes: http://erictrules.com/episode3

Welcome to the first "Behind the Scenes" episode of "e-travels with e. trules", a twice a month feature of the podcast, where I will be speaking to friends, colleagues, fellow podcasters and travelers around the world.... in between my monthly scripted shows. The first guest is my producer, Harry Duran, host of "Podcast Junkies". Harry has been my podcast guru and guide through this new art form for me, and after meeting him by "accident and incident" at the LA Podcast Festival this Fall, he has helped me condense, consolidate, and re-design my web presence, upload, download, and launch my podcast, and generally welcome me to the international podcast community of podcasting, which is quite a friendly and supportive one, even for an old curmudgeon like me. Enjoy and Happy Trails. Full show notes at http://erictrules.com/episode2

Israel, 1999. Trules ventures south from Jerusalem, crossing the Israeli-Egyptian border at Eilot. He makes camp at "Ras Es Satan", Head of the Devil, sleeping in a primitive "chousha", just feet from the Red Sea. He swims with the neon-lit fishes and organizes a 2 day camel safari, overnight into the Sinai Desert, home of Moses, Joshua, and the first tribes of Israel. His guide is swarthy Bedouin, Adnan, and after learning how to make a camel both run and sit, Trules presses on into the harsh and beautiful desert. Is that a mirage he sees? Or an oasis? He ruminates over the price we have paid for civilization's comforts, wondering if we have lost our respect for nature, and our connection with our own humanity. The episode ends with Trules' own remedy for peace in the Middle East. For full show notes for this episode visit: http://erictrules.com/episode1

Like to travel? Like to listen to travel tales from well off the beaten path? Well then, you've come to the right podcast. "e-travels with e.trules" is a personal and literary podcast created by Eric Trules, a longtime Huffington Post blogger and theater Professor at USC in Los Angeles, Trules has traveled our beautiful and problematic planet for decades, staying in Bedouin huts on the Red Sea, riding the rails to "Nose of the Devil" in Southern Ecuador, and meeting his future Indonesian wife on the magical island of Bali. If you like to travel vicariously, or to be provocatively reminded of your own travel adventures, and misadventures, listen to these entertaining podcasts with original music by Amanda Yamate and sound design by Alysha Bermudez. New episodes will be released once a month on Apple Podcasts, with "Behind the Scenes" episodes two weeks later. Please subscribe and review the podcast (if you have something nice to say), and... Happy Trails. Full show notes available at http://erictrules.com/podcast